It's A Wonderful Memory - Nostalgia and the Digital Age Life Lessons Pt. 7

Have you ever wondered why some cultural touchstones seem to vanish with each passing generation? At a recent holiday gathering, I was caught off guard when a trivia game revealed that many hadn't seen the timeless classic "It's a Wonderful Life." This revelation sparked a deeper reflection on how the curiosity to explore the past through influential films, books, and TV shows might be waning. Join us as we recount personal stories of how these cultural landmarks played pivotal roles in shaping our understanding of the world. We ponder whether this generational disconnect is a symptom of the digital age or a natural progression in our ever-evolving cultural landscape.

Reflecting on the past year, we extend heartfelt wishes for a joyous and secure New Year, encouraging all to embrace life's uncertainties with boldness and reminding you that you're not alone in this adventure.
Listen in for a blend of nostalgia, insight, and a celebration of the shared human experience that transcends generations.

Chapters

• 0:00 Preserving the Stories of the Past
• 13:06 Navigating the Podcasting Journey

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Bill Monty's Guide for Gettin' Older, didn't we live in a great time? It was a great time to grow up when we were growing up, wasn't it? On this episode, I want to talk a little bit about our forgotten past, and not forgotten by us, but forgotten by those who are coming after us. So this all came about because a few days ago, right before Christmas, I was at a Christmas party and we were doing a trivia game and there were a couple of questions about some movies that had been from long ago. But they're classics, right. I mean, these aren't never heard of before. This is not some obscure version of a Christmas carol from 1933 or something like that. These are classics.

Speaker 1: 0:54

And two of the people seated at my table one was a co-worker in her early 40s and the other is closer to my age and one of the questions that was on the trivia game that we were doing was about the classic film it's a Wonderful Life. Neither of these two people had ever watched it. One had never heard of it. The other had just chosen not to watch it. Okay, that's a choice, I get it. It's not everyone's cup of it. The other had just chosen not to watch it. Okay, that's a choice, I get it. It's not everyone's cup of tea. There are a lot of people who think it's the perfect Christmas movie. I am not one of them. I think it's a good movie. I think it's one of those like diehard. I think it's a good movie that takes place at Christmastime, as opposed to being strictly a Christmas movie. I mean so much of it's a Wonderful Life does not happen at Christmas time.

Speaker 1: 1:49

But it got me thinking about the things that have been important in my life and other people who grew up at the same time I did that are either forgotten or not important any longer to those coming up behind us. Look, I know we were not the perfect generation, but it made me wonder what has happened to that just general curiosity that people used to have about the past and I say used to, and people, because I don't think it was just my generation the baby boomers I think it was those before. Otherwise, no one would have written history books, no one would have written the Bible, if we didn't care about the stories or the events that happened a long time ago. Henry Fonda, catherine Hepburn, clark Gable, rosalind Russell, spencer Tracy, randolph Scott, john Wayne these were big names when I was growing up. These were the big movie stars. They were all in their later years because they were really my parents' movie stars. My movie stars as I was growing up were people like Dean Jones in the Disney movies that he made in the 60s, julia Roberts in Richard Gere in Pretty Woman, harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movies. Billy Dee Williams was a huge star. Marlon Brando was coming of age at that time. Al Pacino Can you imagine if the generations today Never looked back on the films of Al Pacino?

Speaker 1: 3:39

That would seem strange to me. Yes, I was not around in 1946 when it's a Wonderful Life was made, but to sit at a table playing a Christmas trivia game and to have two people sitting there, one in their early 40s, one around my age, and neither of them had ever seen it's a Wonderful Life, was amazing to me. So I can't imagine someone in their 20s or 30s right now not being the least bit interested in watching Raiders of the Lost Ark or Brian's Song or Pretty Woman for that matter All those great films. Can you imagine going through life and not watching Forrest Gump, or not reading Catch-22? Or Roots or Lonesome Dove the great books, the great films, of being totally unaware of the impact of all in the family, and the Jeffersons Good Times and Maud the hilarity of the Mary Tyler Moore Show or WKRP in Cincinnati, not having the curiosity to look back on all of those and say what was it like then?

Speaker 1: 5:03

I've mentioned before that my parents often took us to Little Rock, where my grandmother's lived, for summertime visits and at Christmas time, and my mother used to always take a time to point out this park close to my one grandmother. We'd be on the way to the Kroger's to get groceries and she said that's where they used to keep the Nazi prisoners of war that they brought to Arkansas and me and my friends would put a picnic lunch together and sit on that hill over there and look down at this fenced-in area and watch these Nazis, these prisoners of war, walking around in this fenced-in area. That was fascinating to me around in this fenced-in area. That was fascinating to me, thinking about mom, at whatever age she was you know she would have been about 9, 10, 11, I guess Having the opportunity to go down and see this and experience it and remember it and try to put it into perspective as a small child, with this huge event going on in the world, such as World War II, kind of amazing to me. And that's the same sort of amazement to make me wonder what was life like before I was born, so that when I would watch an episode of the Adventures of Superman the old black and white one is that what life was like in a big city?

Speaker 1: 6:25

Because I lived in South Florida we didn't have big cities, not like New York or the fictional New York metropolis, the cars always bunched up like that. Did you really live your life in this kind of cement, skyscraper environment at all times? Where were the houses that we saw on Leave it to Beaver or Father Knows Best? I'd watch a film like Miracle on 34th Street and wonder is that what New York was really like? Years later I hadn't been there yet when I saw the Woody Allen film Manhattan, and since then any trip to New York, I always have that Gershwin musical soundtrack going on in the back of my head when I'm there. If only New York wasn't black and white, it would make it perfect. But it's not.

Speaker 1: 7:13

But there was that curiosity that I had and as I talked to those two people that had never seen it's a Wonderful Life I just wondered and worried, and I get it A strange thing to be worried about with everything going on in the world right now. But are we going to lose our past? Someone famous once said that those who choose to ignore the past are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past. How do we learn if we don't look at what came before? So we're going back and watching it's a Wonderful Life. Take care of that. No, absolutely not. But maybe sparking that curiosity, put your phone down for five minutes, unless you're watching it's a Wonderful Life, but put it down. Ask a question.

Speaker 1: 7:59

That, my friends, is why I think it's important to tell these stories and to talk about this, so I hope you're doing your part. Are you telling your children or grandchildren about your life, about the way things were, without sounding like that boring old? When I was growing up it was when I was a boy we walked to school in six feet of snow, not like that. But there has to be a way, like my mother did, pointing out that park in Little Rock that makes it come to life somehow, without it being a lecture in a lecture, but I hate to think that everything that came before might be washed away in a sea of AI and technology and mobile phones and computers in our hands, that that innate curiosity that allows us to evolve might disappear.

Speaker 1: 8:56

So please, my friends, tell your stories, talk about your past. You can talk about it here if you like. Just scroll down in those show notes to that leave me a message. Link Goes to a speak pipe page. Speak pipe is a tool where you can record a 90 second message that I will receive and, if you like, I could play it on the show. If you would not like that, just make a mention of that.

Speaker 1: 9:21

Bill, please don't play this on the show, but I want to share this story with you, or you could write to me at BillMonte04 at gmailcom. Tell me the story that you would like to put out there so that it is not forgotten. Maybe it's about you, maybe it's about your parents, maybe it's about an aunt or an uncle, or it's just an experience that you think should be remembered, no matter how trivial. If it's important to you, my friends, it is not trivial and someday, somewhere, someone who knew you or is related to you might stumble across that and that will be your voice telling your story. A little bit of immortality, my friends, I thank you for listening to this episode of Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older and I remind you, as always, please be sure to like to comment, to share and to either hit that follow button or subscribe button. It's going to be different depending on what platform you're listening to this on, but if you could just do me the favor of doing that. It doesn't cost anything, and subscribe or follow just means that you'll be notified when a new episode becomes available, and that way I don't have to go around trying to post this on a million different Facebook pages. So, thank you, I do so appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 10:43

And as we look at the end of 2024 and we get older a little bit more into 2025, please come back and see me again. We'll be doing some new and exciting things in 2025. I'm trying to set it up so we can do some interviews, some people that have written books or articles, things of interest to you that you'd like to listen to, and I wouldn't mind interviewing you. How about that? I'd love to do an interview with you. What is your story? Let's talk, Because by talking, that's also how we let our lives and our history stay living and breathing for those to come. Until next time, my friends. As always, I remind you to be safe and be kind.

Speaker 1: 11:34

Thank you, my friends, so much for listening and for listening all the way to the end. That is so very important to me. That helps me not in any monetary way at this point, anyway, but platforms like Spotify and Apple and Amazon and iHeart. They reward podcasters who have an audience that listens all the way to the end. By making the podcast available to more people, they put it out in front of more ears, or more eyes, as the case may be, and in that way, as we grow, it allows us as podcasters to reach more people and to have potential monetary gain from that. Nothing big, I assure you. We're talking cents on the thousands of listeners but it is a big help and by listening to the end, like you've done here, that does help us out. So I do appreciate it. I just want to give a shout out to you and say thanks so much.

Speaker 1: 12:35

Be sure to support podcasting. If you're not listening to my show, there's other shows that you can be listening to. Again, if you scroll down, depending on the platform you're listening to, to the bottom of the show notes, you might see some of those shows listed. Give them a listen. They're good people, they're entertaining, no matter if you want politics or interviews or a how to podcast series by my friend, dave up in Canada. That reminds me I'm going to go ahead and put an episode up here to get that stretch between now and 2025.

Speaker 1: 13:06

Dave invited me to be a guest on his show and we talked about podcasting and my journey of getting to be a podcaster. If you'd like to know a little bit more behind the scenes type of things, then maybe you'll give a listen to that too. You'd help Dave out. I appreciate that so much. Until next time, my friends, until next year. This is Bill Monte, wishing you a happy and safe new year. If it's warm outside but you're feeling cold, you're not sure what to do. Without a friendly shoulder, you're not alone, so start feeling bolder. Welcome to Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older.