Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

In the song Anticipation, Carly Simon tells us that “these are the good old days.” When you think about it, it’s true. But the problem is that when you’re actually going through “the good old days” you don’t realize it.

We are reminded of those days through conversation, perhaps Facebook and photographs. Did you ever look at a photograph taken 10 years ago and say, “Wow, I thought my hair was thinning then!” Or “Gee, I wish I was that slim now!”

The problem is that we don’t realize we’re enjoying ourselves (and that we looked pretty good) because of the everyday stress of our busy routines. We are always going. Laundry, lunches, drop-offs, traffic jams, and pickups. Then you get a call from your kid saying that its Mass day and you have to go drop off a shirt and tie at his school. We are like Energizer bunnies.

On top of everything, you have to do your 40 hour work week like a good little doobie. After doing all the crazy daily family prep stuff, we march into our cubicle hoping not to see an email from … you know who, or a voice message from … the other one. And if you answer either, you can bet that it’s not a pleasant message telling you how much your work is appreciated or what a good job you’re doing!

It doesn’t feel like it at the time, but we’ve had lots of good old days. Only we were too darn busy to enjoy it!

Memorable days in my neighborhood were when you could do all your shopping in Davis Square. Whether it was back to school shopping, Christmas shopping or the weekly food run, you were good to go in Davis Square.

My personal favorite good old days was when my kids were young and we kept busy on weekends and in the summer doing fun family stuff. Let’s not forget those good old days, for all of us of course, when deceased loved ones were still with us. They live on in memories and photos though we miss them so much.

I’ve never been able to practice what I preach, especially when I say that we need to appreciate the present. We are so consumed with work, school, bills, etc., that we don’t enjoy today enough. It’s always something!

The good old days had its minor drawbacks too. If the bells rang, and the lights flashed and the gates came down, you were stuck waiting for the freight train to roll through Davis Square. No matter how much shopping you had to do, no matter who was waiting for you, at The Rosebud, or Ming-Toys, life stood still while the train rumbled by.

We could all use an occasional “freight train” in our lives to slow things down for just a few minutes. And … PS … take a photo of yourself today because, these are the good old days.