Was anything better in days gone by?

[Big Swifty]

It is now the received wisdom that life has improved over the last 30,40,50 or 60 years. Not everyone might agree, though. What cannot be disputed are the following:

- Health care (e.g. cancer treatment) and life expectancy are improved
- The Clean Air Act has ended the killer smogs of the 1950s
- Racism, sexism and homophobia are now seen as unacceptable
- Pubs, restaurants, cinemas and public transport are free from tobacco fumes
- Minimum wage
- Central heating in homes is the norm, not just for the rich
- Motorways avoid drivers being held up in a succession of town centres on longer trips
- Football stadia are more comfortable, pitches are infinitely better
- A much wider choice of foodstuffs
- Hundreds of TV channels, not just two or three
- I will not pass judgment on the dreaded social media.....

However, some (generally older) folk look back on the past with some fondness.
What I wonder is - was anything better in the past, i.e. within the memory of some of the pre-millennial Bluemooners? Would you really wish to go back to your early life?
Life wasn't easy then, but we didn't know any better, and our expectations were more modest. Not that it isn't hard for some people nowadays.

For all our modern creature comforts, have we lost something we had in earlier times?

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

The rags

 

[Blue Bogey]

A sense of community in days gone by. Today people are far more selfish. Don’t even get me started on millennials, although I blame their parents for being softarses.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

Getting in free at three quarter time at Maine Road
Kids being able to play out all day unsupervised cos there was hardly anything on the roads.

I don’t know about community cohesion, there was a hell of a lot of sectarian rivalry around.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

Porn ....the joy of a magazine rather than everything just a click away.





Ok, maybe not ;)

 

[city2]

Not much plastic around, which in my opinion is the worse thing we have made, milk in bottles, mineral in bottles, fish and chips not in plastic trays, wooden forks not plastic ones to go with them, vegetables loose not wrapped in cling film what’s that all about, hardly anything wrapped in plastic now everything is vacuumed wrapped in the shit.

 

[Nightmare Walking]

Djing. Playing vinyl on turntables is a far more enjoyable experience than playing files on a laptop with a midi controller.

 

[Salford_Blue]

Open spaces for kids to play on and not wander the streets.

Seems like every tiny bit of land is built on nowadays.

Long gone are the days of going out in the morning with your pals, playing footie, building dens, etc all day in the field and then coming home at dusk.

Six weeks holidays, my parents hardly saw me, other than bed time, occasionally dinner time or for a drink, and tea time.

Halycon days in the late 70's and early 80's

Sentimental...me???

 

[pablozabaleta]

A sense of community in days gone by. Today people are far more selfish. Don’t even get me started on millennials, although I blame their parents for being softarses.

Go on, what's wrong with millenials?

 

[tornandfrayed]

Kit Kats wrapped in silver foil.