By Lois Requist

A high school graduate, speaking to his classmates about their school years, said, “You will look back on these as the good old days.”    I listened to his comments from a bleacher seat as my twin grandchildren graduated from high school in Steamboat Springs, Colo. Smiling to myself, I thought of the many people my age who look back at the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s or ’70s as the “good old days,” some of whom think things are going to Hell in a handbasket now. “What is wrong with these kids today?” That’s an oft-heard refrain. So, I tried to do a comparison of life for me as a child and for my grandchildren.
I lived in a house without   central heating or an indoor bathroom. Here, where winter is harsh, the garage is heated! In terms of health care, we didn’t go to the doctor or the dentist. Once when my father was quite ill a doctor came to see him—yes, a house call—and since he was there, my mother asked him to take a look at me as I was running a fever. We took a trip from Idaho to Hanford, Wash. when I was 5 and had the whooping cough. “Pump her arms,” Mother would tell my sister when I had a long bout of coughing. That and an aspirin was the treatment I received.
Girls weren’t particularly encouraged to be physically active back then. When I played basketball in high school, we played half of the court. We’d run and play to the center line, then stop. We shouldn’t overexert ourselves!
When I finished high school, I went to work at the telephone company. In the eight or so years I worked there, I became a level-one supervisor. Level-one-and-a-half was as high as I could ever go. Women couldn’t apply for positions beyond that level.
There was no possibility of going to college after high school for me. My grandchildren are going to college in the fall. One of them is transgender and has received support and understanding from his family and community.
In terms of safety, well, in Steamboat Springs many people don’t lock their house or take the keys out of the car when they are shopping. On the dirt road where I grew up, there was a large young man right across the street who was a bully and would do anything he could get away with to any of us. “Stay clear of him!” Those were the instructions from my mother. Nothing else much to do about it. When a music teacher touched me inappropriately, I thought there was no one to tell, and so I didn’t.
Politics? The cold war was in full swing. Sen. Joseph McCarthy was ruining people’s lives and planting fear, especially in the movie industry, by accusing people of being communists. We were, indeed, terrified of communism taking over the world.
Personal connections and family ties? I only knew one of my grandparents, but he and my step-grandmother were always good and kind to me. I don’t remember any long conversations with them. After dinner on Sunday at their house, we couldn’t wait to go outside and play with the other kids. While I’ve been in Steamboat, we’ve all spent quite a bit of time together, talking and playing games, though they’ve also gone out to spend time with friends.
So, when I think of all these things, excuse me if I have trouble figuring out what was good about the good old days! I know these examples I used aren’t the whole picture. The world is more complex than it was then. A multiplicity of new problems confronts us.
When the young man said that these current graduates would see this time as the golden one, it made me think that much of life is what we make of it. I thought of the three words in the logo of Carquinez Village that express what we believe in doing for seniors: connecting, supporting, and inspiring. At any age, they are a pretty good guide for a life well lived.

Sharing is caring!