OXYMORON

The Idyllic dreams of what once was...

when we agreed that right was better

than wrong, and knew the difference,

when we always aimed high and were

arrogant in our surety of heaven.

Fathers worked their jobs, and moms

stayed home, raised the kids, cleaned

the house and everyone walked to church.

Cars were heavy, and the roads narrow

when we went laughing to gramma’s

and ate the best food ever listening to

Lawrence Welk, anna one anna two…

anna what fools we were to hog the

good stuff while standing on the necks

those who were not us…

Reviews

[FPW]

Today’s society is certainly an oxymoron when related to how we lived in the past. Times were harder back then but life and the family pathway and dynamic was straighter and simpler. Men and women had their roles and played them accordingly and nothing was muddled up like things become in this modern century. This is a lovely, bittersweet reminiscing, Vol. Addressing the person with your words who does know exactly what you are writing about having most probably shared the same experiences. Life rolls on, changes, perhaps not for the better, but we adapt and go on living.

[Vol]

Felicia,
You are absolutely right, I grew up in the fifties and sixties, the last family-centric generation. science and technology have far out-stripped our abilty to keep up culturally, and I honestly believe, that after all these millenia, Western Civilization is on a rapid wane. Even small adjustments to a vast culture are painful... this is seemingly much more dangerous. Actually, for the first time, I am very glasd to be so old... Except for my beautiful progeny...
Vol

[Lorry]

That is exactly how the world is today and i know about old people always griping, but cant i just keep my rose tinteds on a little longer because this episode of nostalgia fm was awesome! Hope to hear you tuning in again! 😊

[Vol]

Lorry,
Old folks are wise folks... we've seen enough that we have earned our right to judge and comment on the foolish antics of our progeny.
Vol

[Lorry]

Yes, but i join in on the youth of today sometimes with a pfft, as it is known officialy that old people havent got the disdain to make tuts sound like you have added something other than an irritating noise to the debate. Pfft! 😊

[Vol]

How about a a fart? Bad enough to give them something new to think about.

[Ken Simm.]

I was the first of my extended and very large family to break away. Actually not the first there was one Uncle before me. He is dead now.
But there are still members of my family who will not speak to me and don't like what I have done.
I did find another family for a while who I did feel part off and some who I particularly admired but yes I can see the many oxymorons enmeshed in so called family life. In the one's you cannot choose. But I have few regrets about my choices like that. I do have regrets about others that didn't have or make the choices I did. And I have to say it creative people make life choices. They don't submit necessarily to the status quo. Perhaps it was simpler? But not better.
Interesting thoughtful write.

[Vol]

Ken,
What a poignant response! The longer I live the more I understand what an amazing family I have... The wildest and most outlandish of us are always accepted. Problems are addressed with love and counsel, maybe and attempt to understand rather
than condemnation or judgement. This branch of the Lindsey clan is tight. I am always sorry when I meet folks who have suffered anger and misunderstanding at the hands of those who should have always been there to support and encourage.
Vol

[emmajoygreen]

We are born into OUR time, perhaps governed by our parent's influences that can or may alter as they too age but need to adapt - like it or not. Perhaps those of us who are not given a silver spoon when born but a brevity of generic wisdom, accept that was it - is.. and all we can do is use every day and every snatch of living as a gift from past through present into the future. We have choices too, adhere to one snatch of time or take the best from the first and second.. and pray for the third! Perhaps.

[Vol]

EmmaJoy,
Yes, we are, and our best hope is to do as much good as we can, help those we can, and stand firm in our beliefs. There is nothing harder. Everyone has their own vision of "The Good 'ole Days" we'd like to return to, but my lovely past in the fifties and sixties, were not as happy for a large number of my brothers and sisters living at the same time.
Vol

[emmajoygreen]

Memories are precious, whenever gathered, sir.

[Vol]

EmmaJoy,
Sometimes it was a hard thing to build my library of memories, sometimes tragic. Sometimes so full of joy I could not contain myself and exploded into stars. Taken together, they made the man who looks knowingly at me from the mirror. I like him a lot.
Vol

[emmajoygreen]

I understand that feeling.. joy and grief often go hand in hand in large families.. and perhaps nudges us to be what we are when older.

[Vol]

Emmajoy,
Oh, my goodness! I just wrote about that in response to Lorry's comment on my poem, P.O.V.. hahaha
Vol

[Dave Brown]

Ah, the good old days, I agree, life seemed much simpler way back when, little league, Babe Ruth, non-designer holes in blue jean knees, getting a driver's license and experiencing that first taste of romance, but I do wonder just how simple, those of the older generations actually found it to be.
And, I never did know what an oxymoron was!!
Vol

[Vol]

Dave...
I lived through them, quite aware of what was going on... My parent's generation grew up through the great depression and WWII, so, no matter what the issues, they had seen worse. The problem is, history is written by the winners, and, in the America I was observing, we white folks had been the winners for centuries. We were never very good at loving our neighbors when they "were not us." I watched racism when it was a real and present danger to Black Americans. Indians were still punished for their cultural differences, and we strutted around thumping Bibles and sneering at the rest og the world.
Vol

[Thomas W Case]

Powerful and poignant. Brilliant work.

[Vol]

Thank you, but what makes you say so?