Things Ain't What They Used To Be

Among the many interesting things that show up on Facebook lately is a nostalgic game, where some obscure object or person is captioned, "Who/what is this? Click 'Like' if you know." The people are mostly old television personalities; the objects can be everything from a potato masher to a boot scraper. They are from the era of the baby-boomers (my people).
Two reactions: some people have way too much time on their hands (but then, they're on Facebook, so isn't that a given?) At the same time, it is interesting that so many have become so fascinated in things of the past. Call it nostalgia, call it escapism, call it a resistance to change; it is still living today while remaining fixated on yesterday.
And not just any memory, but those good ones where we knew what would happen next. The painful ones, the losses, the difficult times, they are glossed over as we luxuriate in the comfortable times when everything was just fine.
The problem with these Good Old Days is that they never really existed. Our memories of growing up have been carefully edited by our minds to tone down the painful moments, to forget the failures, to make each of us the star, the hero of our particular life story. Yes, there may have been times in our past when things seemed simpler, choices were easier, and worry was not really an option. But those were days when we simply didn't know how complex, how challenging life could be. When we had grown-ups to take care of us, when we had a world bound only by getting through the day.
We didn't know, and wouldn't have cared if we did know, about people living during those same Good Old Days whose experience would not be anything to look back upon fondly. The people of color who wouldn't be served at some of those soda fountains we remember. The low income people who couldn't afford that television set to watch the programs we remember. The children whose family was a place full of shouting and physical abuse rather than the place full of love and care we remember.
Yes, we can draw strength and comfort from our memories when today becomes difficult. But we have to make sure that we don't make yesterday, a yesterday that may never have been, preferable to today. Things may not be the way they used to be, but then they never were.