Listening to the news I was shocked to hear a protester at a town-hall meeting cry that she wanted “her America” back. Fortunately for all of us, “her America” never existed and will never exist.

Whenever we look back nostalgically at the “Good Old Days” we are engaging in a remarkable fantasy. The “Good Old Days” were not all that good when they were days. I may look back yearningly at the simpler, purer life that was the fifties, but they were so for me because I was, well, a child. I was not engaged in all of the troubles and issues that fill my life today. I knew nothing of diets, finances, the economy, global warming or any of the concerns that complicate my life. But I would guess that my parents and those who were adults then had just as many distresses as I do today. For them those days weren’t any easier or better.

There is nothing wrong with looking at the past and revisiting some of the more positive aspects that may have been sacrificed along our road to progress, such as more time for family and friends, homemade food and fedoras. We may even find a way to integrate the best ones back into our lives. But I hope that I will be wise enough to realize that many of the things that make my life so much easier didn’t exist in the “Good Old Days”. I may take them for granted but I wouldn’t want to give them up. I don’t mean only the “things”; I pods, I phones, reliable cars, microwave ovens, frostless freezers, computers, etc., etc., etc. I am referring to social and global progress that I could do without. We now have less tolerance for cruelty and abuses of people or things. We assume that everyone should have the right to education and opportunities to grow.

We have, now, a dialogue about how best to respect our planet. Most of us would not be willing to part with this progress for the “Good Old Days”.

When I was little I wore poodle skirts. I also had to wear skirts to school until my senior year in high school. Times have changed and it always will. Progress is the inevitable path we are taking. We can choose to happily jump on this remarkable train or be left behind with our laments. I, for one, am grateful that I am living in the good days that my grandchildren are going to someday look back on and yearn as “Good” and “Old”!