Life in the rear view mirror
As a student of social history, I love to see where I haven’t been. Is that the right verb?
I came across a documentary from the mid 60’s. So “last century”. The topic was the mindset of youth in that period just before I hit high school age; my peers, after a fashion. And I have to admit that I wouldn’t have been one of the in crowd. No shame, just reality.
I didn’t have cool clothes, or a cool car, or a cool chance to learn dancing at the local academy. I didn’t attend the cool parties, or hang with the cool kids. No jock compadres, or cheerleaders in my crowd. In fact, I wouldn’t have made it into the documentary. Of course, I also escaped that mentality where a life without a college degree from a name university, and a position at the top of a name company would be the best life could offer. I followed a different beat, and happily, I was the drummer (no, really!)
Now, I would be remiss to think that everyone in my society had those misguided ideas. The majority of us were just plain folks. And with the hindsight provided by a half century of time and access to social media, most of us did just fine.
Face it; cars have to be changed every few years, and we all get to retire from that dream job, eventually. Why all the fuss? I do miss those dancing lessons, a little. But in the rear view mirror, things appear very small and ordinary.
