Living a Vintage Life In An Ultra-Modern World

So here we are again...discussing the ills of our excruciatingly modern society and trying to muster up the courage to live independently of all 2011 conveniences for the sake of keeping our vintage sanity; our ideals of yesteryears long gone. It would be silly of me to pretend to be anything but vintage, as I've always lived at least seven decades behind (at least in my mind). In grade school, when everyone else came to class gabbing about what happened on Nickelodeon the night before (OK, OK, I watched it too), I was daydreaming of sexy Mr. Blandings building our ...er...his... dream house. Carey Grant was the tops in my book. But most eleven-year-olds weren't even up to speed with The SweatHogs (and boy could I imitate Arnold Horshack!), so how could I possibly expect them to understand my love of Fred & Ginger films? In high school it was even worse. While the teens on my block were jamming to Biggie Smalls, I was in my bedroom writing poetry to the sounds of Ludwig Von Beethoven or belting out the tunes to my favorite musicals on record such as Carousel, Oklahoma, and West Side Story. My walls were covered with posters of Marilyn Monroe & The Beetles - {George...*sigh*...} - and I begged my mom to get me the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever for my seventeenth birthday. 


So lets fast-forward past my multi-era identity crisis of my twenties and focus on the present...or lack thereof. At this stage of the game I'd much rather live in seclusion in a 1920's inspired cottage playing Gin Rummy with my hubby & watching a 1939 flick on DVD, than ever venture out into the cruel, cruel world. This time that we live in, sullied with children lacking imagination, electronic gadgets that do just about everything for you, and R-rated caliber commercials grace the screen during little one's waking hours. You could say...in essence...that this world is headed towards Hades in a hand basket...a very frilly handbasket filled with rancid fruit. But I digress.


As I was saying, this is not the time to fall prey to the modern conviences of our society. This, my nostalgic obsessed comrades, is the time to revolt. So what if everyone else's child is attending public or private schools! Its homeschooling all the way for my family. We wouldn't dare have it any other way. So what if parents and children alike think family time means being hovered around a Wii lazily playing a virtual outdoor sport! I say family time still means popcorn, hot chocolate and scrabble topped with a viewing of The Wizard of Oz. Why not? Whose to say that my idea of life isn't swell as well? I live amongst furnishings of "the good old days" and choose to live in my own private Wonderland. Thats my choice and in that is where my sanctuary, sanity, and contentment lie. And all others may choose to live as they see fit. Be a family of the times, see if I care. "By my right eye..." ...well...you know the saying...or perhaps (sadly)...you don't.


"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." 
~ Leslie Poles Hartley (English Writer 1895 - 1972)




Empress of The Past