I seem to remember a time when living in the United States felt very different than it does now. I'm not sure its true, since I was much younger than, and perhaps its just the nearsightedness of aging. It could also be because I wasnt then living in New York City, with its fevered sense of desperation. I was still in the relative suburbs, outside of the always staid District of Columbia. But anyways, the difference of attitude in this country is so marked that it is palpable.

As I remember, people used to be friendlier. People smiled at one another. Car jacking didnt exist and only insecure white ladies locked their doors. I remember being left on the sidewalk with a stranger while my mother ran into a shop at the age of four. And, I was perfectly safe. Did that really happen? Am I looking on the past with rose colored lenses? I could have dreamed it up, but didnt there used to be an oil crisis, when people waited in lines for gas, and the whole country became obsessed with saving energy? What happened to that? What happened to all the solar panels on schools and government buildings? Didnt all cars used to get over 20 miles to the gallon? Wasn't gasoline less then a dollar a gallon? Didnt everyone say they were going to drive less if it went aboe a dollar a gallon? Do we?

I recently read two of John Updike's Rabbit trilogy, Rabbit Run and Rabbit is Rich. Rabbit Run is great. A young man coming to terms with his changing life. But Rabbit is Rich was so much more fascinating because it was about a time that I can remember. I was in Grade School. I remember Carter, and Toyota, "oh what a feeling", and the recession. I remember people who saved money, people who lived in their life savings. I can even remember a tennis trend and platos retreat! Would you go to a place like Plato's Retreat now? With AIDS? With Porn Stars getting sick? One thing that's less remembered about the sexual freedom of the seventies, is that it was just plain friendlier. Being stoned was definitely better for us than being high on coke, crack, or heroin, or methodone. Looking to get laid made us nicer than trying to trade online does. Screwing was nearly as good as the gym and alot less judgemental.

Even in one of America's darkest moments, the hostage crisis, I felt safer and less anxious than I do today. Today we are supposedly the world's only superpower, but we feel threatened by tinpot dictators. Today, we are the world's wealthiest nation, but we are impoverished by our debt and deficit. We are the most powerful marketplace, but we use protectionism and unfair tariffs on those who threaten our hegemony. Most personally affecting has been the change in the country's attitude towards its immigrants and especially to those who are Muslim. We were under attack by a fundamentalist Islamic Republic, with huge popular support, and yet I don't ever recall hearing anyone cry for a crusade. Now it seems Islam and the Muslims have become the new Soviet Union... which is making me reconsider my views on the Soviet Union... if the Political System and government disinformation system hasnt changed too much, then was the Soviet Union really inscrutable, or was it just unbelievably stupid policy wonks who couldnt understand it. Could a guy like Paul wolfowitz or John Ashcroft have made it that far in the seventies? Didnt all the politicians speak better too? In full sentences? And remember how much of an effort Carter made to pronounce the Arab and Persian words... he'd been in the Navy for god's sakes!... while today the only public mouth attempting correct pronounciation is on TV at 11:30 at night! opposite comedians! who get better ratings! does any of this make any sense?

Progress no longer seems the correct term for what is happening in this country. I've just turned 38, and I feel a similar national sense that our best years are behind us. We are acting long in the tooth: hoarding wealth, spreading discontent, becoming intolerant, eating without pleasure, collecting useless status objects, wearing too much jewelry, too much makeup and way, way, way too much flab. Wasn't there a time when every fast food restaurant had a salad bar? I do remember that right, don't I? It could be that I am confusing the Roy Roger's fixins bar for a salad bar... but I think it was true. I think you used to be able to get regular size at the movies. I definitely remember a yogurt craze. When did healthy food become uncool again? Why is the food industry acting like they've only just now learned that fat is bad for you? Why is the public letting them?

As I watch this happening, I keep thinking that I must have slept through some kind of dramatic event that changed everything. I mean I can see how Reaganomics is probably responsible for the financial woes of the country, and I can see how the hostage situation, followed by the Lebanon War, followed by the Libya thing, followed by the Salman Rushdie thing, followed by the first Gulf War, followed by the first World Trade Center bombing, followed by the USS Cole, followed by 9-11 made Americans deservedly scared of Muslims. But you could probably find that more Muslims in the world were with us than against us back then....