Welcome Back to the Good 'ole Days

Good News from the Resistance: Last week I participated in a 9-person Zoom call. Our faces appeared on the screen in a 3 x 3 matrix, three heads across, three down. The set-up seemed vaguely familiar – where had I seen that image before? Suddenly it came rushing back: We looked like the set of the 1960’s TV game show Hollywood Squares. In the show, nine mostly B-list celebrities sat behind desks arranged in a 3 x 3 matrix — just like Zoom! — and answered questions posed by host Peter Marshall. I loved that show, particularly the actor featured in the all-important middle square, the famously snarky Paul Lynde. Don’t ask me what happened during my Zoom call – I spent most of it burrowing down the Hollywood Squares Wiki rabbit hole.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about “the good ‘ole days” — as I left my empty milk bottles on the porch for the delivery guy to pick up, mail-ordered Charles Chips to my mother, baked cookies for the first time in 30+ years (with my hand-held Hamilton Beach mixer, circa 1979), and searched (unsuccessfully) for yeast to bake bread.

With the country on lockdown, many of my fellow Baby Boomers have been catapulted back in time: Family meals have made a comeback; old-fashioned hobbies like puzzles, board games, gardening and sewing are seeing a significant uptick; we’re playing (socially-distanced) Bingo with our neighbors; we’re turning to our screens for exercise classes, like we once did with Jack LaLanne; sidewalk chalk art is flourishing; we’re checking in with our distant parents and grandparents more often, teaching them new skills like FaceTime (Note: I love this woman. She’s not my mother, who’s been in isolation for a month, but she’s damn close!) and Zoom; neighborhoods are organizing scavenger hunts for kids. Icing on the cake? The Beatles released a new single.

The Greatest Generation also may be experiencing a bit of déjá vu; Mutual Aid societies — created to provide safety nets for our most vulnerable citizens when the government shirks its responsibility — have been resurrected; modern day Rosie the Riveters are answering the call to make face masks for front-line healthcare workers.

Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not longing to return to the idealized days of WWII or June and Ward Cleaver. Just sayin’ … when this nightmare is over, let’s hope we have the wisdom to hang onto what’s good.

Yes, there’s more Good News from the Resistance: