Yesterday is the New Today

I thought of this topic one day last week. I heard of some up and coming musician who is planning on doing a remake of a hit song from the 80's.....only in a hip hop style..... and I thought to myself first, “Shoot me.” and then “man, doesn't anyone write original songs anymore?” That thought was still floating around in my head today when it was Retro Day in the CFL, while watching my 1960's clad Roughriders get thumped the title for this blog whipped into my head like one of Anthony Calvillo's passes. Yesterday is the New Today. But before I donne my classic 80's shoulder pads and back comb my hair, let's have a serious look at just how NOW the good old days are.

Monday is the anniversary of Neil Armstrong's 1969 walk on the moon. “One small step for man, one giant step for mankind.” Back then, what did people think the year 2009 would be like? Even Star Trek.....the original was based in the year 2000. Did we really think that we would be able to beam from one place to the next? Did we dream that a black man would indeed be in the white house? That Beatles would invade North America?

So humour me. Pretend that you are a time traveller. You've hopped in your DeLorean and travelled from 1960 to the present day, arriving first thing in the morning for me to greet you. I take you with me, in my little blue Honda, as we go throughout my regular routine. First we'd take a trip to Starbucks.....and not on the Battlestar Galactica either. I'm sure that would be enough to send you packing since you wouldn't be sure what all these newfangled drinks are. You'd be totally freaked out by cell phones not only going off all the time but from the noisy songs they scream out at you.....you'd be jumping back in that DeLorean and searching for that information highway faster than a barista can froth cream.

They say that if you were born after 1980 there are several things you won't know life without. One of them is the VCR. Gosh, I remember when our family first brought ours home just in time to record Thriller on the Saturday afternoon video show. What about the microwave? I don't even remember how I cooked back before there was a microwave. And what about computers? In 1960 they took up entire rooms and now they fit right in our back pockets doing everything from taking pictures to recognizing our phone numbers with the tone of our voice.

Yup. Times have changed haven't they?

Sure life was a lot simpler back then. Even in the 80's which were really my growing years. We were more innocent. We looked to the future for advancement. We knew our neighbours names and were more active people. We valued family time and it didn't involve seeing who the best drummer was on the Wii. We are more efficient at our jobs now. That's one of the best benefits from all these new technological thingies. Imagine what your work would be like writing everything by hand and sending actual mail. The only issue is that we have become so much more productive at our jobs that we don't get all that extra free time that we dreamt about in the good ol' days because now we have twice the work load just to help us earn that five dollar latte we need to get going every morning.

Things are different aren't they? I supposed that's why its fun to look back. I guess that's why it makes us happy to reinvent our favourite things from the passed too. They say that there is a natural cycle to everything and what is old will become new again. So don't throw out those tie dyed shirts or bell bottoms.....and you just might wanna hold onto those 8 Track tapes too because you never know when yesterday will be the new today.