RANTS, RAVES, BUTTS, BASKETS, PEDESTRIAN RIGHT OF WAY, COMMON SENSE & RESPONSIBILITY and THE PURSUIT OF THE ICONIC TV 50'S WAY OF LIFE

Life is busy these days, real busy, but there are a few things I still notice.  We are all overworked, over stimulated and over tired!  I seem to notice less and less quality in everything around me whether it's sitting down to dinner as a family or the quality of the products that sit on my kitchen counter.

My brother and I had a conversation not too long ago about the pursuit of the iconic TV 50's way of life - you know, slower and kinder.  Now you need to know that my brother and I, at times, are as far apart on the political spectrum as 2 siblings can be.  We're close, but there are many a subject that we have an agreement to agree to disagree on and move on to another topic.  He pointed out that the 50's that many seem to want to return to is nothing but a TV iconic way of life.  I beg to disagree though.  Now I wasn't alive in the 50's, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that life in general was kinder, slower and calmer and MUCH less stressful.  This is one of those spots that I would go off on a rant about.  You see, I believe that stress is a catalyst of much of what ails us today, specifically cancer.  But, that is a story for another post.

If you were to watch say the Donna Reed Show, Father Knows Best, Happy Days or Leave it to Beaver, you would see homemakers vacuuming in high heels and pearls or maybe cleaning the refrigerator.  Husbands would be in ties and coats or at least a sport shirt and loafers.  Now while I don't think things need to return to that formal, I do expect guys to pull up their pants.  I don't want to see their butts.  In my era, the only butt to see was in a pair of tight jeans - where you had to use your imagination and fantasize. WOW that made me sound old, but I'm not really, just tired of seeing ugly underwear hanging out of over sized pants that are falling off some guy's butt.  Many women aren't much better though.  No one wants to see rolls of fat hanging out of a midriff top and low cut jeans - both of which are things for teen girls, not overweight 20, 30, 40, 50 somethings or even overweight teens.  Get the picture here - fat is not something to show off, but something to lose and hide while you're doing it!

Another thing you saw more of in the past was Common Courtesy.  I find this ironic since we seem to need it more now, but it appears to be non-existent many times.  Whether it's driving on the freeway or driving basket at the supermarket, common courtesy seems to always be in the backseat.  When I was a kid, I was taught to 'drive' my basket at the supermarket the same way you would a car on a 2 lane road - stay to the right, park off the pavement and use your signals.  More and more I notice at the supermarket that people leave their baskets in the middle of the aisle while they are roaming up and down looking at various things.  While I commend the label reading, how hard is it to park your cart off to the side and out of the way?  Interestingly enough, if there is no one around and I go to move the basket aside so I can pass, someone always magically appears and is miffed that "their" basket is being moved.  Well excuse me! The sense of entitlement and the self righteous (and unearned I might add) indignation is way too over the top.

On this same subject we all know that pedestrians have the right of way.  But don't they also have a responsibility to NOT just walk willy nilly and blindly out into traffic?  What happened to looking both ways before entering a street?

Okay, I will get off my soap box now and return you to your regularly scheduled blog hopping.