Back In The Day to The Here and Now

When I first started this blog, I had plenty of time to decide my topic, which is mainly art related and to research all the elements to provide a well rounded view of the subject. Now things have changed a little, okay a lot and now time seems to slip by before I realize it and my blog post date slips by. Life has a funny way of letting you know it exists. Stares you down, until you make eye to eye contact.

My last post reflected on childhood issues with robots and how they came into my life. The issues that I have been dealing with these past few months often leave me wondering how I got to the "here and now." I've also noticed that my friends post pictures of themselves from way back when on throw back Thursdays. Ha! no picture from my past will be posted anywhere, at least not by me. Nothing wrong with the past, it helped shape the current me. As for the here & now part, not so sure, still connecting the dots cause it represents my current situation and not so much the me I have come to know. It is apparent the two are connected, although I feel very disconnected at times dealing with the day to day. So when I see my friends post about being "back in the day" and their pictures, It dawned on me that my back in day seems like a rather mind boggling, eyes closing lack luster time. 

I don't remember any great family reunions, birthdays or major events. Oh sure, there were piano recitals in which I was terrified to death because people were "looking" at  me; and then of course my sisters wedding and no one believed I was just "thirteen", they kept looking at me; my prom dress that my mom made for me, that just recently I gave to goodwill. It was Magenta colored 3/4 length taffeta dress with a lace jacket, and my date wore a charcoal grey suit with coat tails, everyone thought we looked good and were looking at us; my first car, a Chevrolet spectrum 2 door hatchback, thought I was cute styling and profiling! and wanted people to look at me; being pregnant with my son, and people looking at me saying "you don't look pregnant!";locking my hair during a time it wasn't acceptable, people stared at me; the grey streak that started in the front of my head and went back towards the middle at an angle that became increasingly hard to color, then changed course and decided to stay front and center spreading from left to right, the first thing people commented on when they looked at me (thank God for haircolor); coworkers who looked at me funny when I told them I was leaving the Federal Govt to go back to school and get my degree(s);currently people cock their heads to the side while they are looking at me from head to toe eyeballing my shit kicker boots, nose ring, labrey piercing, and locks then their eyes bug out when I say "I teach art!". No, don't remember much about being back in the day, or yesterday for that matter, aside from people looking at me, staring at me.

What I do remember is a lot of great music and TV, especially cartoons, Kung Fu theater, Creature Feature, Captain 20 and all the Godzilla movies (which I still watch). Buying albums for a $1 from Columbia Music club, everything from Rita Coolidge, Tom Jones, Electric Light Orchestra, the Wizard of Oz (disco version), The Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Earth Wind & Fire and much more! Yes, you could get records and tapes for a $1. And guess what! TV was FREE! yes free! and all the cool shows came on like Barney Miller, The Jeffersons, All in the Family, The Phil Donahue Show, The Flip Wilson Show (Hey Geraldine!) Dick Clark's Rocking New Years Eve and Soouuul Train!. Call waiting didn't exist and you had to call the operator to break in on the line to reach someone if they were on the phone. My first computer was an Etch-a-Sketch! People actually talked to each other, texting didn't exist nor did cell phones. Radio played music that required real singing and Casey Kasem did American Top 40 every Sunday. No it wasn't during the time of dinosaurs, even though thinking of this does seem kind of nostalgic but not prehistoric! For some, the 70's seems like a prehistoric time, the 80's were my rebellion years, but why do people keep trying to bring back the 80's? Do me a favor, leave the 80's alone, it hasn't done anything to deserve your millennium torment.

I was a chubby kid with severe allergies and stayed in the house a lot. My mom made most of my clothes until Lane Bryant came along. They started off selling children's clothes, then switched to women's clothes. If you were husky built then you went to Morton's clothing downtown. Hecht's, Garfinkels, and Woodies department stores were the Macy's and Nordstroms of today. Being chubby or overweight was not the move back in the day. No one made clothes for that body type. Couldn't get the Jordache look if you were bigger than a toothpick. Super sizing was a spray starch used in ironing your clothes. Wrinkle free was a hand cream, it was not a term for wash and wear clothing. You could go to the Barbizon School to be a model or just "look like one," now just get plastic surgery to look like Barbie, so everyone can look at you. The metro cost .75 cents to ride when it first opened, phone calls were .10-.15 cents at a pay phone, yes, they actually worked! Then technology kicked into high gear and the years flew by bringing me to the here and now. Now, to talk to people I have to text on my "smart phone" or contact people through facebook, forget actually talking to them. We have to pay for some 500 channels including local ones and there still is nothing on worth watching for long. My favorite Godzilla and Kung Fu action flicks have been relegated to DVD, YouTube or Hulu. I'm waiting for the robots to take control of all technology.

I spend more time on my laptop, cell phone and listening to my ipod. They all come equipped with the ability to watch music videos, movies, take pictures etc.,that can be instantly posted to whatever site suits your fancy. So much for the man in the monster costume stomping on a miniature size Tokyo and fighting other monsters. Now with all the CG animation and such, the monsters can be manipulated with a few key strokes and look hella real. Don't even have to buy a book anymore, just download it on your e-reader, or kindle. Nothing wrong with the here and now, just sometimes I want a simpler time where things are a little slower and you could figure it out before it was upgraded.

If I'm showing my age, then know I'm not THAT OLD! I may not be in my 20s anymore, but I still got lots of life kicking in me and I've gotten better with age AND I'm keeping up the technology, its fun. Just want to take my time and smell the roses before they get mowed down! At least now, I can do that without sneezing my head off! Have grown out my allergies a bit, modern medicine has improved greatly as well. Also, as American's we have gotten larger and so have the clothes, all I had to do was maintain my size and the rest of the U.S. caught up to me! One size does not fit all, check the mirror.

Now that I've watched the Roots/Jimmy Fallon do a rendition of the Sesame Street theme song, and the crazy songs that mock real life conversation in a video, my world has come full circle. Everything old is new again...except things from the 80's leave them there, especially the clothes!


My throwback Thursday request, just step away from the 80s clothes, go ahead, just back away, you can do it, say it with me step away from the clothes and read my blog instead.

See you all next week at the....

Same blog time, same blog channel, I'll be watching You!