posted March 17, 2004 07:32 PM         

I listen to 50's music and I love 50's theme. I have the oldies station on in my car.

I love movies that took place in the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, etc.

I often wish I lived then. I was born in the 60's.

I had a *great* childhood and growing up years and I miss it.

I miss people from my past, and my Dad and my pets who've passed on.

I miss the good 'ol lazy days when it was okay to be lazy.

I wish we had Soda Fountain hang-out places to go to (like in the movies) rather than bars. I don't go to bars or nightclubs anymore.

I dream about going on picnics and leisurely activities like that.

I have a cell phone but only use it for emergencies or long distance calls, or once in a while. I am not into the hustle and bustle of crowds or big cities. I like the country.

I hate how people have to work long days and sit in terrible traffic.

I guess the only thing about modern life that is good is PC's/Internet?

.......and maybe Cable T.V. with the good channels like Animal Planet, Discovery, etc.

posted March 18, 2004 12:09 AM         

i know what you mean -- i felt that nostalgia for a different time very sharply when i was younger....too young actually to reminisce about my childhood...i was a child!

my father loved to watch the sitcom Happy Days....this was in the 70's and i was born in the late 60's. i would watch it with him and feel this intense longing for that era. i didn't even know what nostalgia was!

i remember it very clearly...that painful knot in my stomach. how do you explain it?

but yes, i know just what you mean. i don't miss my childhood years however...nope...not that great.

but i sure was nostalgiac for those fifties....

even when i hear the theme song...."sunday monday happy days, tuesday wednesday happy days, thursday friday happy days, saturday -- what a day! groovin' all night with you....."

posted March 18, 2004 07:54 AM         

How Old is Grandma?

Stay with this -- the answer is at the end -- it will
blow you away.

One evening a grandson was talking to his grandmother
about current
events

The grandson asked his grandmother what she thought
about the shootings
at schools, the computer
age, and just things in general.

The Grandma replied, "Well, let me think a minute... I
was born, before
television, penicillin, polio shots,
frozen foods, Xerox, contact lenses, Frisbees and the
pill.

There were no credit cards, laser beams or ball-point
pens. Man had not
invented pantyhose, air
conditioners, dishwashers, clothes dryers, and the
clothes were hung
out
to dry in the fresh air and
man had yet to walk on the moon.

Your Grandfather and I got married first- and then
lived together. And
every family had a father and a
mother.

Our lives were governed by the Ten Commandments, good judgment, and
common

sense. We were taught to know the difference between
right and wrong,
and to stand up and take
responsibility for our actions.

Until I was 25, I called every man older than I,
"Sir"; and after I
turned 25, I still called policemen and
every man with a title, "Sir". We were before
gay-rights,
computer-dating, dual careers, daycare
centers, and group therapy.

Serving your country was a privilege; living in this
country was a
bigger privilege. We thought fast food
was what people ate during Lent. Having a meaningful
relationship meant
getting along with your
cousins. Draft dodgers were people who closed their
front doors when
the
evening breeze started.

Time-sharing meant time the family spent together in
the evenings and
weekends- not purchasing
condominiums.

We never heard of FM radios, tape decks, CDs, electric
typewriters,
yogurt or guys wearing earrings.

We listened to the Big Bands, Jack Benny, and the
President's speeches
on our radios. And I don't
ever remember any kid blowing his brains out listening
to Tommy Dorsey.

If you saw anything with 'Made in Japan' on it, it was
junk.

The term 'making out' referred to how you did on your
school exam.

Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and instant coffee were unheard
of. We had 5
&10-cent store where you could
actually buy things for 5 and 10 cents. Ice-cream
cones, phone calls,
rides on a streetcar, and a Pepsi
each cost a nickel. And if you didn't want to splurge,
you could spend
your nickel on enough stamps to
mail one letter and two postcards.

You could buy a new Chevy Coupe for $600 but who could afford one? Too
bad because gas was 11
cents a gallon.

In my day, "grass" was mowed, "coke" was a cold drink, "pot" was
something your mother cooked in,
and "rock music" was your grandmother's lullaby.

"Aids" were helpers in the Principal's office, "chip"
meant a piece of
wood, "hardware" was found in a
hardware store, and "software" wasn't even a word.

And, we were the last generation to actually believe
that a lady needed
to have a husband to have a
baby.

No wonder people call us "old and confused" and say
that there is a
generation gap. How old do you
think I am???

Read on to see -- pretty scary if you think about
it... and pretty sad
at the same time.
..

GRANDMA IS 58!!

posted March 18, 2004 01:16 PM         

Sorry, I'm a born devil's advocate. I love my memories, or at least some of them, but I think we have a tendency to glamourize and homogonize the past, when the present is a little scary.

posted March 18, 2004 04:45 PM         

Now, on to the Bahumbug

...if granny is 58, and it's 2004, that puts granny's birth at 1946...

Penicillin was invented in 1928 (In the UK by Sir Alexander Fleming).

TV was invented in 1927 (Philo T. Farnsworth)

The frisbee was invented in 1925 (By Yale Students)

Frozen food invented in the early mid twenties, and was first sold to consumers in 1930.

The ballpoint pen: 1938
Airconditioning: The (mid) 1920s
The Clothes Dryer: 1799 (electric version 1930)
FM Radios: the 1930s (mid-late)

I know, I'm a drag, stickler for factoids, and when I read those and the supposed age I thought, "jas"...

So sounds like that person was born in the teens or earlier, which makes them in their 80s-90s (my grandmother was born in 1910 - she'll be 94 this year), so either that story is really old (if one was born in the teens, then they would have been 58 in the 70s) or it's someone born in 1946 who's trying to make themselves sound older, or they grew up in the smallest rural town in the remotests part of the Blue Ridge or Smokey mountains with no connection to the outside world. LOL

posted March 18, 2004 04:55 PM         

quote:

---

they grew up in the smallest rural town in the remotests part of the Blue Ridge or Smokey mountains with no connection to the outside world.

---

Why? Because it closely reflects where I live during that era Nice, remote and lushly beautiful til the tourists found us.

Yup Fishkitten, movies were a dime, blackjack candy 3 for a nickel and Squirrel Chews 3 for a nickel They lasted the whole movie.

juniperb

posted March 19, 2004 12:38 PM         

Since we're reminiscing, I'd like to add a few.

Nintendo
Rice Krispy Treats
My Little Pony dolls
Dirt
Chasing boys

posted March 19, 2004 12:54 PM         

My Inchworm
My longing for a pink Huffy dirt bike
Learning to say "**** " from Smokey & The Bandit
Xanadu
Copacabana
Sailing
Sara
Wanting to be Princess Leia and getting frusted at my inablity to form two buns on the sides of my head
Pong
Pitfall, Breakout, Ms. Pac Man (ATARI!)
Electric Company
Some weird PBS reading show w/ a witch
Villa Allegre (sp?) (I could count in spanish to 20 before I could do it in English, my racist father prevented me from watching the show after that)

posted March 19, 2004 12:54 PM         

Those days are so bittersweet to me! Makes me want to cry and smile at the same time. Life seemed so simple growing up

posted March 19, 2004 01:16 PM         

These are the good old days. If you let them be. There are always "bad" things happening...it's the Yin and Yang of life.

Remember Jack Nicholson standing in a waiting room filled with neurotics, posing the question, "What if this is as good as it gets?"

posted March 19, 2004 03:45 PM         

No need to envy me...you are your own wonderful self. And I definitely feel the same kinship towards you.

I don't know what it is about people with strong Scorpio tendencies, but I almost always gravitate to them. Maybe it's my 1st house Pluto or my Mars in Pisces, I dunno...

But you, my friend, are a Scorpio Eagle. Never doubt your ability to soar.

I you too.