# Let's remember the Good Old Days! /s **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 4, 2023, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062 "2023-08-04T18:25:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/41 "2023-08-06T00:31:48Z")
Fuck the “good old days” which were also the heyday of those bigoted assholes, “the greatest generation”. The only two things that made the greatest generation behave decently to their fellow Americans and fellow veterans was courts forcing governments and businesses to stop the discrimination to the tune of massive fines if not compliant. Oh, that’s only one thing. The other thing was death. They’re dying off. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/42 "2023-08-06T00:50:04Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > One of the more annoying traits of some of my older friends ( early to mid 70s ) is their enthusiastic pining for the low prices of the time of their youth…while studiously ignoring their lower incomes of the time. [Rita, Sue and Bob Too](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091859/), British film from 1987. Sue is sixteen and has just left school to watch telly and collect dole money. Cue dad coming home from the pub (when they closed at 2pm): Dad: You’ll not get a bleedin’ job sitting on your arse in here! Sue: There’s no way I’m working all week for twenty-seven pounds thirty on some bleedin’ training scheme. Dad: You should be thankful for it! I had to work for eighteen shilling! Mum: That were in the days of Methuselah. You get nowt for twenty-seven thirty nowadays. Not to mention, decimal coinage started in 1971, so if dad was working for shillings, it’s along the lines of my aunt asking me, in 1990, why I couldn’t get a job at a resort camp and live there all summer. Like she did in the Dirty Dancing era. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/43 "2023-08-06T01:07:15Z")
Lotta people don’t seem to understand that the whole point of the thread is to shit on the old days for the ways they were supposedly better but weren’t actually. I blame the fact everyone forgot how to read for comphrension some time about 1971. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/44 "2023-08-06T02:25:12Z")
One thing I forgot to mention was rumble seats. One fine day, my father and I were driven by my uncle from Philly to Long Beach Island, maybe 70 miles sitting in the rumble seat of my uncle’s car. He owned a summer place in, I think, Surf City. What joy to ride in a rumble seat! Good old days. I think this was in '43. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/45 "2023-08-06T02:31:14Z")
Yes, those were great times - when you could legally rape your wife as often as you wanted. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/46 "2023-08-06T10:45:08Z")
I really miss the time and gas-saving finality of purchases. It was so much better when all purchases were final, and returning something was an all-out fight with the proprietor, and often his outright refusal to refund anything. Life was so much simpler then! I really miss those days. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/47 "2023-08-06T13:30:58Z")
In the late 70s I had a friend whose husband was a sales rep for Phillip Morris, a cigarette manufacturer. She chain smoked all day. Walking through their home, you’d find cigarettes burning in every room. Any visitor would leave with five or six cartons of their choosing. I tried several times to “learn to smoke” but I never caught on. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/48 "2023-08-06T14:39:01Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > In the late 70s I had a friend whose husband was a sales rep for Phillip Morris, a cigarette manufacturer. She chain smoked all day. Walking through their home, you’d find cigarettes burning in every room. Any visitor would leave with five or six cartons of their choosing. Brother was a roommate with a Miller beer distributor. Now that was a good deal. Well better than cigs anyway. My dad used to have 2 or 3 cigars burning at a time. That he didn’t burn is house down is a bit of a wonder. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/49 "2023-08-06T14:57:23Z")
Yea, the stench of cigarette smoke was everywhere: in homes, restaurants, stores. Ugh. Oh, and if you were in a vehicle, it was acceptable to throw your trash out the car window. The sides of the roads were completely littered with trash. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/50 "2023-08-06T15:31:54Z")
Honey, I’ll be driving down to the river to wash the car … … and while there, I might also change the oil… … want me to dump the ol’ fridge while there? . ps: and boy, did the kiddy-me hate those cigarette-breakfasts before heading off to school ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/51 "2023-08-06T18:20:25Z")
‘Did you remember the airline tickets?’ Screeching sounds follow as you make a sharp U-turn and drive back to get those plane tickets sitting on your counter! ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/52 "2023-08-06T19:09:00Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I don’t think you could smoke in movie theaters. Or our family doctor’s office. But you could in airplanes, although not on buses or trolleys. I think trains had no-smoking cars. When I started driving, no one had heard of seat belts–or airbags. But I think DUI was not tolerated, not in Penna, anyway. Helmets for bike riders were unheard of. Cushions in cribs certainly. I grew up without credit cards, although dept. stores had revolving credit accounts. Otherwise cash for everything. I remember pulling into a gas station and asking for a dollar’s worth. My mother smoked, and when I was around nine, I was always throwing up on long car trips. My parents were baffled, and completely dismissive when I said it was the smoke. On my next visit to the doctor, she asked him why I was throwing up, adding that I didn’t eat a very good diet. Aha! That was it! little Shakespeare needs to eat more vegetables. _That’ll_ stop his puking in the car. Of course it didn’t, but the smokes likely caused my mother’s vascular dementia, putting her in full-time care for the last eight years of her life… * * * Re: DUI: A lot of variables figured in. Around 1988, I lived near Baltimore, and had a roommate who was from a small town near Pittsburgh. He drove back a lot on the weekends, and once told us that he’d been pulled over at just after dawn coming home (his parents’ home) from a friend’s party. He was still pretty toasted, but the cop told him to go home and sleep it off. A likely factor: he’d kept his PA registration and driver’s license, so the cop assumed he was still a local. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/53 "2023-08-06T19:37:12Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > But Hamms had those really cool blown plastic backlit bar signs with the apparently moving falling water. I’ve got a couple of this out in the shop. They still work! ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/54 "2023-08-06T19:39:20Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > There was no diet soda or lite beer and “Sugar” was proudly proclaimed on the names of breakfast cereals. There weren’t any of those pesky “Nutritional Facts” labels, and we didn’t care about salt/fat/calories or any of that nonsense. If we liked it, we ate it, and didn’t worry about it — well, maybe if/when we went to the doctor and he (always “he”) told us we ought to watch our weight. But we never listened to him, either. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2023, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/55 "2023-08-06T20:14:11Z")
As a famous comedian once joked, roughly: > There was no such thing as “cholesterol”. If we’da knowed what it was we’da breaded it, deep fried it, and put it on biscuits with gravy. The solution to pollution is dilution. The only good Commie is a dead Commie. Barry Goldwater is too extreme for America. Lotta real knee-slappers back then. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/56 "2023-08-07T01:08:43Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > There weren’t any of those pesky “Nutritional Facts” labels, and we didn’t care about salt/fat/calories or any of that nonsense. If we liked it, we ate it, and didn’t worry about it — well, maybe if/when we went to the doctor and he (always “he”) told us we ought to watch our weight. But we never listened to him, either. yet people were - on average - less fat than today ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/57 "2023-08-07T01:12:08Z")
You’re in the wrong part of the country then. Very common in some western states. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/58 "2023-08-07T01:19:55Z")
When women had to pay a dime to use a restaurants bathroom. When girls weren’t allowed to wear pants to school. When your parents were always right. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/59 "2023-08-07T02:17:20Z")
You didn’t have to find no fancy schmancy lead paint chips to eat. You just went outside and breathed in a few lungfulls of that sweet sweet leaded-gas car exhaust, just as god and the angels meant you to. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062/60 "2023-08-07T02:27:06Z")
In the good old days, if you had six children as my great grandmother did, you didn’t have to worry about higher education, because several were sure to die. She lost three before they were old enough to marry. One at eighteen, one at three, and one, a twin, the day after he was born. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-the-good-old-days-s/988062.md?page=4)