They Just Aren’t Here Anymore #57

When I allow myself to reminiscence, I often get melancholy. It is easy to get sad when you think about the good things that just aren’t here anymore.

I went to the local mall last week looking for a computer company that sold out of a kiosk on the main aisle. After walking to the end of the mall and returning and not seeing their kiosk, I asked at the information booth if they had relocated. “No,” the information specialist said, “they aren’t here any more.”

From there I went inside one of the retail stores; once the giant of retailing, I wanted to look at their electric shavers. Sadly, after five minutes of looking for a sales consultant, I realized, clerks just aren’t there anymore. So, I left without making a purchase.

Elvis has left the building.

Electronic stores no longer stock cassette players; any clerks under thirty-five years of age has no idea of what you are referring to when you tell them you have hundreds of old cassettes and want to be able to listen to them. Their quizzical look asks, “Why would any one want to listen to Earl Nightingale, Zig Ziegler, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, or Red Rider? “

When I was growing up there was a great steakhouse in my home town. It served the best bacon-wrapped filet mignon and twice baked potato one could every hope to eat. The restaurant was always crowed, but the wait was worth it. The original owners died and the next generation over. It was never the same. The quality and service just wasn’t there. Today, the restaurant isn’t there anymore!

I often remind myself that nostalgia has a place in life and the past has definitely played a role in who we are and what we do. But, in most cases, it should never play the major role in what we can become or what we can do.

The important thing to remember is that the yesterdays are gone—they aren’t here anymore—and the tomorrows are uncertain—they aren’t here yet. Therefore, make today count for something. People must realize that today is all they have and that they should maximize the moment. “Reflect upon your present blessings,” wrote Charles Dickens, “of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”

You find success not in the past but in the present. Motivational giant, Tony Robbins stated it well, “I've come to believe that all my past failure and frustrations were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.”

Yes, I found my cassette player, a Slim Line Panasonic cassette recorder plus 35 unused cassettes at a garage sale—ten dollars. I bought a new computer at Best Buy and purchased my new electric razor, without sales help, at Target. I occasionally enjoy a steak and a blooming onion at The Outback.

There are a lot of people, places and things that aren’t here anymore. Some people call this progress. The same people offer “change” as a synonym. But I am not certain that all change is advancement. I certainly prefer my laptop computer to the old IBM Selectric typewriter; High Definition TV beats my old Philco black and white TV; cable and rabbit ears aren’t even comparable; cell phones and the old 5-lb. dial phone on a party line are generations apart. There are a lot of things that are better described as, “not being here anymore.”

Maybe, in the name of progress, we have gone a little overboard. Courtesy is on the endangered list—seldom is it exhibited anymore. Customer service is about as rare as a, “Thank you.” Quality left with the craftsman. Giving has been replaced by getting. The importance of “You” has been replaced with the self-indulgent, “Me”. Rock-solid values have been superseded with situational ethics.

Compromise might be a good idea when it comes to the new vs. the old. Advances in engineering and production, without a doubt, improved our standard of living. But advances in communications have not necessarily improved our ability to transmit ideas and feelings.

I think I will pick up my cell phone and call an old friend and just say, “I appreciate all you do for me.”
HOG THOUGHT: It will never be said of people and organizations that are good at blending the past with the present that “they just aren’t here anymore.” People and organizations that bet on change hedge their bet by building on the best of the past using new applications and innovative twists to give the market what it wants. There is really nothing new, just the rearrangement of the old in a new way.

HOG QUOTE: “Nothing revives the past so completely as a smell that was once associated with it.” — Vladimir Nabokov

HOG ACTION: If you want to be a player five years from now you will not forget the sounds, sights, smells, and touch of today. But, stay relevant by capitalizing on how your customer relates to the sounds, sights, smells and touch of his or her yesterdays.