thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jun 24, 2013 14:03:57 GMT -5
but I think Thyme and I have the same husband. You'd think he's 90 the way he prattles about the good old days. My husband doesn't ever say anything good about the good ol' days - except the price of corn.
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swamp
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THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS!!!!!!!
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Post by swamp on Jun 24, 2013 14:04:14 GMT -5
I use the term "fuddy duddy" with DH. It seems to work well.
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cronewitch
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Post by cronewitch on Jun 24, 2013 14:06:25 GMT -5
Now is better in almost every way.
Homes are bigger, air conditioned sometimes and double pane windows so not as drafty.
Cars last over 10 years so a 5 year old car seems new not a beater. Tires don't get flats often and no inter tubes to patch. Paint is still shiny on cars that are old. A hill that used to have over heated cars die on it all the time now doesn't have any.
Kitchens have microwaves and small appliances that weren't invented when I was young. We didn't have dishwashers and garbage disposals.
Plastic bags are affordable now and sandwich bags zip. We used to wrap sandwiches in waxed paper then sandwich bags were expensive and had fold over tops. We got Tupperware sandwich boxes so we didn't waste money on disposable products.
Facial tissue replaced handkerchiefs, paper towels replaced newspaper to drain fat and some people use them now to replace almost all rags like washing windows and cleaning up spills. I don't recall having paper towels as a child maybe they were too expensive. Disposable diapers and wipes made baby care cleaner, less laundry and the clothes are much cuter.
Computers made work like bookkeeping so much easier and the internet is great entertainment. Investing is easier too since you can check all investments everyday now not wait for quarterly statements. Banking too is much better, no more closing at 3PM and not open at all weekends and now ATMS so you can deposit a check or get cash anytime.
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greeniis10
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Post by greeniis10 on Jun 24, 2013 14:22:01 GMT -5
Lots of things are better now, as already mentioned: technology, healthcare, conveniences, etc. The Internet is useful and contains a wealth of information. I have no issue with smartphones themselves, just the people who turn into rude obliviots the minute they get one. (Yes, family, I'm talking to you.)
I do see less and less self-respect and respect for others, again, as was already mentioned as shown through personal appearance. I have no problem with piercings or tattoos, but there's a time and a place and yes, make yourself presentable when you go to the grocery store or to pick up fast food. Not dressed to the nines, but clean and respectable. I don't do fast food, but what I see regularly at the grocery store as far as dress and hygeine makes me cringe.
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mrsdutt
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Post by mrsdutt on Jun 24, 2013 14:23:07 GMT -5
Back in the days, I wouldn't have had the educational and athletic opportunities that I did. I went to a private university that had a medical school. I was laughed at when I applied to medical school. Women just didn't even think that way. There was one woman doctor at the medical center, but she was from India and was returning when her residency was over. Can you imagine? India was suppose to be backwards and we were the great enlightened nation. One thing that has changed is people. Ethics and morals have declined to a state that has been unrivaled in history with the exception of the Roman Empire. I'm talking the masses here, as I know there have always been unethical people. But, it seems to me the mainstream of our society are scam artists. A handshake and verbal contract just isn't honored any more. And, the hey with the truth. Truth to the law means nothing any more. Loopholes is the name of the game.
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NastyWoman
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Post by NastyWoman on Jun 24, 2013 14:23:59 GMT -5
Of course today is better in every way. Just read up on how it used to be and you'll KNOW: Let me tell you sonny... let me set you straight You kids today ain't never had it rough Always had everything handed to you on a silver plate You lazy brats think nothing's good enough Well, nobody ever drove me to school when it was ninety degrees below We had to walk butt naked through forty miles of snow Worked in the coal mine twenty two hours a day for just half a cent Had to sell my internal organs just to pay the rent
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swamp
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THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS!!!!!!!
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Post by swamp on Jun 24, 2013 14:26:54 GMT -5
I think people are as ethical and moral as they previously were. We just have more ways of catching them or publishing their indescretions.
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greeniis10
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Post by greeniis10 on Jun 24, 2013 14:44:30 GMT -5
Lots of things are better now, as already mentioned: technology, healthcare, conveniences, etc. The Internet is useful and contains a wealth of information. I have no issue with smartphones themselves, just the people who turn into rude obliviots the minute they get one. (Yes, family, I'm talking to you.) look - I don't know how riveting you think your latest tale of blood pressure medication adjustment or corn removal is, but my smart phone helps get me through it. Yeah, I know - the smartphone is MUCH more interesting than Mom rambling on about something, I get it. Perspective, it's all about perspective (I try to remind myself regularly). They all pay for their phones and their data packages, so I have nothing to complain about, right?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2013 14:47:44 GMT -5
Daily life wasn't as frantic and hurried as it is now. People waited a lot! For instance, for a letter in the mail because that was the only way to keep in touch unless you were monied and could afford a lot of long distance calls.
As much more manual labor as was required to keep up hearth and home, we still seemed to have plenty of leisure time. In the summer we did our chores in the morning so that we could go swimming in the afternoon and still get back in time to deliver our papers. In the winter we did our chores and homework as soon as we got home from delivering the papers (the drop off point for the daily paper just happened to be at our school and we delivered them before going home) so that we could go sledding or skating or to basketball games in the evening.
I don't know how people with kids and jobs these days keep up. Fetching and carrying kids to school, activities, lessons, friends' houses, doctor and dentist appointments...oy! I get tired just thinking about it.
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mrsdutt
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Post by mrsdutt on Jun 24, 2013 14:47:56 GMT -5
I think people are as ethical and moral as they previously were. We just have more ways of catching them or publishing their indescretions. You may have a point. I may have to ponder that one.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2013 14:56:28 GMT -5
Another thing, in the evening, the adults weren't as busy as adults now...at least it didn't seem so. A couple of evenings during the week people went "visiting" after supper...visiting friends, relatives, maybe just next door or down the street to visit neighbors. Can you imagine having the strength to go visiting after a day at the office, picking up kids from school/daycare/activities, stopping at the store for the gallon of milk and loaf of bread that always seem to be needed, cooking supper, supervising homework and baths? Ack!
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Jun 24, 2013 16:12:09 GMT -5
Complaining that stuff costs more now than it used to does make one seem particularly old. Inflation is not a new concept.
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ilovedolphins
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Post by ilovedolphins on Jun 24, 2013 19:40:18 GMT -5
Things now days seem more stressful and I blame that on technology. And everyone seems to be in a much bigger hurry. I agree.
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on Jun 24, 2013 21:26:19 GMT -5
I'll tell you something that is worse. Watermelon. When they started growing them seedless they bred the sweetness out as well . They now are tasteless.
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on Jun 24, 2013 21:28:10 GMT -5
Complaining that stuff costs more now than it used to does make one seem particularly old. Inflation is not a new concept. Well, I am old. And you will be too. And you'll remdmber when you could go to a movie for only $15.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2013 7:04:40 GMT -5
Complaining that stuff costs more now than it used to does make one seem particularly old. Inflation is not a new concept. Well, I am old. And you will be too. And you'll remdmber when you could go to a movie for only $15. LOL. I'm old, too, and remember when I could go to a movie for nine cents. When it went up to 11 cents, I was upset because my allowance was only 25 cents a week. When it went up to 14 cents, I REALLY fumed because after buying popcorn for a dime, there would be only a penny left. I had to skip the popcorn and get a candy bar for a nickel instead. Things cost less, wages were less; it's all relative
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mrsdutt
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Post by mrsdutt on Jun 25, 2013 7:27:02 GMT -5
Complaining that stuff costs more now than it used to does make one seem particularly old. Inflation is not a new concept. We geezers know that. It's the RATE of inflation that is disturbing.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2013 11:21:09 GMT -5
I wonder about the effect of all of the "scheduling" of kids over the longer term. We went outside and played during the summer. We didn't have all sorts of classes and such. Most of my friends maybe did one or two things...dance lessons and a sport. Not dance, Mandarin and piano lessons, plus three sports and volunteering on the weekend. It just seems like kids are so pressured.
I like the conveniences, but hate the fear for safety. We would wander the neighborhood at will in the summer. I'd never let my kid do that today....
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Jun 25, 2013 11:31:10 GMT -5
Another thing, in the evening, the adults weren't as busy as adults now...at least it didn't seem so. A couple of evenings during the week people went "visiting" after supper...visiting friends, relatives, maybe just next door or down the street to visit neighbors. Can you imagine having the strength to go visiting after a day at the office, picking up kids from school/daycare/activities, stopping at the store for the gallon of milk and loaf of bread that always seem to be needed, cooking supper, supervising homework and baths? Ack! I don't do much more than my Mom had to do. She cooked dinner, and supervised homework, and gave me baths while I was little. She also did a lot more household chores. She ironed my father's shirts AND his handkerchiefs and we lived in a house without a dishwasher, etc. I don't recall her stopping at the store for a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread on a daily basis - but I don't do that either. That is an organization thing not a "today" thing. Although, growing up my mom didn't have a fridge, so they did shop every day. But now, instead of "visiting" we have more organized activities. We have fro-yo nights that are fundraisers, or we have sports or dance or concerts. We take the kids out to eat.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2013 11:48:29 GMT -5
Back in the days, I wouldn't have had the educational and athletic opportunities that I did. That was the first thing I thought of. Equal opportunities for women (or at least, a lot better than in the 1960s) mean more stability for family incomes, better living standards for the kids in case of divorce, and more options for husbands who may not produce big incomes but have other virtues that make them good husbands and fathers. I'm crappy at team sports so Title IX didn't have a direct benefit for me, but at 60 I'm doing sprint triathlons. My dear paternal grandmother, if she were alive today, would probably be lecturing me about how my uterus was going to prolapse and my arches would fall if I didn't slow down. Definitely more tolerance of people who are different from the norm although we're nowhere near perfection there. And I love technology. Worse: I think it's much harder on people whose main assets were a strong back; manual labor can't support a family very well anymore. Companies have gotten rid of pensions, leaving some of the people least-equipped to do so to find ways to supplement SS on their own. Less job security, more part-time jobs that don't carry benefits. A man used to be able to support a family working in a shoe store; now that would be hard. The improvements in medical care are expensive and stretch the budhetsa of retirees who never could have anticipated they could get that high. To me, the losers seem to be the poor, the ones who don't have the native intelligence to keep up with technology in the workplace, and people trying to get by on SS.
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formerroomate99
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Post by formerroomate99 on Jun 25, 2013 12:14:37 GMT -5
Another thing, in the evening, the adults weren't as busy as adults now...at least it didn't seem so. A couple of evenings during the week people went "visiting" after supper...visiting friends, relatives, maybe just next door or down the street to visit neighbors. Can you imagine having the strength to go visiting after a day at the office, picking up kids from school/daycare/activities, stopping at the store for the gallon of milk and loaf of bread that always seem to be needed, cooking supper, supervising homework and baths? Ack! Turn off the TV and computer. Don't micromanage your kids. You'll have plenty of time.
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Bob Ross
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Post by Bob Ross on Jun 25, 2013 12:55:52 GMT -5
In the good old days, everything cost a nickel, you could drink whiskey on the job and smoking didn't kill you (and don't say they just didn't know about it killing you. It didn't kill you. Fact.) Plus, women had to do whatever the men said, and you could release your kids into neighborhoods full of sharp pointy objects and toxic chemicals for days at a time, and they still grew up ok. However, nowadays we have all sorts of technological advances, such as web forums like...this...one. So yeah, things were definitely better back in the good old days.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2013 14:19:19 GMT -5
Plastic bags are affordable now and sandwich bags zip. <snip> Facial tissue replaced handkerchiefs, paper towels replaced newspaper to drain fat and some people use them now to replace almost all rags like washing windows and cleaning up spills. <snip> Disposable diapers and wipes made baby care cleaner, less laundry and the clothes are much cuter. I consider a lot of that a minus. SO much is disposable and ends up in landfills. Whatever happened to "Use it up, wear it out, make it do?" Two things I'd add that make this era worse: the deterioration in quality of manufactured goods (clothing, shoes, kitchen utensils, small appliances), and the elimination of service, to be replaced by voicemail hell and "self-service". I'm an enthusiastic user of the Web for buying and researching, but real quality and personal service have almost disappeared, even when you're willing to pay for them.
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formerroomate99
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Post by formerroomate99 on Jun 25, 2013 14:41:14 GMT -5
According to my 94 year old grandmother, it's a lot harder to be working poor now than it was in her day. Back then, rich and poor lived side by side, instead of segregating the poor in ghettos. There wasn't much violent crime, so you could sleep with your windows open or go sleep in the park when it got hot. There was good public transit, so you didn't need a car. Despite the fact that her family was white trash, the other old ladies in the neighborhood saw it as their right and duty to mentor her, so she knew what she had to do to get ahead despite getting no direction from family.
She also says that if she had the opportunities I have today, she never would have gotten married.
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NoNamePerson
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Post by NoNamePerson on Jun 25, 2013 14:52:50 GMT -5
I won't get into the good ole day vs now. Every time this question comes up I just think how lucky I was to be born when I was. Been thru the 50's, 60's 70's 80's 90's and now into the 20's. The things I have seen change and the experiences brought on by those changes have been awsome. I loved it all. I just wonder what technology will be like when my son is my age- hey he may be able to beam message to me (up or down) Oh and I didn't say 40's cause I was but a tyke and only remember from about age 4 on!! I hope that all you kiddos can say the same about your many generations you pass thru..
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Bob Ross
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Post by Bob Ross on Jun 25, 2013 14:55:07 GMT -5
She also says that if she had the opportunities I have today, she never would have gotten married. Is this because she had an abusive husband and had to do what he said? Ahhhhhh...the good old days.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Jun 25, 2013 23:36:09 GMT -5
The older that I get, the more I am shocked by the sexual conservatism of my youth. I grew up in a time and place when mentioning anything that had anything to do with sex debased the person speaking.
Any mention of anything even tangentially related to sex, human anatomy, or reproduction brought an uncomfortable silence. The next speaker had to make a choice to stay on the topic at hand or quash it and quashing the topic at hand was always the safe choice. It wasn't a healthy way to grow up. A lot of idiocy went unchallenged because good people weren't supposed to talk about such things.
I am only 44 years old and my parents are neither uneducated nor religiously conservative. They are agnostic former Peace Corps volunteers.
I wouldn't go back to the world that I was born into or the world that I was raised in for any type of bribe.
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movingforward
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Post by movingforward on Jun 26, 2013 9:45:18 GMT -5
I often laugh when I hear someone refer to the "good old days." What days are they referring to other than a time that was good for them personally. I have a feeling for decades on end someone has referred to the past as being the "good old days." I can't imagine a time when women had no choices and people of different races were not allowed to dine in the same restaurant with one another as being all that good. I can say it is not a time period I wish to live in anyway.
That being said, I do miss the days before sensationalized media took over the free world and news wasn't on 24/7. A time when we weren't reminded every time we turned on the TV that this is the anniversary of this or that mass shooting. The sensationalizing that only tends to produce more shootings. I miss the days before 9/11 and before the patriot act. And I miss the time before reality TV when every tom, dick and harry wasn't looking for their 15 minutes of fame.
This doesn't mean that the days before were any better. They were just different. Times change and we evolve. As a society change is inevitable and necessary IMHO.
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tloonya
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Post by tloonya on Jun 26, 2013 10:08:43 GMT -5
You can always find specific examples of things that are better or worse, but overall, we are so much better off today than in any time in history. What an uplifting, positive and fool of hope post, Archie! Please, just tell me more about it...how we are so much better off today than in any time in history. Me (running a farm instead of having my cubical work for the 500 Fortune company) having some doubts about it...but I am all ears! (not that I have oversized ears you know ...I am more like all arsss, but it is beside the point)...
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tloonya
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Post by tloonya on Jun 26, 2013 10:13:26 GMT -5
but I think Thyme and I have the same husband. why? Is your husband away a lot? Jun 26, 2013 0:36:09 GMT -4 haapai said: The older that I get, the more I am shocked by the sexual conservatism of my youth. I grew up in a time and place when mentioning anything that had anything to do with sex debased the person speaking.
yeah...me too shocked when teen girls just asking their friends boys to buy them tampons if they are near pharmacy or something.... I wouldn't go back to the world that I was born into or the world that I was raised in for any type of bribe.
Sometimes I think IF 'I love Lucy' was a real life then I would...
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