I recently put on Facebook this statement that popped into my mind, "Only things that are old have any value." One person commented, a 40+ year old guy, "tell that to my wife." I meant it to be a serious statement though on the extremely disposable and commodified nature of all items, goods and personalities being created in 2010. In 40 years will anyone admire a 2010 Toyota Camry the way they would a 40-year old Shelby Cobra today?
How is this for you? iTunes DJ has just selected a classic song from the Amelie soundtrack to play. The most modern form of playing music choosing a classic tune from before computers even existed while I write about the past on a wireless keyboard in front of two digital screens. Perhaps this is the way of the future . . . using modern technology to help preserve the value of the past.
And by no means do I believe technology is advanced at all right now. Computers and the Internet are still very much in their infancy. How rough is it to use a computer still? Not even my Mac "just works."
While browsing the tables of Antiques in the Park in Gulfport I came across the very green glass goblets my mother used to fill with pudding and jello when I was a child. I had a very strong reaction to seeing them. So strong I did not even thing to photograph them. I was probably going to purchase them as I passed back by the entrance/exit on the way out. I did not even have the chance as someone else, perhaps wanting to eat pudding from them once again, had already bought them and carried them cheerfully home as I would have done.
This was the first antiques show I went to in the south and I was surprised to see the legacy of slavery and racism in explicit messages on several antique decorative plates and even old 8x10 advertisements. One recurring theme I saw was black people being pursued or victimized by alligators, suggesting I guess that white people would never be attacked by these apparently discriminating creatures. It was a bit surreal and uncomfortable to see these items.
I plan to visit a few more antique shows in the near future and I hope to find perhaps another set of those pudding goblets and maybe an old camera or two for decorating my desk with some photography history.