A Sense of Yesterday Lost

 I recently had the chance to read a post by a long-time author friend Mona Ingram. https://www.monaingram.com/they-say-you-cant-go-back/

Her post was a repeat of one she had written several years ago that I had not had the chance to see. It recounts her time in the Hawaiian Islands from many years ago when she lived in the islands. What struck me was how her post read, how she framed the time, how it recounted a world we seem to have lost. 

As I thought on her words, it made me reflect not only on her islands but several of the places I have visited over the years, mainly on vacations since I have not lived outside of my home zone. Yet it is evident when one thinks about the places people visit or go on vacation to be it a coastal area, national parks or anything that now has become a tourist trap.

What once was has lost its innocence, its charm. It is the local charm that brought people to places like Hawaii for decades. It was unique. It was something never experienced by the vast majority of us and it called to us. The problem is, we all went.

Once pristine vistas are now crowded with corporate entities. The charm of the shore or mountain, the rolling dunes no longer belongs to the small businesses that began setting up their offerings all those years ago. Those entities have long since been replaced by the corporate world. Some try to hide behind a facade of a mom and pop shops but others simply plant their towering logos squarely in the middle of things.

The corporate entities take up the call of trying to deliver what used to be to everyone who wants a taste of what was. But that is the fallacy, the charm of a quaint luau in a small group is now a high-dollar variety show attended by hundreds. The charm has been lost, the memories faded of what we once knew, what we once experienced and longed to have again.

It will never return and our future will never know what we experienced.

What happened to T?

 Hi.

Yes, I am still here, although it has been awhile since I have posted on this site. I am hoping to change that and get back to normal here. I genuinely appreciate those who follow and read along. I apologize for my absence to date.

Now, as a writer I know there are all types of dialects that are around the world, around our country. When one is writing, to have a believable conversation, one that sounds normal to the ear, the writer must learn to write the way people speak. No one speaks 'the King's English', not here, not almost anywhere.

Unless it is something I have just completely ignored or never actually realized, a new phenomenon has caught my ear the past few years. The letter 'T' seems to be disappearing from the spoken word. I have noted it in my personal life as well as on television. It nearly bent my ear listening to someone on a program leave it out of someone's name. Even professional speakers on local news are beginning to drop the 'T'.

How do I mean? Take the name Clayton. Many now pronounce it as Clay-un. This is just one example.

I'm sure you've heard this. It is not new. I knew someone years ago who pronounced the word 'once' as 'onest'. It was nothing that irritated me like this dropping of the 'T'. I suppose it could be cultural, however I have not narrowed it down as I think it is becoming the norm to many no matter race or cultural background.

Perhaps there will come a time where small speech patterns like this do not bother me...but I doubt it.