Throwback Thursday - Turning Back the Clock to the 50s

by Skip Cohen

Downtime during the pandemic has definitely raised the bar on my "Throwback Thursday" game. Every week I spend at least half an hour wandering through old photographs, and while most people would say I'm not being very productive - I'll argue just the opposite.

The older the photographs, the more great memories come back. Along with those memories comes a reminder of the value of imaging. From pictures that only go back to before the pandemic to ones like above, of me at age four, each photograph has a backstory. Turning back the clock is like a giant vitamin boosting my emotional immune system, helping me stay focused on today as well as the future.

We all know how dog years are 7:1 to humans. Well, life during the pandemic at times has felt the same way. It's almost a year since we hunkered down, but it feels like seven! The smiles old photographs generate offsets so many of the issues with the pandemic...at least emotionally.

So, the backstory is I loved every cowboy series I could find. Between Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers, I had the guns, the outfit, and obviously the horse! Now think about how times have changed - if a kid pointed a gun like that at you today, the kid would be tossed out of pre-school, some fool would call Child Protective Services, and the parents would be arrested.

But that doesn't change the value of the trip down Memory Lane. At bedtime, my Dad would sit on the edge of the bed and be the bad guy, talking in a low voice about robbing the stagecoach. I'd sneak up behind him as Hopalong or Roy and wrestle him to the ground, stopping crime and scoring a point for the good guys.

Wishing everybody a great Throwback Thursday. Take the time to wander back to the good old days. And if you're an old westerns fan, you can find anything on YouTube, like the William Boyd tribute below.

Happy TBT!

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