I, too, feel that nostalgia for a certain decorum and attitude that doesn’t seem to exist anymore in America. I was an elementary school teacher for 35 years (recently retired) and I saw that change you write about but in the classroom. From ‘89 to about the early 2000s were what I fondly call as the “glory days” of teaching. The students demonstrated an immense curiosity about learning along with a clear respect for the process and for their teachers. Teachers also dressed professionally unlike now when some look like they just rolled out of bed. And not one teacher I worked with ever talked to their students about their own political beliefs or “lifestyle.”
After 9/11 things began to change both with new attitudes about teaching and learning and with more government oversight and legislation that hindered our ability to teach. The “powers that be” began to shed all we knew about intelligence and developmental stages in learning in favor of more complex standardized tests that were not designed to be developmentally appropriate. 2020 and the pandemic forever changed education and the social and emotional constructs in schools. Putting students on laptops to learn 50% of the school day has changed the way they think and has significantly lessened their ability to think creatively, form their own thoughts, engage in meaningful conversations and debates, and pay attention to and care about real people.
Something has changed and it’s not for the better. I had a civics teacher in 1989 say he thought the 90s would be the next 50s and in some ways he was correct. The 9/11 era has been so destructive to everything we thought we could be. Opulence in the stock market, death of Christian influence on society, government overreach in every area. It’s a different and sadly destructive landscape the next generation is inheriting.
I’m sure many people can relate to what you’re saying. Sometimes it feels like the future is inevitable. We have God’s Word in our hands to guide us and to remind us that this long and winding road called life on earth does eventually come to an end.
Are we standing in the last days of this fallen world? From beginning to end, both Jew and Gentile have been given the same remedy for love and happiness and I feel it is a genuine dependence on a holy God who created us and loves us beyond comprehension.
Do most people believe that? Do most people know that God sent a part of Himself to dwell within us, so that we would have a teacher,a guide and a comforter to help us on this journey? Some do, but not the majority and so division continues to reign. Evil continues to reign.
My family and I escaped the rat race 50 years ago and were fortunate to find a beautiful and somewhat innocent part of the country in the Appalachian Blue Ridge Mountains. Over these five decades, some things have changed to keep up with the progress of the world, but generally, Blowing Rock and Boone have stayed much the same.
I’ve given up stressing about the Democrats, the Republicans, the politics and corruption in Washington, and the evil we see in Hollywood. And now, with the internet and social media,we can communicate and engage with all the players — becoming immersed in the endless question of who’s right and who’s wrong.
All I know is God and living out of the gift of His Holy Spirit that dwells within me. There’s really nothing else I can rely on but that. I feel a protective hand over my home, my family, my small town, and the beauty of these mountains. I wait for the Lord’s return, looking forward to the day when everything we long for will be fulfilled in a new world without sin.
I truly felt that in the Carolina mountains when we were there last month. I think it’s easy to be consumed by it when it’s what I look at in the news or other places. I think that beautiful line about trusting god for our needs and looking how He feeds the sparrows or clothes the fields with flowers is the best reminder available.
I now live in one of those small towns. I formerly lived in Maryland, in Baltimore, then in one of the small northern counties in Maryland. While I love my small, affordable life, small towns have their issues, corruption, lack of good city management, lack of a very good hospital, three dollar/Dollar general stores, a very expensive grocery store, small Mexican and small Italian restaurants and gas stations which also serve fast food. Kids leave as quickly as possible, but come back to raise their kids and hopefully telecommute. Our library is in a big lawsuit and hasn’t bought new materials in roughly four or five years. Our base is mainly seniors and they can’t get out much. It’s not so much dying as it is hanging on. Everyone has a side business, we hope for wet weather as it seems we are constantly is a serious drought condition. We finally got Elon musk satellite tv. Cable just got here about three years ago. We have some awesome people here.
I agree with everything you say. I am safer here than when I lived east, but there are tradeoffs. There are always tradeoffs. I am glad I am retired and don’t need a lot. A big day for me is driving to the next town and getting groceries. The drive is an hour each way and gas is not cheap. I too, mourn what is the past, it’s not coming back and we know the reality is going forward things will be difficult. Just look out for your kids, family, and community.
There’s no perfect place to be sure. I just wonder why there was an abandonment of something that was trending in the right direction for so long. There were sins to be sure but people were striving to solve it. Somewhere it just seems that was given up on.
You are right, and I have no one thing to point to that contributed to this turn. Maybe social media and lack of accountability. I read a lot of Matt Tabbi until I just get too fed up. No one goes to jail anymore.
I couldn’t agree more. I feel like the best way forward is to stop leaning so heavily on the government and politicians to fix things. Americans need to fix America. Folks need to get off their booties and live life. Get after it. Land of the free, home of the brave.
Thanks Aaron. As always, beautiful written, artfully expressed. I appreciate you.
Thanks Joe - it was nice to have some time for simple observations. I feel for our country. I do hope there’s a chance to reverse the trends that seem inevitable.
I grew up in a small river town along the Delaware in NJ. Lambertville, I now live just across the river in New Hope, PA. I stay for all the feels. Although
Big corporate money has destroyed the New Hope that all the old timers are gut wrenched to watch and they are slowly moving their way across river to the Jersey side. Thank you for your lovely article. It brought tears to my eyes. I still hold out Hope. As a mother of three grown. Eight grandchildren. And one great grandbaby. I pray somehow we get that world back.
I was born in Newark, NJ and lived not far from NYC, but extended family lived on an island. I was so blessed to experience that dichotomy.
Immersed in my career, I moved to another large city in the south.
As my career changed I dreamed of living in the country, in a community with a central garden, environmentally aware and health conscious, and all ages assisting others in their life situations (ie the elders watching the young, etc).
I still live in that now larger, southern city, in an apartment community with a flourishing garden, by a lake that I can walk to, with neighbors who are salt of the earth and open my heart daily with deeds and mere presence. No family, no children, no human securities, yet as Matthew states, “just as the lilies of the field, all our needs are met “.
I know so much of this is found in our own pursuit of Jesus - I just long for solutions on a large scale because peace and stability leads to a kinder culture. I do question what’s coming. I pray its revival and not a revolution led from grievances.
I have to express that it is not my search for Jesus per se ( I was raised with religion) that created the ability to see past the polarity of good and bad, to see what is beyond the ego. It is the work of going within and releasing the fears and disbeliefs of human experience and programming. It is through spiritual and psychological health, that the true self/ soul can then perceive clearly that all is unfolding in perfection. The kingdom truly is within.
I loved this post despite making me feel a little sad. For anyone over 50 it describes exactly how we have seen America warp into a country we hardly recognize or even imagined it becoming. Disneyland was once a place of fantasy but now smacks of reality and compromise. Thank you for putting all this into words for those of us who still have fond memories of living in “oblivious” times. How I wish our grandchildren could live there.
Beautifully written Aaron. I do miss my small town. I’ve lived here for 57 years. At first it grew slowly. But then, in about the last 10 years, they turned my small town into nothing but restaurants (not very goods ones either), bars, parking structures and towering condos and apartments. They come through and knock down our quaint bungalows and build big foot houses that people move into and stay for a year and move. I’m assuming because they can’t afford them in the end. I can’t even sit in my own backyard without smelling that horrible obnoxious smell of weed. I have been longing to find a nice peaceful plot of land where our family can come and visit us when they need to get away from the rat race this life has brought us. Praying everyday that we can make it happen.
I too was taken with this piece-it’s one of an America I too remember-and long for. Idyllic childhood in So Cal- watching Disney on Sunday evenings- there was an innocence and a love and pride of country - that is dissapearing. I wish my kids could have experienced just some of what I did. Thanks for writing. And RIP DK.
I felt like I was reading my mind and my stories here.
I live in SoCal. An immigrant from England who came here as a child with my parents in 1963. Straight to Van Nuys to a little rented bungalow. Dad said it was "the land of opportunity." We had 2k British pounds to our name and 6 months to "make it." Our story still amazes me. How he ended up working for Disney at MAPO division in Burbank, ran the welding shop, built so many things at Disneyland. He traded E-tickets for car engines and rebuilt cars on the side (lol). Disneyland was a "dress-up" treat once a year. Eventually he was sent to head-up a team to "eyeball" and build Space Mountain in Florida. A story he only described a few years before he died. We couldn't afford to go to Disney World growing up and still haven't been - (just to stare at Space Mountain).
Somehow via dance classes (as a young teen) - both my brother and I ended up in the entertainment industry for a few years. I was Patsy Brimmer on The Walton's and he was on Little House on the Prairie among other things. Rarely talked about it until now. We truly had the best of America growing up.
We watched Father of the Bride last night.
And you're right -- nothing is the same anymore, a piece of our heart dies with every nostalgia that is no longer. Great piece. And good luck with the college years 🙃
I loved the Waltons!!! Such an amazing show. I wanted to be an animator for Disney when I was younger. It was the dream place in my mind. I recently priced out a trip to Disneyland to stay on property, and it was nearing 10k for 5 days. It's hard to believe that it has become so expensive and seemingly for only the elite. What a story. Thank you for sharing this. I want that American opportunity for my kids - I just am unsure of the path to get there.
Ha ha! That’s great! I wrote a bit about my time on The Waltons. Thank you for subscribing btw :) I treasure my upbringing. Mostly because dad never let us get big headed. He and mom were so resourceful and creative. I miss him. And that’s insanity? 10k? Um. That might be a semester at college? We’re never going to Disney World! I need my husband to retire :). It’s so cool you said you wanted to be an animator too! In 2018 we downsized, from our family home, to a first offer midcentury renovation. You might like this piece. Crazy all the ties that bind us. It’s a “If You Give a Moose a Muffin" spaghetti noodle piece.
And I think the path to the American opportunity is to keep doing you. Keep the faith, watch the old shows together, listen to good music, tell family stories, etc. Speak truth. I can tell you, they will stray. It’s hard. But I never lost sight of the fact God’s always got them. Toughest years were college. It’s an institution. Not sure what we were thinking slaving for it x 3 — Watching two of them raise our grandchildren now — it’s interesting. I’m seeing the values coming back. The youngest, single, (30) walks the streets with a crisis team, tending to the homeless drug addicts. He’s extremely educated - but learning deeply about systems. Even being a part of the downfall of a system.. We love. Pray. And say very little. https://open.substack.com/pub/deborahthewitt/p/walt-roy-frank-theodore-and-larry?r=kn8dx&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
“If there is a small town, its once thriving main streets have been covered over in weed shops and Dollar Generals.” That sums up so much of what is wrong with our country. Boomers really ran us into the ground.
I had an old professor who said that his generation (boomers) always see themselves as 25 year olds. I think they have never stepped aside because of that vision, but also because my generation (x) never stepped into the place that we should have.
Yep - and now we have an entire generation (millennials) largely not represented in politics, and the generation behind living at home on their parents insurance until age 30. Easy to see how socialism is creeping I.
Thankful that I can still talk to my parents and aunts and uncles about their lives growing up; remembering time w grandparents; and the stories of their parents. My dad turned 81 last month. They celebrated 57 yrs in August. Thankful.
I, too, feel that nostalgia for a certain decorum and attitude that doesn’t seem to exist anymore in America. I was an elementary school teacher for 35 years (recently retired) and I saw that change you write about but in the classroom. From ‘89 to about the early 2000s were what I fondly call as the “glory days” of teaching. The students demonstrated an immense curiosity about learning along with a clear respect for the process and for their teachers. Teachers also dressed professionally unlike now when some look like they just rolled out of bed. And not one teacher I worked with ever talked to their students about their own political beliefs or “lifestyle.”
After 9/11 things began to change both with new attitudes about teaching and learning and with more government oversight and legislation that hindered our ability to teach. The “powers that be” began to shed all we knew about intelligence and developmental stages in learning in favor of more complex standardized tests that were not designed to be developmentally appropriate. 2020 and the pandemic forever changed education and the social and emotional constructs in schools. Putting students on laptops to learn 50% of the school day has changed the way they think and has significantly lessened their ability to think creatively, form their own thoughts, engage in meaningful conversations and debates, and pay attention to and care about real people.
Something has changed and it’s not for the better. I had a civics teacher in 1989 say he thought the 90s would be the next 50s and in some ways he was correct. The 9/11 era has been so destructive to everything we thought we could be. Opulence in the stock market, death of Christian influence on society, government overreach in every area. It’s a different and sadly destructive landscape the next generation is inheriting.
Aaron
I’m sure many people can relate to what you’re saying. Sometimes it feels like the future is inevitable. We have God’s Word in our hands to guide us and to remind us that this long and winding road called life on earth does eventually come to an end.
Are we standing in the last days of this fallen world? From beginning to end, both Jew and Gentile have been given the same remedy for love and happiness and I feel it is a genuine dependence on a holy God who created us and loves us beyond comprehension.
Do most people believe that? Do most people know that God sent a part of Himself to dwell within us, so that we would have a teacher,a guide and a comforter to help us on this journey? Some do, but not the majority and so division continues to reign. Evil continues to reign.
My family and I escaped the rat race 50 years ago and were fortunate to find a beautiful and somewhat innocent part of the country in the Appalachian Blue Ridge Mountains. Over these five decades, some things have changed to keep up with the progress of the world, but generally, Blowing Rock and Boone have stayed much the same.
I’ve given up stressing about the Democrats, the Republicans, the politics and corruption in Washington, and the evil we see in Hollywood. And now, with the internet and social media,we can communicate and engage with all the players — becoming immersed in the endless question of who’s right and who’s wrong.
All I know is God and living out of the gift of His Holy Spirit that dwells within me. There’s really nothing else I can rely on but that. I feel a protective hand over my home, my family, my small town, and the beauty of these mountains. I wait for the Lord’s return, looking forward to the day when everything we long for will be fulfilled in a new world without sin.
I truly felt that in the Carolina mountains when we were there last month. I think it’s easy to be consumed by it when it’s what I look at in the news or other places. I think that beautiful line about trusting god for our needs and looking how He feeds the sparrows or clothes the fields with flowers is the best reminder available.
I now live in one of those small towns. I formerly lived in Maryland, in Baltimore, then in one of the small northern counties in Maryland. While I love my small, affordable life, small towns have their issues, corruption, lack of good city management, lack of a very good hospital, three dollar/Dollar general stores, a very expensive grocery store, small Mexican and small Italian restaurants and gas stations which also serve fast food. Kids leave as quickly as possible, but come back to raise their kids and hopefully telecommute. Our library is in a big lawsuit and hasn’t bought new materials in roughly four or five years. Our base is mainly seniors and they can’t get out much. It’s not so much dying as it is hanging on. Everyone has a side business, we hope for wet weather as it seems we are constantly is a serious drought condition. We finally got Elon musk satellite tv. Cable just got here about three years ago. We have some awesome people here.
I agree with everything you say. I am safer here than when I lived east, but there are tradeoffs. There are always tradeoffs. I am glad I am retired and don’t need a lot. A big day for me is driving to the next town and getting groceries. The drive is an hour each way and gas is not cheap. I too, mourn what is the past, it’s not coming back and we know the reality is going forward things will be difficult. Just look out for your kids, family, and community.
There’s no perfect place to be sure. I just wonder why there was an abandonment of something that was trending in the right direction for so long. There were sins to be sure but people were striving to solve it. Somewhere it just seems that was given up on.
You are right, and I have no one thing to point to that contributed to this turn. Maybe social media and lack of accountability. I read a lot of Matt Tabbi until I just get too fed up. No one goes to jail anymore.
I couldn’t agree more. I feel like the best way forward is to stop leaning so heavily on the government and politicians to fix things. Americans need to fix America. Folks need to get off their booties and live life. Get after it. Land of the free, home of the brave.
Thanks Aaron. As always, beautiful written, artfully expressed. I appreciate you.
Thank you so much. Live life is a great motto. Do the best we can to create a better America
Aaron this piece was really a fantastic read. Everything about it spoke to me…thanks.
Thanks Joe - it was nice to have some time for simple observations. I feel for our country. I do hope there’s a chance to reverse the trends that seem inevitable.
I grew up in a small river town along the Delaware in NJ. Lambertville, I now live just across the river in New Hope, PA. I stay for all the feels. Although
Big corporate money has destroyed the New Hope that all the old timers are gut wrenched to watch and they are slowly moving their way across river to the Jersey side. Thank you for your lovely article. It brought tears to my eyes. I still hold out Hope. As a mother of three grown. Eight grandchildren. And one great grandbaby. I pray somehow we get that world back.
I’ll join in that prayer
Many times, I am glad that i was overprotected. Still pushed to do things that I wanted but was scared to do.
One day I realized I had everything I wanted…
I was born in Newark, NJ and lived not far from NYC, but extended family lived on an island. I was so blessed to experience that dichotomy.
Immersed in my career, I moved to another large city in the south.
As my career changed I dreamed of living in the country, in a community with a central garden, environmentally aware and health conscious, and all ages assisting others in their life situations (ie the elders watching the young, etc).
I still live in that now larger, southern city, in an apartment community with a flourishing garden, by a lake that I can walk to, with neighbors who are salt of the earth and open my heart daily with deeds and mere presence. No family, no children, no human securities, yet as Matthew states, “just as the lilies of the field, all our needs are met “.
I know so much of this is found in our own pursuit of Jesus - I just long for solutions on a large scale because peace and stability leads to a kinder culture. I do question what’s coming. I pray its revival and not a revolution led from grievances.
I have to express that it is not my search for Jesus per se ( I was raised with religion) that created the ability to see past the polarity of good and bad, to see what is beyond the ego. It is the work of going within and releasing the fears and disbeliefs of human experience and programming. It is through spiritual and psychological health, that the true self/ soul can then perceive clearly that all is unfolding in perfection. The kingdom truly is within.
I loved this post despite making me feel a little sad. For anyone over 50 it describes exactly how we have seen America warp into a country we hardly recognize or even imagined it becoming. Disneyland was once a place of fantasy but now smacks of reality and compromise. Thank you for putting all this into words for those of us who still have fond memories of living in “oblivious” times. How I wish our grandchildren could live there.
I know that people feel a loss. It’s in nearly every conversation I’m having these days.
Beautifully written Aaron. I do miss my small town. I’ve lived here for 57 years. At first it grew slowly. But then, in about the last 10 years, they turned my small town into nothing but restaurants (not very goods ones either), bars, parking structures and towering condos and apartments. They come through and knock down our quaint bungalows and build big foot houses that people move into and stay for a year and move. I’m assuming because they can’t afford them in the end. I can’t even sit in my own backyard without smelling that horrible obnoxious smell of weed. I have been longing to find a nice peaceful plot of land where our family can come and visit us when they need to get away from the rat race this life has brought us. Praying everyday that we can make it happen.
I too was taken with this piece-it’s one of an America I too remember-and long for. Idyllic childhood in So Cal- watching Disney on Sunday evenings- there was an innocence and a love and pride of country - that is dissapearing. I wish my kids could have experienced just some of what I did. Thanks for writing. And RIP DK.
Aaron, hope you are 100% soon 🙏🏻
I felt like I was reading my mind and my stories here.
I live in SoCal. An immigrant from England who came here as a child with my parents in 1963. Straight to Van Nuys to a little rented bungalow. Dad said it was "the land of opportunity." We had 2k British pounds to our name and 6 months to "make it." Our story still amazes me. How he ended up working for Disney at MAPO division in Burbank, ran the welding shop, built so many things at Disneyland. He traded E-tickets for car engines and rebuilt cars on the side (lol). Disneyland was a "dress-up" treat once a year. Eventually he was sent to head-up a team to "eyeball" and build Space Mountain in Florida. A story he only described a few years before he died. We couldn't afford to go to Disney World growing up and still haven't been - (just to stare at Space Mountain).
Somehow via dance classes (as a young teen) - both my brother and I ended up in the entertainment industry for a few years. I was Patsy Brimmer on The Walton's and he was on Little House on the Prairie among other things. Rarely talked about it until now. We truly had the best of America growing up.
We watched Father of the Bride last night.
And you're right -- nothing is the same anymore, a piece of our heart dies with every nostalgia that is no longer. Great piece. And good luck with the college years 🙃
I loved the Waltons!!! Such an amazing show. I wanted to be an animator for Disney when I was younger. It was the dream place in my mind. I recently priced out a trip to Disneyland to stay on property, and it was nearing 10k for 5 days. It's hard to believe that it has become so expensive and seemingly for only the elite. What a story. Thank you for sharing this. I want that American opportunity for my kids - I just am unsure of the path to get there.
Ha ha! That’s great! I wrote a bit about my time on The Waltons. Thank you for subscribing btw :) I treasure my upbringing. Mostly because dad never let us get big headed. He and mom were so resourceful and creative. I miss him. And that’s insanity? 10k? Um. That might be a semester at college? We’re never going to Disney World! I need my husband to retire :). It’s so cool you said you wanted to be an animator too! In 2018 we downsized, from our family home, to a first offer midcentury renovation. You might like this piece. Crazy all the ties that bind us. It’s a “If You Give a Moose a Muffin" spaghetti noodle piece.
And I think the path to the American opportunity is to keep doing you. Keep the faith, watch the old shows together, listen to good music, tell family stories, etc. Speak truth. I can tell you, they will stray. It’s hard. But I never lost sight of the fact God’s always got them. Toughest years were college. It’s an institution. Not sure what we were thinking slaving for it x 3 — Watching two of them raise our grandchildren now — it’s interesting. I’m seeing the values coming back. The youngest, single, (30) walks the streets with a crisis team, tending to the homeless drug addicts. He’s extremely educated - but learning deeply about systems. Even being a part of the downfall of a system.. We love. Pray. And say very little. https://open.substack.com/pub/deborahthewitt/p/walt-roy-frank-theodore-and-larry?r=kn8dx&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Well written sir, there are many that feel as you do, trust me ! Thanks for putting it to words !
“If there is a small town, its once thriving main streets have been covered over in weed shops and Dollar Generals.” That sums up so much of what is wrong with our country. Boomers really ran us into the ground.
It’s truly a puzzle to me why there’s been an overt attempt to destroy what was once so grand.
I think it’s partly pride - they can’t admit when it’s time to step back or down so they hold onto power for too long.
I had an old professor who said that his generation (boomers) always see themselves as 25 year olds. I think they have never stepped aside because of that vision, but also because my generation (x) never stepped into the place that we should have.
Yep - and now we have an entire generation (millennials) largely not represented in politics, and the generation behind living at home on their parents insurance until age 30. Easy to see how socialism is creeping I.
Thankful that I can still talk to my parents and aunts and uncles about their lives growing up; remembering time w grandparents; and the stories of their parents. My dad turned 81 last month. They celebrated 57 yrs in August. Thankful.
I love/d father of the bride.
To me, film, music, cars, even architecture, all seem so much better in the past.