What is she saying? "These are the good ol' days"! 

(And any excuse is a good one for listening to Carly Simon, as far as I'm concerned.  And how about that 70s stylin'?) 

I'm a middle-aged dude, pushing 50.  And the cliche for middle-aged and old folks is that they always whinge and complain and talk about how much better things were when they were kids.  (Either that, or how much harder things were for them.  You know. 

But I'm not going there in this particular post.  Granted, I did have to walk uphill to school, both ways, but it was only four blocks--two uphill, two down--so I can't really complain.  Or I could, but it would be stoopid.) 

No,  what I was thinking is, despite all the depressing crap that's going on basically everywhere, in a lot of ways, these are the good ol' days.  Consider:

• Since the clean water and clean acts were signed and enacted, the water and air have gotten cleaner.  Despite the fact that L.A. now has millions more people and cars then it did when I was a wee lad, the air has actually gotten cleaner.  (You can look it up.)
• The roads and freeways used to be lined with trash.  Thanks largely to Lady Bird Johnson, things are a ton cleaner.
•  Cars used to break down and need repairs every few hundred, not thousand miles.  Tires blew out.  Carboraters failed.  Cars were made out of steel and didn't have shoulder harnesses and air bags and "drop-out" engine mounts.  Kids used to climb around inside station wagons.  Gasoline was leaded.  Now, VW is talking about a car that will do 300 mpg.  (You can look it up!)
• Speaking of roads, there are bike lanes everywhere.  When I was in high school, ya tooks your chances.  Without a helmet.  Or pads.
• Everyone smoked.  Airplanes had "smoking sections," as did restaurants, buses, and trains, which were about as effective as you might think, i.e. not, given that air, ya know, flows.  Now few smoke, and those that do are relegated to places where they won't pollute the atmosphere of their fellows too very much.
• TVs were small.  And black and white.  And heavy as sin.  You sure couldn't hang a 42" one on a wall.  There weren't 42" ones.
• PCs didn't exist.  Macs didn't exist.  Cell phones didn't exist.  Now, I can talk to my daughter downstairs in her room without yelling.  I can check in on my son during the day.  My kids can get in touch with me in an emergency, even if I'm in California.  Or in the bathroom.  Or anywhere.
• Wikipedia.  Yup, it's got its inaccuracies, but you can now get and cross-check information in a way that used to be very difficult, expensive, and time-consuming.
• Small pox is eradicated.  Polio is almost unknown in most countries.  Diseases that I had as a kid--mumps, chicken pox--are now rare.
• There was only one phone company.  Oh, wait; that's changing back. 

Now, I'm not a pollyanna; I don't think things are great.  Republicans everywhere are still fighting to control women's wombs, eliminate Medicare, Medicaide, and social security, and screw over anyone who makes less than a million dollars a year.  Our infrastructure needs a ton of work.  Any cities outside the northeast have (not to put too fine a point on it) crappy public transit.  (And did I mention we're at war in three countries?) But honestly, folks, in a lot of ways, things have gotten better. 

Just something to consider when the latest bad news gets you down.