The weather forecast says it will rain all day. It's morning, but I'm already worried about supper. I wonder if I'll spend this rainy day thinking about Maine again.
On rainy days, I sometimes think about the time when car hoods and fenders were still rounded. It was the so-called "time when men were men and women were women." That's a concept that the conservative majority would be happy to hear. Even if it's old-fashioned, it shows that morals and rules existed as a reassuring framework. It was a time when the "society" of developed countries ran within that framework.
In those days, the fences surrounding the yards of houses were shining with fresh white paint, and the grass that caught the sparkling spray from the sprinklers was trimmed to the length of a Marine's head, a fresh green carpet spread out under the blue sky. There was not a single tarnish on the chrome plating of bicycle rims and car bumpers. Long live the glorious America.
This was the template of "the times," "society," and "the future" that was imprinted on me when I was still a child. Now, none of that remains anywhere except in my memory. I just stand there, stunned, in the burnt ruins left behind by the baby boomers.
It's raining in Tokyo today.