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What a bunch of BS. I grew up in that time. No one I knew acted that way. You took a few extreme examples and think they apply to everyone.
In my grade school in the entire 6 years 1 kid had divorced parents. I never saw an intoxicated woman until I was an adult, and the woman was my age.
That was because you were a kid, kids weren't allowed into bars, and your Mom wasn't "fast".
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Originally Posted by cheryjohns
Not really. It is relevant. White males had it pretty good back in the old days. Everyone else - not so much. Sometimes, where you stand on something depends on where you sit.
Well said!
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Originally Posted by KittenSparkles
For those inclined, there is a book on this very subject- I found it quite enlightening --
I think another HUGE factor that comes into play when we are thinking about the past is what age we were when those events were happening. I was a kid in the 70's, so all of my memories about the 70's are through the eyes of a child. But what if I had been a middle-aged person then? What would the 70's have been like for me?
Since we can be only one age at any given time, we can't compare our youth to the youth of today, because we don't know what it feels like to be a teenager in the year 2013. It probably feels a lot different than it does to folks who are older.
Another excellent post!!!
I was a child in the 1950s, and I'll vouch for our altered perceptions as children: for example, I don't ever remember a rainy day. I also remember a large, stone-lined pond on my grandfather's farm where we used to go fishing and picnicking. When I went back to see that pond (one of my cousins owns the farm today), I found it actually was about the size of the little artificial pond in my backyard!
People who are nostalgic about the past and hate the present really don't recall their history very well. We live in amazing and miraculous times. I am quite the optimist.
I think another HUGE factor that comes into play when we are thinking about the past is what age we were when those events were happening. I was a kid in the 70's, so all of my memories about the 70's are through the eyes of a child. But what if I had been a middle-aged person then? What would the 70's have been like for me?
Since we can be only one age at any given time, we can't compare our youth to the youth of today, because we don't know what it feels like to be a teenager in the year 2013. It probably feels a lot different than it does to folks who are older.
I was just thinking this same thing. I grew up in the 40s and 50s. And, yes, I look back on those years as very good and happy. As a child! Had I been the age I am now, back then, I'm sure I'd look at it differently. I have talked to my mom about this and she DOES see more negatives about those years than I do. She's now 86. She also talks about the past a lot but I'm glad she does. It's good to know how her growing up years, etc. were for her and her family. I probably know more about all that than ANY of my siblings. My kids see mostly positive things about their younger years as well. But we ALL do live in the present.
Sometimes I think older people talk more about the past than the present/future simply because they have way more past behind them and a lot less future. I did in home health care for a couple of years and the majority of my patients were terminal senior citizens. They talked about the past a LOT. They told some really interesting stories...sometimes over and over...but I enjoyed listening to them.
That was because you were a kid, kids weren't allowed into bars, and your Mom wasn't "fast"
I was a child in the 1950s, and I'll vouch for our altered perceptions as children: for example, I don't ever remember a rainy day. I also remember a large, stone-lined pond on my grandfather's farm where we used to go fishing and picnicking. When I went back to see that pond (one of my cousins owns the farm today), I found it actually was about the size of the little artificial pond in my backyard!
Isn't that the truth? lol I've done a few 'nostalgia trips' over the years to visit places I've lived. That 'big' house was really tiny! And the ones that were built 'in the sticks' are now surrounded by subdivisions up the ying yang!
There is ONE place I lived as a child that I've give just about anything to have back. It's the farm my grandparents owned and it's still just as beautiful as it ever was. If I won a mega-millions lottery I would, for sure, make the owners an offer they couldn't refuse. There have been changes but nothing that couldn't be 'put back'.
I'm sure my children will look back at these times as the "good ol days" since they are young children and shielded from the harsh reality of life. I think this is typical regardless of what decade you were born in.
I agree, there are some people who act like things should never change. Some things change for the better, some not. Things will always change, they need to learn to deal with it.
The town where I attended grade school and high school is like that. The people shoot down any good change because they want to keep it the same as it was in the 1970s and 80s however in reality what they end up doing is creating a vacuum and bad change happens instead of the good change. It is impossible to stop change, all people can do is manage it for the better.
I have to admit I'm guilty of this sometimes, mostly when I see something that has changed so much is makes me sad, and my brother and I will talk about how much better it was when we were young (like Trick-or-Treat, when the streets of my neighborhood were overrun with gangs of kids, and we didn't need out parents to take us because no one snatched anyone for the most part, and it was at night, not 3 in the afternoon). When we take our little grandkids/great-nephews, it seems there are so few out now compared to then, and so many houses that don't participate.
That does get annoying. I dated someone whose parents always talked about the past, only they seemed to think they were born before the Industrial Revolution with the stuff they claimed to remember.
Some people do take this way too far. I'm all for reminiscing, but I can't deal with conversations about how everything in the past was better all the time. I'm trying not to be that person as I get older, but everyone around me seems to think that's what they should do, no matter the age.
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Well said!
