There is no such thing as a "simpler time". Take that glow off any dreamer or idealistic images and put it somewhere where the sun does not shine. It's personal opinion time here: the main reason the past appears so charming, so romantic, is that all the bad stuff was carefully hidden and simply not talked about - you put on the right clothes, a face sharing nothing but platitudes and you desparately worked towards the allusion that you were just like everyone else. Abuse, addiction, depression, pure meanness, egos, control freaks, mental illness, ignorance, fanaticizm, it was all there hidden behind the visage of normalcy.
I don't like old things because they make me yearn for a "better" life in the past. As an unmarried, past middle age female with no blood family and no "estate", I would very likely be dead. If alive, I would probably look like I was 90 while selling apples or begging on street corners. No thank you.
I like old things because of the energy they hold for me. The whispers of what they've seen. The reality of the lives around them, the power of the emotions. Things never spoken of have more power to fuel human emotions than anything else in the world. I like old things because every day items, that have become throw aways in our world, are quality crafted, made to last a lifetime and attractive to boot. I like them because to see what a people found attractive, what they chose to decorate their lives with, what they enjoyed seeing, tells you more about who they really were. I like old things because of the perpetual why? why do humans feel the need to decorate? From incised lines in unglazed rough pottery to hand painted translucent porcelain, humans decorate. Not only do we decorate, we seem to change our preference in style of decorations according to the world and its climate, both weather wise and human vagary wise.
That's why I like old things. They fascinate the Hades out of me.
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