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Here’s a good little story I came up with today, and I wasn’t even Drinkin’ :)))))
From 1965 to 1975 to TODAY….
Ref to Willie in 1965……..
Sure does look like
Ray Price doesn’t he?
Wearing that suit and tie and haircut…..
( if you don’t know who Ray Price is, goggle him)
And then in 1975
Guess back in ‘65…….
(Course you wasn’t even a gleen in your Mama’s eye yet, back in ‘65)
But back in ‘65, country singers were expected to wear respectable attire, and sing proper
“Lyin-Lovin-N-Cheatin’ “ songs
if they wanted to make it in Nashville.
Fast forward to 1975……
Look at Willie by then……
He had turned to a Long Haired, Pot Smokin’ Hippie with a Cowboy Hat busting the charts, making more coin than God, singing all them songs about people traveling around the country on painted up buses, playin’ guitars, Smokin’ Pot, and singing songs about FREEDOM and Cowboys, and Smokin’ Pot and such….
Not to be an old codger, always talkin’ about
“Back in the Day”……
But look at Willie’s transition in ten years…
So goes the DIRECT PATH of our society.
In the early 60’s, people went to church, saluted the flag, wore flat top haircuts, and were very careful about the colors they wore.
I remember my mother teaching me that you never matched BLUE with GREEN ……. It just wasn’t done in POLITE SOCIETY…
If couples had SEX, they expected to have CHILDREN……
and expected to raise them too……
And…..Life forced people to Balance their CheckBooks!
By the next ten years of cultural devolution, men had long hair (sometimes we couldn’t even tell the difference between MEN and WOMEN….).
Hippies smokin’ Pot was rampant.
Loud Music, Muscle Cars, credit cards and FORNICATION were the rule of the day.
As a side note:
Folks with their eyes open knew that these Hippies were what cost us to loose that war in SouthEast Asia, with all their Pot Smokin’ demonstrations and such.
(Won every major engagement, but Lost the War….but that’s another story)
Now I have to admit, as a young impressionable kid in about 1969, I actually wanted to be
“ A Damn Hippie” when I saw all that goin’ on. Looked like FUN…….
But, as times were, my MAMA and DADDY said they would spank my damn ass if I didn’t get my attitude adjusted right, and promptly toated my young butt up to the Barber College for a .50 cent
Flat Top……
My daddy said:
“ Ain’t no Hippies Living in This Damn House”
Oh well, so much for all that Hippie Crap :)))))……
1974……
Off to the U.S. AIR FORCE for this young
Huck-a-Buck……
Now…….. to make this circle complete…..
Willie Nelson……..
We all love Willie….
God Bless
WILLIE NELSON……..
He was the troubadour of our lives for the last 50 years !!!!!
But…….But……But…. I say….
Not saying Willie was responsible for today’s societal chaos, or even a Catalyst of it……
Rather he was simply a visible barometer of it.
(an historical marker in time, easily plottable).
So, if you plot on a graph
“Society in 1965”…..
Then plot
“Society in 1975”
Take a ruler and draw a line directly through both points in time, and extend that line to the year 2024……… Today……
Let’s talk about TODAY….
Hair Today……
I don’t care too much about hair length today.
Matter of fact, since most of mine has left, I’m sort of envious of Long Hair:))))
Matching Clothing Colors Today……..
Well, that subject is just OUT the WINDOW….
A thing of the past…….
The FLAG Today…….
To quote Johnny Cash’s
‘Ragged Old Flag’
“She waved from our ships upon the Briny foam
And now they’ve about quit waving her back here at home
In her own good land here she’s been abused
She’s been burned, dishonored, denied, and refused
And the government for which she stands
Is scandalized throughout the land
And she’s getting threadbare and wearing thin
But she’s in good shape for the shape she’s in
‘Cause she’s been through the fire before
And I believe she can take a whole lot more”
TRUER WORDS COULD NEVER BE WRITTEN…..
Church Today…….
Religion in general seems to be in decline. Secularism is on the Rise.
THIS MAY IN FACT BE OUR FIRST and OUR BIGGEST MISTAKE….
Without belief in a Higher Power, we are a ship adrift.
Christianity is under attack, but nothing new for a 2000 year old belief.
It will survive and thrive.
( We better hope so )
Sex and Children Today……
Sex was a gift from God to mortal mankind, with an ulterior motive of keeping the planet populated. With modern pharmacology, man has circumvented that Cause and Effect relationship.
Much like fermented grapes to wine, man converted corn to distilled whiskey, and the pain relief qualities of the poppy plant converted to deadly heroine…….
Most times the gifts from God are supercharged by man, to the point of human degradation.
With SEX, I believe it was a thing designed to be a sacred thing between a man and woman in a family relationship, not so much a recreational sport…..
You be the judge…
Your mileage may vary:)))
But SEX, like all other gifts when supercharged, becomes a degradation to the Pair-Bonding of men and women resulting in single parent families.
Today, more than 50 percent of children born in the U.S. are born to single mothers.
Children suffer from lack of either parent( usually the father) resulting in children being
WILD in the STREETs…
Ie…..
Societal Chaos ensues …..
( I could go on for days and days on this point)
So, I ain’t sayin that today’s troubles are Willie’s fault or even all those Pot Smokin’ Hippies….:)))))))
(Lord knows I’ve drank my share of Jack Daniels to arrive at the point of trying to figure all this stuff out) :))))
What I am sayin’ is that,
as we collectively cast off yesterdays cultural norms for some new utopian vision, we should pause.
We should pause long enough to look back at
WHERE WE HAVE BEEN,
and
WHERE WE ARE TODAY.
I ain’t sayin’
I’m just sayin’
A LOT of YESTERDAY
is looking a
WHOLE LOT BETTER
than a
LOT OF TODAY……
Maybe, Just Maybe,
We, collectively, should look inward at our own House to figure out where we need to go to
RIGHT AMERICA’S SHIP of STATE….
Pray for Leadership of the U.S.A.
Pinned by JAA
2-21-24
On occasion of Big Duke sending me a pic of Willie Nelson wearing a suit and tie in 1965