Now, let’s just establish at the outset that this diatribe is probably going to upset a few people. To be honest, it wouldn’t be completely surprising if half of the approximately six people that regularly follow this weekly offering stop doing so after today. However, even after considering the potential downside, I’ve decided to plow ahead nonetheless. I can’t really afford to lose any friends here, but somehow, I’m naively hoping that two of the six will feel the same way and that maybe we’ll start a trend.
OK…here’s the deal. Quite a few people (most of the six) have pointed out to me that a good deal of the subject matter contained here each week deals with nostalgia. As one reader recently noted…much of the Friday Song blog seems to be about a fixation for “days gone by.” To be honest, that actually stung a bit because though I suspect I’m the quintessential old soul, I don’t like to think of myself as obsessed with the past. When I note the myriad of technological improvements just in my lifetime alone, I am often almost overwhelmed at the good things that have evolved over the course my mere forty-nine years (don’t laugh…it’s been a rough life).
Actually, I can still remember a time before cell phones, when an actual human being was enough to hold someone’s attention. But as much as I might romanticize the way I liked things before, I am under no illusion that we’ll ever retrieve much of that simplicity nor do I deny the obvious fact that we’re largely better off off due to much of the progress. There are however a couple of areas when I’m convinced we’re de-evolving, and though I suspect we’ll never reverse the trend, I’m still clinging to the far-fetched hope that somehow, someway, some things are going to come back.
Now, though I’m only 49 (remember what I said about laughing), I can still remember a time flying commercial airlines when the planes only had props and when people actually dressed up…I mean really dressed up, when they traveled by air. The fact that planes now have jet engines is a vivid example of the way things have improved over time. The fact that many of the people that now fly in them dress and behave as though they were raised in a freaking barn, is an equally clear example of how we’ve regressed (I can also remember a time when you would never see or hear a word like “freaking” and what it implied).
When I was a young boy, I can remember flying on TWA planes with legions of flight attendants wearing outfits that looked like something out of the Royal Navy. Male passengers were often in suits or at least slacks, and women were usually dressed as nice or better. Somehow though, in the course of just a few decades, we have advanced technologically while undergoing an equally proportionate deterioration in the area of civility…and in no area is it more evident than commercial air travel.
Fortunately, I fly often enough on the same airline that I’m upgraded to first class about two-thirds of the time (I never buy the first class ticket). Unfortunately, even the curtain and those bigger seats provide little insulation from the depravity that seems to have largely overtaking the industry. Regardless of where I’m seated, there is an increasing chance I’ll be placed next to some cat in cutoffs and flip-flops (it’s especially nice when they then cross their leg and rest there dirty foot on their knee about 24 inches from my face). Sometimes, that fresh-from-drunk-tank look is exceeded by somebody in what I swear has to be a pair of pajamas (at least the bottoms). Increasingly, they’ll augment that stellar fresh-off-the-mattress-without-brushing look by towing along a stained, lice-laden pillow from home.
Now, I know we’ll never get back to a time where folks dress up to fly. Guys in white uniforms are never going to come jogging out from the Texaco station again to wash my windows and people will probably never get back to visiting with one another for more than 5 minutes without looking at their smartphones. Though some things are clearly gone for good, maybe people will stop boarding planes looking as they do in bed or after a workout at the gym. Perhaps, some element of consideration will seep back into travel. Sure, I know generations of folks obsessed with only their own comfort will find it astonishing to recognize they have a duty of consideration to those around them, but maybe, just maybe, some young hip, throw-back star will come along and stop dressing like a meat locker… and instead inspire folks to emulate something with bit more classic style.
When I was a kid, I remember my father popping me in the head as we walked down a Ramada motel hallway very early one morning while on one of our classic summer car trips (had to cross the desert early to ensure the radiator didn’t overheat…another example of real progress). I wasn’t initially sure what I’d done wrong, but my dad quickly pointed out there were paying customers trying to sleep just on the other side of the hallway door and that even my “inside” voice wasn’t appropriate for that early hour. He told me we had a duty to leave quietly and consider the comfort of others by not subjecting them to our pre-dawn conversation. When I asked why, he told me that is how we would expect to be treated if we were trying to sleep.
Some will have trouble connecting today’s song to the drivel above, but then again, that is nothing new. There is something about this tune however that just smacks of class, and I always connect it to the original Hollywood gem Sabrina. I have no way of knowing this, but I want to believe not one of the stars of this film ever boarded a plane looking like they’d just rolled out of bed.
Have a great weekend…and if you live on the east coast, stay dry.
