Wasn’t It a Bit Like Now (Parallel ’23)

Silly bubbles effervesce
In the mothball smell of a beaded dress
The "Oh, you kids", the marathon
The bathtub gin, hungover dawns

The round-framed picture, the flat straw hat
The long-nosed roadster and a mile and then a flat
The bell-bottom pants, the fine silk vest
Are all tucked away in a cedar chest

Ah-ha-ha, ah-ha-ha
Ha-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha, ha-ha, ah, ah
Wasn't it a bit like now?
Huh, Mom? Huh, Dad?
Are all the mem'ries really gone?
Gone are the best darn times
I'll bet you ever had

Instead of "groovy" it was "bean"
And "Jeepers, it's wild"
It just doesn't seem that different now
The why's are the same, it's just a question of how
Doesn't it seem a little bit like now?
I pose this question to your archin' brow
Huh, Mom? Huh, Dad?

(Wow) Cosmetic progress intensifies
The "so cool" look in my baby's eyes
The far-out kids, the kicks they're on
Obsolete sins, new world's dawn

Three pictures for a quarter in your Carnaby hat
Jet-propelled cars on the Bonneville Flats
Slender legs in their paisley best
All tucked away in her minidress

Ah-ha-ha, ah-ha-ha
Ah-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha, ah, ha
Wasn't it a bit like now?
Huh, Mom? Huh, Dad? (Huh, Mom? Huh, Dad?)
Are all the mem'ries really gone?
Gone are the best darn times
I'll bet you ever had

Instead of "groovy" it was "bean"
And "Jeepers, it's wild"
It just doesn't seem that different now
The why's are the same, it's just a question of how, ah
Doesn't it seem a little bit like now?
I pose this question to your archin' brow
Huh, Mom? (Huh, Mom?) Huh, Dad?