I originally published this article on April 27, 2010, but I decided to re-publish it with some changes because I think that it is more profound now than it was three years ago.
April through September is to
the pest control industry as October thru December is to the retail
market. When the season starts in pest control there
is far less time for reflection than during the winter. During the winter I love weekends with really
bad weather. I can surf the web, read
books, write articles, research information that interest me, watch movies; and
no one bothers me. I love watching
movies, especially the old movies. A friend of mine wrote about this some time
back, which made me think back to my youth and my love for the old movies. I
loved everything that was a part of the old movie scene, especially the great
old movie theaters that we had in Cleveland. Even in the small town in which I
grew up the theater was special. The stars were special then too; John Wayne,
Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, and the greatest swashbuckler of them all….Errol
Flynn.
The lights would dim and then finally darken, creating that wonderful anticipation that comes when you know that "at last" the movie was about to start. Even the previews of coming attractions were great, and at times better than the movies. At the end of the movie people actually applauded. People even applauded when the movies started. I always thought that was a little stupid when I was a kid, after all…the actors couldn’t hear it….why bother? It’s funny, I still wouldn’t applaud today, and for the same reason, but I miss it.
The lights would dim and then finally darken, creating that wonderful anticipation that comes when you know that "at last" the movie was about to start. Even the previews of coming attractions were great, and at times better than the movies. At the end of the movie people actually applauded. People even applauded when the movies started. I always thought that was a little stupid when I was a kid, after all…the actors couldn’t hear it….why bother? It’s funny, I still wouldn’t applaud today, and for the same reason, but I miss it.
When the cartoons came on the
kids cheered, and nothing could get a rise out of a bunch of kids
quite as much as seeing Roy Rogers riding headlong into the screen atop Trigger
followed by his friends chasing the bad guys.
My Uncle Eli, who has now passed, took me to one of those Saturday
matinee Roy Rogers cowboy movies and swore that he would never make that
mistake again.
I always loved the movie, “They
Died With Their Boots On”, with Errol Flynn. Talk about fantasy! That is so far
afield from any resemblance to the truth about Custer that someone should have
been slapped for it….and yet….I still love it…even now!
Some of the old theaters were real palaces. Cleveland (which has the second largest theater district in the nation) has a number of them that were slated for demolition. I am really pleased they refurbished them instead. First, because they were magnificent like The Palace…and it really was a palace then, and is now……a palace! And secondly because so much of what was great is torn down and replaced by buildings that are so forgettable, like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Somehow the words Rock and Roll and Hall of Fame shouldn’t be in the same sentence, but that is another story. Lastly, because they made me feel great when I was there, and I get those feelings every time I go back.
The men would wear suits, ties and shined shoes. The women wore dresses with hats, and matching gloves and purses and high heels. The children were dressed in their Sunday best, because going downtown to the movies was a big deal. It was a big deal! Everyone looked classy and acted that way.
They must have had revivals of older movies even back in the 1940’s, because in my mind’s eye I can still see the original Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan. They were originally made between 1932 and 1948. I was only 2 when Johnny Weissmuller made his last Tarzan movie. I must have been about four or five when I saw the original 1932 movie in a neighborhood theater and I never forgot the scene where the pigmies throw everyone down into the pit to be killed by a gorilla, which was later shot full of arrows.
Hopalong Cassidy was my ultimate hero though. I was even called Hoppy by my childhood friends in those early years, at least until I moved to the farm. Those years were a large part of my wonder years. I lived in Cleveland and there were a lot of kids in the neighborhood. We were out and about all day every day. Even now, as I look back on those years, being as young as we were, I marvel at the immense freedom we had to wander up and down the streets, play baseball at the playground and best of all…the dump. There was always a potential treasure to be found in the dump. The world was very different then. I didn’t realize it then nor did I realize it for many years, but we were all very much like the “Little Rascals”, which cannot be shown any longer, so I doubt that younger people even know what I am talking about.
The world has changed. A lot! We don’t dare let the children roam too far too often because there are so many unsavory and violent people out there. We don’t dare leave our doors unlocked…even when we are home. In my youth people actually left their keys in their parked cars with the windows open while they shopped. Unbelievable today I know. Good manners were not affectations; they were expected. Please and thank you were expected, and most felt perfectly content to do so.
Then it all changed. Since I am 67 I must confess that I was a part of that change. They claim that the Baby Boomer Generation started in June of 1946. I was born in July of that year; hence, I was the beginning of the Baby Boomers. When I was younger I merely thought to myself it was stupid to applaud at movies, but as a teenager I remember disgustedly saying that it was really stupid to applaud movies with a tone that only a teenager can muster. The older members of the family gave me a disgusted look or just shrugged, as if to say….I shouldn’t have to explain this to you.
Although I did get dressed up for some occasions, I didn’t want to get dressed up to go anywhere, least of all the movies. A tee shirt, tennis shoes and blue jeans were good enough for me and if it wasn’t good enough for everyone else…well that was just tough! And I made it clear that all of those goody-goody two shoes manners didn’t really matter either because that was just being a phony. A cover up for how people really felt.
I didn’t realize it then, but all those “phony” manners and decent attire are an important part of what allows for civilized behavior. Strange is it seems, we act very much how we look, but now everything changed! One of the reasons was this was the first time in human history the young population became so large that the adult population couldn’t properly absorb them; and we created our own little sub-culture, and we teenagers knew that our 16 or so years experience in life was worth far more than the decades of experience in life of all the adults combined, living or dead. All the traditional values were now subject to the “superior understanding” of this new sub-culture.
As this population trend continued this sub-culturing trend continued, and every few years we had another downward spiral of values, until the American culture was altered almost beyond recognition. Clearly beyond the recognition of America’s founding fathers. The most successful culture the world has ever known was now awash with irrational paradigms that are clearly destructive to all of humanity.
What has this to do with pest control you are probably asking? Everything! This irrationality extends into every facet of our business and personal lives. The Green Movement, which became the most irrational movement of them all, was born in this crucible and has now become one of the most corrupting dominant forces of thought and action in the world today.
Fortunately I grew up. I also cringe at many of the things that I said, things I did and laugh at things that I thought in my youth. I always wonder at these famous people who, on their death beds, claim that they “have no regrets”. Well…..I have a lot of regrets. I hope it is because I grew up enough to recognize my failings and made a determination to correct them and to avoid repeating them. Part of that process is being able to see that which is real versus that which is shadow over substance. If we are capable of seeing ourselves as we really are, then we will have a lot less difficulty in seeing the rest of the world as it really is.
Everything we are told in the newspapers and the electronic news media is a lie. These aren’t necessarily lies of commission, (although they are guilty of that also) they are mostly lies of omission. Even many of our history books can’t be called anything less than propaganda in order to promote some view or other. Read two different history books on the same subject from two different people for two different philosophical paradigms and you wonder if they are reporting about the same events. Everything we are told should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality. Mostly we are lied to. Virtually everything we are told by the greenies is a lie. If you have a problem with that then get over it! Because those are the facts and we need to start recognizing the greenies for whom and what they are.
Some of the old theaters were real palaces. Cleveland (which has the second largest theater district in the nation) has a number of them that were slated for demolition. I am really pleased they refurbished them instead. First, because they were magnificent like The Palace…and it really was a palace then, and is now……a palace! And secondly because so much of what was great is torn down and replaced by buildings that are so forgettable, like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Somehow the words Rock and Roll and Hall of Fame shouldn’t be in the same sentence, but that is another story. Lastly, because they made me feel great when I was there, and I get those feelings every time I go back.
The men would wear suits, ties and shined shoes. The women wore dresses with hats, and matching gloves and purses and high heels. The children were dressed in their Sunday best, because going downtown to the movies was a big deal. It was a big deal! Everyone looked classy and acted that way.
They must have had revivals of older movies even back in the 1940’s, because in my mind’s eye I can still see the original Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan. They were originally made between 1932 and 1948. I was only 2 when Johnny Weissmuller made his last Tarzan movie. I must have been about four or five when I saw the original 1932 movie in a neighborhood theater and I never forgot the scene where the pigmies throw everyone down into the pit to be killed by a gorilla, which was later shot full of arrows.
Hopalong Cassidy was my ultimate hero though. I was even called Hoppy by my childhood friends in those early years, at least until I moved to the farm. Those years were a large part of my wonder years. I lived in Cleveland and there were a lot of kids in the neighborhood. We were out and about all day every day. Even now, as I look back on those years, being as young as we were, I marvel at the immense freedom we had to wander up and down the streets, play baseball at the playground and best of all…the dump. There was always a potential treasure to be found in the dump. The world was very different then. I didn’t realize it then nor did I realize it for many years, but we were all very much like the “Little Rascals”, which cannot be shown any longer, so I doubt that younger people even know what I am talking about.
The world has changed. A lot! We don’t dare let the children roam too far too often because there are so many unsavory and violent people out there. We don’t dare leave our doors unlocked…even when we are home. In my youth people actually left their keys in their parked cars with the windows open while they shopped. Unbelievable today I know. Good manners were not affectations; they were expected. Please and thank you were expected, and most felt perfectly content to do so.
Then it all changed. Since I am 67 I must confess that I was a part of that change. They claim that the Baby Boomer Generation started in June of 1946. I was born in July of that year; hence, I was the beginning of the Baby Boomers. When I was younger I merely thought to myself it was stupid to applaud at movies, but as a teenager I remember disgustedly saying that it was really stupid to applaud movies with a tone that only a teenager can muster. The older members of the family gave me a disgusted look or just shrugged, as if to say….I shouldn’t have to explain this to you.
Although I did get dressed up for some occasions, I didn’t want to get dressed up to go anywhere, least of all the movies. A tee shirt, tennis shoes and blue jeans were good enough for me and if it wasn’t good enough for everyone else…well that was just tough! And I made it clear that all of those goody-goody two shoes manners didn’t really matter either because that was just being a phony. A cover up for how people really felt.
I didn’t realize it then, but all those “phony” manners and decent attire are an important part of what allows for civilized behavior. Strange is it seems, we act very much how we look, but now everything changed! One of the reasons was this was the first time in human history the young population became so large that the adult population couldn’t properly absorb them; and we created our own little sub-culture, and we teenagers knew that our 16 or so years experience in life was worth far more than the decades of experience in life of all the adults combined, living or dead. All the traditional values were now subject to the “superior understanding” of this new sub-culture.
As this population trend continued this sub-culturing trend continued, and every few years we had another downward spiral of values, until the American culture was altered almost beyond recognition. Clearly beyond the recognition of America’s founding fathers. The most successful culture the world has ever known was now awash with irrational paradigms that are clearly destructive to all of humanity.
What has this to do with pest control you are probably asking? Everything! This irrationality extends into every facet of our business and personal lives. The Green Movement, which became the most irrational movement of them all, was born in this crucible and has now become one of the most corrupting dominant forces of thought and action in the world today.
Fortunately I grew up. I also cringe at many of the things that I said, things I did and laugh at things that I thought in my youth. I always wonder at these famous people who, on their death beds, claim that they “have no regrets”. Well…..I have a lot of regrets. I hope it is because I grew up enough to recognize my failings and made a determination to correct them and to avoid repeating them. Part of that process is being able to see that which is real versus that which is shadow over substance. If we are capable of seeing ourselves as we really are, then we will have a lot less difficulty in seeing the rest of the world as it really is.
Everything we are told in the newspapers and the electronic news media is a lie. These aren’t necessarily lies of commission, (although they are guilty of that also) they are mostly lies of omission. Even many of our history books can’t be called anything less than propaganda in order to promote some view or other. Read two different history books on the same subject from two different people for two different philosophical paradigms and you wonder if they are reporting about the same events. Everything we are told should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality. Mostly we are lied to. Virtually everything we are told by the greenies is a lie. If you have a problem with that then get over it! Because those are the facts and we need to start recognizing the greenies for whom and what they are.
But it is the disintegration of
the nuclear family that is even more disturbing. We have abandoned every vestige of the moral
foundations that formed our culture.
Judaic/Christian principles have not only been abandoned by much of the
general population, the religious leaders have abandoned that which is supposed
to be the foundation for their faith - the Bible - and all the moral teachings
there-in. I wonder if it ever occurs to
them that their abandonment of these foundational things makes them
irrelevant? I wonder if it ever occurs
to us to ask if these teachings are abandoned what will replace them?
Whether one is religious or not
that has to be of concern, for without that moral foundation there is no
hope for civilization. Judaic/Christian
principles are now, and have always been, the only stable moral foundation the
world has ever known. That was the clear
understanding of America’s founding fathers and that was the rock base the Constitution was built on.
Instead we are now following mythical philosophical flavors of the minute,
being washed back and forth like waves smashing against the rocks with no leadership with the courage to stand up and say.....stop.....we're going in the wrong direction! I hate what I see happening! I fear that there is nothing except disaster
on the horizon.
Recently I bought a CD of the
original Broadway cast of Camelot and I still love it. I first saw the original
traveling cast of the Broadway musical Camelot with Kathryn Grayson as
Guinevere in 1962 at the Palace; and I walked out feeling just great. I loved
Camelot and it is still my favorite Broadway production, and I think the
greatest Broadway musical ever produced. I can still sing some of the songs…at
least parts of them. I saw it again with, Robert Goulet as King Arthur thirty
years later, and I walked out feeling just as great as I did after and having
seen the original traveling cast; although I knew it wasn’t anywhere near as
big or as good a production as the original.
Being insatiably curious is its own reward and its own punishment. I know now nothing can ever be the same once we are grown. I know when we get old it really becomes clear that nothing was a good as we thought it was, and nothing else can ever be that great again. It wasn’t just the movies that I loved…it was the time, and it was a golden time. But Camelot really is a myth! Coming to that realization may take some of the pleasure out of life, but once we can accept that, it frees us from the shadow of illusion and allows us to see the light of reality.
Being insatiably curious is its own reward and its own punishment. I know now nothing can ever be the same once we are grown. I know when we get old it really becomes clear that nothing was a good as we thought it was, and nothing else can ever be that great again. It wasn’t just the movies that I loved…it was the time, and it was a golden time. But Camelot really is a myth! Coming to that realization may take some of the pleasure out of life, but once we can accept that, it frees us from the shadow of illusion and allows us to see the light of reality.
This is the reward and this is the punishment. We now know - there is no Camelot!
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