The black and white ones, of course. They take me back in time to when I was a child, and even before I was born. My curiosity is such that I image what life was like in a tenement building at the turn of the 20th century. I even try to image what kind of response I would get if I could go back in history and tell some guy on the Great plains in the west, say in 1850, what science would do!
Watching an old movie gives me vignettes of time from my past. A simple thing like the face of an old clock tumbles me into history, living on Hull Street in Brooklyn! Suddenly, I see a young mom or dad, a pigtailed sister, a cooking grandmother. I hear the sounds of the subways and overhead els, right here in quiet Holbrook, NY!
One of my favorite shows is Mad Men, about the advertising business in the late 60’s and early 70’s in NYC, when I was a pup graphic designer. The flavor, the odor, the sense of being in the greatest city, high up over Manhattan brings back such great memories.
The black and white movies: in conjunction with the old black and white photos of the family and places I lived in, triggers those little vignettes I speak about. An old Hudson or Studebaker, with that distinctive smell cars had back then, ignite the senses and rekindle the dreams and hopes I had!
The sudden whiff of baked bread, the lazy drone of a propeller plane crossing the afternoon sky, the instant flash of an object not seen in 50 years all bring me back to life as I knew it. Sometimes I pass a schoolyard with a church, and I am in grammar school once more, waiting for the bell to ring as I march off to class, while playing, on a cold winter morning.
But music, that old unifier, that thing that really makes the world go round, that is the best thing to have when my mind in traveling in the past! The lyrics are reminders, recreating the feelings and attitudes of life back then.
It is funny and sometimes painful. Sometimes it saddens and sometimes it makes me wish for the old days, once more. I know they were much simpler times, filled with hope, yet contentment. We all dream, and we all dreamt back in the 40’s and 50’s. When the dreams turned to reality, we turned our backs on the dream and took for granted the reality. It is then that new dreams evolve, and newer ‘old days’!
4 comments:
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
My Dad wrote a similar blog today about how technology has changed our lives.
I love Mad Men; I can't imagine what it was like for women to work in that environment, but it sure looked like a helluva lot of fun!
Another vote for Mad Men! LOVE that show.
Me too on the Mad Men poll. The great thing about getting older is that all those old movies we loved are new again. Who the hell can remember them!
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