When money grew on trees

Money once grew on trees.  Green bills, legal tender, dangled from the branches.  One simply had to reach up and stretch for them.  Sometimes they just fell, like leaves in late October; one merely had to grab them as they floated in the breeze.

It was a time when use of the phone meant talking to a live person.  When we still manufactured goods for ourselves and most of the world.  When everyone expected quality goods and services, and businesses competed to provide such things.

It was a time when blue collar workers merged into the middle class and could acquire “necessities” and toys that the rest of the world could little imagine.  A time when white collar men worked in jobs where they could stay a lifetime, get annual promotions and a gold watch when they retired.

It was also a time of struggle, of new frontiers and broken barriers.  A time when girls were still told a career in teaching or nursing was their limit, or maybe they could be an executive secretary.  For a while, until they married… the alternative was being a spinster with cats.  A time when blacks only appeared on screen as a maid, an ‘ain’t they got rhythm’ entertainer, or a token outfielder.  A time when most parts of the country had never seen or spoken with Hispanics or Asians.  A time when much of the globe’s diversity was something we only vaguely knew of from books.

We had yet to see girls gyrating on MTV let alone Lady Gaga’s costumes.  We didn’t have minute by minute accounts of a possible thunderstorm.  Nor did talking heads dissect, analyze and interpret each word or gesture of politicians and movie stars.  We discovered for ourselves that there was no such thing as a free lunch.  Yet, we knew that piece of the American pie was out there.  We could grab our slice of it.

Automation, downsizing and outsourcing changed a few things.  So did burst dotcom and real estate bubbles.  Companies now renege on pension and health plans without a second thought.  Swindlers and scammers use high tech to reach millions. And many can mutter under their breath ‘shoulda, coulda, woulda.’  Some of us (raise your hands with me) might have been better off skipping some afternoon naps, closing a few less bars and not stretching 3 day weekends into self indulgent sidetracks.

Money doesn’t grow on trees anymore.  Some continue to sigh wistfully about the good old days.  Still; a wealth of knowledge and information is available globally and instantaneously.  Expertise is at our fingertips.  So are opportunities.  Most of us can be amused or educated, even make a buck, from the comfort of home.  And the rumor is – with luck, hard work or foresight – we can have that pot of gold.  The one just beneath the rainbow.


PawPawJack©10/29/10