"Those Were the Days"

"Those Were the Days"

Boy the way Glenn Miller Played

Songs that made the Hit Parade

Guys like us we had it made

Those were the days.

Didn't need no Welfare states

Everybody pulled his weight

gee our old LaSalle ran great

Those were the days

And you knew who you were then

Girls were girls and men were men

Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again

People seemed to be content

$50 payed the rent

Freaks were in a circus tent

Those were the days

Take a little Sunday spin

Tonight I'll watch the Dodgers win

Have yourself a dandy day that cost you under a fin

Hair was short and skirts were long

Kate Smith really sung the song

I don't know just what went wrong

THOSE WERE THE DAYS!

And indeed, they were! When I met my lovely wife, I also met her relatives, and they all seemed to reside in Queens, next door to Archie Bunker.

The days back then were what we learned from our parents, aunts, and uncles were ingrained into our hearts and souls. They told us and we believed. Then our kids grew up and everything was questioned and that was for the better.

But my wife's relatives lived in Queens, NY and every house looked like Archie Bunker's house, and everyone seemed to think like Archie. They were good old fashion Americans first, and we respected that. They were good, simple folk with their hearts in the right place, who were sheltered or insulated from the facts. That was not their fault, they had an over-bearing church, a government that they believed could do no wrong, and they had a work ethic. They had one more thing, pride in the flag coupled with a love of the family. They were Americans first.

You either hated or loved Richard Nixon, the four-letter words still had no place in the everyday conversations and better not use any of it near a woman. So much seems to have changed!

Today we go about our lives committed to the electronic world of communication based on an instant gratification of results and a predictability of instant knowledge, you just "Google it!" "Google" sounds like something you do to a baby, and they laugh, or maybe it describes some kind of mess on the floor you left after being scared out of your mind and losing control.

Back in the day chivalry was only half dead, and girls wore earrings and men didn't. Being gay was a state of happiness and not your sexuality. If you wanted to see a freak, go to the circus, now there is no circus, so you go instead to a Walmart's near you.

You went to a barber shop for a haircut if you were a man, a beautician if you were a woman, today, there are women barbers and male beauticians as always was.

And now for the first time, ever our political system needs help and new blood, instead we have the same old with promises that seem more like the very politicians we sought to rid ourselves of!