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Today is my official growing-older day! But as you know: old is gold, so I am becoming vintage by the year (and so are you). When you are thinking about your birthday some random thoughts may arise. From: “My birth month was probably the greatest month to be born in” to the obvious: “Greatest day of the year”. A step further is thinking a bit more serious about the actual events that happened the day you were born. For example: What song was on the #1 position in the hit charts.

I did some research and these were the songs that were on the #1 position on my birthday:

1) US (via Billboard):
Huey Lewis and the News – Stuck with you

2) UK ( via UK Single charts):
The Communards – Don’t leave me this way

3) Dutch Charts (via Michajans.nl):
Bruce Hornsby & the Range – The way it is

So the first one is definitely not my favorite song in history. As much as I love cheese, I don’t like cheesy songs. On the other hand everyone (in my family) was ofcourse happy to be stuck with me since September 25th, so we can take that one literally. And well…I can live with number 2 and 3. These are classics that I hear on the radio, especially at the end of the year when all the lovely Best-Songs-Of-All-Time charts come along. So, that was a piece of my official music chart history.

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For some things one blogpost just isn’t enough. A while ago I explained to you where my vintage fascination came from. One fine day in my personal history (2 weeks ago), I was half-awake and scrolling through my facebook timeline with one eye open. (People who are smiling right now will understand). That morning, one picture about the 1950s gave me a wake-up call. The picture was taken from and old movie scene and had a caption like: “Why didn’t I grew up in the 1950s”. The discussion below the picture was actually quite interesting. Some people resented the statement and pointed out issues like racism, discrimination and the disadvantaged position of women. Although I obviously know how much these issues (unfortunately) were alive and kicking back in the day, I don’t agree with the comments. But…it got me thinking and led to this sequel of the origin of my vintage fascination v.s. the present.

If you think we are living in “The Best Era”, think again (or just watch the news). Just like there are no perfect people, I believe there is also no perfect era to live in. Every era has its darkside and its charm. The 1950s had it and we also have it right now. Right now we are living in an era with a lot of possibilities, remarkable technological innovations (hello Apple smartwatch, drones and Google glass) and other luxuries. We have so many choices and possibilities that 24 hours in a day are not enough. However, while you are reading this post, someone else may be neglected, bullied or worse or and another person just feels unhappy with his/her life. Racism may be gone (officially in most countries), but bullying is not. We have a lot of communication channels, but sometimes we forget to really talk to each other. Most of us (in the West) have a lot of opportunities to educate ourself and earn more. However, sooner or later we all find out that money is handy and needed (to pay the rent, your house, plane ticket and walk-in-closet…), but you can’t buy happiness.

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