THOSE WERE THE DAYS

Archie Bunker (if you are under 50 and don’t recognize the name, google it) used to sing the theme song for the TV show, “All in the Family” with his tv-wife Edith.  The theme song was called “Those Were The Days,” and lamented how things in the old days were better than now.   As I age, I find myself sometimes remembering those old days with nostalgia. 

Things like being able to shop in Butte (Herbergers, Sears, Hillsteads, Weins, Richards & Rochelle, JC Penney, Albertsons, Buttreys, Bob Wards, Fran Johnsons, Phil Judds, and on and on) and not have to leave town to shop except at Walmart.  I remember restaurants that were a pleasure to dine at like the Top Deck, the Bronx, the Acoma, Lisa’s Lamplighter, Rays Place, Taco Johns (Potato Oles), the Road Runner, Mings, all gone and missed by me (especially Mings).  Even when I think about the law business, I tend to remember certain Judges, Clerks and Court personnel perhaps more fondly than I should. 

Why?  Why do we romanticize about the past and try to remember the good old days?  You know if I stop and think about it, were those old days really so good?  When I really think about those days, I recall we didn’t have any money to shop with or eat out with anyway.  So, did stores and restaurants really matter?  And was work better?  It probably wasn’t, although I think we had more characters at the Courthouse then than we have now. 

I was reading a column by Pastor Weber the other day and she said people who long for the good old days are stealing from themselves.  She said we need to stop “longing for what is gone and notice more deeply every good thing that is now.”  Good things like kids and grandkids, friends, and family, all the things we ignore or downplay when we romanticize the past.  She went on to quote Ecclesiastes 3, “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens;”  I guess she is right; we do need to look around and see what’s new, watch to see what’s happening now, and then willingly and joyfully take part in every new thing. 

On the other hand, I might trade a grandkid or two to have Mings Moo Shu Pork again.  Amen.

Brad Belke