Were They Really the Good Old Days?

[dmccarty]

...

Daddy's aunt was born in 1901. She had two children live to adulthood. But she had five die in childhood, or were stillborn.
...
Larro

When we were land hunting we looked at a parcel that contained a large family cemetery. It was a large cemetery, not because there were a great many generations buried in the plot, but because so many graves were babies and children. The vast majority of graves were kids.

People forget polio and the polio scares. Pools being closed and such. If you got the flu, you very well might die. My wife and I both have great grand fathers that died of flu. It was just common. Now, the papers talk about how many people are dying from flu because it is shocking. It is shocking that less than a dozen people have died. Years ago, that would have been a drop in the bucket.

We now have a very efficient 911 system along with first responders. Not that long ago you were just thrown in the back of a truck, maybe an actual ambulance, and taken the doctors officer or maybe a hospital. For serious injuries you died. Now, you get well trained first responders and you are driven rapidly to a decent hospital and in some cases a trauma center. If it is really bad, you go by copter.

There were child sexual predator's years ago, we had what are now called stranger danger films at school, but the problem just was not talked about that much. Now, with instant communication, you hear of incidents in nearby cities and towns, that years ago you would not hear about. Just this week, there were arrests in Cary and Raleigh about child predators. Years ago, people in my county would not have heard about those arrests. The predators WERE there. We just did not know that much about them.

The world is a better place today than it was 50 or 100 years ago. We have our problems but they are nothing compared to what we used to have. My kids do not have Duck and Cover drills in school like I did. They no longer worry about a nuke exchange that would wipe out civilization.

Later,
Dan

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Y'all can have your opinions. But, when I was a kid, I stayed outside every waking moment I didn't have to be inside...suburbs of New Orleans. I didn't worry about kidnappers, child molesters, or other deviants because I never heard of them...nor did my friends. We camped out, built tree houses, shot BB guns everywhere, roamed pretty much an entire square mile all the way to the Mississippi River. When we did something wrong, we got our arse's whipped, both at school and at home(sometimes both for the same offense)....and I deserved every lick I got. Whipping kept us in line because we feared pain, feared our elders....that fear later turned to respect. Every decent kid I grew up with turned into a responsible adult that has a job, and a family they provide for with no aid from the gubberment. Yes, there were bad kids back then that had no fear and were incorrigible...don't know what happened to them, but prison is a good bet. My point is, back then there was a strict order, it was black or white...no grey area, no time out's, no group discussions about your feelings and most important there was a consequence for your actions. There really is a looser and a winner in every thing we do, and there was no pat on the back or a trophy when a game was lost. Loosing sucks, and that is incentive to try harder, practice, study, train. That is life, whether folks nowadays admit it or not.

I worked 27 years 2 months and 16 days as a public servant, retired, built a house, and continue to work by buying property and houses that need work. It's hands on work, just like my career and I would not change one single thing about my life. For me the good 'ole days were exactly that and I fear the values and standards that {we} as a society have let slide will be the ultimate ruin of us all.

Our experiences were very similar. I would miss our hot and cold running water, and the indoor toilet ("Modern" is the word they used to use for these amenities), and all of the modern conveniences, but I miss the fun we had, and the unparalleled freedom that came with our first automobile. Economically times were tough, very tough in Oklahoma where I lived, but it was tough for almost everyone, except maybe the local Pharmacist or the big time cattle rancher. Communities were tighter, people were friendlier. If you ever had car trouble (and we had lots of it with those old cars...my first one was a 1930 Chevrolet), inevitably, the first car that came by would stop to help. I think most of all, it's people that I miss.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I think my neighbor summed it up pretty good when talking about farm life. He said, farm families who grow a garden could get by if for some reason groceries became non existent, but everyone else would starve to death.

Back in the good old days, (mine at least) we grew just about all we needed with exception of flour, coffee/tea, sugar & salt. Mom and Dad went to town once a month for those items. Dad always talked about how prices had boomed by saying that the first year of marriage, they had twin girls, had borrowed $25 to live on and plant his crop (he was a farmer). He bought his seed, feed for his mules, a case of condensed milk each week for the girls and any food/clothes needed and still had part of the $25 left when he harvested his crops for sale.

Life was hard back then, and not many folks today could make it doing that kind of physical labor, myself included, but I did it back when I was a young'un on the farm. For many years we had no electricity and use wood for heat, kerosene lanterns for what little light we needed which wasn't much since we went to bed shortly after dark and got up a hour or so before daylight to get breakfast and ready to hit the fields with a gooseneck hoe at break of dawn. It took the whole family to tend and gather the crops, we all (7 ) lived in a 1200 sq. ft. house with the only cooling being an open window. Later we got a window fan to pull in the cool outside air from the night. It was during the mid 60s that Mom & Dad go a big window unit to cool the one side of the house but only ran it when it was above 90 F outside. Later in mid 70's they got a central air unit but only after he retired from farming (got a little soft at that time).

I would never consider them the good ole days when growing up, but for my overall lifespan so far I would say that I have experienced the best that we will ever have. I think the easy life is declining now and the luxurious living standards we enjoy today will be short lived. As some one has already said, we are being pulled down to the living standards or the third world nations while they are coming up to our standards. We will meet at some point in the middle. The way we are living and the price we are having to pay cant be sustained. Hardly any wife worked outside the home when I was growing up, now almost every wife HAS to work just to afford the minimal things of todays life. Child labor wont work for us any more so there is no more income to be had by the family so the only way to get by is having less luxury. I am afraid our grandchildren or at most great grandchildren of the baby boomer generation will be having a hard time making ends meet in their lifetimes.

 

[jerrybob]

Enjoy yourself. These are the good old days you're going to miss in the years ahead.:thumbsup:

 

[300UGUY]

When we were land hunting we looked at a parcel that contained a large family cemetery. It was a large cemetery, not because there were a great many generations buried in the plot, but because so many graves were babies and children. The vast majority of graves were kids.

People forget polio and the polio scares. Pools being closed and such. If you got the flu, you very well might die. My wife and I both have great grand fathers that died of flu. It was just common. Now, the papers talk about how many people are dying from flu because it is shocking. It is shocking that less than a dozen people have died. Years ago, that would have been a drop in the bucket.

We now have a very efficient 911 system along with first responders. Not that long ago you were just thrown in the back of a truck, maybe an actual ambulance, and taken the doctors officer or maybe a hospital. For serious injuries you died. Now, you get well trained first responders and you are driven rapidly to a decent hospital and in some cases a trauma center. If it is really bad, you go by copter.

There were child sexual predator's years ago, we had what are now called stranger danger films at school, but the problem just was not talked about that much. Now, with instant communication, you hear of incidents in nearby cities and towns, that years ago you would not hear about. Just this week, there were arrests in Cary and Raleigh about child predators. Years ago, people in my county would not have heard about those arrests. The predators WERE there. We just did not know that much about them.

The world is a better place today than it was 50 or 100 years ago. We have our problems but they are nothing compared to what we used to have. My kids do not have Duck and Cover drills in school like I did. They no longer worry about a nuke exchange that would wipe out civilization.

Later,
Dan

This. I have done some family geneology recently, and was surprised at how many kids just didn't make it. My mom and dad both lost siblings, and my grandparents lost a couple each, and one side, the parents died from flu in 1918. After losing several coworkers to cancer and heart attacks, I decided retirement was a good idea. Good health is merely dying at a acceptably slow pace....

 

[300UGUY]

I think my neighbor summed it up pretty good when talking about farm life. He said, farm families who grow a garden could get by if for some reason groceries became non existent, but everyone else would starve to death.

Back in the good old days, (mine at least) we grew just about all we needed with exception of flour, coffee/tea, sugar & salt. Mom and Dad went to town once a month for those items. Dad always talked about how prices had boomed by saying that the first year of marriage, they had twin girls, had borrowed $25 to live on and plant his crop (he was a farmer). He bought his seed, feed for his mules, a case of condensed milk each week for the girls and any food/clothes needed and still had part of the $25 left when he harvested his crops for sale.

Life was hard back then, and not many folks today could make it doing that kind of physical labor, myself included, but I did it back when I was a young'un on the farm. For many years we had no electricity and use wood for heat, kerosene lanterns for what little light we needed which wasn't much since we went to bed shortly after dark and got up a hour or so before daylight to get breakfast and ready to hit the fields with a gooseneck hoe at break of dawn. It took the whole family to tend and gather the crops, we all (7 ) lived in a 1200 sq. ft. house with the only cooling being an open window. Later we got a window fan to pull in the cool outside air from the night. It was during the mid 60s that Mom & Dad go a big window unit to cool the one side of the house but only ran it when it was above 90 F outside. Later in mid 70's they got a central air unit but only after he retired from farming (got a little soft at that time).

I would never consider them the good ole days when growing up, but for my overall lifespan so far I would say that I have experienced the best that we will ever have. I think the easy life is declining now and the luxurious living standards we enjoy today will be short lived. As some one has already said, we are being pulled down to the living standards or the third world nations while they are coming up to our standards. We will meet at some point in the middle. The way we are living and the price we are having to pay cant be sustained. Hardly any wife worked outside the home when I was growing up, now almost every wife HAS to work just to afford the minimal things of todays life. Child labor wont work for us any more so there is no more income to be had by the family so the only way to get by is having less luxury. I am afraid our grandchildren or at most great grandchildren of the baby boomer generation will be having a hard time making ends meet in their lifetimes.

I'd say that less than 10% of todays farmers could or would grow a garden. Most that I know snicker at folks who garden or raise a few chickens. They are business people now. Generally, the richest folks in town. I agree that our living standards have at least stalled out, so that business can have free trade. Ag has been a big proponent of free trade, they get to sell their crops overseas, they get to sell foriegn products here. Only thing is, Ag provides few jobs, and manufacturing folks got sacrificed on the alter of free trade.

 

[PMA]

Without getting into a debate about globalization, here's an interesting comparison of the "time cost" of various household appliances from Sears in 1959, 1973, and 2013. The wage rates are the averages for the respective years. The source is When it comes to the affordability of common household goods, the rich and the poor are both getting richer | AEIdeas. Assuming 40-hour work weeks and ignoring income taxes, you would have had to work >3 weeks to buy a color TV back in 1959, >2.5 weeks in 1973, but just over 1/2 week in 2013. The 1959 and 1973 TVs would have a lot smaller screens and lower picture quality than do current TVs. Steve

The items you listed do not last near as long as they use to. My momma has a freezer that is 50 years old and still working. We bought a washing machine, one of the top of line, it lasted 4 years and we just bought another one.

Sent from my iPhone using TractorByNet

 

[tallyho8]

The items you listed do not last near as long as they use to. My momma has a freezer that is 50 years old and still working. We bought a washing machine, one of the top of line, it lasted 4 years and we just bought another one.

I think one exception to this is TVs. Many people are now throwing away 10 year old working TVs to replace them with big screens. Years ago I never bought a new TV that worked for 2 years without breaking.

 

[paulharvey]

Ok, I've avoided getting in here, but I have perhaps an odd perspective. First I am 31 years old (1982) but grew up in the Back woods of WVa, no power or running water till I was 8 years old. We had a wood stove in a one room tin building about 20 ft X 40 ft, with a concrete floor. We walked the 1.5 mile mud clay driveway to the bus stop, and road the bus for at least 45 minutes to a hour to get to school. I still remember when I started 5th grade (1st year in the brand new middle school) the school had AC... All the old ones (about 4 schools each with a single class of each garde) where heated, with plumbing and all but no AC. The church I went to got indoor bathrooms in 1993.

Where the times good? My best friend lost both feet to frost bit cause the old school bus he and his dad lived in had no heat, and he very nearly starved to death before the school system tracked him down. My dad raised sheep, gardened, and cut lumber till he was crushed in a tractor roll over, and we moved off the farm. I think it made us tougher, yes, would I volunteer to do it again, Heck no.

 

[tcreeley]

Speaking of TV, as a kid we got a couple of channels. Today with the switch to digital (even with the right TV) I can't get any channel. That is a step backwards.