Were They Really the Good Old Days?

[Dr_Zinj]

Life was simple 20,000 years ago in New Hampshire.
Here's what it looked like.
View attachment Ice Age NH.bmp

 

[paulharvey]

"We Know More" ??? I seriously beg to differ. I saw a documentary from the 80s and it mentioned that never have people known or understood so little about the world they live in. Imagine how that has gotten worse today? Ever see Jay Leno interview people on the street aka Jay Walking. One guy was aksed what countries border the States, he replied Australia and Hawaii, I believe.

And people wonder why this society is going off the rails!

We do know more. We know that alternating peanuts with corn will do better than leeching N till no corn will grow. We know to keep sick people away from healthy. We have the entire knowledge of the world at our finger tips. Now, does it really matter to your daily life if you can name the nation north of us? Not really.

There is lots of ignorance in all societies, but as a whole the world and the USA has taken probably 10 steps forward and 3 steps back. We have less freedom, privacy, and have gained comfort, heallth, food, moobility, ect. You can argue that we are soft, and in the long run it will be our doom, but it hasn't got us yet.

We are following a similar track to Imperial Rome though. They where brought down in the end by comform, lazyness, uncontrolled immigration, over extended military, incompetent leaders, and devaluing their currency (the silver content was lower and lower in there coins)

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Life was simple 20,000 years ago in New Hampshire.
Here's what it looked like.
View attachment 359465

Wow! A guy could get lost in that.

 

[Industrial Toys]

People largly don't know how their cars work. ****, many don't even know how to drive them nor the laws of physics that apply to their use! Nor their cell phones, or anything electronic or even electrical for that matter. They don't know how medication works, or where their food comes from. I could go on and on and on!

Many, or dare I say most, are just stupid, mindless, dumbed down consumers who spend their free time watching REALITY shows! And NO, I certainly would not put your average Farmer into this group.

 

[jaotguy]

when was the last time you saw someone change their own flat tire ... most don't even know where the spare is , let alone what a jack looks like.

read a road map ? check the fluids in their vehicle ... air pressure in the tires ? have what was called "common sense"?

most drive by "rubber necking" whenever there is anything on the side of the road that is more interesting than grass growing ... all the while talking or texting on their phone. .....

Is having the car park itself or drive itself going to do us any good? or just allow more incompetents to get behind the wheel?

Most rural folk have been brought up to use their heads a bit, and that neighbors should help each other.... both prime examples of earlier times and thinking.

Urbanites move to the country and pave the driveways, cut down the trees and want acres of manicured lawns Paving puts oils and chemicals into the water table each time it rains. ( do they really like a tall cool glass of funny tasting water?) Manicured lawns require lots of water, drawn from the water table, to keep them looking green. ( hey, the well went dry this year ... )

I grew up poor , but not hungry... as did most of the folk around us. Things were simpler and in some cases definitely BETTER.
home cooked meals, real ice cream, apple pie, sense of community, looking out for each other, pride in workmanship.

 

[Industrial Toys]

One British traffic safety expert said that what we need is a large "spike" (said in a very heavy british accent) installed in the middle of the steering wheel, not an increasingly larger number of air bags and other safety features, if you want accident rates to go down!

 

[smstonypoint]

One British traffic safety expert said that what we need is a large "spike" (said in a very heavy british accent) installed in the middle of the steering wheel, not an increasingly larger number of air bags and other safety features, if you want accident rates to go down!

Actually, I think that idea is due to Gordon Tullock: Gordon Tullock | The Market Monetarist or http://cafehayek.com/2007/12/promoting-safe.html.

He was on the faculty at Virginia Tech while I was in graduate school there in the 1970s. He also proposed a solution that would deter students from parking illegally in faculty parking spaces. The campus police should select an illegally-parked vehicle at random, tow it to the "Drill Field' (a large open area in the middle of campus), and set it ablaze.

Steve

 

[oldballs]

I'll go for some simple stuff. How about in "the good old days", one could buy a gas can that worked (without cussing or failing parts) and lasted all my lifetime.....or one could buy some 22LR ammo any time at a fair price.

 

[Egbert]

I remember when gas stations were called service stations, not convenience stores. I remember having someone clean the windows, check the oil and tire pressure, while the fuel was pumping. I remember when families consisted of a husband, wife and children. I remember when those children came after the marriage. I remember when shacking up was disgraceful and not bragged about on Facebook.

I even remember families having evening meals together.

 

[SPYDERLK]

The old days were better. Being personally better off now doesnt change that.

 

[tcreeley]

Global Capitalism took over. Jobs went to low wage areas in the world. They started selling us cheap imports. We've had a "speedup", more for less money. If we want to hang onto our jobs, we keep our mouths shut. People work longer hours to get by, we need both parents to work. Kids are neglected, set in front of video/TV. Their peer group raises them - where they learn about drugs and ***. Fast processed food has replaced real food.
Fast processed food is packed with chemicals and GMO's. It is un-American to ask what is actually in the stuff. Business comes first, people second. Our government serves the financiers of the world. War is seen as a way to procure contracts and profits, so we are always at war.
Yet somehow people are still good people, doing their level best. This is what unites us, and gives me hope, -whether in this country or around the world. We all want to be left alone to get on with our lives, taking care of our little corners of the world.

 

[tallyho8]

Global Capitalism took over. Jobs went to low wage areas in the world. They started selling us cheap imports. We've had a "speedup", more for less money. If we want to hang onto our jobs, we keep our mouths shut. People work longer hours to get by, we need both parents to work. Kids are neglected, set in front of video/TV. Their peer group raises them - where they learn about drugs and ***. Fast processed food has replaced real food.
Fast processed food is packed with chemicals and GMO's. It is un-American to ask what is actually in the stuff. Business comes first, people second. Our government serves the financiers of the world. War is seen as a way to procure contracts and profits, so we are always at war.
Yet somehow people are still good people, doing their level best. This is what unites us, and gives me hope, -whether in this country or around the world. We all want to be left alone to get on with our lives, taking care of our little corners of the world.

I've tried to stay out of this thread since it became controversial but I have to say I agree completely with the last few sentences of this reply and I believe that if you concentrate on the good instead of the bad you will have a happier and more fulfilling life.

 

[Industrial Toys]

As far as being positive or negative goes, I always say it's like dealing with your vehicle before a road trip.

Do you focus on all this is in good repair and pretend that everything will just be hunky dory.

Or do you focus on the deficiencies?

I would opt for the latter so I don't find myself standing on the side of the road a thousand miles from home.

I don't think many people realize what a dire mess we are in (on so many levels) and what a razor edge we live on in terms of reasonable law, order and civility.

I also think many people would just prefer to live wth their heads in the sand. When the crap hits the fan (and it will) we can point at those people for having done nothing to prevent ruin.

 

[Egbert]

I don't think many people realize what a dire mess we are in (on so many levels) and what a razor edge we live on in terms of reasonable law, order and civility.
I also think many people would just prefer to live wth their heads in the sand. When the crap hits the fan (and it will) we can point at those people for having done nothing to prevent ruin.

Agreed. We are just one good crisis away from losing everything that defines America. Frankly, I don't think it can be stopped at this point. We have surrendered so much of our liberty in the name of safety that government has been loosed from its constitutional confines.

I am thankful to have lived much of my life during the times I have expressed in my recent posts to this thread - family, faith & freedom. Although I am greatly saddened to see our nation fall, I recognize that I have been blessed to experience a bit of its magnificence.

Were they really the good old days? Yes, they were. Even with the struggles of our past, we had values - the absolutes. Today, values are whatever you choose and the only absolute is moral anarchy. We are lost and those at the controls are drunk with power and twisted ideology. Our leaders have purposely set us against one another, perhaps more than at the time of the Civil War.

I remember believing this nation was purposefully blessed by God to be a beacon to the world. I remember when most of society shared that belief.

When I look at us now, it breaks my heart that I must, in fact, "remember" those things.

 

[Loren49]

Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory.
Franklin P. Adams

Read more at Good Old Days Quotes - BrainyQuote

Whatever happened to the good old days: you know, dirty attics, tuberculosis and general all-round suffering?
Arnold Wesker

Read more at Good Old Days Quotes - BrainyQuote

In every age 'the good old days' were a myth. No one ever thought they were good at the time. For every age has consisted of crises that seemed intolerable to the people who lived through them.


Brooks Atkinson quotes

Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory.
Franklin P Adams quotes


I was much younger in the good old days!

Loren

 

[Loren49]

safety - Were children safer in the good old days? - Skeptics Stack Exchange

Conclusion:

Without clearer definitions, it is impossible to give a precise answer, but it seems under a number of different measures, these are the good days when it comes to child safety.


Good Old Days Syndrome | Psychology Today

.....Try this test. The following passage was written by a well-known author for a local magazine. Take a guess at when she wrote it:

We are so overwhelmed with things these days that our lives are all, more or less, cluttered…Everyone is hurrying and usually just a little late. Notice the faces of the people who rush past on the streets…They nearly all have a strained, harassed look, and anyone you meet will tell you there is no time for anything anymore.

What’s your guess? 2013? 1990? Whenever you were growing up? Does it have you waxing nostalgic about the Good Old Days when city life was slower-paced and much more quiet?

Test over: It was written in 1924 by Laura Ingalls Wilder—while living on a farm in rural Missouri!....

So, it’s good to be on alert for Good Old Days Syndrome and to remember that life has its ups and downs, its joys and sorrows, its justices and injustices, in every era and every decade.


A lot of it is attitude.
Loren

 

[Looking4new]

I remember when gas stations were called service stations, not convenience stores. I remember having someone clean the windows, check the oil and tire pressure, while the fuel was pumping.

AND I might even get a tip for doing it, IF I did a good job on the windshield. I used to pump gas for a living. I pumped gas when I was not changing tires or fixing flats.

 

[oldballs]

AND I might even get a tip for doing it, IF I did a good job on the windshield. I used to pump gas for a living. I pumped gas when I was not changing tires or fixing flats.

Yeah, that's when you came out when someone ran over that rubber hose that rang a bell. It probably helped the business establish their other services for oil change, repairs and some good conversation.

 

[oldballs]

But..........in the good old days e.g. the Civil War, odds were that if a soldier was wounded in the leg, the leg was sawed off without anesthetic and he probably would die anyway. May God bless our soldiers today that have endured such horrors, yet are still with us.

 

[Gunny]

It looks to me that it all depends on the perspective you start at when pondering the question. Back in my young days, we had poor people in the county (we were poor also, but we didn't know it), living in shacks with outhouses, no vehicles, getting surplus foodstuffs, little or no medical care, there were two states near here that still had poor houses.
Now the poor people have air conditioned housing with running water and cable TV, free cellphones, goodly amounts of free food, medical care and there's usually a new or at least descent vehicle parked outside.

I'm not saying this to spark a freebie or entitlements argument, just to point out that now we really don't have any "poor" people, and from their perspective, these are the good old days.