The New Normal

Just watched a classic short on Turner Classic Movies (I checked their online schedule [http://www.tcm.com/schedule/,] but it wasn’t listed – it was right between “The Battle of Algiers” and  “Algiers” – so you’ll have to take my word.)

Remember when we used to decide that certain social change topics were worth spending taxpayer dollars to “Get the message out?”

We had “Wear your seat belts.”

We had all kinds of “Drive Safely” messages. I remember, “This one was right.  Dead right.”

We had “Smoking is Bad for You” in a million variations.

We had (have) Smokey the Bear.

We have “Don’t Text and Drive,” a spinoff of “Don’t Drink and Drive.”

And back in the 50’s and early 60’s, we had “How To Survive a Nuclear Attack.”

The message of tonight’s short classic on TCM boiled down to “clean up your yard and maintain your wood sided house”, presumably so your house will survive the conflagration that engulfs your bacchanalian neighbors, just as Vivica Fox and her son and the dog survived the tunnel conflagration in Independence Day by jumping into a maintenance closet.

I wonder if some people back then questioned whether that was The New Normal.

I mean normal for me as a 6-year-old was hoping I didn’t pee in my pants at school and seeing how high I could swing on the swings at recess. Normal was reciting the alphabet every day when I already knew it, and same for the Pledge of Allegiance except we stood up for that one, next to our desks, in rows as orderly as the brown tile grout on the floor.  Normal was what do I have in my lunch box today and is my “Bonanza” lunch box cool and do I want to give that bully one of my Twinkies or make him squeeze it so neither of us gets to eat it. Normal was God loves me and will take care of me and then crouching under my desk for “Bomb Drills” like that little metal and wood desk could help me survive the blast and the heat and the ensuing conflagration only to envy those who died quickly as I gasped out my life suffering from radiation poisoning. And normal was hot dogs on TV Trays while watching Lone Ranger re-runs after school.

This was before The Beatles and before Mutual Assured Destruction.

Now I hear they have “Active Shooter” drills in the schools, and I know somebody else’s pet topic had to give up the time to squeeze in the shooter drills so I’m guessing the History of Aviation?