Has society changed?
 

The thread on Catholic schools got me thinking:

Having been a kid decades ago, the world seems to have been a safer and more predictable place. Do other "old timers" remember it that way?

Cars did not have inside hood releases. No one would think of opening somebody elses' hood and stealing something or damaging it.

Folks left their cars unlocked. There were very few car thefts. Lots of people even left the house unlocked.

Schoolyard arguments were resolved with fists, not with knives or guns.

People actually walked places, like to the grocery store rather than always jump in the car.

In the summer, you rode your bike to your friend's house or to the sandlot, spent all day playing and nobody worried about where you were. You could even leave your bike outside without a chain lock. Imagine that!! Today, because of abductions and worse, kids can't even play in an unsupervised front yard.

Kids actually were interested in PLAYING sports, not glued to an X BOX in the house.

We got bruises, bug bites, skinned knees and elbows, sunburns and the occasional broken bone. No big deal. Part of "growing up".

Those are just a few differences I see.

Are there others anyone wishes to share? Is the world all that different?

: popcorn:

I will be 50 in two years, so the memories I have may be near yours...

No politics. or any sappy, "That's when a smoke was a smoke" homilies. It wasn't simpler then, or better, but, for the life of me, when did we become so crass?

Differences?

Lord, I'd be a ramblin' man.

When I was a kid, in the late 1960s, we played in the vacant lots all day, rode our bikes all over town, etc and no-one ever thought about our being abducted. We also lived for some years in Paris and I rode the metro all over the city, exploring and just wandering, and no-one thought twice about it. So things were different.

Then again, our bikes did get stolen sometimes, and I even recall committing trespass (snuck into an abandoned army base because we thought there'd be guns), petty theft (I think I stole a Matchbox car), and built illegal explosive devices (we made landmines, blew the clothes off various GIJoes). And since it was the late '60s, presumably there were violent protests, heads being bashed with nightsticks, and Black Siamese Liberation Panthers doing their thing all around us.

So, it was not all peaches and cream back then, old -timer. Maybe you need another shot of Metamucil.

I'm 52, and yeah, I remember when Tonka trucks were made out of big heavy metal with sharp edges, probably had lead-based paint to boot. I carried a pocketknife to school, so did the other boys. Got my first 22 at age 11, could you imagine giving a kid a real rifle now at 11? You'd be locked up for child endangerment. JFK and RFK getting shot (I didn't know I was a republican back then). But then again, my Dad built a bomb shelter in the backyard, a converted railroad tanker buried twenty feet deep with air filtration, toilet, food and water. We were told to duck and cover for nuclear bomb drills, like that would have saved your ass. Back then if I wanted to change the channel on the B&W TV I had to get up, walk across the room turn the channel changer and stand there and see if I want to watch the next channel. I remember in 1963 or 64 my Mom bought a new small, like 13" B&W TV for $100 back then. You can get 200 channel stereo color ones for less than that 40+ years later.

When I was a kid in the late 60's early 70's my dad and his biker friends were popping hoods on cars at dealerships and stealing the Holley carbs. They even stole a tranny once.

When I was 6 or 7 a 14 year old up the street tried to sodomize me. I ran away and 2 weeks later the neighborhood hids kicked his @ss really bad. I never said a word about him trying to attack me until I was an adult. I am guessing I was not the only attempted attack. I fel tbad for the kids father. We were walking down the street together and my friends called the kid a fag in front of his parents. He ran straight for me and punched my in the stomach. I guess he thought I told my friends. They proceeded to beat him senseless for punching a little kid. His dad couldn't even stop them. I remember looking at his dad and feeling sorry for him.

But then there were the good times. I stayed out until it was dark and never had to check in because it was safe. (or so my parents thought)

We built fires, lots of them, how we never burned down the neighborhood is beyond me. One time when I was not there one got out of control and burned down a detached garage. It was legendary.

I walked to school, we hung out at the corner candy store. We shoplifter from the other candy store because the owners were mean.

We played sports all the time, your right no xbox. But when Atari came out we were glued to it. We still played sports but not as much.

Have you seen these new games. I cannot blame these kids for wanting to play them. I am addicted to GT4 myself.

Mom was on a first name basis with the entire ER staff, I was in there at least twice every summer and have the scars to prove it.

I think the old days were as bad as the now days there was just not all the media we have now.

I agree w/ Jim on the pervasion of Media. I don't ever remember a "Stormwatch 1976" during the winter, and if a loosely assembled concert like Woodstock were to be tried today it would be shut down before the first Band ever took the stage. Creeps and *****heads were around back then like they are now. I remember laying in bed listening to the neighbor beat on his wife, a guy cruising up in a car asking my little brother to hop in and help him look for his "lost dog" and other incidents We hear about today. Also Political Correctness plays a role. I actually remember being beaten by an adult. (Okay, it was the school Principal and I probably deserved it) but THAT would be 6 o'clock News (right after the Madonna, Lindsay Lohan, illegal search and siezure, unjustified Police shooting update...)

I drove past 2 kids on bikes today. They had backpacks on with fishing poles sticking out of them...just like when I was a kid.

Sure they could have been playing video games, but they went down to the irrigation ditch to catch...whatever's in there :0

Yea, they probably had cell phones on them, but maybe not so much has changed. Maybe.

I still get a chuckle thinking about what I brought into school (forget which grade) for "show and tell" one day. A genuine, complete, defused US Army issue hand grenade that my dad brought back from WW2.

All the guys thought it was the greatest, the girls could have cared less, but then who thought of impressing girls at that age.

I can't even begin to imagine the brouhaha that would cause now.

Don't discount the "instant communication" factor. While there have been some changes in society (some negative, some positive), I think there is a significant amount of *perceived* change. Bad stuff used to happen before, we just didn't hear about it. Lots of dirty little secrets. Like sexual predators, child abuse, etc. You don't think that stuff happened 20 or 40 years ago? I'd posit that it did, but the difference now is that it gets reported. We have shined a light on some very dirty places. So it seems like we're going to hell in a handbasket, but maybe we'll come out better on the other end. Time will tell...

I see a total decay in society in general. We have become more lazy, more materialistic. More selfish. We are now quick to put blame on others for our own misfortunes. There is no more self responsibilty.
As far as bad things happening, sure mabye they have always been around and only reported more now.
But crap such as sexual predation, child molestation and the like are much more rampant due to avenues such as the internet and other technology.
Media glorifies the deviants, criminals and "celebrities", making the younger generations that dont know any better, think that these people are heros.

Every time I'm with my Grandson, it saddens me to think what kind of sh#thole the world will be like when hes older.:(

jyl...

Don't worry, you will be an oldtimer yourself before you know it.

Just a part of being on this planet.

don't get me started.
56 years and counting. i still remember respect for others property and beliefs. uh oh, here i go . i'll stop before i get to rant speed.

"No playing Golf after 5:30 p.m."? If you're not a part of the solution, you're a part of the problem you rule scoffer..http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/128.gif

"No Photographs"?

:p

i think what nostatic is bringing up is the global village, where everyone is aware of things at the same time. i remember when the hula hoop hit in the late 50s. everyone on the east and west coasts had them early on while the craze took a lot longer to hit the middle of the country.
today many kids see the same fashion do[read sideways caps and dopey looking pants] on the mtv, and decide to look really cool???
all across the country at the same time. global village. an improvement ,definately yes and no. or as monk says;"it's a blessing.....and a curse."

"Keep off the grass"? :confused:

KT

Not here.

I don't think "times were simpler" back then. I think it is more a function of one's perception of his surroundings. I was a kid in the late '60s - mid '70s and I thought the world was a wonderful, safe place where I simply went fishing all the time. In reality, it was a world where war raged in Vietnam and people here at home protested it. A world where political conspiracies split our country (Watergate). A world of racial discrimination and protests. A world where oil embargoes lead to long lines at the pumps and high gas prices.

The whole time I rode my bike, played football and went fishing. Ahhh...the good ol' days... I think the world really hasn't changed much. I am just much more aware of what's going on now...

Having said that, my Dad and I stopped into a Lowe's in Johnson City, TN a couple of years ago and he gets out, shuts the door and starts walking in (he didn't even roll the windows up). I ask, "Aren't you going to lock it?". He said, "Why?". Maybe things haven't changed much in East Tennessee...

Mike

I'm 48. Grew up in a fairly small logging town in north Idaho. Lived on the edge of town. Rode bikes everywhere. BB gun. Then 22. 30-06 for deer and elk. Driver's license when I was 14. Imagine what would happen if an 11 year-old were to stand on a street corner today with a rifle. Happened all the time when I was a boy. I came home when it got dark, and nobody asked where I had been. We stole thick nylon ropes from the log booms and made Tarzan swings in the huge cottonwood trees overhanging the river. My boyhood was idyllic. Nobody locked their car, and most had the keys dangling from the ignition. Even downtown.