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.Remember when you had to look up the listings in the local free paper to see what time films were on at the cinema?
.Remember when you had to give your mum n dad '3 rings' to get them to pick you up from the swimming pool?
hahaha wasn't the past shit!?
Some bits of it were OK.
Ringos for instance. They were ace!
Yeah, but are we actually any happier?
We'll find out soon when we get our country back
Remember arranging to meet someone at a certain time and place, and you were slightly late and they weren't there, and you didn't know if they were also late or had given up and gone without you, and you couldn't phone them to find out?
Remember watching crap on telly because you wanted to watch telly at that point and nothing was on?
Yeah, but are we actually any happier?
Nope. Happiness peaked in the 1970s. Hard to imagine a time now without internet and instant everything and would feel odd to have that taken away but in the past none of that existed so not any less happy without it.
I do remember spending an hour in a queue for the cinema, and not getting in because it was full. It was always a judgement call, if you didn't get there early enough, on whether the queue was worth joining or not.
On the flip side, I remember riding my bike on roads where there were fewer cars.
remember when if you wanted to phone your mate you had to ring the house phone and be polite to their parent who answered the phone and ask if they were in, while stood in the hall because the phone had a wire!
Life is definatly more fast paced these days but yeah, it is a lot easier to get things done.
Remember watching crap on telly because you wanted to watch telly at that point and nothing was on?
Day before yesterday. And that's with Netflix. Except now it takes much longer to find out that there is only junk available.
"it is a lot easier to get things done. ", it's certainly easier to get in touch with carpenters/delivery drivers/plumbers/electricians/doctors/shops/automated phone systems etc in terms of actually getting things done I'm much less convinced.
imho one of my mothers better quotes - 'with all the labour saving devices we have nowdays it's amazing how little time people have for each other'
I would suspect on the whole the 50s were when people were happiest. Out of the post war austerity, rising wages, full employment, the start of youth culture. A time of hope for the future and a time when peoples standard of living was improving. The NHS meant free healthcare for all from cradle to grave
That because the phone was in the hall and connected by a wire, there was less of an expectation to speak with the person and life was got on with.
I would save a fortune on not having broadband and five mobile phones.
I would have to remember how to write a letter to someone.
Ahh, when the sun always shone, endless days of mucking around in boats. Girls sexier than, well sex. Those mates that called around to see if you were coming out. Dad working away, Mum making supper, the Goonies on TV. Bikes chucked in the back lawn to be left overnight and you knew they'd be there in the morning. Doors never locked, garage always open, Yamaha YZ100 waiting to be kicked into life and razzed along the dirt lanes. Endless corn fields as far as the eye can see, creeks and bayou's meandering like silver snakes along a biscuit coloured landscape. Beaches whiter than a prom girls teeth, sea the colour of filtered jade.
Awesome.
Life's turned into a pale imitation.
would suspect on the whole the 50s were when people were happiest.
What a strange thing to try to guess at how dyou know? It might have been the 1900s. Or the 1820s for all it matters 😆
When phones had a special table all to themselves 😀
nickc - prewar there was the great depression, earlier than that the lives of working class folk was pretty short rough and brutal. later then yo get into the times of industrial unrest and mass unemployment.
Broadly speaking altho 50s living standards were lower than now, people could see things getting better and had a lot of hope.
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The price of luxuires and essentials was mad in comparison to now.
It was great before we joined the EU.
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/history/striking-black-white-images-capture-12616419
And if you used a credit card in a shop they would have to bring out that carbon copy 'crunk-crunk' machine to take an imprint of it, and if it was over a certain amount they would phone the bank too!!
jagain - Member
I would suspect on the whole the 50s were when people were happiest.
That's because we had hope. These days, we've realised this is as good as it gets and it's mostly still a lukewarm bucket of poo.
people could see things getting better and had a lot of hope.
That's the key, right? It's not how good things are now, it's how good the future looks that makes you happy. Unfortunately!!
Remember when people came to visit and they talked ,that was shit
Remember people haveing the god damn nerve to start o conversation on the train or in the bus,that was shit.
Remember compaines having stock ,shit
remember when news papers reported stuff acuretly, shit also
remember when there were spaces to park, sooo shit
remeber when work stoped when you left the office, real shit that was
I could go on but that would be shit to.
Oh sod off you miserable old codgers
Life is brilliant
All the info in the world is available to you on a little device in your pocket, you can do free courses online on any subject you fancy
The opportunity to expand your knowledge of the world around us has never been easier
You can get flights all over Europe for a tenner and stay in an air bnb for 20 quid anywhere in the world.
There's more than 3 TV channels and 5 radio stations
Best of all my mountain bike is amazing, it weighs <14kg and I've ridden it on 70k epic xc treks and dh races
remember when if you wanted to book a BnB you had to ring the local tourist info centre for the numbers of local places, then ring them to see if they had availability and you didn't know what the place was like until you got there.
The past was rubbish!
If life is so good now why do we have this epidemic of depression?
Smells a bit UKIP in here.
I'm amazed at how I used to buy records - in the back of the NME were little ads for shops that did mail order - Sister Ray was one, they'd list about 20 new releases and I'd write a letter, enclose a cheque, stick a stamp on and post it.
[i]Please send me 1 x Siouxsie & the Banshees - "The Scream"[/i]
a week or so later my record would arrive and I'd play it eagerly on my mono speakered Dansette in my tiny bedroom.
Was that worse than now, when I have 6 million times more music than I can actually listen to?
Remember when people came to visit and they talked ,that was shit
Remember people haveing the god damn nerve to start o conversation on the train or in the bus,that was shit.
Remember compaines having stock ,shit
remember when news papers reported stuff acuretly, shit also
remember when there were spaces to park, sooo shit
remeber when work stoped when you left the office, real shit that was
Yeah I member last week.
If life is so good now why do we have this epidemic of depression?
It's diagnosed better and people who have it aren't treat like their nutcases so aren't afraid to be open about it.
If life is so good now why do we have this epidemic of depression?
Chances are it went undiagnosed in the past, especially for women.
Not that I disagree with your general prognosis that there was more hope for the future back in the 50's and 60's. I think while technology has advanced we haven't harnessed that fully for the betterment of society as a whole.
I know I'm looking back with rose tinted specs, but back then when I was a teenager life was just endless. Now I just see it ending.
And in time-honoured fashion, "Where's my ****ing hover-board?".
Yeah as you get older the days drag out in monotony while the years fly by, when you are young the days are short and filled with excitement (apart from school, school was shit) and the years seemed to last forever.
Was that worse than now, when I have 6 million times more music than I can actually listen to?
I've gotta say no to this. That buzz of buying records was amazing. Reading the labels on the bus home, and nearly pissing yourself in the eagerness to get in and play them before doing anything else. Yes, you can still buy records (and I do) but it's not the same when you've already heard it a million times on youtube, rather than a memory from a rave/club or some awesome little mixtape.
God, it's finally happened... I've turned into an old giffer.
Smells a bit UKIP in here.
Nowt to do with political parties or politics. It's to do with 'progression'
In all I reckon I was happiest in the 70's & 80's.
I've fond memories of Texan bars - chocolate covered toffee that took an eternity to eat
Loved the 70's
You could shove dogshit through someones letterbox and set fire to it without kicking off a five day internet flame war.
A clip round the ear from the local bobby was deemed sufficient punishment.
Happy days.
What a strange thing to try to guess at how dyou know? It might have been the 1900s. Or the 1820s for all it matters
You don't need to guess, it was the 1970's.
Maybe not coincidentally was also when equality was at it's best
I would suspect on the whole the 50s were when people were happiest.
Rationing,
Rampant racism and sexism was considered "normal",
Being gay could see you put in prison
etc. etc.
Yup - if you were a white, heterosexual man, the 1950s were ace. If you were a woman, or in a minority it was pretty shit.
I'd say the early-nineties were the best. So there.
You could shove dogshit through someones letterbox
Only the front door though, obvs.
jimdoubleyou
Yes you have a point but even for women it was a time of hope. That I think is the key - live looked to be getting better and the future looked bright.
I miss the joys of ceefax and teletext. Waiting for the cinema listings page and not finding the hold button in time to pause it. Having to wait until it returns back to the same screen.
Riding around on the BMX or Grifter, very few cars and having mini adventures that seemed epic. As DezB said buying music was great. I remember being super excited getting a bus in to town, picking up a new album and listening to it on the Walkman on the way home. I now have a Deezer account bursting with albums I've not even heard.
I think it's more a case of missing being young and carefree rather than anything to do with technology.
I suspect when felt best (on average) varies from place to place. In Britain I'm going for the 1960s - the '50s still has that air of post-war austerity to it (food rationing didn't end until 1954) as well as a less inclusive approach to diversity.
Although we'd (had to) let most of the empire go by the end of the 60s, Britain hadn't got the memo that we were no longer one of the global big players, we still aspired to our own space programme, developing our own nukes, developing (along with France) the bestest passenger jet the world has (still) ever seen... Plus we had the world listening to our music and still watching (some of) our movies.
Alongside that, the liberalisation of culture made the joy more widely accessible (although homosexuality was only legalised in '67).
The 70s brought it all down to earth - industries dying and the growing realisation that we're just a little island at the edge of Europe. Three day weeks, power cuts, rubbish on the streets, the dead unburied, having to go to the IMF to borrow money...
You don't need to guess, it was the 1970's.Maybe not coincidentally was also when equality was at it's best
You've a different memory of equality in the 70s than me.