Then and now

I may go off on a strange and wild tangent today. Stay with me. It may make you think.

Today's humstle is by Four Jacks and a Jill. They were another "one hit wonder" in the 60's. The song was called Master Jack. The main refrain was, "it's a strange strange world we live in, Master Jack." 

Today's social media would dissect that song in the ways we do things these days; she being the wide eyed and nubile girl seeking to make sense of a crazy world where mutually assured destruction would keep the world in line. And it would all be taught to her by an older, wiser man who would show her the ropes. Yes, I know the dual meaning of that word.

Even though my domestic and world views are shaped through my own education and experiences, it would seem that the planet's societies go through reprises of madness. It's the mental form of muscle memory. 

When I used to coach little league, I taught muscle memory. If a kid threw with his right hand, I instituted drills which forced him to develop the same talent with his left hand. It gave the person, if he could do it, the power to think from both sides of his brain. This was the mid to late 80's and my methods (and the songs I played on my boombox) scared some of my kids' parents, who were simply trying to get their kid to socialize within the guise of our national pastime. I don't think they were looking for any breakthroughs of the nature I had in mind. You could drive kids to and from practice in those days. The entire pedophile scare, which has always been with us, was not front and center on a parent's mind-- that amidst a 95 day team effort, the thought of your child going to baseball practice and being secretly sodomized in an equipment shed after practice, was never mentioned and rarely feared. Now, that's all we think about. Coaches can be pillars of society today but they won't risk driving a neighbor's kid to or from baseball practice. When I was 8, I could get on a bus and ride down to Chicago's Museum Of Science and Industry. I would spend 2 or 3 happy hours walking around among the wonder of what the museum had to offer. And then, I would get back on a bus and ride home.  My parents never thought that along the way, I would get kidnapped, abused or murdered by a pedophile.  I read a headline today where a mother was arrested for allowing her child to walk to a local park and play with his friends. But there were pedophiles in those days. Were we more afraid of obstructionism, by the 84th Congress against the agenda of Dwight Eisenhower? Or Joe McCarthy's anti communist diatribes and attacks upon the political leanings of his Senate colleagues? Or was it about who would be the first to fly into space? Maybe who had the H-Bomb and would we die in a nuclear holocaust? 

Or were we a nation who had seen a scourge of dictators try to enslave large parts of the world and refused to allow them to do so? Was there asymmetrical warfare, the kind that spawned 9/11? How many people possessed nuclear weapons in 1955, when the 84th congress was not blocking President Eisenhower. Were fish frys and summer vacations what we thought about- winding down the days of August before the school started right after labor day and the lives of people took on a predictable rhythm? Are there still bridge clubs today? What happened at 10.00 PM when the television shut down for the day. And television- what a trip that was! And then, if you had color TV (not the 50's), you were the envy of your neighborhood. And my God, if you also had a fallout shelter!!

Brown v Board of Education happened in this time. The nation's interstate highways were built-- with bi partisan support from Congress. Whites were not ready to apply equality toward Blacks and Browns. So, a Republican President, who led the allies to an eventual victory over Germany in WW2 sent in national guard troops, probably not because he wanted to. But it was because he saw the future and the changes that would be taking place within his country and through his world perspective, albeit through the prism of a military background, and he knew what the right thing to do was. 

I'm not saying that the 50's was not fraught with some ugliness. It certainly was. But the generations of barnacles were just beginning to break off and sometimes reveal the ugly side of people, amidst the optimism and innocence of a nation that felt they could do anything, but knew that without domestic tranquility and unspoken confidence in who we were, the quiet knowledge of the projection of power could never be evident to a world where many would never even get a sniff of freedom or dignity.

I'm writing for a generation of baby boomers who lived through this time. It was good. And sometimes it was not. But I remember it. And whatever happened, it shaped me.

So in a recent post, I told of my grandson. He is by marriage. My children know better than to have children, because I think I'm at a perfect time in my life. I hope I can live more than a few years, but I look at my grandson and I fear for the world he's going to have to live in. I really do. As for his condition, he had a very bad reaction to a tetanus shot. And it caused him to have a 12 minute seizure. And some damage was done to his brain, which already is compromised by a form of Chiari's Malformation. Look it up if you're interested. But since getting out of ICU last week, he is bouncing back-slowly, but he is bouncing back. And when I pitch batting practice to him in the backyard, I am watching him struggle as he hadn't before this incident. But he rocked a good one that came back at me and hit me in the shoulder. Getting older is bitch. My reflexes are pretty awful. But as when I used to coach, we'd try to take one positive out of session and make sure the kid knew that although he still had lots of work to do if he wanted to be good, he still did something that stood out. Kids need that. Their parents are paying less and less attention to them and it's really noticeable. But it was good shot. He smiled and I knew it was important for him to know.. But his grandma and I are paying very close attention to him and moving his cognition back to levels that befit his intelligence and inquisitiveness. We are staying within the limits of being grandparents, because he has two parents and he is their primary gift. We add on where we think we might help- and it doesn't cause jealousy from his parents that he actually responds well to us as people. Have you been there? He has a follow up with a pediatric neurosurgeon today. I'll keep you posted.

When I was his age, I climbed fences and stepped on rusty nails. That part of what being a kid is about. If I broke the skin, I got a tetanus shot. I was not aware that a little guy could have such a dire reaction. The results still break my heart but I was pretty torn up about what had happened to him and without compromising his life, I write about him to let you know that he got out of the hospital and is recovering. But I will never forget  that on his bed in ICU was a red bag which contained what doctors would need, if he coded. And he almost did. 

The title of today's post is Now and Then. As Ferris Bueller said, 'the world moves pretty fast. If you don't pay attention, you could miss it.' I'm putting that in single quotes because I may not have that line exactly right. But I think you know what I mean.

I don't know who my audience is, so I don't know if they will read this and think it's a real snoozer. I think it's not and in the coming posts, I will try to contrast things that happened while I was growing up to things that happen today. It is amazing-- the differences. Makes me really sad sometimes.

See you soon.