Quit Your Griping About The Recession Unless....

[Deleted]

I've seen posts from people that get really nostalgic about the "old days". When health insurance wasn't so expensive, gas wasn't so pricey, people had pensions, and life was simpler. I don't know about your grandparents, but here's what mine were dealing with....

--Oil/Gold have been consistently related for the last decade. It's not the price of oil that's the problem, it's the value of your money.

--Not sure about you, but my grandparents didn't have health insurance. They paid cash for hospital stays. And care wasn't nearly as good....matter of fact, my grandpa lost his 1st wife and 1st child at childbirth. And he lost a 2nd child about 10 years later. Is that the type of health care you want?

--My grandparents didn't have cable tv, cellphones, flat screen TVs, they had an 1800 SF house with 7 kids, they didn't drive new cars, they didn't have any video game systems, they didn't go out for lunch, they didn't stop for coffee, they didn't take the family out for dinner, and the only vacation they ever took was to Lake Geneva for a weekend (2 hours away).

So if you want to go back to the "Good Old Days" then be my guest. Be prepared to live as frugally as they did back then. I seriously doubt all the complainers about this recession are living NEARLY as frugally as they did back then. If you are, then I have some sympathy.

[Tiny]

davebo, you must be young... because "re-writing" the past or in particular one's own past to be all happy and wonderful is a Perk of growing old. The past gets progressively better the older you get.

Always remember that memories are malleable you can make them what you want them to be! I'm finally getting the happy childhood I always wanted

[Deleted]

I'm not talking about remembering things from your childhood as being better than they probably were. That's how everyone is, but at least most people realize they are doing it.

The people that I'm talking about honestly believe that they're comparing apples to apples. Health care now is not the same as Health Care then. If you want to pay 1950's prices for health care, then expect 1950's service/quality. If you want to raise 7 kids on one salary, then ditch the vacations, cellphones, video games, nights out, and cabletv.

[Deleted]

Many of the things you are talking about like cell phones, video games, cable, etc. weren't available back in the 1950s. But you are right in that we lived with a lot less back then . . . a black-and-white tv with children serving as the remote control, simple dishwashers where one sister washed and the other dried, and so on. Average people didn't redecorate because they didn't like the style. The sofa was absolutely worn out. I remember my sister ironing on the bedspread and burning an imprint. That remained our bedspread for several years because the rest of it was just "fine."

I'm probably not old enough to be your grandmother, but I am 57. So I have seen the pendulum shift. I don't yearn for the good old days. But I do yearn for the family values. I think two-income families were not a good evolution. Most families aren't better off in real earning power. But now the choice is gone.

[phil5185]

Average people didn't redecorate because they didn't like the style.

It still sounds funny to me when I hear young people talk about replacing kitchens & bathrooms because they are 'dated' - ie, 25 or 30 yrs old. In the 1940s, redecorating meant wall paper and a few new pictures on the wall.

a black-and-white tv with children serving as the remote control

We had a barn radio - we listened to the Great Gildersleeve while we milked the cows in the evening - and Gisele MacKenzie, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, etc. Good ol' day memories - but kinda glad that I don't have to go out in the dark & the cold tonite and milk a string of holsteins.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

It's my party and I'll gripe if I want to!

[blackcard]

I will not gripe. We have it good. Many of my old college friends don't though.

[blackcard]

Time to update the Mortgage Feb $72,141.58 is now $68,947.42 Mar 2011

[Deleted]

Good ol' day memories - but kinda glad that I don't have to go out in the dark & the cold tonite and milk a string of holsteins.

My husband has distinct memories of growing up on a dairy farm. The most noticeable is that even at age 66 he drinks a lot of milk. The other one is that farming is hard work. He did take on tomatoes like year, though.