brin
Super Member
Yes they were the good ole days and I am so thankful I was born when I was....I fear many will never know the freedoms we had...they are mostly gone now.
Were They Really the Good Old Days?
- Thread starter smstonypoint
- Start date
- Views: 16341
Yes they were the good ole days and I am so thankful I was born when I was....I fear many will never know the freedoms we had...they are mostly gone now.
I have 5 kids (now married with children) and am truly concerned that all the opportunities afforded me will not be available to them. Starting out, my house payment was $360/month, gas was 19 cents/ gallon, car and home insurance was reasonable. I understand that I made a whole lot less money and could afford these things but my kids have college degrees and make a bunch more money than I but with everything being so expensive, I doubt they will surpass Dad's social hierarchy and move up in this world.
It's getting to where vacations are for the rich and my social class is relegated to Disney World and forget any foreign travel.
Makes you wonder why Congress members spend millions running for an office that pays $100K-$200K per year. The Government is where the money is and people are fighting for jobs there. It's the only position that has good salaries, benefits and security. Pretty sad, don't you think.....
It's getting to where vacations are for the rich and my social class is relegated to Disney World and forget any foreign travel.
Makes you wonder why Congress members spend millions running for an office that pays $100K-$200K per year. The Government is where the money is and people are fighting for jobs there. It's the only position that has good salaries, benefits and security. Pretty sad, don't you think.....
Jesse masterson
Platinum Member
Haven't read all the posts in this thread but what I've read seems mostly financial about the good old day , and how much easier it is today with mostly everybody had ac, but I would like to say the good old days are not really financial, what about when you could get help in a emergency when you need it, what about when people really cared ? What about when out children got in fist fights at school instead of going in with a gun firing random at whoever they can hit, I m not anti gun mind you so refrain in post, I know it's not the gun it's the phychological factor of many people. The good old days have nothing to do with what you have or had, but who you are inside. That's what's lacking today!
tallyho8
Super Member
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2004
- Messages
- 5,256
- Tractor
- Kubota L4400, Kubota ZD326
In the good old days, when my $100 car broke down out in the boondocks, and a car finally stopped, and an African American man got out the car, I knew he was stopping to help me. This happened to me a few times and nowdays I want to pay the favor forward but I am afraid to. 
Jesse masterson
Platinum Member
That so true , but may I take it a step farther. I would be afraid of anyone stopping to help. Seems everyone has alternative motive nowadays
It seems to me that a lot has to do with all the "newer and better" communications. Now a lot of people want to text or email someone or forgodsake, communicate via facebook, then some will take the time to pull the cell phone out of the pocket and actually take to another.
Back then, you had to go the house to use the phone and if you had a party line, you might not even be able to make a call when you wanted. Just about every little town had some type of general or grocery store, people would sit around, shoot the bull, re-establish relationships with each other. We did a lot of visiting with friends and family, you went to their house and spent some real quality time with them.
At least back in those days, you had real friends, not contacts. Even though communication methods were worse, it seems that everybody knew about everybody else and if someone needed help, then there would always be someone of that crowd that would give the help.
Family get togethers were at a house, usually wound up at the dinner table instead of a restaurant.
As a side note, back in those days when everybody usually wound up at the local store (we called ours the liars club), there wasn't as much crime because eventually it would be found out and you just didn't want that to happen to you or your family.
Back then, you had to go the house to use the phone and if you had a party line, you might not even be able to make a call when you wanted. Just about every little town had some type of general or grocery store, people would sit around, shoot the bull, re-establish relationships with each other. We did a lot of visiting with friends and family, you went to their house and spent some real quality time with them.
At least back in those days, you had real friends, not contacts. Even though communication methods were worse, it seems that everybody knew about everybody else and if someone needed help, then there would always be someone of that crowd that would give the help.
Family get togethers were at a house, usually wound up at the dinner table instead of a restaurant.
As a side note, back in those days when everybody usually wound up at the local store (we called ours the liars club), there wasn't as much crime because eventually it would be found out and you just didn't want that to happen to you or your family.
Loren49
Veteran Member
U.S. Gas Price History: From 25 Cents to Nearly $5 a Gallon
1919: Gas prices were 25 cents per gallon
1946: Highway statistics were kept; gas still 27 cents per gallon
1974: Average gas price went above 50 cents for the first time in the United States
Inflation Calculator | Find US Dollar's Value from 1913-2014
Today's value of $360 house payment in 1919 is about $4850
Today' value of $360 in 1946 is about $4300
Today's value of $300 in 1974 is about $1700
The good old days weren't that good.
14. WERE THE GOOD OLD DAYS ALL THAT GOOD?
WERE THE GOOD OLD DAYS ALL THAT GOOD?
The good old days. Were they the 1950痴? Or before any of us were born? We tend to romanticise the past if for no other reason than we were younger then. A very selective memory also tends to create myths about the past.
The idea of a Golden Age buried somewhere in the past is also part of the mythology and story-telling of almost every national and cultural group. When we go back to the earliest recordings of human history we find that the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks or Hebrews all had their sacred stories of a golden age just as the Australian Aborigines have their Dreamtime. In more recent history, national or cultural groups have created their own golden age of noble beginnings.......
What about the golden age of Early Modern life before the onset of the industrial revolution? Films can easily give us romantic images of beautiful people living in harmony with nature. Princeton historian Lawrence Stone tarnishes that myth with this account::
The almost total ignorance of both personal and public hygiene meant that contaminated food and water was a constant hazard. The result of these primitive sanitary conditions was constant outbursts of bacterial stomach infections, the most fearful of all being dysentery, which swept away many victims of both sexes and of all ages within a few hours or days?he prevalence of intestinal worm were a slow, disgusting and debilitating disease that caused a vast amount of misery and ill-health?nother fact of Early Modern life which is easy to forget is that only a relatively small proportion of the adult population at any given time was both healthy and attractive, quite apart from the normal features of smell and dirt?oth sexes must very often have had a bad breath from the rotting teeth and constant stomach disorders which can be documented from many sources, while suppurating ulcers, eczema, scabs, running sores and other nauseating skin diseases were extremely common and often lasted for years. (Cited by Bjorn Lomberg, The Skeptical Environmentalist, p.53)
No wonder archivist Otto L. Bettman actually wrote a book called The Good Old Days: They were Terrible.
People have not changed significantly from any good old days. I find many are willing to help out when there are problems and most care for their families and just try to get along. Overall our most pressing problem is that we are spoiled. How many people in the good old days had the luxury of a $20,000 4WD tractor? We had a JD60 and JDA as our only tractors on a 250 acre dairy farm.
Loren
Loren
ultrarunner
Epic Contributor
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2004
- Messages
- 29,049
- Tractor
- Cat D3, Deere 110 TLB, Kubota BX23 and L3800 and RTV900 with restored 1948 Deere M, 1949 Farmall Cub, 1953 Ford Jubliee and 1957 Ford 740 Row Crop, Craftsman Mower, Deere 350C Dozer 50 assorted vehicles from 1905 to 2006
Of course the honest answer is Yes and No.
vabiker23518
Gold Member
As one who is approaching "golden age" (I'm sixty) I remember paying 32 cents average for a gallon of gas. I've seen gas wars where the price was 15 cents/gallon! And I remember being excited to earn $3.60 an hour with a summer government job in 1973! Before that I would cut lawns in the neighborhood for $2 to $3.50 depending on their size. I went to the local savings and loan as a 15 year old (around 1968) and wanted to buy a $1,000 CD; the teller was amazed that someone my age could afford a CD! For me, they were the good old days!!!
ultrarunner
Epic Contributor
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2004
- Messages
- 29,049
- Tractor
- Cat D3, Deere 110 TLB, Kubota BX23 and L3800 and RTV900 with restored 1948 Deere M, 1949 Farmall Cub, 1953 Ford Jubliee and 1957 Ford 740 Row Crop, Craftsman Mower, Deere 350C Dozer 50 assorted vehicles from 1905 to 2006
The discount station near our home was always 24.9 a gallon for regular around 70-71
I saved and saved to open a CD and the bank branch manager said he would be working for me someday... this was when I was riding a bike and before I was old enough for a Driver's license.
Got a motorcycle permit because it let me drive to school at age 15 1/2.
The last vestiges of that filling station were taken out last year... a trip to the bank has customers talking through plexiglas...
A nearby bank acutally puts customers through a holding cell to enter... you walk in and close the door and then someone inside has to buzz the next door open... this is a big bank... not some out of the way hole in the wall...
Then again, the post office is all plexi glass too.
No matter what anyone says... we did lose going forward.
Loren49
Veteran Member
In my area of Northern NYS there is no plexiglass in banks, post office's or convenience store/gas stations. Over last two winters we traveled from NY to Texas(last year) and NY to Florida pan handle and may have seen plexigas at one service station-Indiana. We didn't spend much time in higher population density areas.
Two significant changes from 1973 to 2014
https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?dsrcid=225439
US population has increased from about 214,000,000 to 320,000,000 - 50% increase.
World population 4 billion to 7 billion.
Earth..same size
Federal Minimum Wage Rates, 1955
Minimum wage corrected to 1996 dollar
1973 - $5.65
2013 - $4.87
Inflation Calculator | Find US Dollar's Value from 1913-2014
$3.60 per hour in 1973 would be $18.89 today. Not a bad Government wage for a 15 year old. Those were good days for you.
1973 oil crisis: When gas prices shot up to 55 cents | Photos from the Vault | SanLuisObispo.com
Stories about fuel economy and gas shortages became common in late 1973 and early 1974.
At that time, it was a shock when gas prices climbed to 55 cents per gallon. The new national speed limit would be 55 miles per hour. ---Gas lines, alternate days to be able to buy gas!!! Lots of unhappy people. Price increase of 200% to 300% in a short time.
In 1973 we had just purchased a very run down farm and worked 7 days a week to get our dairy farm going. I figured we were making near minimum wage ($1.60/hr). Wife and I were 24 years old and had 2 young children. Those were good years for us...lots of work, little money, good friends and good times and we were 40 years younger.
If I had to struggle like that now I would certainly feel they were the good old days.
Loren
Two significant changes from 1973 to 2014
https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?dsrcid=225439
US population has increased from about 214,000,000 to 320,000,000 - 50% increase.
World population 4 billion to 7 billion.
Earth..same size
Federal Minimum Wage Rates, 1955
Minimum wage corrected to 1996 dollar
1973 - $5.65
2013 - $4.87
Inflation Calculator | Find US Dollar's Value from 1913-2014
$3.60 per hour in 1973 would be $18.89 today. Not a bad Government wage for a 15 year old. Those were good days for you.
1973 oil crisis: When gas prices shot up to 55 cents | Photos from the Vault | SanLuisObispo.com
Stories about fuel economy and gas shortages became common in late 1973 and early 1974.
At that time, it was a shock when gas prices climbed to 55 cents per gallon. The new national speed limit would be 55 miles per hour. ---Gas lines, alternate days to be able to buy gas!!! Lots of unhappy people. Price increase of 200% to 300% in a short time.
In 1973 we had just purchased a very run down farm and worked 7 days a week to get our dairy farm going. I figured we were making near minimum wage ($1.60/hr). Wife and I were 24 years old and had 2 young children. Those were good years for us...lots of work, little money, good friends and good times and we were 40 years younger.
If I had to struggle like that now I would certainly feel they were the good old days.
Loren
2LaneCruzer
Epic Contributor
I think one thing that makes them the "Good 'ol days" for me is a nostalgia that I can never recapture. In 1949, I was 11 years old, my little Bud was 7. We lived in SW Missouri in a rented 2 story farm house that was at the top of a flint hill near Pierce City. We got snowed in for days at a time; we were lucky, we had electricity and running water, but no hot water. Baths were torture for me; I hate cold weather and a cold bath is almost intolerable.
We moved there in the Summer; wild blackberries were ripe everywhere along the right of way, so we had a family outing to pick blackberries. We were practically eaten alive by ticks and chiggers...what a welcoming committee.
There were no close neighbors, so my brother and I had to play together; we didn't always get along very well, sometimes but we had our BB guns and our imagination. One of my fondest memories is sleeping in the upstairs room. With no central heat, it was cold...the only heat came from downstairs through a floor vent, that is when there was any. Summer was different; it was comfy and cozy and we could sleep in.
I can still recall waking up early on a Saturday morning; it was always quiet, no TV and certainly no radio in the mornings. I could smell breakfast cooking and smell the coffee through the floor vent as it was perking in the kitchen down below, and we could hear Mom and Dad's muffled voices as they discussed what ever parents discussed before breakfast early in the mornings. I have played that over in my mind a million times...Mom, Dad and my little Bud are all gone now, and wish that I could...one more time...give them all a big hug and tell them that I love them.
We moved there in the Summer; wild blackberries were ripe everywhere along the right of way, so we had a family outing to pick blackberries. We were practically eaten alive by ticks and chiggers...what a welcoming committee.
There were no close neighbors, so my brother and I had to play together; we didn't always get along very well, sometimes but we had our BB guns and our imagination. One of my fondest memories is sleeping in the upstairs room. With no central heat, it was cold...the only heat came from downstairs through a floor vent, that is when there was any. Summer was different; it was comfy and cozy and we could sleep in.
I can still recall waking up early on a Saturday morning; it was always quiet, no TV and certainly no radio in the mornings. I could smell breakfast cooking and smell the coffee through the floor vent as it was perking in the kitchen down below, and we could hear Mom and Dad's muffled voices as they discussed what ever parents discussed before breakfast early in the mornings. I have played that over in my mind a million times...Mom, Dad and my little Bud are all gone now, and wish that I could...one more time...give them all a big hug and tell them that I love them.
ultrarunner
Epic Contributor
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2004
- Messages
- 29,049
- Tractor
- Cat D3, Deere 110 TLB, Kubota BX23 and L3800 and RTV900 with restored 1948 Deere M, 1949 Farmall Cub, 1953 Ford Jubliee and 1957 Ford 740 Row Crop, Craftsman Mower, Deere 350C Dozer 50 assorted vehicles from 1905 to 2006
The plexiglass security installs are common where I live in California.
24 hour large Grocery stores willing violate the fire code by chaining all but in entrance in the evenings. I've brought it to the attention of the fire marshall who said they have to do it for loss prevention.
My first job with withholding paid $50 a week for 6 days a weeks... this was in the early 70's and minimum wage was $1.65 with an exception for students with a work permit... which I had at age 12.
weedpharma
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2008
- Messages
- 361
