"I love this stuff because (as others have said above me) its so evocative -- and not only of our own families and experiences, but of an America that possibly never actually existed. A simpler, less ironic time, when an Instamatic Camera was the height of high-tech, and when Main Streets were filled with mom and pop operations like this one, proudly (and you can tell by the photos that they are indeed proud -- and rightly so) owned and operated by that family that lived down the street or around the corner from you.

I don't know about you, but I think a lot of us are nostalgic for that sort of idealized time when The American Dream was actually an achievable reality, and when being middle class in America actually meant that you could look forward to a comfortable middle age. I'm happy for the people in these photos -- they've worked hard, achieved something, built their dream home and raised a family -- and they clearly love one another.

The great secret is, of course, that there was really no 'simpler time' in America. I have no doubt that these people had problems much like our own -- cousin Bill there grew his hair long like a girl, he bought a VW Microbus and never seems to have a girlfriend (but we don't talk about that), Uncle George drinks a bit too much at those Friday night poker games, Uncle Walter had a stroke, and Marion wonders how her life would have been different if she'd been able to write like she wanted too, instead of being a housewife all her life. Its a struggle to keep the store going, and soon their son or a neighbor's son will be killed in Vietnam and everything will go to hell. After all, its December of 1968, and soon Disco will come (but they don't know it).

But yet, there they are, with their tidy interiors and formal dinner parties, and trips to Paris that she always dreamed of. How can we mock them? In many ways they have a life we'll never have -- a life of leisure and slow-moving information; a life where personal letters still came in the mail. They live in a time where innovation is still a novelty, and changes to society come at a pace where you have time to take them in and adapt to them before more changes come.

Superiority? No way. Their lives are, in many ways, vastly superior to mine and I'm humbled by what I know of them."