Looking back to the Good' ol' days... what made them so... good?

those high top income tax rates need to come back... we've given the rich too much largesse and they are not putting it back in for the rest of us. same with corporate welfare.

and if we could raise the pay rates to be commensurate with how much cost of living has gone up, that would help a lot as well. education, rent, utilities and food have all gone way up while wages have stagnated. it has nothing to do with the kids today lacking discipline. money just doesn't go as far as it used to, and that is by design. it can be corrected, if we hold the upper classes accountable.

a reply to: Southern Guardian

The Brady Bunch is an interesting show. One man working supports 9 ppl comfortably including a live in maid. The mom doesnt even work, does she?

Read the autobiography of Malcolm X. Economic opportunity was better for a black man in the 40s-50s than it is now for anyone. Malcolm X had it better than I did (strictly economically speaking) and he was black in a time when there was segregated schools, water fountains, etc

He did eventually get into some criminal activity, but that seemed to be more for the thrills. He was doing fine as a "sandwhich boy" on a train before he moved to harlem. Buying suits, going out on weekends with beautiful women to clubs with dancing and live music.

Dont forget, Everyone wore suits back then, even the bums.

We advanced so much... Where did all the enormous benefit from 1,000s of years of technology and knowledge go?

a reply to: UKTruth

It depends, honestly. It was simpler times and thats what people miss. Stores closings on holidays, the tv giving dead air at midnight, I can see the appeal.

But boy oh boy, it wasnt cool for those on the outside.

a reply to: 3n19m470

Nah, black folks were poorer back then than we are now. There was more opportunity for your business because of segregation and racism. Living conditions were nothing to envy.

originally posted by: eriktheawful
My parents when they were alive didn't really talk about "The Good Ol days", except a few stories of when they were teenagers during the 1950s.

For the most part I remember the "Good Ol Days" as being the 1970s to 1980s, mainly because I was a kid, no responsibilities and having a lot of fun.

What I do remember is food being a lot cheaper. My father was the sole income, and was a enlisted man in the US Navy. Yet we were able to buy T-bone steaks at least a couple of times a month.

I can remember going to the store with a dollar and being able to get a soda, a candy bar and 2 comics with that dollar.

I also remember spending a lot more time outside doing things.

But then I also remember that from 1976 to 1984 I lived over seas in S. Korea, Bangkok, Thailand and Naples, Italy. The American dollar went pretty far in those countries were we were stationed.

But my remembering of the "Good Ol Days" is mostly because I wasn't old like I am now, and being able to run around as a kid having fun.

The same here. I grew up in the 1970's. Seven week long summer holidays seemed to go on for ever. Winters were cold and snowy. Toys weren't really that expensive; mostly board games, books, sci-fi annuals, Guinness Book of World Records. The only electronic things were electronics kits and simple remote control toys. Christmas gifts were chocolate and clothes. 1976 was the warmest Summer in UK history - we had water rationing. Music was records and tape cassettes.
"Grease" was the movie of the decade, along with Star Wars.

That ended when there was the Year of Discontent with hyperinflation, union strikes, lack of rubbish collections and power cuts. Followed by the 1980's when the digital revolution started ... everyone got worried about the future; computers and electronic offices, laserdiscs, email. Even Ceefax and Teletext was a struggle for many.

originally posted by: cancerslug
if you were anything other then a middle class white family there were no good old days. in the 50s if you were poor you were looked down on. if you were black you could entertain the whites but not go to the same schools or drink from the same fountain or ride in the front of the bus. you couldn't be gay or in an interracial relationship, otherwise you could be murdered. there has always been good old days for some wile the rest of the population had it bad. really not very different from today. my grandma was a alcoholic single mother in the 50s. my mom hated the time period because of being dirt poor and treated like a p.o.s. i never got to see a time that was good growing up poor. ask some one who grew up poor or had more pigment in their skin and they will tell you there never was a good old days.

In my dad's work place, a research lab, during the annual dinner, those with degrees would sit at a different table to those without. This was repeated in Silicon Valley, where all the managers would sit at one table and all the engineers at another.

a reply to: Southern Guardian

The Good Ole Days.... The 80's!

Where life made sense. When Good was Good and Evil was Evil. When common sense was ingrained in most of the population.

Music was fun, happy, and life was great!

Best time to be alive in my opinion.

Now we have the lunatics running the asylum. Where Good is called Evil and Evil is called good.


And it continues to spiral downward year over year.

This forgotten quality called morality existed ?
Maybe ?
Along with another called common sense ? Wisdom ?
More valuable than ANYTHING you learned in school
And speaking of school . Used to be a place of education . I said used to....
Almost forgotten by folks today.

It must have been nice in suburbia but out on the wind blown plains in the Texas panhandle it was nothing but work 7 days a week just to make enough to pay the taxes and bills. Farming was toil and heartache when the weather destroyed your crops thru drought or hail storms and wind. And we had a good life compared to the Hispanics and Blacks. Good old days my ass....

Now are the good ole days thanks to holding on to that God forsaken 180 ac. family farm. Now it has oil and gas leases, Irrigation and another farmer to lease it to.

Meh, the good ole days were when I was kid and oblivious to what the world was really like.

originally posted by: olaru12
It must have been nice in suburbia but out on the wind blown plains in the Texas panhandle it was nothing but work 7 days a week just to make enough to pay the taxes and bills. Farming was toil and heartache when the weather destroyed your crops thru drought or hail storms and wind. And we had a good life compared to the Hispanics and Blacks. Good old days my ass....

Now are the good ole days thanks to holding on to that God forsaken 180 ac. family farm. Now it has oil and gas leases, Irrigation and another farmer to lease it to.

Oh yes. And the hours and hours on the oil rig for a decent paycheck if you survived the hard work and the high rate of injuries.

originally posted by: jtma508

originally posted by: richapau
a reply to: Southern Guardian

Nope, whenever ANYONE reminisces about the good old days they are remembering their youth, youth feels good. Feeling old sucks. Plain and simple.

Simplistic argument and you're wrong. I'm 65 and can speak to the 50's and 60's.

We're about the same age... and I can also speak to this.

1. There were jobs and you had every reasonable expectation of retiring at that job --- if you chose to --- and receive some sort of pension or retirement when you did.

Mostly for White men. Blacks got janitorial jobs, women got nursing or teaching and not much else. Black or Hispanic women got the maids job.

Now... you might like being a servant but to most of us working in that sort of environment, it wasn't a great time and you could be let go (as a woman) for getting pregnant, getting divorced, any number of things.

2. Part of that employment was good healthcare payed for by the employer

Depending on your job. We didn't have much health care when we worked as teachers in Texas. Some jobs had no health care (farm work, fishing, etc, etc.)

3. People felt safe. Believe it or not, in my suburb of Boston, we did not lock our doors or our cars because we didn't have to.

Not true in all areas.

4. People had self-respect. People didn't throw trash and cigarette butts out of their car window because it just wasn't right to do that. Still isn't but people just don't care.

Perhaps where you were, but it was a big problem in the country. Lady Bird Johnson started some of the first environmental cleanup programs back then because there was so much litter. I remember coming back from Germany and being shocked at just how dirty America was and how poorly Americans took care of the land compared to Europeans.

5. Politicians have always been slimy but not like today. Now they steal and lie with impunity. They also fought with each other politically, they would never stoop to dividing the country or demonizing a demographic to further their prejudices and agendas. The lessons of WWII were still fresh.

You've forgotten the Johnson years and the Nixon years (which stretched back to Eisenhower years... the famous "Checkers" speech), I take it? And the political machinations against Reverend King and the rest of the NAACP?

6. We respected one another. We disagreed for sure but you'd never see the kinds of BS like you do on ATS everyday.

... for White males. Women were still harassed by catcalls, unwanted advances, and rather brutal verbal treatment - Blacks were called "boy" or "Jimbo" or "girl" and migrant workers... well, Woody Guthrie and many others wrote songs about their treatment (which wasn't good.) Lynchings still happened. Let a non-White enter a "Whites only" space and see how fast the disrespect escalated to dangerous levels.

I saw it here in the South.

There were problems for sure. Civil rights in certain areas of the country was an embarrassment but was increasingly being addressed.

Errr... not really. It got better during the 1980's but the 60's and 70's saw riots and a lot of protests and police action and on personal levels, violence against churches and against families that dared to move into White neighborhoods.

originally posted by: Southern Guardian
a reply to: Oldtimer2

Truth be told in the 50's and 60's there wasn't as many people living beyond their means,people were more frugal,when we were kids we didn't get all the new stuff that came out,and I always had to get a job to buy something out of the ordinary,made you think if you really wanted it,now people kids are quick to jump on fads,no self esteem

I believe most millenials today work either just as hard as those during the 50s and 60s or harder. Do you know how expensive college fees have become? You'll easily get yourself into debt by a good $60K for a standard degree. Little to no government assistance. I know of kids having to work full time while they study and live on ramen noodles day and and day out. It's also difficult getting internships or decent jobs once you get that degree. Nothing like 40 or so years ago. Property prices are through the roof in most major cities. I think kids of today work their butts off just as hard as those in the past. I think kids actually get a harder rap today. Sorry Oldtimer I have to disagree.

I think people were more frugal back then-the hand me downs- i got my older brothers clothes then my younger brother got em when i out grew em. One thing i did enjoy bout the 50s-60s was the lack of communication-the ability to get out of the house and away from parental control/ be home at 6