Saturday, March 10, 2012

Day 70: When Everything Old Sounds Better

I am not quite sure when it happened, but I have really noticed it in the last year. Noticed what you ask? That I sound like a middle-aged person, or more precisely, like my parents did when they would start commenting on how nothing they like or remember is "here anymore." I remember thinking "old people, why would you want old stuff, new is so much better?"

I first noticed it when some of my favorite restaurants started going out of business, even jokingly saying that I cursed them, and that everything I like goes out of business. There are so many now, I can't even name them all (okay, or I can't remember their names, but that's for another post).

Then, I started noticing landmarks that are gone, like Marineland and Busch Gardens and suddenly I started remembering them with such fondness and nostalgia. I even started doing it about stores, The Treasury, White Front, and Old Town Mall. Seriously, Old Town Mall?! Or, I began to wax nostalgic about when Del Amo Mall was only one side, the old "Sears" side and it was open air to begin with and how much better that was (and yeah, they made the "new" part open air again, so maybe everything old really is better).

Oh yeah, suddenly everything "old" was better. "They don't make buildings like that anymore." "Things don't last like they used to," etc., etc. When I first started hearing those words come out of my mouth, I kept looking around for the old person who was saying them, and then it hit me: it was me. 

I get it now, I know why the "old people" always liked "old" things better; because they were "new" when they were young and those things remind them of when they were young. Now that those things are gone, it means they are getting old too. You track your life by the things around you, and if they don't last forever, it reminds you that you don't.

Today, I lost another thing that was part of my youth, part of my present and that actually was better. Today, the Ishibashi Farm had their estate sale. Soon, the farm stand will be coming down, Tom built that stand (it wasn't the City's or the Airport's) and he stipulated in his will that he wanted it torn down so that no other family can come in and take over the Ishibashi name. He knew that nobody was going to carry on the family farm and that it would die with him. So, I am going to try to honor his wish and remember it as it was, not how it was today and I will wax nostalgic about the old farm stand because it really was better.

Strawberry Season at Tom T. Ishibashi Farm


I want to remember Karen like this, wrapping up the berries for people

2 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh Jeff and I had those same sentiments today. We even joked about what the kids of today would have to be nostalgic about - "remember when we used to text...." there is so much we miss - I would trade those memories for the world! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. I have thought the same Donna, although I know some kids of today who are so involved in so many things, they are in bands and in choir, they are artists and writers, and like us, they go to Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm over and over like it is brand new. So, they will do the same only their technology makes it easier to preserve their memories.

      Thanks for the kind words Donna B.I sometimes feel that it's so self-absorbed to post my own personal diary and to share those posts on FB and wonder why others would want to read it.

      But, I am a writer, this is how I get things out, I don't know how else to do it and it is helping me in my other writing too. So, I am gonna keep doing it!

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