When I got up the first thing I heard was the rain. It wasn't a gentle rain nor a torrent, just a steady beat. The weather having cooled somewhat the a/c was turned off and the window opened wide. As I kissed my wife good morning, as is our habit, the song Rhythm of the rain entered my mind. Posting my good mornings on Facebook I went to you tube and found that song. It is the little things in life that bring up pleasure. Pleasure comes in moments and we need to be aware so as not to miss out on them. And that thought lead to another song, a jingle really, about the moments of our lives. Immediately I thought of those old Kodak commercials. They say the times of our lives but, same difference. That led me to remembering when tv commercials were actually entertaining and in some cases uplifting.
The Kodak commercial I was thinking about was from 1975. That seems like a fairly new one to me but 1975 was forty three years ago. We were still using film and flashbulbs. Taking pictures was an event back then. We only took photos on special occasions when we did want to capture the moment! These days we capture every second. I question how many of these photos taken today will remain forty three years from now. I'm thinking not nearly so many as survived simply because they were printed. I still have strips of negatives in old photo envelopes. How many do you have tucked away somewhere because, well, you just can't throw out the negatives. There are no negatives to a digital image. I'm told that anything posted to the web is saved forever though, if you can locate it. I spend three dollars ninety nine cents a month to have my photos, or wait they are images now, saved to the cloud. I'm not certain were that cloud is or how to access it but I keep sending my images there anyway. I'm thinking it may be more like Grandmas attic. No one goes there very often, and when they do they make discoveries. Maybe my grandkids will find those pictures in that cloud one day. But I think you need a password. No matter I'm sure they will be able to open the " lock " by then anyway.
Whatever the case I was remembering that commercial about the times of our lives. It is a major interest of mine, my life. I do enjoy reminiscing and sharing those memories with others. I like to write about them and contemplate the meaning in all of that. What was I thinking? I have found, at the core, I haven't changed all that much. There are some that will say that is a bad thing, you need to grow, to change and mature. Yeah, if you say so. I take comfort in my memories and past successes. It is those that push me forward. In my thinking change is overrated. Stick with what you know to be the truth and you can't go wrong. It is the right and wrong you learned as a child that forms your character. Today we are quick to blame the past for the future, or more properly to use the past as an excuse for what we do today, but that wasn't always so. Was a time when we learned from past mistakes and avoided those mistakes in the future. Today we just blame the past instead of our failure to learn from it. And that is what we are teaching our children. It's quite disturbing actually.
That comes to mind when thinking about the television commercials we grew up with. By we, I mean those of us born in the fifties and sixties. Many of those commercials would not be politically correct today. They were filled with stereotypes and generalizations. But for the most part I feel like they were somewhat uplifting messages. Yes they were hawking their products, televisions, radios, clothing, new cars and fast foods to name a few. What they didn't advertise was taking drugs to improve the quality of your life. They didn't discuss erectile dysfunction, depression and preventing suicide! There wasn't a steady stream of lawyers urging you to sue, sue, sue, to demand the justice that you deserve. And that justice could be measured in dollars and cents wasn't anywhere to be found. No we had Superman for that, Truth, Justice and the American way. And that, that was the times of our lives. Do you remember?
The Kodak commercial I was thinking about was from 1975. That seems like a fairly new one to me but 1975 was forty three years ago. We were still using film and flashbulbs. Taking pictures was an event back then. We only took photos on special occasions when we did want to capture the moment! These days we capture every second. I question how many of these photos taken today will remain forty three years from now. I'm thinking not nearly so many as survived simply because they were printed. I still have strips of negatives in old photo envelopes. How many do you have tucked away somewhere because, well, you just can't throw out the negatives. There are no negatives to a digital image. I'm told that anything posted to the web is saved forever though, if you can locate it. I spend three dollars ninety nine cents a month to have my photos, or wait they are images now, saved to the cloud. I'm not certain were that cloud is or how to access it but I keep sending my images there anyway. I'm thinking it may be more like Grandmas attic. No one goes there very often, and when they do they make discoveries. Maybe my grandkids will find those pictures in that cloud one day. But I think you need a password. No matter I'm sure they will be able to open the " lock " by then anyway.
Whatever the case I was remembering that commercial about the times of our lives. It is a major interest of mine, my life. I do enjoy reminiscing and sharing those memories with others. I like to write about them and contemplate the meaning in all of that. What was I thinking? I have found, at the core, I haven't changed all that much. There are some that will say that is a bad thing, you need to grow, to change and mature. Yeah, if you say so. I take comfort in my memories and past successes. It is those that push me forward. In my thinking change is overrated. Stick with what you know to be the truth and you can't go wrong. It is the right and wrong you learned as a child that forms your character. Today we are quick to blame the past for the future, or more properly to use the past as an excuse for what we do today, but that wasn't always so. Was a time when we learned from past mistakes and avoided those mistakes in the future. Today we just blame the past instead of our failure to learn from it. And that is what we are teaching our children. It's quite disturbing actually.
That comes to mind when thinking about the television commercials we grew up with. By we, I mean those of us born in the fifties and sixties. Many of those commercials would not be politically correct today. They were filled with stereotypes and generalizations. But for the most part I feel like they were somewhat uplifting messages. Yes they were hawking their products, televisions, radios, clothing, new cars and fast foods to name a few. What they didn't advertise was taking drugs to improve the quality of your life. They didn't discuss erectile dysfunction, depression and preventing suicide! There wasn't a steady stream of lawyers urging you to sue, sue, sue, to demand the justice that you deserve. And that justice could be measured in dollars and cents wasn't anywhere to be found. No we had Superman for that, Truth, Justice and the American way. And that, that was the times of our lives. Do you remember?
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