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May 2, 2020,
Normal.
Isn’t that what most people desire to be? Normal.
It certainly is not overrated.
The expression “That’s not normal” is uttered so often that you would think that normal is a great thing that everyone should aspire to. A place between clouds, asphalt and concrete where you should walk, jog, dine and sip coffee while you text.
Perhaps greatly desire to stay there forever and never grow old.
It’s the normal thing to do. The normal way to feel.
Artists typically don’t see it that way because normal means that you don’t stand out.
Granted.
Hey look, don’t take normal for granted especially when the New Normal is lurking around the corner.
Generally speaking, we don’t like the new normal.
School shootings, concert mass killings, job layoffs even when a company is profitable, fires that consume whole towns, rising water that surges during average hurricanes, severe political divisions that feel like the makings of a civil war, hooking up without dating, cars that cost over $40,000 and more.
This is the new normal. You’ve probably experienced that too.
There was a time when walking down the street with a romantic partner, at say, 1am in the morning to go get some coffee was normal.
Today, we’re not sure that we would even stick our head outside of our window at one in the morning for fear of many things, including someone walking by and accidentally sneezing.
We have a friend in our San Francisco circle who had a great time as a teenager in the muscle car era of the 1970s.
He used to take his gorgeous teenage dates to the Circle Star Theater to watch first class acts like the Temptations after they had dined at the Peppermill Restaurant and relaxed by the fireplace afterwards. On other dates he would take them to the Geneva drive-in near the legendary Cow Palace where they actually watched about 10 percent of the movie between making out.
Imagine you are seated in an elegant theater listening to this soft melody while you hold your date’s hand. While it lasts, listen to this after you turn off the lights and close your eyes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duusvtW3wvc
“Sun a-shining, there’s plenty of life
A new day is dawning sunny and bright
But after I’ve been crying all night the sun is cold
And the new day seems old
Since I lost my baby (since I lost my baby)
Since I lost my baby (since I lost my baby)”
When they weren’t feeling like the drive in they would go to large movie houses in San Francisco that were large enough to have an opera.
When they craved something more energetic they would go to packed discos where there was never a shooting and people didn’t spike your drink and mostly what would happen is that you would be wonderfully tired and delirious after dancing your socks and nylons off.
He also loved escorting them to Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor and Restaurant in Daly City where they had fantastic bacon cheeseburgers, thick chocolate malts, mouth-watering hot fudge sundaes and sizzling cherry cokes while they laughed at birthday announcements and while watching the teenage employees around to the sound of ringing sirens, bells and drum rolls whenever someone ordered a Zoo, which was a combination of various ice creams and sherbets massive enough for a large party to eat.
Of course if they desired something a little more romantic, spiritual and quiet, there was always the majestic and mostly calm Pacific Ocean to the West.
He described his teenaged dates as magical.
Oh those were the days. That was normal in the 1970s.
“I’d like to be settled into somewhat of a normal life. Somewhat. I know it’s never going to be completely normal”… Michael Jordan
Should we even compare it to the new normal of the teenage dating scene?
Dare we?
Hopefully it is not like HBOs Euphoria or USA Network’s Dare Me.
Dare we not.
Regarding Euphoria, at theguardian.com they analyze, “Few new series have achieved such notoriety with quite the same speed as Euphoria (Sky Atlantic), the teen-populated US drama that is so explicit in its weary portrait of drug use and sex that it makes Skins look positively Victorian. Early on it brims with pills, drink, apps, erect penises, loving sex, cruel sex and nude pics, ever present and lurking, but horrifyingly casual, as if they are an inexorable part of these particular fictional, middle-class, suburban teenagers’ existences.”
Is this the new normal? Seems like it.
Don’t they ever go out on a date? Go to an ice cream parlor after dinner at a sit down restaurant?
Not in Euphoria they don’t.
The reviewers at thrillist.com surmised, “Dare Me is a 10-part teen series about high school cheerleaders who become entangled in a series of dark secrets after a new coach, who used to be a hot-shot cheer star, comes in to take over their squad. On paper it might sound a little PG, but don’t let this simple plot fool you. Dare Me is bonafide insane.”
Now don’t get us wrong. We binged watched both Dare Me and Euphoria and enjoyed them both, sort of like we enjoy watching James Bond movies where 20 villains just got whacked.
It’s thrilling as long as you are about one thousand miles away from it.
Glad we’re not teenagers anymore.
And yet, though it may sound like the New Normal is all gloom and doom, it isn’t.
Or at least it shouldn’t be.
We shouldn’t give up on wonderful things that brought special moments to our lives. We just might have to be a little more creative in the New Normal era.
We still have to look for the marching bands, ice cream cones and merry-go-rounds of this time period. It is imperative.
Here is a glimmer of hope.
You know what? After 60 years, the Temptations are still touring and they still can melt hearts, enhance love and encourage hand holding with the best of them.
When this sheltering in period safely ends, you should check out one of their concerts.
http://www.temptationsofficial.com/
We have to keep looking for magic. Seek it out relentlessly.
Even in the era of the New Normal?
It is the Normal thing to do.
~ ~ ~
OPENING PHOTO grapplingstars.com, femcompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling.com, fcielitecompetitor.com fciwomenswrestling2.com articles, FCI Women’s Sports pexels.com yuksel-kocaman photo
http://www.temptationsofficial.com/
https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/dare-me-review-usa-series
https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/normal-quotes
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
