Etched Magazine Fall Issue 2018
A Simpler Time: Where the Spirit of the Southwest Resides
I always knew summer was drawing to a close when the ‘back to school’ advertisements began to appear on the television. When our children were younger, my husband and I wrapped our lives around their school-year calendar. We tried to make the most of each summer with them while still having to work long and strenuous hours in our landscape company. There was angst in my heart as that ‘first day of school’ approached wondering if I gave those four beautiful little humans my best during that precious time? One last-ditch effort for a final moment together was a weekend trip to Las Vegas for ‘back-to-school’ shopping. It was a process. And I found joy in watching the kids search for hours upon hours for that perfect binder and a new pair of shoes.
A commercial aired recently that caught my attention; a sign of the times. A short synopsis of the 30-second advertisement goes something like this: a mom walks into the bedroom of her son who appears to be a pre-teen. He is lying on his bed playing a video game. The mom is holding a tablet (not a flat slab of stone for inscription—but a small device such as the iPad) and states that it is, “time to go shopping for school supplies.” The boy sits up. She hands him her tablet (not the kind you swallow—but that small computer thing). He looks at the tiny computer, hits with his finger a few virtual buttons on the screen (not the kind that prevents bugs from coming in open windows), and hands the tablet (we are all on the same page with what this is, right?) back to his mom exclaiming, “There you go!” Mom in turn smiles, a bit surprised even, that it took him under five seconds to make choices that once took my kids an entire weekend to make. I recall the words of the great Dr. Seuss, “How did it get so late so soon?” Theodor Seuss Geisel, was a man of many words. However, his success as an author developed from a friendly challenge to do more with less. It was May of 1954, as the story goes, when Life magazine published a report concerning illiteracy among school children. The report noted that children were struggling to read because their books were boring. The report prompted Geisel’s publisher to send Geisel a list of 400 words that the publisher felt were first-grade reader appropriate, then asked Geisel to cut the list down to 250 words and write a book. Nine months and 220 pre-selected words later, Geisel published The Cat in the Hat which became an instant success. In 1960, Bennett Cerf, one of the founders of the publishing firm Random House, bet Geisel $50 that he couldn’t write another book, this time only using only fifty words. The result was Green Eggs and Ham. It is said that Cerf never paid the $50 from the bet.
So, “How did it get so late so soon?” How did we go from turning the pages of books over minutes, hours, and even days to swiping our finger across a screen (the computer one, remember)? And when did the first day of school become such a huge production? From enormous banners stretching across front yards to elaborate photo shoots with backdrops and props, my social media feeds are filled with images posted by rockstar moms who have captured the moment with complete fanfare. As I look back through my pictures (that were printed from film and kept in a file box), I was lucky to have caught a few of those moments, minus the hoopla. But what I do vividly recall at the beginning of each school year, was hugging each of my kids goodbye before they headed down the street with their friends for that first day. Then, I would sit on the steps of our front porch and watch them walk away through my teary eyes until they rounded the corner out of sight.
Memories. Nostalgia. A simpler time? Technology has provided the simplest use of time ever in history. But does time saved suffice for the loss of raw experience? The answer to that question is simply circumstantial and based upon how we individually view and value our time.
This issue of Etched is heartfelt; we believe it brings us, as in humanity, together. Our Fall Issue shares the southwest life in its truest of spirit, stripped down, without fanfare or production. As you turn page by page you will discover stories that speak plainly, and sometimes painfully, of people and places where life reflected a simpler time. The imagery in this issue conveys the pure goodness of this extraordinary place we call “home” and the people who live here working together as one. In a single word, it is moving.
The older I grow the faster life moves. My grandchildren are now heading off to school. “How did it get so late so soon?” In a decade or so, someone will pick up this issue of the magazine and ask themselves the very same question. Tablets will most likely be obsolete (so we won’t have to worry about that one). But I will still be sitting on my steps cherishing the irreplaceable images that linger in my mind of my children during my “simpler time.”
Darci, Editor in Chief