These days, we do what we do. Like, go out to eat in restaurants. Or. Pluck around on our phones and computers as we explore social media. Or. Drive cars that use gasoline. These are just the way things go. Our normal existences. These are the things we know.
But. Things didn’t always used to be this way. Obviously. Most of us can remember a time when things were quite different. The rotary phone hanging on the wall of the kitchen. The only phone shared by nine people in the same house. Or. A loaf of bread for 25 cents.
I know, I know. I write about the passing of time and “change” fairly often here.
So today, instead, I’m going to spotlight something different. I figured I would talk about and compare the recent fashion choices between Brittany Spears and Jessica Simpson. Okay, first? I’m totally lying. That’s right. I’m just jerking you around. I don’t give a rat’s patootie about fashion or what pop stars might be doing with or without it.
No. I’m going to write about the past. Again.
As I was saying. Things come, and things go. Today, I am considering trends that we used to see long ago. But not anymore.
The first one is curious to me.
There was a time, when it was quite common for people to picnic in cemeteries. This was before we had things like city parks here and there. I’m not sure why folks chose cemeteries. Maybe they had lunch on their uncles’ graves. No aunts.
Okay, this next one comes from France. In 1956, France banned the serving of alcohol to children under the age of 14 in school cafeterias. Before that, schoolchildren had the right to drink half a liter of wine, cider, or beer with their meals. In 1981, France implemented a total alcohol ban in the country’s schools. It looks like I may have been going to the wrong school, as I used to like beer with everything.
From France to Ireland. The Irish monks invented the Catholic practice of confessing to a priest and performing penance in private. Before this, confessions and penance were done publicly. I’m not sure I would want all my business “out there” in front of the entire congregation. The Confessional Booth scared me senseless as a kid, but I suppose it was better than standing in front of God and everyone else.
Taking it back to the good old US of A. Where truth is stranger than fiction. But as far as fiction goes? Well. Before Jaws (1975) and Star Wars (1977), summers were considered the “graveyard season” for movie releases. Now. It is as hot as the thermometer.
And since we are talking about the movies. Before the advent of electricity, theater spotlights made their light by directing a flame at calcium oxide, better known as quicklime. These lights were referred to as limelights, and this is the origin of the phrase “in the limelight,” which now means being “at the center of attention.”
And that, my friends, are all the spotlights I have for today.
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“When you’re in the spotlight, be ready for the heat.” – John Wesley
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“Concentration is the secret of strength.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.” – Brian Tracy
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From picnics on headstones to drinking in the cafeteria
