Nostalgia. Steven King. No one does nostalgia better than Steven King (even if his tales are meant to scare the piss out of you). When he writes about a specific era, the reader is transported (in a Delorean?) to that era. You can feel it, taste it, see it, smell it. It just envelopes you. You are there. He absolutely nails the As American as Apple Pie nostalgia of the late 1950s/early 60s in “11/22/63” that so many in our society yearn for.
And then he bursts that bullshit bubble. The late 50’s and early 60’s were awesome. Except they weren’t awesome for everyone. “Colored” people still had separate but equal facilities. Small town WASPy America judged the hell out of single adults in consensual sexual relationships. Queer folks were still very much in the closet. Things were awesome for middle class white suburbanites, but marginalized people were absolutely shunned and treated horribly. King did a damned good job of contrasting the romanticized version of a perfect America with the realities of a segregated society.
But Mr. Gardener, what does this have to do with gardening? One of the things that I have noticed since I started posting on and interacting with others on “garden Instagram” is that lots and lots of people post romanticized nonsense about “reconnecting with our past and getting back to the land.” The past they seem to want to reconnect with is some version of early 20th century America where everyone grew their own food and knew how to preserve it. The same early 20th century America where the average life expectancy was 50, childhood mortality rates were insanely high (it absolutely skews the average life expectancy rate), malnutrition was common, and child labor laws didn’t exist. Just like the perfect Americana of the soda shop 1950s was only perfect for some people, the same can be said about the idyllic vision of the agrarian America of the late 19th and early 20th century. The reality is that life was harsh and it sucked for many, many Americans.
I absolutely enjoy growing my own food and preserving it. Gardening is my hobby. I have an entire shelving unit in my shed to store my canning supplies. I do that stuff because I like it. Full stop. While browsing Instagram the other day, I saw a meme with that said “Food preservation should be taught in school”. Sure, if it’s an elective. It’s a cool and useful skill, but it isn’t a necessary skill. More people knew how to do it in the past, but the reality is that most people didn’t. Folks that grow their own food and preserve it need to stop acting like they are doing some noble deed and reconnecting with the past. It just isn’t true. On garden Instagram, we need to burst the bullshit bubble and stop acting like the past that we are supposedly trying to reconnect with was awesome.
