Those Memories

I had a teacher in college who stated that over time everyone’s childhood makes sense. With more life experiences you are able to better connect the “dots” that were the events of your childhood. He also said that the job of each generation seems to be about bitching about the generations that follow them. In other words, it always seems like things are “going downhill”. That’s it. It is never going to be better than this. If we held to this belief we would still being living in a cave. I bring this up in reference to my latest book reading. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson. I have never read anything by him until now. I found him to be a funny storyteller. This book is about his growing up in Des Moines Iowa during the 1950′s. In contrast to how the 50′s have been portrayed by shows like Leave to Beaver things were not always so idyllic. They were not all good. Nor were they all bad. They just were. He tells the story of very mischievous behavior. How it was to grow up in a time where the threats that would destroy our nation were the Communists, atomic bombs and even worse teenagers. I just want to inform the do-gooders and other people of moral rage that kids’ engaging in “bad” behavior is not a product of modern society. It happened too in the times before video cameras and the Internet. As testified to in this book. It just that people who were “kids” back then have had time to think it all over and downplay the “bad” parts. I guess “memory” does fade with age.

I want say another thing about our crazy world. There have always been forces that want to rule the world. Why? Whose ego is so out of control that they want to take responsibility for it? People can be a real pain in the ass. Especially in mass. Hasn’t the James Bond movies thought us a lesson? All of those movies have that “super genius” villain who has the plan to take over the world. Sounds good too. However, the plan is always thwarted by a guy in a tuxedo who slams back a lot of martinis. The plan does not look so good now. Imagine that. Being defeated by a guy who looks like a drunken butler. But I do enjoy a James Bond movie anyways.