The Good Ol' Days

Last Night,

My roommate and I watched the first installment of the Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War. It is a fascinating documentary, albeit the running time is nearly 15 hours. However, even though it was exciting to see how people who lived during this time reacted to the war around them, it was also discouraging in some places also.

One reason it was discouraging was because the generals of the Civil War had some really bizarre yet flattering nicknames. For example, there was a famous general during the beginning of the war whom was nicknamed "Ol' Fuss and Feathers." I'm sorry if you don't think that is just plain awesome. Imagine yourself walking into a bar, wearing clogs, and as soon as you break through those old salon doors you hear someone shout, "Hey Ol' Fuss and Feathers, we saved a seat fo ya!" That is certainly more excited then hearing the usual Santa Cruzian "Sup Bro."

What discouraged me about this was that those nicknames are long gone. The only nicknames I hear regularly are "dude", "butthead" and of course the aforementioned "Bro." I long for a good nickname, the kind that you hear that makes you wonder how someone could have ever been possibly given that title. How does someone get "Ol' Fuss and Feathers"? I don't know. Most importantly, I don't care. Cause it's probably a story I don't want to hear, but it's a nickname my ears salivate for. (Gross)

The other discouraging thing about this documentary was the fact that it was narrated by actors that were reading private journals of this period. Men whom took long hours of the day to dictate the days events in the most eloquent way possible. I cannot even begin to give an example because it is so beautiful.
This just made me sad because when people study the past ten years of our history, they won't find wordy journals. They will find blogs from 13 year olds and people such as I. It will read, "Today sucked butt. I totally got an F on my Paper. This girl text me today, I was like whatever...Bro. 9/11 was an inside job. I'm out!"

This is sad to me because I cannot picture Garrison Keeler's voice reading that.

I just long for the good old days. The days of Civil War. I bet that is the only time you will ever hear that sentence.

9/11 was an inside job. I'm out!