Perspective

What do you think when you view this Photo?Or this one?This one?Or how about this one?

Or this one?

To those who lived in the early 1900s, these pictures were merely reflections of the times. Halloween. A circus. People having fun.

But to us imaginative people of the 2023s, these images are downright creepy.

Take the first picture.. This pic showed up on a Facebook feed, and I couldn’t help but do a double take. Is this a mom in a Halloween costume? A nod to the goat/deer goddess of the woods? Do they even know the antlered dudette is there?

Selection number two: a ventriloquist. Simple throw-your-voice entertainment. But what kind of dummy is this dummy? Was the dummy supposed to have a clown face? A kinda beat up one at that?

The third one. Clowns were a big thing at the turn of the century. This is the famous Lon Chaney posing for a picture from 1924. This is supposed to be a friendly clown. Really? With that hair? That squished body? Would you want your kids to go up and hug him?

The fourth one. Innocent trick-or-treaters. Wearing tightly pulled rubber masks. Just hanging around. Do they  look adorable to you? Loveable? Innocent? Do they even know what they look like?

The fifth one. A crying baby head with a mouth bigger than Lake Michigan. Who would traumatize their kid making them hug something like that?

We are all victims of our own generation. What was normal a hundred years ago is often unfathomable to those of us in the 2023s. Who would dress their kids like that? Think that the uglier the better? Of the photos I didn’t post, why did the whole community wear gas masks? Take pictures with their dead relatives? Crucify someone to the wall to help them overcome mental illness?

I know we do the same these days. With monster movies and CGI and special effects, the past can’t hold a candle to modern imaginations. War, shootings, starvation, all carry over generation to generation. Our ability to scare, terrorize, mind-fu%k and destroy people and the planet has never been easier.

But that’s not the point.

What we think creepy they thought funny. Or normal. I imagine they would feel the same way about today’s pierced eyebrows or stiletto heels.

You think our world is weird?

The world has always been weird.