Obsolete?

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

Have you seen those commercials from Progressive Insurance about “young homeowners becoming their parents” with the kind-natured man helping thirty-somethings navigate this new world they find themselves in? You know, like they are turning “old” just because they bought a house, so they start doing things like hoarding old scrap pieces of wood and spending too long looking for the perfect parking place or offering unsolicited advice to the repairman.

I love those commercials. Mostly because they are eerily accurate depicting how the older generation acts, bur also because I can all too often relate to the things they are making light of. I told my wife the other day that I would watch a whole TV series of the guy, “Dr. Rick” (played by actor Bill Glass), just taking folks around town and being their life coach as they work through silly situations (“That’ll be $19.85, sir.” “Oh, no I’m only paying for my salad…”) Again, I find those commercials pretty cute, funny and insightful (unfortunately for Progressive, they do not inspire me even in the slightest bit to look into getting my insurance from their company). Now 50, I can definitely see a little of myself in the

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Dr. Rick’s hapless “patients” who think it’s cool to chat up people on the elevator or hold on to floormats for a car they no longer own (my personal example of this is my box of cords, cables and plugs that don’t go to anything we currently own, just in case I ever need one of them again).

But I do hope that older folks who watch those commercials don’t feel like they are out of touch or obsolete. I own a Tshirt given to me by one of my kids that says, “I’m not old, I’m vintage.” I like to look at it that way.

I mean, we are a few generations of music media away from vinyl records but they are making a big comeback.

Everything old is new again, including VHS cassettes, film cameras and retro video games.

It’s not just technology either.

I saw a list of “Things That Made a Comeback in 2023,” and there were things like bangs, Levi’s jeans, jigsaw puzzles, the flannel shirt and baking bread. On a personal note: Is it “bringin it back” when you never stopped in the first place? Because I’ve been rocking the Levi’s and a flannel shirt since like 1990…

So, don’t feel like you have to necessarily change with the times. Everything, it seems, comes back around again eventually, and even if it doesn’t, if you like something, feel free to keep on keeping on with it.

I mean, maybe all those Beanie Babies we were all going to retire on back in the 1990s will suddenly skyrocket in value? Or baseball cards… or Cabbage Patch Kids… or old Nintendo games?