“Wise men following the star” p.409 of Bible Story Book: A Complete Narration from Genesis to Revelation for Young and Old by Elsie E. Egermeir, published by The Warner Press, Anderson, Indiana in 1922.

The thought– which I’m sure you have thought many times– is that kids these days just don’t know very much of their own histories, customs, heritages.

Example #1: Today is January 6– Epiphany, the customary day in many Christian circles to take down and put away all of your Christmas decorations. I simply don’t understand the confusion. “It’s December 26th. It’s over! Be done with it!” Geeze. Even that infallible source Wikipedia has an entry on Epiphany.

Example #2: Mr. Big Food and I watched the final episode of the 2nd season of Saturday Night this evening. The episode aired in May 1977. During “Weekend Update,” Jane referred to the 50th anniversary of a singular event. There was then an entire skit devoted to this event: Lindbergh’s non-stop trans-Atlantic flight. I’d wager no one had to explain to viewers in 1977 who Lindbergh was. Today?

Example #2′: Not that SNL is all that remarkable in the very grand scheme of things, but shouldn’t everyone know who “Jane” is?

Example #3: This week, Mr. Big Food will have occasion to watch Shane with some younger folk. Over a year ago I posted this:

I was in the company of a handful of folks this afternoon. We watched The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Most of the folks were 21-22; three of us were 50 or 50+. (Apologies, Michael, if you are only 49.) 

The question, “Who’s seen the movie Shane?” came up. Three less-than-perfectly-smooth hands went up.

  

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I was thinking about these examples today in the context of all of the hand-wringing on the World Wide Web about changing the culture. 

For crying out loud! It ain’t all that difficult. Grab some kids, pop some corn, read some Bible stories, watch old episodes of SNL and a few crappy old Western movies.