NOSTALGIA

Have you ever reminisced
of bygone days
remembered the joys and sorrows
that led you this way
recall the one room schoolhouse,
autos and airplanes were novelties then
telephones few in number
the silent screen, radio shows, the gramophone
sandlot baseball, a circus, county fair and picnics
these were entertainment
television, the computer, not yet invented .

What about our bygone ways,
extended families living together
most followed a stricter moral code
the fast lane and jet setters were first to come
Moms were homemakers then
children got lectured endlessly
they could always find comfort with Gramps or Grandma
hikes, excursions, fishing and swimming
those were highlights to look forward to
most everyone had a favorite horse to ride
most everyone knew all about the countryside.

Some sixty to eighty years from now
someone else will be looking back nostalgically
perhaps lifting slowly off a launch pad somewhere
possibly viewing our present biotechnological advancements
with a curiously benign smile
wondering how primitively we had managed
to make it and still get along.

Herbert Holzbauer
© May 2001

Midi: "Ye Olde Inn"
Composer: Bjorn Lynne

Art: Barn Horses Maid
Baker Fine Arts. 1998