WE ARE SURVIVORS!!!!...CONSIDER THE CHANGES WE HAVE WITNESSED!

We were born before tv, before penicillin, before polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, plastic, contact lenses, Frisbees and The Pill. We were before radar, credit cards, split atoms, laser beams, and ballpoint pens. Before pantyhose, dishwashers, clothes dryers, electric blankets, air conditioners, drip-dry clothes...and before man walked on the moon.

We got married 1st, then lived together. How quaint can you be? In our time, closets were for clothes, not for "coming out of". Bunnies were small rabbits, and rabbits were not Volkswagons. Designer Jeans were scheming girls named Jean, and our having a meaningful relationship meant getting along with our cousins.

We thought fast food was what you ate during lent, and Outer Space was the back of the Riviera Theatre. We were before house husbands, gay rights, computer dating, dual careers and comuter marriages. We were before daycare centers, group therapy, and nursing homes. We never heard of FM radio, tape decks, electronic typewriters, artificial hearts, word processors, yogurt and guyz wearing earrings. For us, time-sharing meant togetherness..not computers or condo's. A chip meant a piece of wood, hardware meant hardware, and software wasn't even a word.

Back then "Made in Japan" meant junk and the term 'making out' referred to how you did your exam. Pizzas, McD's and instant coffees were unheard of. We hit the scene where there were 5&10 cent stores, where you bought things for five and ten cents. Sanders or Wilsons sold ice cream cones for a nickel or a dime. For one nickel you could ride a street car, make a phone call, buy a Pepsi, or enough stamps to mail one letter and two postcards. You could buy a new Chevy coupe for $600...but WHO could afford one? A pity too, cuz gas was 11 cents a gallon.

In our day, GRASS was mowed, Coke was a soft drink, and POT was something you cooked in. Rock music was a Grandma's lullaby and Aids were helpers in the Principal's office. We were certainly not before the difference between sexes was discovered, but we were surely before the sex change. We made do with what we had. And we were the last generation that was so dumb as to think you needed a husband to have a baby.

No wonder we are so confused and there is such a generation gap today. But, WE SURVIVED!!! What better reason to Celebrate?

Found this on bosses dad's computer, thought it cute.:-)

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), June 09, 2000

Answers

Consumer,

Great. Of course you are too young to remember this stuff. Too bad they didn't include that our parents paid about 7% taxes, too! The Inflators have taken quite a bit of our money every year since then. Life was simpler, too, and less hectic.

-- Old Timer (lots@of.good.memories), June 09, 2000.

Was it Merle Haggard who expressed this much better in "Okie from Muskogee"?

Read that first paragraph and think. No penicillin. No polio vaccine. Hard labor to do most everything. 12-on and 12-off hours in factories, 7 days a week. You changed shifts once a month. This meant that in exchange for working 24 hours straight once, you got a whole 24 hours off in a row once a month. You died younger, of old age.

So OK, people have become decadent since then because they have the *time and energy* for decadence. They actually have a chance to enjoy themselves. I get tired of people pointing to the decline of earlier societies due to degradation of moral sensibilities, but they're only talking about the aristocracy. Even in decadent Rome, the grunts kept busting their asses to the end. That was 99% of the population.

I wouldn't trade for the good old days for anything.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), June 09, 2000.

Flint,

Unlike you, I'd go back to the 50's any day of the week. No drugs, no gangs, no punks, no AIDS, not much welfare, few single mothers, low income taxes, cheap gasoline, mothers not having to work so they could stay home and raise kids properly, low crime in general. I don't know where you grew up, but in Tucson it was pretty damn nice. I'd press the reset button in a second if I could!

-- Flash (flash@flash.hq), June 09, 2000.

Flash:

Maybe these things affect our lives differently. Where I live today, there is low crime. There are no gangs. There is no AIDS.

Like most people, I live life one day at a time. During my days, there are computers (I design them, all of us here use them). There weren't any to speak of back then. I watch ballgames on cable TV. Didn't exist back then. I run errands in modern vehicles with safety features and other amenities not dreamed up back then, to places offering things for sale not available back then. And I have the time to enjoy them that working class people didn't have back then.

On the other hand, I watch news of other places that simply wasn't reported back then, reporting things that I guaran-damn-tee you existed then, but wasn't reported.

So excuse me, but I believe you are a pure victim of perceptions, emphasizing the myth while tuning out the reality. If you did a reset, I guarantee you'd be miserable. Where's the DAMN bug repellant? Sorry, Flash, won't be invented for another 10 years. Now get back to hanging clothes on the line -- clothes dryers won't be invented for another 15 years, sorry.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), June 09, 2000.

Man,ya'll sure had it rough or good,depends I guess...I was born in '51 so I can't relate...

-- george (jones@choices.com), June 09, 2000.

Flint,

I guess I just lived in a large California city for too long. No punks here in NAZ, either. Crime much lower than in Phoenix. I'll admit I do enjoy the amenities. Now if we just keep whe women at home and get rid of the Clintons....

-- Flash (flash@flash.hq), June 09, 2000.

Flint, it wasn't so "God awful". I lived there, it was a different time and state of mind. But I didn't want to go back, not with all the improvements that were designed and implemented, But I was mentally prepared to do so. The old way was not "Hell on Earth", it was the way we lived. There are many still breathing, who lived in the old way. Somehow, we all survive. I am not so sure about those documentaries on the T.V. about all those B.C. folks, maybe it is an illusion? Can we lay to rest the fact your babies butts don't have to be clad in a disposable diaper, and maybe some mothers can gasp at having to actually clean out the poop from a cloth diaper, yet to use that same diaper. What is the big deal? You clean the poop out, you wash and hang up the diaper. This isn't brain science. I did not find this endeavor most pleasing to my senses. But having no other alternative, I did it. As many others with me, and before me.

-- Nastie Napies (fill@yournostrails.com), June 10, 2000.

Nastie:

I'm not saying it was awful. I'm saying there have been a great many changes, for both good and bad, and the good ones vastly outweigh the bad ones. Focusing on just the bad changes blinds one to the realization that if you went back, you'd lose all the good changes as well, making a very bad trade.

As you point out, you did unpleasant things because at that time you had no alternative. Changes happen slowly enough to fade near invisibility, unless you're hit with them all at once. I'd never go back if I could, since I'd lose nearly everything that makes my life enjoyable and rewarding today -- my job (didn't exist), my hobbies, maybe even my health. No thanks.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), June 10, 2000.

I think the greatest difference between today and yesterday is CHOICE. There were fewer choices yesterday. Some folks don't like making choices, or want to make choices for others.

Yesterday didn't have vaccines for countless diseases, air- conditioning, disposable diapers, automatic washers, automatic dryers, microwave ovens, home computers, color television, cable, etc. Today we have these things but nobody insists that we use them. We can still wash clothes in a manual way, hang them on a line, stay home with children, cook on a wood-burning stove, iron, wash cloth diapers, refuse vaccines, not purchase a TV, cable, computer, etc. The choices are ours.

Some folks like to blame others for their unhappiness. If only THEY didn't behave the way they do, *I* would be happier. THEY didn't behave this way yesterday and I was happier; therefore, if THEY weren't allowed to behave this way today, I WOULD BE happier. My opinion is that everyone is responsible for their own behavior, and everyone is responsible for their own happiness. I enjoy the choices, and look forward to MORE choices.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), June 10, 2000.

Anita, I agree. Everyone is responsible for his/her own happiness. To paraphrase Abe Lincoln, most people are as happy as they decide to be.

Yes I remember those gawd awful summers with no AC, and my sister coming home and bringing her three children to escape the polio in her city. Luckily there wasn't much of an outbreak here, for that was before we became a tourist mecca--and that part was wonderful. But I don't long for the good old days. I do miss the natural beauty that has turned in the wall to wall litter, condos, wall to wall people, pollution, noise everywhere and that sort of thing, but that's all.

Anita, I hung my wash out recently, and forgot about the mulberry tree in another part of the yard, and the birds left some pretty messy calling cards on my sheets. (grin) but I love the birds, so no problem.

Like Flint, I wouldn't go back if I could, but I would still use cloth diapers if I had a little one. However, I would like having the choice. Have you read about all the excrement in the landfills from the millions and zillions of disposable diapers in landfills.

I also choose not to have a garbage disposal, (compost piles) and I don't use electric can openers. But I love my computer, sattelite TV, the microwave and above all, Air Conditioning and refrigerators that defrost themselves. I know, I'm a hedonist--but I recycle and try and live as lightly as possible on the earth.

Thanks, for posting that consumer.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), June 10, 2000.

As you all know, I havent really been around awhile and am doing some catching up on the posts, while work is real slow.

Many interesting views here.

I did not grow up then, obviously, but I tell you what I miss, the good ol days of the 60's, although still a young lil girl, it was different. Respect was respect.

People were different, they were kinder, you could 'run a tab' at the corner store if needed. People trusted each other.

Today, we live in a rush rush, hurry hurry society, on fast track to nowhere.

So many nice things, to make us 'comfy' but lets be real, IMHO 'things' made to help us move quicker has moved us to the point of not quicker, and away from our families.

Call me naive but I long for the Partridge Family days, the brady bunch days, those days really had good precious memories for me. Guess I'm sentimental today and selfish, but thanks you guys for the feedback....you are all a great group of folks.

-----sumer

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), June 14, 2000.

Sumer,

Good to see ya posting,hell,ya had moi worried!I think you'll like it out at the Capnfun Cafe,free mega-turbine hot tubs 24/7/365!!!

-- capnfun (capnfun1@excite.com), June 14, 2000.