The Good Ole Days

[Thirdeye]

Does it annoy anyone else when people talk about the good ole days, or how much better things use to be? And I'm not talking about 2-5-10 years ago, im talking about someone referring to say 1960 as being so much better than today. I don't get it. How is that the good ole days? Especially in America. Was it so much better when blacks lived in fear of being lynched? Woman were kept in line? Gays couldn't even go to bars or clubs without being rounded up. Not to mention the constant fear of nuclear war, rising anger and protests. And most people didn't even have air conditioning. How that so much better than what we have today? I'm not naive and things right now all over the world are bad, but were we really so much better off as people in 1960?

[Rilbur]

When you put it that way, it really doesn't sound that great!

 

Of course, if you were a white, male, straight American I imagine it was quite good Economy was booming, people were upheld to a 'higher' standard of conduct, those uppity women knew better than to cause trouble in your house, etc etc.

[Thirdeye]

When you put it that way, it really doesn't sound that great!

 

Of course, if you were a white, male, straight American I imagine it was quite good Economy was booming, people were upheld to a 'higher' standard of conduct, those uppity women knew better than to cause trouble in your house, etc etc.

 

 

 

Although even white males had to deal with the constant threat of nuclear destruction(coming pretty close in 1962), and a lot of white males lost their lives or the lives of friends or family in Vietnam.

[MikeL]

I'll try to stay on topic. Everyone has something from the past to reminisce about. Even young adults in their twenties and thirties, slaving away in an office or on an assembly line five days a week, remember their youth when they were in school (or at least recess). There are some who are old enough can remember a less complicated, less materialistic time. If you were poor, you didn't know it because the Jones' had not yet gotten into conspicuous consumption. IMHO, everyone, even those who have been subject to discrimination, have their good ole days.

 

Is it trite to refer to the good ole days? Perhaps, but it can relieve some stress and, on rare occassion, may be enlightening for the hearers.

 

Fair warning: If you don't want to hear reminiscences about the 1940s, don't read the following.

 

Cokes 5¢ (the cola, not the white powder), Hershey bars 5¢, Saturday afternoon movies 12¢ (six cartoons, newsreel, serial adventure, and two main feature movies; if you liked the show, you could stay and see it again; our parents used the time to conceive our little siblings). Now, those were the times. Of course, our parents had grown up during the Great Depression; they may have not had any good ole days. Their frugal habits didn't register with us kids until years later when we began to accumulate stuff.

Edited July 10, 2009 by MikeL

[methodwriter85]

Nostalgia is a very natural part of my life. I loved the 80's and the 90's, and I feel like in terms of my interests pop-culturewise, those decades were a better fit for me.

 

Here's a song that nails the nostalgia urge:

 

1985 by Bowling for Soup

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnYm0EmyDVU

Debbie just hit the wall

She never had it all

One Prozac a day

Husband's a CPA

Her dreams went out the door

When she turned 24.

Only been with one man

What happened to her plan?

 

She was gonna be an actress

She was gonna be a star

She was gonna shake her ass(ass)

On the hood of White Snake's car

Her yellow SUV is now the enemy

Looks at her average life

And nothing, has been...

all right since

 

Bruce Springsteen, Madonna

Way before Nirvana

There was U2 and Blondie

And music still on MTV

Her two kids in high school

They tell her that she's uncool

Cuz she's still preoccupied

With 19, 19, 1985

 

Woo Hoo Hooooo!

(1985)

Woo Hoo Hooooo!

 

She

[Nephylim]

Nostalgia is a very natural part of my life. I loved the 80's and the 90's, and I feel like in terms of my interests pop-culturewise, those decades were a better fit for me.

 

Here's a song that nails the nostalgia urge:

 

1985 by Bowling for Soup

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=DnYm0EmyDVU

Debbie just hit the wall

She never had it all

One Prozac a day

Husband's a CPA

Her dreams went out the door

When she turned 24.

Only been with one man

What happened to her plan?

 

She was gonna be an actress

She was gonna be a star

She was gonna shake her ass(ass)

On the hood of White Snake's car

Her yellow SUV is now the enemy

Looks at her average life

And nothing, has been...

all right since

 

Bruce Springsteen, Madonna

Way before Nirvana

There was U2 and Blondie

And music still on MTV

Her two kids in high school

They tell her that she's uncool

Cuz she's still preoccupied

With 19, 19, 1985

 

Woo Hoo Hooooo!

(1985)

Woo Hoo Hooooo!

 

She's seen all the classics

She knows every line

"Breakfast Club", "Pretty In Pink"

Even "St. Elmo's Fire"

She rocked out to Wham!

Not a big Limp Bizkit fan

Thought she'd get a hand

On a member of Duran Duran

 

Where's the mini-skirt made of snakeskin?

And who's the other guy that's singing in Van Halen?

When did reality become T.V.?

What ever happened to sitcoms, game shows,

(on the radio)

 

Springsteen, Madonna

way before Nirvana

There was U2 and Blondie

And music still on MTV

Her two kids in high school

They tell her that she's uncool

Cuz she's still preoccupied

With 19, 19, 1985

 

Woo Hoo Hooooo!

 

She hates time, make it stop

When did Motley Crue become classic rock?

And when did Ozzy become an actor?

Please make this stop, stop, STOP(tick tick tick) and bring back

 

Springsteen, Madonna

way before Nirvana

There was U2 and Blondie

And music still on MTV

Her two kids in high school

They tell her that she's uncool

Cuz she's still preoccupied

With 1985

 

Woo Hoo Hooooo!

 

Bruce Springsteen, Madonna

Way before Nirvana(1985)

There was U2 and Blondie

And music still on MTV (1985) (Woohoo)

Her two kids in high school

They tell her that she's uncool (1985)

Cuz she's still preoccupied

With 19, 19, 1985

*****

 

People tend to look back at times in which their life was less complicated, and feel nostalgia for them. Nostalgia tends to go in 20-year cycles. You got 50's nostalgia in the 1970's with Happy Days, 60's nostalgia in the 1980's with shows like China Beach and the Wonder Years, 70's nostalgia in the 1990's with movies like Dazed and Confused plus that 70's show, and Eighties Nostalgia this decade with stuff like Everybody Hates Chris and the tons of 80's throwback looks we've seen. The schedule would suggest that with the turn of this decade, we'll see an increase in 90's nostalgia.

 

 

Aaaahhh nostalgia. I may be insane... thinking about it I probably am... but nostaligia for me goes back much further that that. The greatest longing I have is for a time so long gone there is not only no one alive who lived it but very few who remember it. Home is a long way and a long time away for me. Yet I think about it every day

[Mark Arbour]

Wow, does this topic resonate. I get those e-mails from a few family members now and again that pine away about the 1950's, especially, and how life was so pure and simple. The subtext of these always seems to imply that back then, there were no gay people, no one was different, while women and coloreds/negros (as they were called then) all knew their place. Those that were different had a tough row to hoe.

 

Remember the movie "Grease," where the blond/brunette/pink haired girl went to beauty school? Then she dropped out? She was evaluating her career options. She could be a waitress, a beautician, or a telephone operator. Or a secretary. But climb the corporate ladder? Ha! Not happening. Even then, she was expected to marry a nice man (or just a man) and have babies, and then stay home with them and raise them. What if she wanted a career, she didn't want to be a stay-at-home mom? Tough shit. It was her job.

 

Blacks? I could write a tome on this, but others have already. In the south, they couldn't vote, had crappy schools (an insidious way of maintaining the status quo), couldn't eat at the same places, or any other myriad of situations caused by segregation. Better in the north, but only marginally, where blacks were hustled into their own neighborhoods, and if one ventured out and moved next door to white people, he was likely to get lynched. If he didn't, the other people would all move.

 

And Gays = Closet.

 

So if you were a white male, over the age of 25, life was pretty damn good, as long as you didn't crave dick. For those guys, the 50's may very well have been the good ole days.

[Linxe Termoil]

I tend to think about the days I was in the Navy quite a bit, not because I loved the Navy. My time in the service was actually quite the opposite, I was extremely miserable, but I didn't have to worry about money all the time so much then, or what bills I was going to pay. Nostalgia. I have to look that word up, but anyways, people may not referring to how good everything was, or how simple, but about how less stressed out they were.

 

 

Jon

[Mark Arbour]

I tend to think about the days I was in the Navy quite a bit, not because I loved the Navy. My time in the service was actually quite the opposite, I was extremely miserable, but I didn't have to worry about money all the time so much then, or what bills I was going to pay. Nostalgia. I have to look that word up, but anyways, people may not referring to how good everything was, or how simple, but about how less stressed out they were.

 

 

Jon

 

Less stressed out personally, perhaps, but as a society? I don't buy it. I grew up under the constant threat of vaporization by nuclear weapons. That's pretty f**king stressful.

 

This generation may end up experiencing some of the trauma of the 60's and 70's. They had Vietnam, we have Iraq. They had the stagflation of the 70's, we have this current economic meltdown. But either way, I don't see any less stress back in "the good ole days" at a societal level. Now on a personal level, I can fully understand.

[Linxe Termoil]

Less stressed out personally, perhaps, but as a society? I don't buy it. I grew up under the constant threat of vaporization by nuclear weapons. That's pretty f**king stressful.

 

This generation may end up experiencing some of the trauma of the 60's and 70's. They had Vietnam, we have Iraq. They had the stagflation of the 70's, we have this current economic meltdown. But either way, I don't see any less stress back in "the good ole days" at a societal level. Now on a personal level, I can fully understand.

 

 

Wake up Call! We still have the threat of nuclear vaporization with North Korea running around being stupid and Iran being a bunch of pig-headed jackasses. I see one of two things happening with those two f**king countries. They either have the technology and are going to either blow themselves up, saving the rest of the world the trouble they'd have to go through to try and keep them in control, or they're going to be completely stupid and actually launch a goddamn nuclear warhead at another country and that country and or its allies is going to retaliate. You think Iraq and Afghanistan is a blood bath, you just wait and see what the death toll amounts too when something happens with North Korea or Iran. Either way I hope i'm not around to see that, because I also see the draft being brought back, and I refuse to serve this country again, simply because the last jackass in the office could have avoided alot of crap that we're going through if he'd never been in the office in the first place, and as far as I'm concerned Obama probably isn't any better.

[Hoskins]

Why do people look back at the good ole days? Because they were the good ole days, to them. You get to look at it through the lens of memory, where the bad is filtered out. Memory can be very selective.

 

To a white, Christian guy in the 60's, blacks didn't exist in their white neighborhood. They were down on the south side of town, with the rest of 'those people'. These days, that neighborhood is probably a lot more diverse, it's all different. Gays didn't exist, they were all in their closets, you never saw two dudes holding hands or any of that stuff. Now, the fairies are parading in the streets! What's the world COMING to? And what's this about my nephew having a boyfriend?? And Lisa is taking Karen to the prom?? **shakes fist** Get off my lawn!!!

 

Of course, to me, I was born in the sixties but my brain didn't really start working until the seventies, and then there were all those drugs, so really, the eighties were where I came into my own. I have a lot of fond memories of the eighties. I was in the Navy too, and it sucked. But when I look back, it was a crucible, and now I miss it. It's the same crucible that people go through in college - lots of stress, being on my own, etc - but it is a fundamental part of who I am. I don't like to remember that it was the middle of the Reagan years and his thousand ship navy, with Cheney as secretary of the Navy and being deployed to the Indian Ocean for months at a time. But when I think about the Navy, all I really like to think about are the friends I made and what they're up to now (and then you see them on Facebook and yeah, I look that much worse now too).

 

I really like the movie "Pleasantville" because it really brings home just how much has changed and just how unrealistic our current view of the past is.

 

**wanders off to find some suspenders**

[Mark Arbour]

Why do people look back at the good ole days? Because they were the good ole days, to them. You get to look at it through the lens of memory, where the bad is filtered out. Memory can be very selective.

 

To a white, Christian guy in the 60's, blacks didn't exist in their white neighborhood. They were down on the south side of town, with the rest of 'those people'. These days, that neighborhood is probably a lot more diverse, it's all different. Gays didn't exist, they were all in their closets, you never saw two dudes holding hands or any of that stuff. Now, the fairies are parading in the streets! What's the world COMING to? And what's this about my nephew having a boyfriend?? And Lisa is taking Karen to the prom?? **shakes fist** Get off my lawn!!!

 

Of course, to me, I was born in the sixties but my brain didn't really start working until the seventies, and then there were all those drugs, so really, the eighties were where I came into my own. I have a lot of fond memories of the eighties. I was in the Navy too, and it sucked. But when I look back, it was a crucible, and now I miss it. It's the same crucible that people go through in college - lots of stress, being on my own, etc - but it is a fundamental part of who I am. I don't like to remember that it was the middle of the Reagan years and his thousand ship navy, with Cheney as secretary of the Navy and being deployed to the Indian Ocean for months at a time. But when I think about the Navy, all I really like to think about are the friends I made and what they're up to now (and then you see them on Facebook and yeah, I look that much worse now too).

 

I really like the movie "Pleasantville" because it really brings home just how much has changed and just how unrealistic our current view of the past is.

 

**wanders off to find some suspenders**

 

Hilarious and true.

 

I liked Pleasantville too. I thought it summed up a lot of what was wrong back then. It took some very brave people to get us to a more open society today. Something to think about.

[Thirdeye]

Wake up Call! We still have the threat of nuclear vaporization with North Korea running around being stupid and Iran being a bunch of pig-headed jackasses. I see one of two things happening with those two f**king countries. They either have the technology and are going to either blow themselves up, saving the rest of the world the trouble they'd have to go through to try and keep them in control, or they're going to be completely stupid and actually launch a goddamn nuclear warhead at another country and that country and or its allies is going to retaliate. You think Iraq and Afghanistan is a blood bath, you just wait and see what the death toll amounts too when something happens with North Korea or Iran. Either way I hope i'm not around to see that, because I also see the draft being brought back, and I refuse to serve this country again, simply because the last jackass in the office could have avoided alot of crap that we're going through if he'd never been in the office in the first place, and as far as I'm concerned Obama probably isn't any better.

 

 

 

North Korea right now does not have the power or ability to totally destory life on earth, they could kill a community within a few thousand miles radius, but not the the extent that the united states and Soviet union could back in the 60's. In 1962 we came within an hour of having full scare nuclear war

[Conner]

You men keep this up and this thread is going straight to the Soapbox.

 

For me, the ole days were simpler, less hectic. People wrote letters then. Divorce was the exception. You usually had one employer for your whole career. You weren't "reachable" 24/7.

 

However, I will never give up my microwave and dishwasher.

[Thirdeye]

There is a difference between nostalgia and memories of your life, and what I am talking about. Most people look on their youth or times of their lives as golden years of their lives. My problem is with people who declare a entire time frame as being better than things are today. I love the 90s, i grew up in the 90s and when I'm 50-60 I am sure I'll still live the 90s and 00s. But I hope things are better than, they should be. People should evolve. The 50s were better than the 40s and 30s, and the 90s and 80s were better than the 50s.

[C.L.L]

This generation may end up experiencing some of the trauma of the 60's and 70's.

 

Like some of the drugs?

 

It's pretty stressful in either time period.

Edited July 10, 2009 by C.L.L

[Hoskins]

There is a difference between nostalgia and memories of your life, and what I am talking about. Most people look on their youth or times of their lives as golden years of their lives. My problem is with people who declare a entire time frame as being better than things are today. I love the 90s, i grew up in the 90s and when I'm 50-60 I am sure I'll still live the 90s and 00s. But I hope things are better than, they should be. People should evolve. The 50s were better than the 40s and 30s, and the 90s and 80s were better than the 50s.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. I was kind of dancing around it a little. I have a buddy, we will call him "Chet" since that is his name. Chet is the classic example of a 60s-70s era salesman. Polyester suits, smoked, drank, cheated on his wife, just a real classy guy. He is a sleazier version of the guys on "Mad Men". When I talk to Chet, it's all about how good things were in those days, America's goals were clear. His classic line is that "you knew where you stood on things". And he's living that 50's dream, but you DID know where the US stood on things - the USSR were the bad guys, the Berlin wall was eeevil, oil was cheap and those 'Arabs' weren't even on the radar. The threat to the US was very, very clear.

 

Today, the world is not so black and white. When I talk to Chet about current events he gets all wound up, because he wants a clear, sharp divide between right and wrong, wants to know who the enemy is, and wants to be assured that things aren't going to change much. But they are changing.

(this youtube clip blew his freakin mind).

 

So I think maybe he has a point - we Americans really *don't* know where we stand on things anymore. Our place in the world is changing. The Soviet Union fell, the wall came down, the terrorists flew into the buildings and - even since then - there is a big divide between pre- and post - 9/11 thinking.

 

*tries to find reading glasses*

[Linxe Termoil]

I don't know where everyone else stands but I know where I stand. I stand in the place that I grew up and I keep going day to day the way I usually do and I try not to think about what everyone else is doing because what they do is outside my sphere of influence. I control the things I do and nothing else. I look at America and our past and our present and I say it's time to go back to Pre WW2 and do what they did then. Butt out of everyone elses business. Close the doors.

 

Unfortunately we can't rewind time. But my stance still isn't changing much. America needs to stop being the police force of the world and we need to stop telling everyone else what they can and can't do.

 

I need to think about this a bit more, obviously, so I'll come back to it later. I'm gonna go get ready for work now, and decide on whether or not I'm going to continue to participate in this discussion because I don't want to blow it all out of proportion.

 

 

Apologies that I have been doing so,

 

Linxe

[Mark Arbour]

I don't know where everyone else stands but I know where I stand. I stand in the place that I grew up and I keep going day to day the way I usually do and I try not to think about what everyone else is doing because what they do is outside my sphere of influence. I control the things I do and nothing else. I look at America and our past and our present and I say it's time to go back to Pre WW2 and do what they did then. Butt out of everyone elses business. Close the doors.

 

Unfortunately we can't rewind time. But my stance still isn't changing much. America needs to stop being the police force of the world and we need to stop telling everyone else what they can and can't do.

 

I need to think about this a bit more, obviously, so I'll come back to it later. I'm gonna go get ready for work now, and decide on whether or not I'm going to continue to participate in this discussion because I don't want to blow it all out of proportion.

 

 

Apologies that I have been doing so,

 

Linxe

 

Who can resist a cute sailor? We'll forgive you. But if you want to start the subject up again, do it in the Soapbox. I'm sure there are a lot of us willing to chime in.

[methodwriter85]

Mark, I get what you mean about the societal stuff.

 

I mean, the 1960's seemed pretty cool, but eh. I don't know if I would have really wanted anything more than a visit to it.

 

Now, the 1980's? Totally different story. The flashy clothes. The music. The movies. The tv shows. TOTALLY an awesome time!

 

What I'd give for it to be 1988 again...wearing my acid-washed dreams and watching an MTV that still had music on it and a Michael Jackson that still looked human.

[JamesSavik]

Cancel my subscription to the resurrection..

-Jim Morrison

 

Hurray i awake from yesterday

Alive but the war is here to stay

So my love catherina and me

Decide to take our last walk thru the noise to the sea

Not to die but to be reborn

Away from the lands so battred and torn

Forever forever

-Jimi Hendrix

 

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Buddha

 

 

Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity.

Robert Morgan

 

Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.

Albert Camus

[Rilbur]

Just as a joke... (And I'll admit it's probably only funny because I really did have the story idea the other day, and just couldn't make it 'work' because I don't see Obama instituting the draft... period the end!)

 

Either way I hope i'm not around to see that, because I also see the draft being brought back, and I refuse to serve this country again, simply because the last jackass in the office could have avoided alot of crap that we're going through if he'd never been in the office in the first place, and as far as I'm concerned Obama probably isn't any better.

 

You can probably avoid the draft pretty easily; I just had an amusing story idea the other day that revolves around the draft being instituted, and the main character deffering himself on 'moral' grounds: "I won't serve in the military because DADT prevents me! I'm telling you I'm gay!"

[Linxe Termoil]

Just as a joke... (And I'll admit it's probably only funny because I really did have the story idea the other day, and just couldn't make it 'work' because I don't see Obama instituting the draft... period the end!)

 

 

 

You can probably avoid the draft pretty easily; I just had an amusing story idea the other day that revolves around the draft being instituted, and the main character deffering himself on 'moral' grounds: "I won't serve in the military because DADT prevents me! I'm telling you I'm gay!"

 

 

Heh. You know, I've been thinking about this all evening and when you said you had a story idea, I kind of got one too. Alas, I just wish I had Mark's flair for writing stories set in history, because I'm thinking of a story involving a draft dodger, and more and more keeps coming to me. Pity, I don't think I'll ever write it.

 

Regards,

 

Jon

[Graeme]

Let's keep politics out of this discussion, if possible, or Conner is right and the thread will be moved to The Soapbox, and I personally think it's better here in The Lounge.

 

Hoskins is right about people seeing the past through rose-coloured glasses -- they remember the good times and often forget the bad. Also, they were, almost universally younger in the 'good old days' and most of us would like to be young again.

 

However, moving to what Thirdeye has ask, where people use the phrase of 'the good old days' from a societal point of view, rather than an individual point of view, I think the same issue applies. People think that in those days life was simpler, and hence 'nicer', but they are still remembering things through rose-coloured glasses. Several posters have pointed out the bad things that occurred during those years. The people using the phrase are remembering the good things and forgetting the bad.

 

Often the phrase is used in the context of something specific. For example, employment, education, interest rates, crime rates, etc. A person may lament about the 'good old days' when you could let your kids walk to the local park without being afraid that they would be attacked by the local hoodlums, but ignore the other aspects of life at the time (when you were afraid that a nuclear attack could occur at any time, for example). A person may lament the 'good old days' when education standards 'were higher', but ignore the fact that kids nowadays have a much broader informal education through things like the Internet.

[Krista]

I personally like hearing some of the antics and such the older generations were living. Although, comparing the two times does get a bit annoying if someone cannot stop ranting about it, so I see your point. I probably wouldn't listen to that at all, but old stories are a good thing to hear from time to time.