Where the "good Old Days' really the good old days

[LennG]

There is always a lot of debate about whether or not the Good Old Days were really that good? For those of us that go back, say to the 1950s and 1960s were they really THAT good.

My reason, we were young and had little responsibility back then. Times seemed so much more relaxed and life, in general, for me anyway, was better.

Today we have so much better technology, so much better medical care, but is life really better?

I believe there is so much more pressure today to succeed, to sort of Keep up with everyone else.

My wife and I were discussing newly marrieds today. Most HAVE to have that gorgeous wedding, have to have that wonderful home to move right into, and when kids arrive, those kids have to have the best of everything. Parents have to work just to keep up. Where is the waiting for things instead of today's -I want it right now whether or not we can afford it.

IN today's world, violence seems just out of control on so many levels. We never had mass shootings, never had these unruly marches or gatherings on a regular basis.

I just feel that the pressure to 'keep up' in today's world has made it a far more unlikeable place than what we refer to as 'the good old days.

[LennG]

I got this in an email the other day which really made me think about the entire subject. It is a bit long, but the meaning is clear

This is long story, dump it if you want, but it makes you think and is so true.


How true this is for us oldies lol!!

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much
older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic
bags are not good for the environment.
The woman apologized to the young girl and explained, "We didn't have
this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."
The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation
did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

The older lady said that she was right, our generation didn't have the
"green thing" in its day. The older lady went on to explain: Back
then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the
store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and
sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and
over. So they really were recycled.
But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Grocery stores
bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous
things. Most memorable besides household garbage bags was the use of
brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to
ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the
school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to
personalize our books on the brown paper bags.
But, too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.

We walked up
stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office
building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a
300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was
right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.


Back then we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the
throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling
machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our
clothes back in our early days.
Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not
always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't
have the "green thing" back in our day.

Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every
room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief
(remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.
In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have
electric machines to do everything for us.
When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up
old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut
the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power.
We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to
run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we
didn't have the "green thing" back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup
or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled
writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the
razor blade in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just
because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the "green thing" back
then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their
bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour
taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a
whole house did before the "green thing."

We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets
to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget
to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space
in order to find the nearest burger joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old
folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a
lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person. We don't like
being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us
off... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smart-ass who
can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.

[Bob In PA]

... and we walked two miles to school every day... uphill...  in both directions.   

[LennG]

... and we walked two miles to school every day... uphill...  in both directions.

Didn't you?  I DID.  Ask my kids.

[jimv]

I don't want to turn this into a film thing, but a good old description of the "good old days" can be found in the movie "Midnight in Paris."  In that movie, a guy gets transported into the 20s where all the literati were.  He meets a girl there & she thinks that a better time were back in the 19th Century.  In almost any generation, there are those who read about past generations that strike their fancy.

[MightyGiants]

When it comes to the good old days, a few thoughts come to mind

1)  The good old days are somewhat a function of who you are.  There are many Americans who enjoy more rights and freedom today than they did in the good old days.

2)  From my perspective the one thing I liked about the good old days was things were simpler and less regulated.  In my life I have been a bit of a jack of all trades so I have had multiple professions.   Nearly all those professions have gotten much more complicated over the decades.

3)  You mentioned the mass shootings.  I don't recall another era where America has such a serious problem but we didn't make any sort of effort to solve/fix the problem

4) There is much one can say about the newer days.  We don't really have to contemplate the world suddenly coming to an end via a nuclear war (or at least the odds are much less).   We are certainly better connected today than we were years ago.     As a Giants fan, it's nice to have fans I can talk to Giants with from all over the world.  It's nice not to have to wait for that Giants weekly to arrive to get all my Giants news

5) One strange thing in my perspective is we have become both more considerate (we don't tell ethnic and racist and bigoted jokes anymore) but somehow we seem like a meaner less civil society.   Then I think back to things like the hippies vs the anti-hippies, the race right protests and race riots, and the Vietnam war and appreciate that we have been divided pretty badly in the past.


6) I will really say we have many more leisure options than we did in the past, and that is perhaps a good thing (although I don't rule it out as a bad thing).   I mean for decades I would march in parades in town (and out of town) but it seems like parades are becoming a relic of the past. 

7)  I feel sorry for this generation and the crushing student debt so many of them start out life with

[DaveBrown74]

I feel like every generation longs for the old days and thinks the current generation is lazy, entitled, superficial, or otherwise somehow warped. Look at how older people in the 60s hated hippies. Then the hippie types resented yuppies and baby boomers in the 80s and gen x types in the 90s. Now people in their 40s and 50s today resent entitled millennials. And so on and so on. I think this will continue and in 2050 people will miss today's society and way of life. It is just the way people are.

[LennG]

But also, have we become too socially conscious. ?

I grew up in a very mixed environment. I am Jewish, but my best friend is Italian. We had Blacks (Negroes in those days) as great friends who lived down the block. We even had an Asian girl, living on our block who we all hung out with together. (She was Chinese back then)We had enough kids to form our won baseball team and we could have labeled it the United Nations team. That said, we  ALWAYS made fun of each other and laughed our heads off doing it. We weren't mean about it, just kidding among good friends. Is that a bad thing. Today it is but back then it sort of cemented our friendships.
In today's world, you can't say squat about anyone, even in jest. Someone mentioned some t time back that comedians like Don Rickles and many like him wouldn't be able to perform today.
Is that a good thing?

I always felt if you should be able to laugh at, and with friends. Do we take too many things way too seriously?