You Know You Are Old When

[Oaktree]

Yes I believe you're correct. "Eat here get gas" was their motto.

Pretty common play on words for a restaurant/gas station combo in the 50s. There was one in Nashua N.H. on Amherst St. too. Was gone by the early 80s. Was always hesitant to eat there.

At the time it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere, now that road is one continuous strip mall from Nashua to Milford.

 

[drssg]

During WWII, the ratio of draftees to volunteers in the U.S. military was roughly 61% draftees to 39% volunteers.

During the Korean War, approximately 1.5 million men were drafted, while about 1.3 million volunteered, making the ratio of drafted to volunteer forces roughly equal.

During the Vietnam War,
approximately two-thirds of U.S. military personnel who served were volunteers, while one-third were draftees.

Shows a trend TOWARDS volunteering not away from it.

Of course, that was 50 years ago.

I would bet that the total percentage of the US population going off to war was considerably higher during WWII vs. Vietnam. WWII was a much larger and desperate war effort.

I think that would affect the statistics that you referenced.

 

[Alan46]

Thanks, it was Pure.

Pure Oil Gas Station

This used to be a landmark on US 31 between Kokomo and Indy. Got torn down a while back....

View attachment 4375606

There was a sign in the window of a bar and card room in Templeton Ca.

Liquor in the front…..Poker in the rear

 

[California]

I have some new millineal neighbors I've helped fix things because they don't know how to do anything except they are wizards on a computer. Actually able to troubleshoot, have & use tools...forget it.

I'm reading that the computer-savy generation has been succeeded by now, a computer-ignorant generation.

New hires depend on their phone for everything. Talk about corporate networks, folders or spreadsheets, and just get a passive blank look in return. A story I read said a supervisor was cussing HR for hiring a kid who he saw calculating numbers on his phone to plug into the cells in his spreadsheet instead of letting Excel calculate the numbers.

I thought this was hyperbole before dealing with a nanny my daughter engaged to help watch her kid while she worked from home. Nanny had just graduated college. She had her nose in her phone every moment that she wasn't chasing granddaughter around. I offered to let her use an old laptop, she refused it, said she wasn't comfortable with something so unfamiliar. In summary many in the next generation may just passively wait for AI to tell them what to do.

 

[WinterDeere]

Some would ask "the car or the woman?"

One becomes more desirable with age. The other... not so much.

 

[MossRoad]

 

[drssg]

Funny how we tend to view the past thru rose colored glasses. The self-described "greatest generation" was also the one responsible for getting us into the Vietnam quagmire, and blamed our losses there on the young generation for being "soft". I'm not sure "whipping your ass" was the best way of disciplining kids, would justifiably be considered abuse today.
You've gotta be kidding that "society was one one page". The generation gap between boomers and their parents was huge, and let's not forget that race relations weren't exactly cozy either. My father was convinced that there's be full-blown race wars the way things were going in the mid 60s. The news media wouldn't dream of questioning anything the government reported. No idea what you mean by "life being worth more". Ask a black person living in the south in that era what their life was worth.

There were just as many problems in society then as now, it's just that back then it was all swept under the rug.

I agree with not viewing the past through rose-colored glasses, but I also believe The Greatest Generation deserves the title. They faced historically recognized national and world-wide problems on a scale that we have not faced since.

I was a little too young for Vietnam, and when I compare my life with the struggles that my father faced, I feel quite privileged and soft.

It's easy to criticize the decision to go into Vietnam, but there was considerable concern about the "domino effect" back then and the risk of world domination by communism. To my memory, the expansion of communism did seem to hit a wall after Vietnam. We don't have a crystal ball to know what might have been.

ETA: I can also understand how some of the "establishment" mindset in the 50s led to the 60s mindset of "don't trust anyone over 30."

My first job after college involved reading through a bunch of old military R&D documents. I would occasionally read something that would make me think, "Holy crap, they actually DID that to people?"

I would flip back to the front cover, and sure enough, it was from the 50s.

 

[orezok]

“Eat here - get gas”

Applies to most fast food places

 

[California]

It's easy to criticize the decision to go into Vietnam, but there was considerable concern about the "domino effect" back then and the risk of world domination by communism. To my memory, the expansion of communism did seem to hit a wall after Vietnam.

ETA: I can also understand how some of the "establishment" mindset in the 50s led to the 60s mindset of "don't trust anyone over 30.

Maybe this thread isn't the place to get into Domino Theory. But why not? It really was relevant to some of us 'of a certain age'.

I was in HS when Castro brought the Communist Party of Cuba to power and the previous corrupt regime fled the country. (Wikipedia). Domino Theory, a belief that this overthrow could easily extend into Latin America alongside USSR's efforts elsewhere, became a mainstream belief.

But along with this realistic concern was US political tribalism, with many liberals tarred with a label of 'communist sympathizer'. Name calling very much like today's refrain that liberal education will make schoolkids go trans or gay. Basically, the culture wars of the 60's, a reversal of the universality that got us through WWII, began then.

I chose PolSci major when I entered college. Later after JFK's 'Ask what you can do for your country' and reading about SE Asia in The Ugly American, I signed up for Peace Corps. Mostly just for the sense of adventure, doing something interesting in a developing country.

But between the time I applied, waiting many months for a reply, and my acceptance, VN blew up. It had been an area of minor concern, somewhat like Somalia today - who cares what they do over there? Then suddenly a thousand 'advisors' became 10,000 troops on the ground, then you know the rest.

To my surprise Peace Corps accepted me to a urban development program in Venezuela, which along with Colombia was widely seen as where Castro would move next. The cities were full of kids newly arrived from rural areas, and who had no future. Exactly the tinder that revolutionaries can most easily recruit. (Like today in the Middle East). We taught rudimentary automechanics to these kids to help them become apprentices to real mechanics, hopefully before they fathered another generation with no future. US State Department was using us to fight communism, on the ground.

I was continually asked there, how the US government can promote peace and respect for America through efforts like we were doing, while at the same time dropping more bombs than were used in WWII, on the Vietnamese. How is that going to earn respect?

Reflecting on that, I continued to ask that question after I got home.

 

[LouNY]

Maybe this thread isn't the place to get into Domino Theory. But why not? It really was relevant to some of us 'of a certain age'.

I was in HS when Castro brought the Communist Party of Cuba to power and the previous corrupt regime fled the country. (Wikipedia). Domino Theory, a belief that this overthrow could easily extend into Latin America alongside USSR's efforts elsewhere, became a mainstream belief.

But along with this realistic concern was US political tribalism, with many liberals tarred with a label of 'communist sympathizer'. Name calling very much like today's refrain that liberal education will make schoolkids go trans or gay. Basically, the culture wars of the 60's, a reversal of the universality that got us through WWII, began then.

I chose PolSci major when I entered college. Later after JFK's 'Ask what you can do for your country' and reading about SE Asia in The Ugly American, I signed up for Peace Corps. Mostly just for the sense of adventure, doing something interesting in a developing country.

But between the time I applied, waiting many months for a reply, and my acceptance, VN blew up. It had been an area of minor concern, somewhat like Somalia today - who cares what they do over there? Then suddenly a thousand 'advisors' became 10,000 troops on the ground, then you know the rest.

To my surprise Peace Corps accepted me to a urban development program in Venezuela, which along with Colombia was widely seen as where Castro would move next. The cities were full of kids newly arrived from rural areas, and who had no future. Exactly the tinder that revolutionaries can most easily recruit. (Like today in the Middle East). We taught rudimentary automechanics to these kids to help them become apprentices to real mechanics, hopefully before they fathered another generation with no future. US State Department was using us to fight communism, on the ground.

I was continually asked there, how the US government can promote peace and respect for America through efforts like we were doing, while at the same time dropping more bombs than were used in WWII, on the Vietnamese. How is that going to earn respect?

Reflecting on that, I continued to ask that question after I got home.

I had no problem with the bombs being dropped, I wanted more. And the idea to stop the spread of communism was the correct approach. And it worked most ways.