The Good Old Days

Bulletin Article 6/12

If you ask your parents or your grandparents what the world was like when they were a “young adult” you may get a pretty shocking answer. If they are like my father (and grandfather) the response will be, “What do you mean WHEN I was a young adult…” Yet if we look back at history, we can see what they would have been facing in their 20s and 30s:

1920s/30s- The Great Depression, Prohibition
1940s- World War II
1950s/60s – The Space Race, Civil Rights
1960s/70s- Nixon, Vietnam War, Gas shortages
1980s/90s – Birth of computers, First Gulf War, War on Drugs
2000+ - 9/11, drastic recession, War on terror

If we look back on all of this, it seems that not much has changed. War, poverty, violence, unemployment, high gas prices/gas shortages, political corruption, etc. – it all sounds very familiar.

So often we hear about “the good old days,” in which the street lights let us know our curfews, we drank from a hose, never heard the words ‘sun tan lotion,’ and playing wasn’t something planned out-it just happened. The good old days can also refer to how our parents and grandparents had it “easier” than us. They didn’t have to worry about getting 3 college degrees just to get an entry level job, getting their credit checked from 3 different agencies when they bought a house, or wondering if the government would send them a social security check when they retired. Nowadays, these are simply common factors that we must calculate into our plans for life.

However, just because our parents and grandparents had it “easier” in some respects, they also had to face some serious hardships that we are blessed to be free of. For instance, imagine writing a thesis paper or business report on a typewriter (that’s the machine people used to type before computers…). Imagine not being able to do 95% of your research by GOOGLE or Bing and actually using the card catalogue in the library. Imagine sitting home wondering if your number would be selected to serve in a war where hundreds and thousands were killed daily. I guess the good old days weren’t always so good.

The one thing we can learn from the young adults of the past is that together we make it out on top. The wars will end. Technology changes. The economy has its ups and downs, but what keeps us going is not thinking about the good old days, but the good days to come. In light of the Easter Season, we are reminded of what John Paul II said, “We are an Easter people…” We are a people of hope, looking forward to the joys that await us in Heaven.