Is it the great recession?

Well today brought all kinds of neat observations. I had coffee with a friend today and while we sat with our coffee talking about the state of the economy it occurred to me, if this is the worst recession since the great depression then the great depression couldn't have been that bad. From my vantage point in the coffee shop I was able to see streams of high end cars and trucks delivering smiling, if not down right jovial shoppers to upper end stores and shops. The movie theater was packed and the four dollar fancy coffees were being poured at an astounding rate. I had a very tough time seeing this type of activity being common during the great depression. So what is this recession we are in? Is it a real shortage of money, or is it a mortal fear of spending money on things like credit card payments and loans. Because I didn't see anyone that seemed shy to fork over some serious dollars for fluff. By "fluff" I mean the things that you really don't need, such as the items at Macy's that you could by at Walmart, or the four dollar coffee verses the $1.49 plain coffee, or the $20.00 dollars it now costs for two people to go to the movies and the additional $20.00 dollars they get you for for two popcorns and two soda's. A stream of folks headed into the "Sunglasses" store... The cheapest sunglasses they have are around thirty bucks all the way up to four hundred dollars... Are you insane???? We sit on our fat arshes and blame the Government because we are having a tough time and then slink off for a forty dollar movie with a four dollar coffee and a side of four hundred dollar sunglasses? I wonder if Teddy Roosevelt would have found the sense of humor in this. What do you think?