People knew their neighbors, talked with them, had each others backs, etc. Lots of positives there. This pushed people to behave better since you didn’t want to embarrass your family since everyone would know. Some negatives, too many people knew your business, pushed you to conform.
Then TV came along …
I remember a time before everyone had cell phones. Man, that was great.
Household appliances and power tools used to have lifespans measured in decades, not years (my aunt still uses a blender she bought back in the 60’s, for example). Granted, the newer ones are more energy-efficient and might be safer, but I’m not sure buying a more efficient refrigerator every ten years is really saving money over buying a less-efficient one every 30-40 years.
1985 Ferrari 208 vs 2010 Toyota Camry, stock.
The Ferrari gets smoked.
They made crappy drills and tools in the 1950s and 1960s, too. I see stripped-out pot metal hand tools and broken drills with bakelite housings from decades past all the time at estate sales. Survivor bias.
You’re comparing higher-end furniture of the past with lower-end furniture of the present. You can still buy solid wood furniture with dovetailed drawers, brass hinges, and so on today, just like you could buy pressboard and veneered furniture decades ago. The crap mostly didn’t survive, while the good stuff often did. Maybe your grandmother DID pay a lot for that furniture, adjusted for inflation, because she didn’t want something that would fall apart. Survivor bias.
Yes, yes…I love those good ol’ days! Back when women, children, minorities, and gays knew their place!
I can’t believe no one mentioned sex. Remember in the late 70s and early 80s before AIDS existed? And women still had pubic hair and weren’t covered in tattoos and piercings? That was an awesome time…
“Nature” may not include the city of L.A., but the air here now is much better today than it was 50 years ago.
It was quieter, which is a benefit lost in the modern world.
When I was a kid you could see the stars on a summer night.
Agree about HIV/AIDS. I’m fine with most tattoos and don’t mind the shaved fad (we do not need another thread debating this, however)
I don’t know what you mean by “younger”, but while TSA can be a pain in the ass, there’s no doubt that today there are many aspects to flying that are easier than in yesteryear. Hell, the process of booking a flight and getting a ticket used to take weeks! My Dad told me about my first flight when I was 4 - a March flight, booked in January to make sure “they had plenty of time to mail the tickets to us”, all done through a person because there was no way you could review the flights and price it out yourself.
And the prices! That flight, from Atlanta to Daytona Beach, FL cost as much, inflation-adjusted, as a flight to Europe today. According to the NY Times, the average domestic ticket in 2011 was $247, the inflationary equivalent of $58 in 1976. The 1972 flight I took to Daytona Beach was “around $500”, which would be the equivalent of $2,700 today.
To be honest, I’d rather pay $250 on a plane ticket which is little more than a airbus (yuck yuck) than $2,500 to be treated like a king on a three-hour flight. I would rather have my $2,250 back so I can spend it on Daytona Beach, not on a filet mignon dinner served to me by a stewardess wearing gloves.
Cite?
I remember a similar thing from the early 70s. I think it was the only time I flew on a 747 in my life - when we moved from NY to LA. I remember the stewardess (as they were known in that time) pushing a cart down the aisle with a large roast on top, and carving off pieces (with a real carving knife) for people as she passed by, serving it on real porcelin, with real silverware. And no, this was not 1st class. Of course, back in the day everyone dressed up for an airline flight - wait, maybe that was not such a bad thing.
The 1950’s were great-we had:
-James Dean
-bobby sox and saddle shoes
-poodle skirts
-1957 Chevies
-45 RPM records
-“I like Ike”
-Elvis
Need I say more?
Y’all also had:
-juvenile delinquency – or at least popular fear thereof – a la “Blackboard Jungle”
-conformism a la “Man in the Gray Flannel Suit”
-“Duck and Cover”
-Ike came with Nixon. 'Nuff said. 
-Pat Boone
The '50s were probably pretty great in the brand-new post-war automobile suburbs, but maybe not so much in the cities from which the middle class was in headlong flight.
I agree with the idea that everything good that we can rattle off has an equally bad trade-off.
For instance, back in the day, McDonald’s french fries were really really good, instead of just really good. But they were fried in lard, which isn’t good for you (or so they say).
Back in the day, kids roamed neighborhoods and played outdoors for hours. But they were victimized more than they are today.
Back in the day, going to the doctor wasn’t the big financial hardship that it is now. And they made house calls. But healthcare also used to be pretty primitive.
Back in the day, there was a certain consciousness in the black community that is lacking today. However, that consciousness was the direct result of racial segregation and oppression.
Everything good has a bad side.
Wrong. Back in the day, you could order a Thompson Sub Machine Gun from Sears-Roebuck and they would mail you one. 
The music was so much better and getting to see top performers of the day for a minimal charge. I’ll never forget seeing Bobby Lewis perform at a high school dance in 1961 for free (to the students) and he had the number one song in the U.S. (Tossin’ and turnin’)
The Beatles came 3 years later and a ticket was $3.50 a little less than the cost of an album which IIRC was $3.98 retail.
Ocean fishing was much better in the 50’s and 60’s than it is now. The fish were more plentiful and much larger. I grew up in Los Angles, we had open fields and nature everywhere, now no where to be found. Age drew some respect. If you could not find a job in a week something was wrong with you, I never hunted for more than 2 days and woud usually have my choice of several by then. Cars are much better now. Girls put out more, and drugs are not so frowned upon or penalized as bad.
Funny, a Gramps from Hell negates both of those. A non-violent psychopath who’s really good at what he does is able to stay in one place for the greater part of 95 years and to have only those who’ve ever been clawed by him believe that he’d ever rake anybody’s guts out. My Gramps from Hell stayed at his last job for over 30 years, occasionally ripping someone’s job there to shreds, but anybody he hadn’t attacked was convinced he was the greatest and nicest dude ever, and he’d do so much for you if you did just a little for him…
I do think it’s good to have a large family, know your roots and all that jazz, but the notion that what happens at home stays at home was not a good one.