I Love the Old Ways, and the Old Things

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e-roll (like my kids do at times), but I have taken the trouble to make my own writing paper from banana-pulp, and plan to do that again. Paper. Why would we need paper? Everything is electronic, n’est ce pas? But I have found that even the younger generation appreciates a hand-written note for birthdays, or Christmas.I love good pens, especially fountain pens, and especially old ones. I will trade a good deal for a good Mont Blanc, or even an older Cross fountain pen — the newer Cross fountains are crap.Even though I no longer have the time or the energy for my usual big kitchen garden, I still like to grow my own herbs — basil, dill and parsley. I do that indoors. I simply can’t stand paying $7.00 to$ 15.00 per ounce for herbs I use every day. An herb garden, not to mention a full kitchen garden, is a very old idea and practice; and it hurts me that I am missing a big kitchen garden for the first time in almost 20 years.You wish to appreciate old ways? Spend a couple hours watching YouTube videos on the still-extant Japanese sword-making craft. One can make a katana (what we all call a samurai sword) or a wakizashi (called by some a hari-kari knife, to perform seppuku) or a tanto, and mass produce them — but even to this day there are true craftsman who follow the old

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ways and make spectacular blades just as they were made 2000 years ago, or more. Or watch a TimeTeam video — British archaeology.Movie buff, are you? A Kill Bill fan, yes? Me too. So we’ve all heard of the nearly-sacred Hattori Hanzo sword, right? That was a great part of the movie, and there was an historical Hattori Hanzo — but he was not a sword-maker. He was a Samurai in the middle 16th century, and although he certainly made a name for himself, the Hanzo sword was a cinematic invention by Tarentino for the Kill Bill movies. It was great cinema, even if it was bad history. But it seemed old, so I liked it.Old stuff: old books, old tapestries, old paintings, old carpets, old pens, old lamps and old shades, old watches and jewelry…and I have always even liked old people; rather a wonderful alignment now that I am myself old, right?Many years ago I sat on a stoop in front of an apartment building in Philadelphia and spoke with a number of old men who gathered there, as old men will— asking them what they knew, what they did, what they recalled, what they thought and what they had to say to a young man.They told me I had much to learn…and to always remember the old ways and old things.They were right; and so I have.</article></body>

I am old, trying to keep up; but some things are just too, too precious to forget

Mobile phones; email; I-pads and I-pods; ear buds and air buds; YouTube and Spotify; Instagram, Twitter and Tik-Tok…it goes on forever. I live with some of these “improvements” of our human lives. And they can be useful, and attractive…even addictive, and I’ve had to at least try to keep up.

Just writing on Medium is a concession to modernity, since I love writing out my thoughts on paper, and even drawing an image here or there as it applies to the text. You can’t do that on a computer very easily.

But, being an historian and archaeologist, and also (terrible, I know) a lawyer, I am by definition a lover of the old, the ancient, the archaic, the ancestral — in short, a lover of all ways and things old.

No doubt some of you will rail at this, and others may faint or engage in an extended eye-roll (like my kids do at times), but I have taken the trouble to make my own writing paper from banana-pulp, and plan to do that again. Paper. Why would we need paper? Everything is electronic, n’est ce pas? But I have found that even the younger generation appreciates a hand-written note for birthdays, or Christmas.

I love good pens, especially fountain pens, and especially old ones. I will trade a good deal for a good Mont Blanc, or even an older Cross fountain pen — the newer Cross fountains are crap.

Even though I no longer have the time or the energy for my usual big kitchen garden, I still like to grow my own herbs — basil, dill and parsley. I do that indoors. I simply can’t stand paying $7.00 to $15.00 per ounce for herbs I use every day. An herb garden, not to mention a full kitchen garden, is a very old idea and practice; and it hurts me that I am missing a big kitchen garden for the first time in almost 20 years.

You wish to appreciate old ways? Spend a couple hours watching YouTube videos on the still-extant Japanese sword-making craft. One can make a katana (what we all call a samurai sword) or a wakizashi (called by some a hari-kari knife, to perform seppuku) or a tanto, and mass produce them — but even to this day there are true craftsman who follow the old ways and make spectacular blades just as they were made 2000 years ago, or more. Or watch a TimeTeam video — British archaeology.

Movie buff, are you? A Kill Bill fan, yes? Me too. So we’ve all heard of the nearly-sacred Hattori Hanzo sword, right? That was a great part of the movie, and there was an historical Hattori Hanzo — but he was not a sword-maker. He was a Samurai in the middle 16th century, and although he certainly made a name for himself, the Hanzo sword was a cinematic invention by Tarentino for the Kill Bill movies. It was great cinema, even if it was bad history. But it seemed old, so I liked it.

Old stuff: old books, old tapestries, old paintings, old carpets, old pens, old lamps and old shades, old watches and jewelry…and I have always even liked old people; rather a wonderful alignment now that I am myself old, right?

Many years ago I sat on a stoop in front of an apartment building in Philadelphia and spoke with a number of old men who gathered there, as old men will— asking them what they knew, what they did, what they recalled, what they thought and what they had to say to a young man.

They told me I had much to learn…and to always remember the old ways and old things.

They were right; and so I have.