They lived a different culture then, not like this rot we have to wade through now. With each passing the cultural rot just gets a little stronger.
I’m just barely old enough to remember the old “Our Gang” being shown in reruns later on Saturday morning along with Laurel & Hardy and the occasional WC Fields, after the cartoons. It was clearly old even then, late sixties, but still funny and enjoyable.
Indeed, that’s probably the reason I guess I always gravitated towards lectures, appearances, and film festivals, even when I was young. Just to get that taste of history and culture that America used to represent. Even when I was in high school, I went to see a Bob Hope event, a Harry James concert. Went to see an old guy in a nursing home who was with Pershing’s group when he went after Pancho Villa. And in college, would see lectures and appearances of Jacques Cousteau, Burt Lancaster, and Cary Grant. Of course, by the same token, I’d drive around and just talk to ordinary old-timers at feed-stores or hardware stores, about their experiences in WW1, the Depression, etc.