# The beginning of the end of civilization. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 21, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363 "2012-03-21T01:34:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/21 "2012-03-21T18:55:58Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > The cops used to hang out outside and give tickets to the women who couldn’t wait in line anymore and headed outside to relieve themselves. And that was only 20 years ago. I was born and grew up in the USA and that right there is why I absolutely hate law enforcement in the USA. Are you sure they weren’t charged as sex offenders too?:rolleyes: I’d rather have corrupt cops stealing from drug dealers than cops out to arrest people on GOTCHA charges and ruin their lives. ---
**Author:** ![wellanuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@wellanuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wellanuff)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/22 "2012-03-21T19:14:46Z")
My mom is 85 and she would no sooner be posting on an Internet bulletin board (or using a computer for that matter) than she would flap her arms and fly to the moon, so good on ya’ KG. I mean that with no condescension and a ton of respect. Were you in Japan as part of the occupation forces? I would like to hear about your experiences in Japan in the 40s. I was there in the 80s (as a student), and the hole in the floor was still around. (My in-laws who lived in a house built in the 60s had one, and they could still be found in JNR stations even around Tokyo.) And like you, I mean “hole,” not the Japanese-style toilets. I was always worried my wallet or keys would fall out of my pocket into the abyss, which doesn’t even bear thinking about (shudder). I always moved very _deliberately_ while taking care of “business”. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/23 "2012-03-21T19:19:31Z")
What an interesting thread. I have a couple of questions because hey, I don’t know anyone else this old who’s on the internet. How did you get a computer and internet access? How’d you get “into” the internet in the first place? Was the computer the biggest & coolest innovation in your life, or would you say something else was bigger and cooler? ---
**Author:** ![Woeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Woeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Woeg)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/24 "2012-03-21T19:32:47Z")
**Rachelellogram** , my mom would probably blow your mind as well. She’s 70, and not only is she on the internet, she has multiple level 85 characters on World of Warcraft and helps run two guilds. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/25 "2012-03-21T19:33:24Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#): > > OK, youngsters, ask me anything about life in the 20s, 30s and 40s, but dammit, keep off my lawn! In which decade did you lose interest in “new” music? Assuming you were interested in music to begin with. Who were your music idols in your younger days and can you appreciate anything from, say the late 1960s to the late 1970s when rock took a turn towards the psychedelic? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/26 "2012-03-21T19:36:15Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > What an interesting thread. I have a couple of questions because hey, I don’t know anyone else this old who’s on the internet. That’s not so uncommon. My dad, mom and step-dad are all on the internet as are pretty much all of their friends in their age range. They range in age from mid to late 70’s. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/27 "2012-03-21T19:49:04Z")
Use of the internet today is so simple, it’s not surprising to see people of all ages making use of it. My parents, also in their 70’s, have an on-line presence. They have dsl service that the nice man from the phone company came and set up for them. Their computer came with a browser pre-installed and all manner of nifty set-up and troubleshooting wizards. Those who have been farting around with this internet thing since the 90’s, or the bulletin boards and such before that, may remember when things were a bit more complex. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/28 "2012-03-21T20:01:42Z")
Yes, we are all enthralled by your stories about fighting the Keiser. > [@KlondikeGeoff](#): > > The other thing that drove me nuts, and still does, is the hatred expressed toward gay people. I knew guys who bragged about beating up some gay guy. I really wondered about that motivation. Uh..sexual frustration because there were no women in your bars? > [@Woeg](#): > > **Rachelellogram** , my mom would probably blow your mind as well. phrasing ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/29 "2012-03-21T20:18:31Z")
> [@](#): > > Were you in Japan as part of the occupation forces? I would like to hear about your experiences in Japan in the 40s Yup, **Wellnuf** during the Korean War. That was only four years after the end of the Pacific war, and things were really tough. But it was a beautiful country. My favorite part was up in the mountains in Nagano Prefecture. I traveled all over, but was stationed in Kyoto, fortunately. That was one of the most beautiful cities I ever knew. I married a Japanese woman (still am married to her after 60 years), and she came back under the War Brides Act. I served under MacArthur, and later Ridgeway. My first question when I got there was “Will it safe to go out by myself?” Even the military who arrived right after the surrender say there was never any incidents of violence toward our armed services. The Japanese fought like hell during the war, but once the Emperor said it was over, it was over. > [@](#): > > I don’t know anyone else this old who’s on the internet. How did you get a computer and internet access? How’d you get “into” the internet in the first place? Was the computer the biggest & coolest innovation in your life, or would you say something else was bigger and cooler? I got my first computer in 1981, a Commodore Vic-20. Later I built my own first 286, and built all my own until it got cheaper to just buy one. I got interested because i knew some guys at work in IT on the mainframe. I was fascinated by the technology. I first got on the Internet long before WWW using Gopher. Later when newsgroups started, found that fascinating (precursor to forums like this.) **rachelellogram** ,all the technological advances, new discoveries in cosmology, particle physics, Quantum Mechanics, medical field, etc fascinate me, but computers have to measure up as one of the most interesting, and a field that developed so fast. That’s why I want to live to be 120 just to learn about the all the advances in all the sciences. > [@](#): > > In which decade did you lose interest in “new” music? Assuming you were interested in music to begin with. > > Who were your music idols in your younger days and can you appreciate anything from, say the late 1960s to the late 1970s when rock took a turn towards the psychedelic? I guess I lost interest after the Age of the Beatles. However, I was never that interested in popular music after I discovered classic, which is still my favorite. There were, however, a host of wonderful songs in the 30s and 4os. Songs that had beautiful, soothing melodies and sung by people so one could actually understand the lyrics. Oddly enough, **leffan** I also do love the old, real country and western with Eddie Arnold, Roy Acuff and such. I still love Bluegrass and the real Appalachian folk songs. Actually, almost all old folk songs. I even met Pete Seeger once. Another interesting occurrence in my life happened when I was 12 or 13, living in a small town in upstate New York. I mentioned this in some thread years ago here, but it may still be of interest. On Decoration Day (now Memorial Day) there was always a parade with mostly WWI vets. Believe it or not, there would be a truck with three or four vets from the Civil War, all in their late 90s. After the parade, these guys would sit around it a park, and we kids would regale them with question. The thing that still blows my mind is that one of these guys told us that his grandfather had fought in the Revolutionary War! How cool is that, I was only three degrees of separation from a soldier in that war. ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/30 "2012-03-21T20:45:47Z")
[quote=“msmith537, post:28, topic:616363”] Yes, we are all enthralled by your stories about fighting the Keiser. If you meant “Kaiser,” no,the only time I was in combat when was i had to fight some sergeant to get the last Kaiser roll on the mess counter. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/31 "2012-03-21T21:11:44Z")
I hear women are allowed to make decisions now, too. First it was reading and thinking, now we have women doctors and lawyers, even politicians. What is the world coming to? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/32 "2012-03-21T21:19:54Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > Hey, Canada might not be a bad spot for you, Klondike: > \ I’m 45, and I remember my mom having to go get another guy to get my dad out of the bar when it was time to go after an afternoon of shopping in the Big City. I thought it was just my city (Saskatoon), which started as a Temperance Colony, but apparently not. > [@garygnu](#): > > I hear women are allowed to make decisions now, too. First it was reading and thinking, now we have women doctors and lawyers, even politicians. > > What is the world coming to? We’ve come a long way, baby. 🙂 How about “kids these days,” **Klondike Geoff?** We have a perennial argument on the boards here that say that kids are terrible these days, much worse than when we were kids, and others who say that people have been saying that since we climbed out of the trees. What’s your take on it? ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/33 "2012-03-21T21:32:18Z")
But OP breaks the octogenarian mark. It’s definitely unique, to me! > [@Woeg](#): > > **Rachelellogram** , my mom would probably blow your mind as well. She’s 70, and not only is she on the internet, she has multiple level 85 characters on World of Warcraft and helps run two guilds. 😃 I hope I’m this cool when I’m old. ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/34 "2012-03-21T21:36:12Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#): > > Another interesting occurrence in my life happened when I was 12 or 13, living in a small town in upstate New York. I mentioned this in some thread years ago here, but it may still be of interest. > > On Decoration Day (now Memorial Day) there was always a parade with mostly WWI vets. Believe it or not, there would be a truck with three or four vets from the Civil War, all in their late 90s. > > After the parade, these guys would sit around it a park, and we kids would regale them with question. The thing that still blows my mind is that one of these guys told us that his grandfather had fought in the Revolutionary War! How cool is that, I was only three degrees of separation from a soldier in that war. Wow! I find this super interesting. Please tell us more. I was too stupid when I was younger to hear interesting things from my grandpas and I really regret it now that they are all gone. ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/35 "2012-03-21T21:43:06Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I > How about “kids these days,” **Klondike Geoff?** We have a perennial argument on the boards here that say that kids are terrible these days, much worse than when we were kids, and others who say that people have been saying that since we climbed out of the trees. What’s your take on it? Sure, if you read the ancient Greek and Latin writers, you will find they deplored the state of the younger generations too. However, if in our country at least, it is worse than usual it is not the fault of the kids, but of the deplorable education system, that is pushing the average competency in various subjects lower and lower among nations. How’s that for a run-on sentence? My English teachers would have a fit to read that. IMHO, PC has destroyed teaching by and large, along with the teachers’ unions. That is just IMHO, understand! ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/36 "2012-03-21T21:53:28Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#): > > I was talking to a youngun the other day, when the subject of how I shoveled coal into the pot-bellied stove puzzled him. He had not only never seen coal, but didn’t even know what it was. So I then asked him if he knew why we say “dialing” a phone, and of course he had no idea. When we first lived in Vermont, we were on an eight-person party phone line. Anybody know what that was?! _waves hand_ I do, I do! I had the great good fortune of spending my childhood summers (late 60s through the 1970s) in my grandparents’ Victorian farmhouse. They still had a party line - and a coal-fired furnace, and a Franklin stove (with isenglass windows!) in the upstairs kitchen. Said kitchen also had a real cedar closet that smelled absolutely wonderful. alas, the house was sold and torn down about a decade ago, but those memories are going to last a lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/37 "2012-03-21T21:57:03Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#): > > I got my first computer in 1981, a Commodore Vic-20. Later I built my own first 286, and built all my own until it got cheaper to just buy one. I got interested because i knew some guys at work in IT on the mainframe. I was fascinated by the technology. > > I first got on the Internet long before WWW using Gopher. Later when newsgroups started, found that fascinating (precursor to forums like this.) A computer geek that managed to significantly surpass the average life expectancy! Please share your secret. 😃 > [@FloatyGimpy](#): > > Wow! I find this super interesting. Please tell us more. I was too stupid when I was younger to hear interesting things from my grandpas and I really regret it now that they are all gone. Same! I think the OP seemed a bit polarizing at first, but upon further reading **KlondikeGeoff** appears to be a p. cool dude. All my grandparents are dead too, so I don’t have anyone to ask about the good ol’ days. Some more questions I have: Did you know anyone with polio? Did you go to school with any fat kids? Can you sleep for several hours at night anymore, or do you just nap all the time? (I can’t wait to be old, if only for the naps) ---
**Author:** ![Sodalite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@Sodalite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sodalite)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/38 "2012-03-21T22:39:39Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Well in some parts of the world today, there are no public restrooms and much of the population is simply too poor to afford bathrooms at home, if they’re lucky enough to have a home. People do it by the side of the road. I’m honestly not sure what the standard was in America two centuries ago. > [@grude](#): > > Well I don’t know what he means by peeing at the end of a hallway in a hotel, but pissing behind a dumpster or in a alley is hardly rare even in 2012 is it? Maybe not in the USA where apparently it is a sex crime but the rest of the world, not rare at all(I see painted signs all the time imploring the reader not to pee here, ironically the sign lets you know the good spot with no views.) Oh yeah, I know all about that. There are still houses in the county where I live with no running water or indoor plumbing. In my teens I used to visit some people whose toilet was a five gallon bucket in the kitchen. Unless you had more than two legs, peeing on the floor was unacceptable. Tell me about things from way-back-when that I’m unlikely to have heard of through other sources. The little interesting things that make up everyday life that most people don’t think to mention. Holy crap, these new meds are making me type all stupid. Next! ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/39 "2012-03-21T22:43:20Z")
There was an old dude at a bar I used to go to, who constantly talked about how much he hated Cadillac. Because they first started putting electric starters on cars, without which there would be no damn women drivers. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2012, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363/40 "2012-03-21T22:48:33Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Women have been tending bar and keeping taverns for thousands of years. Basically every since they were invented. It’s not a new thing. like my favorite nostalgia character, [Siduri, the Divine Barmaid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siduri). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-civilization/616363.md?page=3)