Things Out of the Past You Would Like to See Revived

[pbrower2a]

More social life at the local level... think of the old ice-cream social.

Lesser reliance on electronic entertainments and more upon the human touch.

After this horrible plague dies out, we are going to confront what is essential to happiness (meaning in life, or at least its quest) and what isn't. We may end up living at an economic level from the past because we do not know how to live in an age without scarcity.

[beechnut79]

(04-01-2020, 05:51 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: More social life at the local level... think of the old ice-cream social.

Lesser reliance on electronic entertainments and more upon the human touch.

After this horrible plague dies out, we are going to confront what is essential to happiness (meaning in life, or at least its quest) and what isn't. We may end up living at an economic level from the past because we do not know how to live in an age without scarcity.

P1:  Agreed. Maybe a return to ballroom style dancing to offset the weather during the colder months.

P2:  Agreed again. But we were already headed toward more inner driven entertainment long before, going back to the rock acts of the 2T and maybe the TV fetish of the last 1T.  Whether either but especially the latter are dividers or unifiers is up for debate. The verdict is probably a little bit of both.

P3:  Reminds me of a YouTube psychic I listened to just last night who predicted that once we reached the coming Thanksgiving there will be a less frenzied holiday season than which has been the norm since seemingly forever. There was the annual hustle and bustle when I was growing up but stores weren't open nearly the amount of hours in those times, and you had no Black Friday (the term originally applied to the day JFK was killed), 4AM feeding frenzy.

[pbrower2a]

Here's an illustration of what can easily be lost:

Quote:Now in my sixth year of retirement, I am about to embark on a whole new relationship—grandmother to a baby girl.
Anticipating the addition to their family, my son and his wife recently moved into a house near Washington, D.C., the biggest home my son has lived in since being on his own.
The new baby (my first grandchild) and new house ignited one of my long-awaited projects—excavating crawl spaces and basement corners on a hunt for possessions to pass on to the next two generations.

What experience did you have in giving away—or being offered—family heirlooms? Join the conversation below.
It’s easy to predict how this played out. My son and his wife turned down many more items than they accepted. Much of what I had hoped to “upsize” to them stayed in my basement and attic.

---

Newsletter Sign-up
Grapevine
A weekly look at our most colorful, thought-provoking and original feature stories on the business of life.
SUBSCRIBE

---

WSJ Newsletter
Notes on the News
The news of the week in context.

Sign up
What wasn’t easy to predict, however, was how complicated this seemingly simple transaction could be. It involved multiple perspectives, across multiple generations. It showed how possessions, when held up to the light, often lose the very qualities that prompted us to set them aside. And, in my case, it offered a glimpse of a future that I’ve thought about—and looked forward to—for years.

I started with a set of eight bird-themed china plates my mother had ordered decades earlier for each of her four children. The plates, still in their original boxes, were beautiful in a dated, old-world way. For my mother, these plates were an investment whose value would increase over time.
But I looked at them and saw something different: the result of a direct mail pitch for a plate-of-the-month club.

Revisiting them tucked away in the latest of a succession of attics, I realized there was also a dream behind these plates. I think my mother pictured me bringing them out for elegant dinner parties at a country house similar to the one her own parents had entertained in. That never happened. I chose my own lifestyle and china.
And yet I kept them, finding it difficult to give away such a poignant memory of my mother’s aspirations for us and her concern for our future well-being. My own children would have none of these associations, but I made the offer just in case: Could my son and daughter-in-law see a decorative or functional use for these plates in their dining room? Their quick response: “Too ornamental.”

Moving on, a cabinet in the living room holds 46 limited-edition Harvard Classics circa 1910 acquired from a literary neighbor decades ago. My husband and I considered it an investment of a different kind—in knowledge. Although I never found time to read any part of the set, I thought my son—a philosophy major in college—might welcome a “great books” course. He politely declined: No shelf space now, but maybe later.

A hard-bound dinosaur

Nearby is an Encyclopaedia Britannica set I bought for my two sons in their middle-school years, hoping they would see these as resources later on for their own children. What was I thinking? Somewhere along the way I forgot (or never considered) how much the world would change before the next generation came of age. The set is a hard-bound, museum-piece dinosaur, a record of the world in the 1990s before geopolitical events rewrote the global map and social upheavals rewrote the cultural one. Then along came Google, and computer screens began to replace the books we bought or borrowed for ourselves and our children.

My myopia continued with an attempt to interest my son and his wife in a beautiful mahogany-trimmed white couch in the basement that no longer fit into our current house. The reason for their rejection was now becoming familiar: “Too ornate.”

Hand-painted wine glasses, colorful rugs, and framed prints of places our family had visited were next. Could these items and our memories of them find a place in my son and daughter-in-law’s new home? It turns out they already had their own preferred equivalents, and I am reminded once again that younger generations make their own choices. More to the point, they aren’t hoarders. They take only what they need now. Having seen the degraded world they will inherit, they are dedicated to sustainability, recycling, preservation of the environment, fewer material goods. My generation is still catching up.

They did give thumbs-up to desk lamps, guest sheets and towels, a few kitchen items and one folding chair, among other things—utilitarian items with no stories or expectations attached.

Keeping close

Most interesting (and valuable) to me were the things I realized I was not yet ready to part with. My mother gave me a ring she always wore entwined with diamonds and rubies—too small to be of any monetary value, but meaningful to me because I can still, 25 years after her death, picture her hands and by extension her physical presence. I will someday offer the ring to my daughter-in-law, hoping she will appreciate it along with the accompanying narrative. Isn’t that how this is supposed to work? We pass on possessions that tie the generations together as they move through the family.

Then there was the collection of unrelated items I now saw in a different light—those whose stories matter only to me: the child’s battered wooden rocking chair from the porch of my grandparents’ summer house; a faded, inscribed photograph of my father as a young man standing next to his own father, whom I never met; and the small tarnished music box with a twirling ballerina on top that was a gift from my godfather when I was young enough to still dream about being a dancer.
These things will stay with me here in the home where I have lived for decades. Unless…

One day a young girl visiting her grandparents comes upon the music box. She picks it up and turns the key that starts the music playing. “Grandma,” she says, “what’s this? Can I have it?” “It’s yours,” I say, my heart skipping a beat. “It always has been. You had only to ask.”
Ms. Shell is a writer in Philadelphia. She can be reached atreports@wsj.com.

Comments based upon objects:

1. the plates. Those were overpriced objects sold as prospective heirlooms, and far too many were made.They were not that precious to begin with even if they were pricey.  Even fine china had the problem that few people could think of an appropriate time for using them. Because big family meals are themselves becoming rarer (smaller dwellings, and families so scattered that they could rarely be in the same place at the same time), the fine china has become a relic of a time in which people had assumptions in life that are no longer so, and probably never will be again.

2. the Harvard Classics. Those must have been great books, but for the experience of reading one can just as well read any of those books (anything originally published in 1926 or earlier is in the public domain, and it is easily attained for anything that gets the attention) on Project Gutenberg. As for getting the "book" experience, I can imagine a carrier for a Kindle or similar device being put into a container that resembles a book. I can think of comparatively few books from after 1926 that could qualify as 'classics'... OK, J. K. Rowling may have penned books that kids will be reading as long after their initial release as those of Mark Twain or Lewis Carroll.

Books are heavy, and really quite inconvenient. See on a lower level, Readers' Digest condensed books, many of which have become "found items" to be used for something other than reading.

3. an old Encyclopedia Britannica. The world turns, time passes, and knowledge increases. Much that was important seventy years ago, like the intrigues that brought Commie regimes to central and Balkan Europe, are lesser concerns today. Any static, printed encyclopedia becomes increasingly obsolete with time.

4. obsolete furniture. Much of it clashes with the realities of tiny apartments. People have less space and time for such, and should one be obliged to move it will be a burden. Most of us have become attuned to the pattern of bare survival in low-paid work in which things start to improve after about three years before a lay-off or mass firing that gives one the obligation to start over at the very bottom rung in an organization with a very low, rigid ceiling of opportunity. It is wisest these days to be able to travel light. Obsolete furniture fails at that -- badly.

5. souvenirs of someone else's experiences. A coffee cup that reads "Paris" with the Eiffel Tower replacing the letter "A" means little to someone who has never been there. Souvenirs (including photos) may jog a memory in someone who has been there and experienced a place and event, but otherwise it is absurd. Those really get absurd if those involve others with whom one has no connection. I recall a scene from the movie The Grapes of Wrath.  A postcard from someone who had attended the New York World's Fair, addressed to someone in "Oklahoma Territory" is unceremoniously cast into a fireplace to be burned. It is from less than thirty years earlier. Even with its small  size it was then worth little thought.

...the music box says much; the tinkly sound still delights children. Some things just do not change in human nature. Even so, social change, psychological necessity, and economic reality (especially supply and demand) apply. In an earlier time something ballast often consisted of broken and irrelevant statues no longer valuable. Precious Moments figurines exemplify overpriced schlock made in excessive quantities, and those could end up much like ballast

[Eric the Green]

I covered this question very well in my post at the bottom on page 1
http://generational-theory.com/forum/thr...l#pid45562

To sum it all up, "Things Out of the Past You Would Like to See Revived," I always seek to remember and revive my awakening. It gave me everything I mentioned in my previous post on page 1, and so much more. Everything stems from that. I had virtually no life before June 26-30, 1966. I was only 16, and maybe I was awakened too young to have it really transform me and my whole life. So it has been and up and down process since then. But the Awakening is always there, and the fact that I shared it with millions of people experiencing it too, even if only to feel the vibrations resonating in the air by myself looking out the back window of my backyard clubhouse on those days. And from then on, I saw it all come forth as I had envisioned and felt, for a few years anyway, and still it's there, in some people, and in me when I remember. There's nothing like it. It will be with me forever, and especially when I am passing on, and beyond. It was probably always with me, and everyone too, somewhere inside and around me, and us. And it connects with all the other Awakenings that inspired all the others I mentioned in my previous post, and beyond. So, to call it "mine" is not really accurate. I belong to IT. One keyword for these evocative music pieces of my/our awakening(s) is "panoramic"

https://youtu.be/-6bf1UM5e18
https://youtu.be/0rJxpPoMwU0
https://youtu.be/lAMKL2KKumo
https://youtu.be/7UjvdZm-Tu8
https://youtu.be/yRUlzJn8UeU

https://philosopherswheel.com/faveslist.html

https://philosopherswheel.com/reverberat...dtime.html

Thanks for the question, beechnut

[Anthony '58]

Telephone numbers that had names at the beginning of them; e.g., "MElrose 5-5300," the number of Saks Quality Furniture in New York City (whose radio jingle was ubiquitous in that area from the 1930s until the 1960s), and postal codes - the precursors of zip codes; i.e., "Staten Island 7, New York" (now "Staten Island, NY 10307").

[beechnut79]

(03-27-2022, 05:34 PM)Anthony Wrote: Telephone numbers that had names at the beginning of them; e.g., "MElrose 5-5300," the number of Saks Quality Furniture in New York City (whose radio jingle was ubiquitous in that area from the 1930s until the 1960s), and postal codes - the precursors of zip codes; i.e., "Staten Island 7, New York" (now "Staten Island, NY 10307").

One such original phone listing became a ballroom dancing song: PEnnsylvania 6-5000. But I admit that using all numeric character is easier to remember. Some businesses still use variation of this, such as 505-RENT for a rental service of some kind.

[beechnut79]

The one thing that may be a little controversial might be a return to the dress up society featuring suite and ties for men, skirts and heels for women. Anyone here think it will happen. While much of the counterculture of the late 60s has since been soundly rejected, the trend toward more and more casual dress styles for both genders is the one thing that has for the most part stuck save for a brief return to sophisticated fashion during the Yuppie era of the mid-1980s.

[Eric the Green]

I watch MeTV on broadcast TV because I would like to live in the past and see it revived. Even though it's about murder and has a lot of negative behavior, no story on TV was ever told as well as the 271 Perry Mason episodes, and few if any had as many memorable quotes and guest characters. Such great actors, plots and scripts. It never fails to absorb and hold my attention. So I am making my own website featuring quotes by actors on Perry Mason, along with some of the actors' connections to other shows both on Perry Mason and beyond, including The Twilight Zone. And being mostly from the later 1st turning and the early peak of the second (1957-1966), it connects to good and competent times in our history, which is a relief from our current conditions. It also brings back times when we had real, talented character actors on TV instead of those who are just featured because of their looks and sex appeal. All the same, it paints a picture of the underbelly of those times, more of which came out later. A recurring theme is nefarious activities around MONEY as a motive for murder. It also takes us "above" the usual scenes and people that commit murders, being a fantasy, and so we see middle-class and rich people involved in the troubles instead of gangs, drug dealers and disturbed young people with AR-15s. In fact, most of the violence is not directly shown.

My website is mostly just written, but it has some links to where you can hear some of the quotes.
https://philosopherswheel.com/perrymason.html

[JasonBlack]

1) People valuing self-regulation and composure over "having their voice heard"
2) People saying "I don't know enough about that to have a strong opinion"
3) Respecting fatherhood
4) Respecting the "mother" part of "single mother" rather than just the "single" part
5) A culture where people are shamed for making presumptive accusations rather than taking even a little bit of time to understand the circumstances.
6) Not assuming every male who shows affection for a child is a pedophile.
7) Actually having relationships that last more than 3 years.

(04-01-2020, 05:51 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: More social life at the local level... think of the old ice-cream social.

Lesser reliance on electronic entertainments and more upon the human touch.

After this horrible plague dies out, we are going to confront what is essential to happiness (meaning in life, or at least its quest) and what isn't. We may end up living at an economic level from the past because we do not know how to live in an age without scarcity.

I can get behind these

[JasonBlack]

(07-20-2022, 07:15 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: The one thing that may be a little controversial might be a return to the dress up society featuring suite and ties for men, skirts and heels for women. Anyone here think it will happen. While much of the counterculture of the late 60s has since been soundly rejected, the trend toward more and more casual dress styles for both genders is the one thing that has for the most part stuck save for a brief return to sophisticated fashion during the Yuppie era of the mid-1980s.

I 100% support this. I love people who dress with a sense of elegance, poise and dignity.

[Eric the Green]

(07-22-2022, 10:19 PM)JasonBlack Wrote: 1) People valuing self-regulation and composure over "having their voice heard". well, no; or both.
2) People saying "I don't know enough about that to have a strong opinion". yes, plus desire to know more
3) Respecting fatherhood. yes, or non-fatherhood
4) Respecting the "mother" part of "single mother" rather than just the "single" part. yes to both
5) A culture where people are shamed for making presumptive accusations rather than taking even a little bit of time to understand the circumstances. yes
6) Not assuming every male who shows affection for a child is a pedophile. yes
7) Actually having relationships that last more than 3 years. yes

(04-01-2020, 05:51 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: More social life at the local level... think of the old ice-cream social.

Lesser reliance on electronic entertainments and more upon the human touch.

After this horrible plague dies out, we are going to confront what is essential to happiness (meaning in life, or at least its quest) and what isn't. We may end up living at an economic level from the past because we do not know how to live in an age without scarcity.

I can get behind these

Yes. It looks that way now, because we have voted for it. We have voted for the breakdown of our climate and our environment. It is coming upon us now. Unless we correct our votes soon, we will have nothing but scarcity for another 4000 years or so. It means we can't reincarnate into a better life, or leave a better life for our children, and that means so much to us. It is really too bad. I feel sad over this. It is happening ONLY for the convenience of a few CEOs, and a few politicians they have bought like Manchin. Really sad. Can we wake up? Can we learn to vote correctly? Can we value the environment we used to have in "the past"? Can we listen to what science is saying, instead of our desires for immediate wealth? Or upholding market ideology? We didn't necessarily value that environment, until we learned we are about to lose it, in the late sixties. Even now, not enough people value it.

[Eric the Green]

(07-22-2022, 10:22 PM)JasonBlack Wrote:

(07-20-2022, 07:15 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: The one thing that may be a little controversial might be a return to the dress up society featuring suite and ties for men, skirts and heels for women. Anyone here think it will happen. While much of the counterculture of the late 60s has since been soundly rejected, the trend toward more and more casual dress styles for both genders is the one thing that has for the most part stuck save for a brief return to sophisticated fashion during the Yuppie era of the mid-1980s.

I 100% support this. I love people who dress with a sense of elegance, poise and dignity.

I on the other hand support the 60s counter-culture, and more casual dress. And the psychedelic colors. But, whatever works for each person is fine with me.

[pbrower2a]

(07-23-2022, 03:34 AM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(07-22-2022, 10:19 PM)JasonBlack Wrote: 1) People valuing self-regulation and composure over "having their voice heard". well, no; or both.
2) People saying "I don't know enough about that to have a strong opinion".   yes, plus desire to know more
3) Respecting fatherhood.      yes, or non-fatherhood
4) Respecting the "mother" part of "single mother" rather than just the "single" part.  yes to both
5) A culture where people are shamed for making presumptive accusations rather than taking even a little bit of time to understand the circumstances.  yes
6) Not assuming every male who shows affection for a child is a pedophile.  yes
7) Actually having relationships that last more than 3 years.  yes

(04-01-2020, 05:51 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: More social life at the local level... think of the old ice-cream social.

Lesser reliance on electronic entertainments and more upon the human touch.

After this horrible plague dies out, we are going to confront what is essential to happiness (meaning in life, or at least its quest) and what isn't. We may end up living at an economic level from the past because we do not know how to live in an age without scarcity.

I can get behind these

Yes. It looks that way now, because we have voted for it. We have voted for the breakdown of our climate and our environment. It is coming upon us now. Unless we correct our votes soon, we will have nothing but scarcity for another 4000 years or so. It means we can't reincarnate into a better life, or leave a better life for our children, and that means so much to us. It is really too bad. I feel sad over this. It is happening ONLY for the convenience of a few CEOs, and a few politicians they have bought like Manchin. Really sad. Can we wake up? Can we learn to vote correctly? Can we value the environment we used to have in "the past"? Can we listen to what science is saying, instead of our desires for immediate wealth? Or upholding market ideology? We didn't necessarily value that environment, until we learned we are about to lose it, in the late sixties. Even now, not enough people value it.

Certain elites tend over time to become so powerful that they can arrange the system of economic rewards to serve themselves for being themselves. Competition is squeezed out for both production and opportunity. The system rewards people for kissing up to elites; Inequality intensifies; imagination and creativity go unrewarded; culture is debased to mere entertainment that gets coarser with every iteration; the political system ends up endorsing the desires of those elites over all else.  Birth becomes more important than talent.

Power and property get concentrated; smart people waste their talents in bureaucracies in return for not criticizing the System; small-scale entrepreneurialism gets squelched, and the entire order becomes a command-and-control system. Innovation dies, and  vice flourishes. The System may do a good job of diverting people with ceremonies such as parades and processions, but even education gets degraded. Communications get degraded to propaganda.  People with intellect, conscience, and cleverness are dangerous unless they sell those out.  The character Winston Smith of 1984 exemplifies what sort of person one becomes: someone with no genuine beliefs, feelings, or creativity.   

The proles get survival and some occasional entertainment -- garbage such as pornography and low entertainments on the "telescreen" What passes for a middle class is so corrupt and dependent that it blinds itself to the ugly reality. The elites live like royalty while showing austerity in public but living in opulent splendor in secret.