Are We Losing Our Past? Life Lessons Pt. 7

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Have you ever wondered why some cultural touchstones seem to vanish with each passing generation? At a recent holiday gathering, I was caught off guard when a trivia game revealed that many hadn't seen the timeless classic "It's a Wonderful Life." This revelation sparked a deeper reflection on how the curiosity to explore the past through influential films, books, and TV shows might be waning. Join us as we recount personal stories of how these cultural landmarks played pivotal roles in shaping our understanding of the world. We ponder whether this generational disconnect is a symptom of the digital age or a natural progression in our ever-evolving cultural landscape.

Reflecting on the past year, we extend heartfelt wishes for a joyous and secure New Year, encouraging all to embrace life's uncertainties with boldness and reminding you that you're not alone in this adventure.
Listen in for a blend of nostalgia, insight, and a celebration of the shared human experience that transcends generations.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Bill Monty's Guide for Gettin' Older,
didn't we live in a great time?
It was a great time to grow upwhen we were growing up, wasn't
it?
On this episode, I want to talka little bit about our
forgotten past, and notforgotten by us, but forgotten

(00:20):
by those who are coming after us.
So this all came about becausea few days ago, right before
Christmas, I was at a Christmasparty and we were doing a trivia
game and there were a couple ofquestions about some movies
that had been from long ago.
But they're classics, right.

(00:42):
I mean, these aren't neverheard of before.
This is not some obscureversion of a Christmas carol
from 1933 or something like that.
These are classics.
And two of the people seated atmy table one was a co-worker in
her early 40s and the other iscloser to my age and one of the

(01:08):
questions that was on the triviagame that we were doing was
about the classic film it's aWonderful Life.
Neither of these two people hadever watched it.
One had never heard of it.
The other had just chosen notto watch it.
Okay, that's a choice, I get it.
It's not everyone's cup of it.
The other had just chosen notto watch it.
Okay, that's a choice, I get it.
It's not everyone's cup of tea.
There are a lot of people whothink it's the perfect Christmas

(01:30):
movie.
I am not one of them.
I think it's a good movie.
I think it's one of those likediehard.
I think it's a good movie thattakes place at Christmastime, as
opposed to being strictly aChristmas movie.
I mean so much of it's aWonderful Life does not happen
at Christmas time.
But it got me thinking about thethings that have been important

(01:55):
in my life and other people whogrew up at the same time I did
that are either forgotten or notimportant any longer to those
coming up behind us.
Look, I know we were not theperfect generation, but it made
me wonder what has happened tothat just general curiosity that

(02:16):
people used to have about thepast and I say used to, and
people, because I don't think itwas just my generation the baby
boomers I think it was thosebefore.
Otherwise, no one would havewritten history books, no one
would have written the Bible, ifwe didn't care about the
stories or the events thathappened a long time ago.

(02:39):
Henry Fonda, catherine Hepburn,clark Gable, rosalind Russell,
spencer Tracy, randolph Scott,john Wayne these were big names
when I was growing up.
These were the big movie stars.
They were all in their lateryears because they were really

(03:06):
my parents' movie stars.
My movie stars as I was growingup were people like Dean Jones
in the Disney movies that hemade in the 60s, julia Roberts
in Richard Gere in Pretty Woman,harrison Ford in the Indiana
Jones movies.
Billy Dee Williams was a hugestar.
Marlon Brando was coming of ageat that time.

(03:27):
Al Pacino Can you imagine ifthe generations today Never
looked back on the films of AlPacino?
That would seem strange to me.
Yes, I was not around in 1946when it's a Wonderful Life was

(03:47):
made, but to sit at a tableplaying a Christmas trivia game
and to have two people sittingthere, one in their early 40s,
one around my age, and neitherof them had ever seen it's a
Wonderful Life, was amazing tome.
So I can't imagine someone intheir 20s or 30s right now not

(04:11):
being the least bit interestedin watching Raiders of the Lost
Ark or Brian's Song or PrettyWoman for that matter All those
great films.
Can you imagine going throughlife and not watching Forrest
Gump, or not reading Catch-22?

(04:33):
Or Roots or Lonesome Dove thegreat books, the great films, of
being totally unaware of theimpact of all in the family, and
the Jeffersons Good Times andMaud the hilarity of the Mary
Tyler Moore Show or WKRP inCincinnati, not having the

(04:59):
curiosity to look back on all ofthose and say what was it like
then?
I've mentioned before that myparents often took us to Little
Rock, where my grandmother'slived, for summertime visits and
at Christmas time, and mymother used to always take a
time to point out this parkclose to my one grandmother.
We'd be on the way to theKroger's to get groceries and

(05:20):
she said that's where they usedto keep the Nazi prisoners of
war that they brought toArkansas and me and my friends
would put a picnic lunchtogether and sit on that hill
over there and look down at thisfenced-in area and watch these
Nazis, these prisoners of war,walking around in this fenced-in

(05:41):
area.
That was fascinating to mearound in this fenced-in area.
That was fascinating to me,thinking about mom, at whatever
age she was you know she wouldhave been about 9, 10, 11, I
guess Having the opportunity togo down and see this and
experience it and remember itand try to put it into
perspective as a small child,with this huge event going on in

(06:05):
the world, such as World War II, kind of amazing to me.
And that's the same sort ofamazement to make me wonder what
was life like before I was born, so that when I would watch an
episode of the Adventures ofSuperman the old black and white
one is that what life was likein a big city?
Because I lived in South Floridawe didn't have big cities, not

(06:30):
like New York or the fictionalNew York metropolis, the cars
always bunched up like that.
Did you really live your lifein this kind of cement,
skyscraper environment at alltimes?
Where were the houses that wesaw on Leave it to Beaver or
Father Knows Best?
I'd watch a film like Miracleon 34th Street and wonder is

(06:53):
that what New York was reallylike?
Years later I hadn't been thereyet when I saw the Woody Allen
film Manhattan, and since thenany trip to New York, I always
have that Gershwin musicalsoundtrack going on in the back
of my head when I'm there.
If only New York wasn't blackand white, it would make it
perfect.
But it's not.
But there was that curiositythat I had and as I talked to

(07:17):
those two people that had neverseen it's a Wonderful Life I
just wondered and worried, and Iget it A strange thing to be
worried about with everythinggoing on in the world right now.
But are we going to lose ourpast?
Someone famous once said thatthose who choose to ignore the
past are bound to repeat themistakes of the past.

(07:38):
How do we learn if we don'tlook at what came before?
So we're going back andwatching it's a Wonderful Life.
Take care of that.
No, absolutely not.
But maybe sparking thatcuriosity, put your phone down
for five minutes, unless you'rewatching it's a Wonderful Life,
but put it down.
Ask a question.

(07:59):
That, my friends, is why I thinkit's important to tell these
stories and to talk about this,so I hope you're doing your part
.
Are you telling your childrenor grandchildren about your life
, about the way things were,without sounding like that
boring old?
When I was growing up it waswhen I was a boy we walked to

(08:22):
school in six feet of snow, notlike that.
But there has to be a way, likemy mother did, pointing out
that park in Little Rock thatmakes it come to life somehow,
without it being a lecture in alecture, but I hate to think
that everything that came beforemight be washed away in a sea

(08:44):
of AI and technology and mobilephones and computers in our
hands, that that innatecuriosity that allows us to
evolve might disappear.
So please, my friends, tell yourstories, talk about your past.
You can talk about it here ifyou like.
Just scroll down in those shownotes to that leave me a message

(09:06):
.
Link Goes to a speak pipe page.
Speak pipe is a tool where youcan record a 90 second message
that I will receive and, if youlike, I could play it on the
show.
If you would not like that,just make a mention of that.
Bill, please don't play this onthe show, but I want to share
this story with you, or youcould write to me at BillMonte04

(09:29):
at gmailcom.
Tell me the story that youwould like to put out there so
that it is not forgotten.
Maybe it's about you, maybeit's about your parents, maybe
it's about an aunt or an uncle,or it's just an experience that
you think should be remembered,no matter how trivial.
If it's important to you, myfriends, it is not trivial and

(09:49):
someday, somewhere, someone whoknew you or is related to you
might stumble across that andthat will be your voice telling
your story.
A little bit of immortality, myfriends, I thank you for
listening to this episode ofBill Monty's Guide for Getting
Older and I remind you, asalways, please be sure to like

(10:13):
to comment, to share and toeither hit that follow button or
subscribe button.
It's going to be differentdepending on what platform
you're listening to this on, butif you could just do me the
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It doesn't cost anything, andsubscribe or follow just means
that you'll be notified when anew episode becomes available,

(10:35):
and that way I don't have to goaround trying to post this on a
million different Facebook pages.
So, thank you, I do soappreciate it.
And as we look at the end of2024 and we get older a little
bit more into 2025, please comeback and see me again.
We'll be doing some new andexciting things in 2025.

(10:56):
I'm trying to set it up so wecan do some interviews, some
people that have written booksor articles, things of interest
to you that you'd like to listento, and I wouldn't mind
interviewing you.
How about that?
I'd love to do an interviewwith you.
What is your story?
Let's talk, Because by talking,that's also how we let our

(11:16):
lives and our history stayliving and breathing for those
to come.
Until next time, my friends.
As always, I remind you to besafe and be kind.
Thank you, my friends, so muchfor listening and for listening

(11:37):
all the way to the end.
That is so very important to me.
That helps me not in anymonetary way at this point,
anyway, but platforms likeSpotify and Apple and Amazon and
iHeart.
They reward podcasters who havean audience that listens all

(11:57):
the way to the end.
By making the podcast availableto more people, they put it out
in front of more ears, or moreeyes, as the case may be, and in
that way, as we grow, it allowsus as podcasters to reach more
people and to have potentialmonetary gain from that.
Nothing big, I assure you.

(12:19):
We're talking cents on thethousands of listeners but it is
a big help and by listening tothe end, like you've done here,
that does help us out.
So I do appreciate it.
I just want to give a shout outto you and say thanks so much.
Be sure to support podcasting.
If you're not listening to myshow, there's other shows that

(12:40):
you can be listening to.
Again, if you scroll down,depending on the platform you're
listening to, to the bottom ofthe show notes, you might see
some of those shows listed.
Give them a listen.
They're good people, they'reentertaining, no matter if you
want politics or interviews or ahow to podcast series by my
friend, dave up in Canada.
That reminds me I'm going to goahead and put an episode up

(13:02):
here to get that stretch betweennow and 2025.
Dave invited me to be a guest onhis show and we talked about
podcasting and my journey ofgetting to be a podcaster.
If you'd like to know a littlebit more behind the scenes type
of things, then maybe you'llgive a listen to that too.
You'd help Dave out.
I appreciate that so much.

(13:23):
Until next time, my friends,until next year.
This is Bill Monte, wishing youa happy and safe new year.
If it's warm outside but you'refeeling cold, you're not sure
what to do.
Without a friendly shoulder,you're not alone, so start

(13:46):
feeling bolder.
Welcome to Bill Monty's Guidefor Getting Older.