When Were The Good Old Days?

The folks who will be retiring in 2070 will consider today “the good old days”, their grandchildren’s music will be lousy and the neighborhood kids won’t stay off of their lawn!

Pretty much 30 years ago regardless of who is speaking.

mark46 said:

I am not as dismissive of Bush. He was indeed a passionate conservative, and passed the most important social legislation since Johnson: the establishment of Medicare Part D (prescription coverage).
Bush was, and is, pro-immigrant. He had the support of many Hispanics.

Unfortunately, Bush will be remembered for the wars, our countries response to 911 that was supported by almost everyone in the beginning. As with Johnson and Viet Nam, Bush couldn't find a way out. (neither could Obama or Trump).
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But, yes, 911 changed America and the world. Our internal and external reaction was the greatest over-reach ion US history. We've spent trillions overseas and on internal security. And we prevented 2001 style terrorist attacks, while totally failing to prevent cyber attacks, and foreign influence on various US groups (e.g. the NRA).

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Sure, some of it was a product of circumstance and preceding history, 9/11 being the big part of that - and given some of the shysters that are in power from the US right now, I'd happily take Bush back in some sense.

But it's also the time when internet usage grew and political parties started increasingly pandering to the crazy wing of the population instead of providing them with state-mandated colouring books and shiny objects.

Pommer said:

The folks who will be retiring in 2070 will consider today “the good old days”, their grandchildren’s music will be lousy and the neighborhood kids won’t stay off of their lawn!

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Technically if you're on a hoverboard you're not 'on' the lawn, grandad

Triumvirate said:

Technically if you're on a hoverboard you're not 'on' the lawn, grandad

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Good thing SCOTUS allowed land mines under the Second Amendment in 2036!

Civilizations are organic entities, as such, unless they are interrupted from without, they go through full life cycles. They are born, grow, mature, age and die. With due credit to Oswald Spengler, the stages of Western Civilization were as follows:

Spring - High/Late Middle Ages
Summer - Early Modern
Autumn - Enlightenment/Romantic
Winter - WWI-Present

It's as if in the minds of many posters here, any time in history not within their memory may as well have never existed...

SoldierOfTheKing said:

Civilizations are organic entities, as such, unless they are interrupted from without, they go through full life cycles. They are born, grow, mature, age and die. With due credit to Oswald Spengler, the stages of Western Civilization were as follows:

Spring - High/Late Middle Ages
Summer - Early Modern
Autumn - Enlightenment/Romantic
Winter - WWI-Present

It's as if in the minds of many posters here, any time in history not within their memory may as well have never existed...

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Couple this with an eye to “the end times” and you’ve got a hooting good time!

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Ken-1122 said:

I would say the good ole days were from 1995 thru 2005.

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Before the twentieth century life was very difficult. The good old days would be sometime after the end of the second world war. So from the 1950's onward.

At a guess, I would say either the decade of the sixties, seventies, or even the eighties.

The last twenty years have been scarred by terrorism, global warming, global economic competition. Plagues, decreasing employment security, e.t.c.

For me the good old days were when I was a teen and in my early 20s. Around 1975 to 1985.
I'd like to time travel back to around 1977 and spend a week there

Although there was a second golden age back in the mid 90s. I remember saying to a friend "these are the good ol days".

But really these days rock with the internet, laptops and smartphones.

mark46 said:

Many long for the "good old days". They want to return to a particular time period.

Where do you all stand?

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Before Adam and Eve fell from grace!

mark46 said:

Many long for the "good old days". They want to return to a particular time period.

Where do you all stand?

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It's an illusion. People retreat into a fantasy past rather than face the present reality.

The real past stunk just as badly as the present stinks. It just stunk differently.

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Landon Caeli said:

You know what made the good old days best..? Less responsibility, resulting in a worry-free lifestyle.

...Worry causes stress, which leads to unhappiness.

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That's something that I think is much more of a factor than people like to admit. That the reason "the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, et cetera" seemed so simple (when they weren't) and peaceful (when they weren't) is because the person was a kid with no responsibilities who didn't concern themselves with any of the problems that were going on at the time.

But the '90s gave us Super Nintendo and the N64 so it wins by default.

I don't know that we can ever say this era or that era was the good ole days. Every period or decade had good things and bad things. I don't know that anytime in history was good for everyone. Or at least without some problems.

We could look back on anytime in history and say this was good for these reasons. This same period could also be criticized for other things that were bad.

So it depends on what the focus is on. Are we focused on economics, morality, employment, wages, family values? You might have a decade where most of these were good for most people. But that decade would also have people that were left behind.

We could say the 50s were good for a number of reasons. But then, we had Jim Crow. We could say the 60s were good, but we had Vietnam. The 70s? We ended with a bad economy.

The 90s were pretty good. But it was the cause of the .com bubble and an economic collapse.

Let's be real here. When we talk about good ole days it's about a majority of good things for a majority of people even though it may have been tough for a number of people.

grasping the after wind said:

Ecclesiastes 7:10
Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.

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Beat me to it.

mark46 said:

Many long for the "good old days". They want to return to a particular time period.

Where do you all stand?

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Prior to 1913 is a dreamy period.

Lamentations 5:21
Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old

Pommer said:

The folks who will be retiring in 2070 will consider today “the good old days”, their grandchildren’s music will be lousy and the neighborhood kids won’t stay off of their lawn!

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Because the music is lousy!

98cwitr said:

Because the music is lousy!

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We can only imagine what 2070 music will sound like...