Paul - I always enjoy (and benefit from) reading your posts. One key antidote to digital overwhelm is culture and tradition. I am Welsh, and we have fought to preserve our language and culture, which includes a passion for choral singing. My daughter is in her first term at university, and has been brought up in that culture, so it was natural for her (I now realise) to seek out a Welsh choir to join at university. Last month they won the national prize for a choir in their category, and to see the joy it brought them was extremely moving. In this world of constant outrage, these young people could’ve sat in their rooms doom-scrolling, but they formed a community for themselves which brought them joy, togetherness and a chance to excel. Their leader was interviewed and said “we are a community choir, by students, for students”. Language, culture and traditions matter, they enrich our lives, but they don’t appear on balance sheets or profit / loss accounts.
Enjoyed this! And I remember those three network TV channels--that someone had to manually change, no less. (As the youngest of six, that someone was usually me.) Thanks for the reminder to slow down and savor those summer breezes.
Vincent, I admit I miss getting up off the couch or, more often, off the floor, where I watched most of my childhood television with a big furry polyester-fill pillow, to change the channels. The same way I miss not always being available via voice, text and email. I dream of going back to hard lines and answering machines.
Agreed, especially about the "not being available part." For me, that's part of the joy of still reading physical books made of paper. I tried the Kindle for years but it just didn't satisfy as much. Part of the problem was I like to read longer works with a pencil in hand, "marking up" the text, adding notes, etc. Old habits die hard, I guess. Also, the best part about an actual book is no "notifications" that are really just interruptions!
Nostalgia is great and sometimes its even insightful. I do remember that as kid living in the suburbs of Albany NY summer was hot (no A/C for us until I was a teenager), slow and filled with long gaps of nothing to do. Yes, sometimes there was day camp but that was only for a few weeks. We had 4 TV channels that included PBS and day time programming had nothing interesting : soaps, game shows. Evening TV was repeats. Channel surfing took about 20 seconds. My friends and I spent hours outside alternating between playing sports, riding bikes, romping through nearby woods, going to places you could swim and sometimes just sitting in the shade with absolutely nothing to do. Yes, there were hours filled with nothing. Nothing to click on and a dopamine hit. Nothing to watch on TV. We started listening to music on the radio and there was actually a great selection of what is now classic rock. There were some pretty funky radio stations too that played all kinds of music. It was big deal to buy an album and play it over and over until it developed skips. Comedy albums from people like George Carlin were eye opening and very influential in building my sarcasm mojo. We went to the library to get books and because it had air conditioning. I think boredom wasn't a bad thing. It inspired us to fill time with reading, listening to music and doing physical things outside. It helped us become comfortable without the need for artificial stimulation. We probably didn't know as much about many things as kids do today since there wasn't a handy youtube video to explain things to us. If we wanted to learn something we had to either find a book about it or we had to find someone to teach us. Of course our parents made us do chores like yard work or other things so we didn't get away with zero responsibility. And there was the annual, one week, family summer vacation to rental cottages on a lake.
Most parents in my city didn't send their kids to places for "enrichment" programs during the summer. Summer day camps were pretty basic. Sports, arts and crafts, swimming, hiking in woods, and maybe other activities. Camp accomplished the goal of getting us out of our parents hair, giving some structure and making us very tired.
I think the internet and smart phones have made us think that down time is not touching your phone for 3 hours. No dopamine hits for 3 full hours. Somehow this is not the same as a long sustained period of down time that goes on for days or weeks. IT takes a long time to break the habit of screen time. I suspect that long periods of real down time are somewhat analogous to what sleep does for us. Adults and kids all suffer from this screen addiction. I'm not saying that we should go back to the time before this existed. However I do believe all of us would benefit from refraining from using these devices at certain times and even doing it long enough that we get bored and have to sit there with others in the same position or even be alone and bored for a while. Maybe it will inspire us to to do other things with our time.
Mark, your childhood and mine, in the Chicago suburbs, sound relatively similar. Languid days, awful TV options, scorchingly humid Julys and Augusts and a lot of riding around on ten speeds or BMX bikes, trying to find stimulation and be interested in something, anything. I agree that it takes days, weeks, months of experience to get the full benefit that avoiding screen time for only hours cannot deliver. Unlike you, though, I find myself wishing we could return to pre-mobile-internet days, at least. To avoid the craned-neck posture of the average teenager scrolling a phone, oblivious of anyone and anything outside that 9 square inch space.
Oh, those gas-guzzling, fake-wood panel station wagons with kids like me bouncing around unfettered by safety features... My favorite mondegreen is Elton John's Island Girl, which I heard to be, "I like girls". Um, nope! Thank you for sharing this nice moment, Paul.
Though my father isn't alive, I don't remember needing his signature in 1971 to open my bank account. As a DECA (Distributive Education) student as a Junior in High School.
Being a small town, they probably just called for permission. Same women's treatment when at 18 wanting to get birth contol before I got married. Call Daddy!
Debbie, many states, including California way back in the mid 19th century, allowed women to open bank accounts in their own names, but the law wasn't federalized until 1974, which never ceases to blow my mind. Presumably, the law was necessary because there were still some states in 1974 that wouldn't allow a woman to successfully apply for a credit card without her husband or father's or brothers signature. The link in my peace explains the history in detail, I believe. Thank you for reading!
I'm glad you took this ride with me. As you allude to, the 1970s were still, contrary to what many people may think, still mostly about AM radio. FM overtook AM only in the mid-late 70s, I think. So all those classic 70s songs, played at infinitum on shitty AM radio waves....
It's funny all the song lyrics I miss heard as a teenager only to read them when playing them on Amazon music on the TV and seeing them for the first time. What a revelation!
David, I'm semi-famous among my friends for not knowing lyrics to the seminal songs of our youth. Like you, I find learning of the actual words (usually via Spotify) to be almost archeologically important. It's like finding a skeleton key to a door in your house that you didn't know was there.
It’s an affectionately hostile acronym Wisconsinites reserve for Illinois drivers migrating north on holiday weekends. The first word is unprintable, the middle is “Illinois,”and the last is a mild swear that rhymes with “rastard .” 😉😂😂
yes, I figured as much. Illinoisans have the same contempt for Indiana drivers. They also have no love of Wisconsin’s pro football team, but I find Green Bay area quite refreshing and calm. haha…
Dr. Stein, we are, indeed. Thoroughly. Though I grew up only 4 hours south of here, this is my first time experiencing "the Vermont of the Midwest." I think that's what it's called, sometimes, anyway.
Paul - I always enjoy (and benefit from) reading your posts. One key antidote to digital overwhelm is culture and tradition. I am Welsh, and we have fought to preserve our language and culture, which includes a passion for choral singing. My daughter is in her first term at university, and has been brought up in that culture, so it was natural for her (I now realise) to seek out a Welsh choir to join at university. Last month they won the national prize for a choir in their category, and to see the joy it brought them was extremely moving. In this world of constant outrage, these young people could’ve sat in their rooms doom-scrolling, but they formed a community for themselves which brought them joy, togetherness and a chance to excel. Their leader was interviewed and said “we are a community choir, by students, for students”. Language, culture and traditions matter, they enrich our lives, but they don’t appear on balance sheets or profit / loss accounts.
On reflection this was considerably “off topic” for which I apologise - but I guess I was so happy I shared it without thinking too much
Wayne, it was a lovely story you told and with good lessons. So thank you for sharing it. Please don't apologize.
Thank you for the comment Paul. Your Substack is one of the healthiest places in the virtual world.
Mine was: Manfred Mann’s Earth Band: Blinded By the Light (1976)
For years I thought it was “ revved up like a douche and rolled her in the night”
“Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce
Another runner in the night”
Great piece Paul!
Lauren, that pretty much made my day. Thank you for sharing. And also, to quote the late, great Jimi Hendrix, ‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy.”
Enjoyed this! And I remember those three network TV channels--that someone had to manually change, no less. (As the youngest of six, that someone was usually me.) Thanks for the reminder to slow down and savor those summer breezes.
Vincent, I admit I miss getting up off the couch or, more often, off the floor, where I watched most of my childhood television with a big furry polyester-fill pillow, to change the channels. The same way I miss not always being available via voice, text and email. I dream of going back to hard lines and answering machines.
Agreed, especially about the "not being available part." For me, that's part of the joy of still reading physical books made of paper. I tried the Kindle for years but it just didn't satisfy as much. Part of the problem was I like to read longer works with a pencil in hand, "marking up" the text, adding notes, etc. Old habits die hard, I guess. Also, the best part about an actual book is no "notifications" that are really just interruptions!
That was just a great feel-good song!
Joe, it really is. Is this the first time (or so) you've heard it? Or do you know it from long ago?
A long time ago. It was just one of those songs that you could not dislike.
A poetic and accurate way to put it
Nostalgia is great and sometimes its even insightful. I do remember that as kid living in the suburbs of Albany NY summer was hot (no A/C for us until I was a teenager), slow and filled with long gaps of nothing to do. Yes, sometimes there was day camp but that was only for a few weeks. We had 4 TV channels that included PBS and day time programming had nothing interesting : soaps, game shows. Evening TV was repeats. Channel surfing took about 20 seconds. My friends and I spent hours outside alternating between playing sports, riding bikes, romping through nearby woods, going to places you could swim and sometimes just sitting in the shade with absolutely nothing to do. Yes, there were hours filled with nothing. Nothing to click on and a dopamine hit. Nothing to watch on TV. We started listening to music on the radio and there was actually a great selection of what is now classic rock. There were some pretty funky radio stations too that played all kinds of music. It was big deal to buy an album and play it over and over until it developed skips. Comedy albums from people like George Carlin were eye opening and very influential in building my sarcasm mojo. We went to the library to get books and because it had air conditioning. I think boredom wasn't a bad thing. It inspired us to fill time with reading, listening to music and doing physical things outside. It helped us become comfortable without the need for artificial stimulation. We probably didn't know as much about many things as kids do today since there wasn't a handy youtube video to explain things to us. If we wanted to learn something we had to either find a book about it or we had to find someone to teach us. Of course our parents made us do chores like yard work or other things so we didn't get away with zero responsibility. And there was the annual, one week, family summer vacation to rental cottages on a lake.
Most parents in my city didn't send their kids to places for "enrichment" programs during the summer. Summer day camps were pretty basic. Sports, arts and crafts, swimming, hiking in woods, and maybe other activities. Camp accomplished the goal of getting us out of our parents hair, giving some structure and making us very tired.
I think the internet and smart phones have made us think that down time is not touching your phone for 3 hours. No dopamine hits for 3 full hours. Somehow this is not the same as a long sustained period of down time that goes on for days or weeks. IT takes a long time to break the habit of screen time. I suspect that long periods of real down time are somewhat analogous to what sleep does for us. Adults and kids all suffer from this screen addiction. I'm not saying that we should go back to the time before this existed. However I do believe all of us would benefit from refraining from using these devices at certain times and even doing it long enough that we get bored and have to sit there with others in the same position or even be alone and bored for a while. Maybe it will inspire us to to do other things with our time.
Mark, your childhood and mine, in the Chicago suburbs, sound relatively similar. Languid days, awful TV options, scorchingly humid Julys and Augusts and a lot of riding around on ten speeds or BMX bikes, trying to find stimulation and be interested in something, anything. I agree that it takes days, weeks, months of experience to get the full benefit that avoiding screen time for only hours cannot deliver. Unlike you, though, I find myself wishing we could return to pre-mobile-internet days, at least. To avoid the craned-neck posture of the average teenager scrolling a phone, oblivious of anyone and anything outside that 9 square inch space.
Oh, those gas-guzzling, fake-wood panel station wagons with kids like me bouncing around unfettered by safety features... My favorite mondegreen is Elton John's Island Girl, which I heard to be, "I like girls". Um, nope! Thank you for sharing this nice moment, Paul.
Amy, those wood panel station wagons are way back in style, nowadays, as you probably know. But now they have seatbelts…
There are so many mondegreens. Elton John was a mondegreen machine. As a kid, I could rarely decipher the words he was singing
Thank you. This post was educational for me.
Though my father isn't alive, I don't remember needing his signature in 1971 to open my bank account. As a DECA (Distributive Education) student as a Junior in High School.
Being a small town, they probably just called for permission. Same women's treatment when at 18 wanting to get birth contol before I got married. Call Daddy!
Debbie, many states, including California way back in the mid 19th century, allowed women to open bank accounts in their own names, but the law wasn't federalized until 1974, which never ceases to blow my mind. Presumably, the law was necessary because there were still some states in 1974 that wouldn't allow a woman to successfully apply for a credit card without her husband or father's or brothers signature. The link in my peace explains the history in detail, I believe. Thank you for reading!
I love how anything heard as a kid on 70's AM radio is an instant time machine. Your lyrical liberties are hilarious and make a great story.
I'm glad you took this ride with me. As you allude to, the 1970s were still, contrary to what many people may think, still mostly about AM radio. FM overtook AM only in the mid-late 70s, I think. So all those classic 70s songs, played at infinitum on shitty AM radio waves....
It's funny all the song lyrics I miss heard as a teenager only to read them when playing them on Amazon music on the TV and seeing them for the first time. What a revelation!
David, I'm semi-famous among my friends for not knowing lyrics to the seminal songs of our youth. Like you, I find learning of the actual words (usually via Spotify) to be almost archeologically important. It's like finding a skeleton key to a door in your house that you didn't know was there.
She's lucky to have a father like you, Paul!
Thanks, Cindy. Being her dad is the best.
Mondegreen is an excellent addition to my vocabulary, thanks for a great article.
David, I added it to mine, too, not very long ago. I had no idea. But as a result, the world now makes just a little bit more sense.
Enjoy Door County!!
Nope, Chicago suburbs, born & raised.
Oh, a FIB! Sorry!
Okay, i give. What’s a FIB?
It’s an affectionately hostile acronym Wisconsinites reserve for Illinois drivers migrating north on holiday weekends. The first word is unprintable, the middle is “Illinois,”and the last is a mild swear that rhymes with “rastard .” 😉😂😂
yes, I figured as much. Illinoisans have the same contempt for Indiana drivers. They also have no love of Wisconsin’s pro football team, but I find Green Bay area quite refreshing and calm. haha…
Dr. Stein, we are, indeed. Thoroughly. Though I grew up only 4 hours south of here, this is my first time experiencing "the Vermont of the Midwest." I think that's what it's called, sometimes, anyway.
You are a cheese head?