I hear people my age constantly bemoaning that life was so much better during the “Good Old Days.” I think, “Really?” I believe this statement deserves some serious consideration because in my opinion this is partly true but certainly not totally true.
Let’s look at one aspect of the “Good Old Days.” Neighbors knew each other. In the evening people sat on their front porches or stoops and then went back and forth visiting and discussing their day. Everyone knew the names of everyone else’s children and no one threatened a lawsuit if a neighbor yelled at another neighbor’s child because they were doing something they shouldn’t. Sadly, because we have become such a litigious society people are afraid to get involved even if they see something dangerous and most people today don’t even know their neighbor’s names let alone their children’s names. My husband had been dead three months when I bumped into a neighbor at the mail box and she asked how he was doing since she hadn’t seen him on the porch in a while. I told her and she acted all upset but part of me wanted to tell her that when I was young the neighbor would have gone over to see how someone was, when they hadn’t seen them in a few days, and asked if there was anything they could do. Yes, in this case the ‘good old days’ win.
The Woman’s movement, in my never to be humble opinion, has done more to hurt women than to help them. It was started to assist women in being treated fairly in the work place and regarding domestic violence and now it is a left wing organization that only supports women with a leftist mentality. When I was pregnant with my oldest daughter, over 50 years ago, I was working at a government office. I was told that once I started to show that I couldn’t work the front window because it wasn’t acceptable for the public to see a pregnant woman. That was ridiculous but it was the way it was and a lot of people fought to make working conditions for women fairer and better. If you were an abused wife, and didn’t have family to fall back on, well, unless you got lucky and got a sympathetic police officer and judge you were pretty much up a barrel so to speak. So, in these situations the ‘good old days’ weren’t so good.
When I was growing up the term civil rights was not a big part of our lexicon. Racial discrimination was rampant. I laugh when people tell me that since I grew up in the North I wouldn’t understand. Trust me it was just as bad up there as it was in the South. I think we can all agree that the country has improved since equality under the law is for people of all colors. Now, we just need to convince people to take advantage of the opportunities this great country gives to people and quit reliving our ugly past. So, once again, the ‘good old days’ don’t look so good.
I remember being terrified that the Russians would bomb us as we were in school and we wouldn’t be able to get home. Bomb drills were a part of our school routine. When I went to Russia I was stunned to meet people my age who told me they had had the same drills because they were told the American’s were coming. No one went anywhere and all that was accomplished was terrifying children. Now, it is violence of another kind in our schools. I could go on and on as to why I think students are coming to school with the intent to do harm to other students but the bottom line is we still have scared students. So, on this issue I think it is a wash regarding the ‘good old days.’
You hear people all the time talking about the high cost of products today. Yes, there was penny candy back in the ‘good old days’ but remember the average, yearly median income for a family in 1960 was $5600.00. Thanks to the GI Bill most people owned a home and the majority of homes had a stay at home mom. Now, many families have both people working and in many cases just to make ends meet and they bring home a whole lot more than $5600.00. I do want to point out one fact that many people don’t want to acknowledge. Back in the ‘good old days’ people didn’t have credit cards. They lived within their means. You didn’t need a Dave Ramsey like we do today. On the other hand we have a much broader selection of life styles to choose from because of technology today. People work in fields that didn’t exist 50 years ago. As a child I had never had a mango or a kiwi. Now thanks to refrigerated trucks I can have one any time I want to purchase one. No one I knew flew to Europe. To be honest no one I knew had flown anywhere. Today air travel is not only for the rich. On this issue I have to say the ‘good old days’ take second place although the ‘good old days’ were ahead regarding credit and money management.
I have mentioned couple of times about so many women working outside the home today. Looking back at the ‘good old days’ most women were at- home moms. Yes, that was nice but not for all families. There were families that had a mom who was frustrated that she couldn’t pursue the interest or talent that she possessed. She was expected to stay home. Anyone with even half a brain can attest to the important roles women have played in our economy over the past few decades. However I find it sad that today many woman want to stay home and raise their children and can’t. The reasons vary from having gotten caught up in the pursuit of bigger and better toys, being a single mom or maybe a ill husband. What ever the reason, what really makes me angry is the way working women look down at an at- home mom or how the at- home moms looks down at the working mom. Isn’t the Woman’s Movement supposed to encourage us to do what we want to do? Aren’t other women supposed to support and respect our decision? However, because of the inroads made, women can now pursue their interests. That is why many new discoveries in medicine and technology, to name just two fields, have been made by women and never would have if we had stayed in the mentality of the ‘good old days.’ So, in this regard I think the ‘good old days’ don’t look so good especially if you are a woman.
In the ‘good old days’ entertainment was made so that the entire family could watch the show or listen to the music together. I am not sure exactly when it happened, as it was insidious, but today entertainment is something that you really have to evaluate carefully. In the ‘good old days’ shows about families always had strong father figures not the inept fools that are on most shows today. In fact, the only exception that I can think of is Blue Bloods where Tom Selleck plays a patriarch who is a stable father figure with strong values and ethics and expects the same from the members of his family. It doesn’t help that we hear all the time that men aren’t important and that being a single mom is cool. After all, the sit com’s on TV promote that constantly. The promotion of sex with multiple partners, adultery etc. is rampant and our young people have to be reminded if they watch such shows that they do not reflect the reality of life. In this case the ‘good old days’ win hands down.
“If it feels good; do it” This was not an expression that you heard when I was growing up in the ‘good old days.’ It started to be part of the culture in the late 60’s when I was a teenager. In the ‘good old days’ you were taught to think of the ramifications of your actions. You were taught to be respectful of others and to hold police, fireman, clergy and military members in high regard. If a teacher was wrong on an issue you took it home and your parents checked it out. If it was matter of you being rude, well, that was taken care of at home. Today we have members of Congress actually saying that the police are the enemy of the people. Service men are made fun of for serving or called ‘baby killers.’ In California a law was just passed that said you can’t suspend a student for rude or disruptive behavior. I guess in California they don’t care that the student who wants to get an education can’t because of the disruptive students. We have a generation of parents telling their children nothing is their fault and that they are just victims. In the ‘good old days’ parents explained to their children that although they were special to them; they were not special in the scheme of the world. They were expected to work for what they wanted and to accept the consequences for bad choices. If you didn’t study for a test and got a failing grade no parent went charging down to the school to blame the teacher and demand the grade be fixed or that their “little darling” be allowed to redo the assignment. To make the situation even worse it seems today as though every other child is diagnosed with a learning disorder. This takes a way from the students who truly have one and just allows these other students and their parents to have one more excuse for their poor grades and actions. In the ‘good old days’ parents understood that their job was to prepare their children to become contributing members of society. Today I see parents setting their children up for failure and that is truly sad. In this case I believe the ‘good old days’ definitely come out on top and that we need to get back to that mentality.
We need to be realistic when we look back on how life was decades ago. We can certainly learn and grow from what was in the past but wearing rose colored glasses as we look back isn’t productive.
