Calling all older folks

[CandiCame]

I've noticed that the demographics on lit tend to lean on the older (than me and posters on other sites I visit) side.

I'm incredibly interested in domestic history- I've actually been thinking about going back to school to study it. I always have been, ever since I was a kid. I didn't realize how much older the userbase here skewed until one of the posters mentioned that he had been born in the 30s. The oldest person I can talk to on a daily basis was born in 1944, and I LOVE hearing about his childhood. Seeing how much things have changed and how "cushy" and "spoilt" I am actually does make me really grateful. I'm not one of those people who ignores those stories as pointless bitching and trying to drag me, because it is genuinely true. Overall quality of life for most people is steadily increasing.

So I would be really, really interested to hear anything you guys have to say about the past, even if formatted as, "You kids today have never had it rough, back in my day we had to shit outside, we didn't have none of your fancy running water." You can drag my lazy, spoiled, tech-obsessed generation all you want, because your past and your stories are genuinely interesting.

Even if you weren't born in the 30s, times have changed a lot even between one generation.

Basically I'd love to hear about the past no matter where you fall on the timescale.

It's pretty rare that you get to hear about the past from normal people. When you learn about history it's all famous shit, and famous people are usually rich, which gives a really unrealistic idea of what things were actually like. Domestic historians like Ruth Goodman make me really happy because they actually dive into what it was like for common people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUsU5s0ofYo

 

[Ann_Tagonist]

Yesterday, I took a nap, like a good old person.

 

[von_Bismarck]

Yesterday, I took a nap, like a good old person.

It's probably also been years since you've gotten a hard-on without medical assistance, am I right, Kenneth?

 

[beew]

Is this genuine interest, or are you self-promoting, Candi?

Quite a few times, you and your friends made ageist comments in debate threads, while leading with Your youth.

Age isn't important on a message board. The content of one's posts is.

 

[gravyrug]

My mother-in-law used to tell about when she was a kid and they first got electricity wired to their house. She used to sit and stare in fascination at the light bulb. My wife and her brother teased her unmercifully about it.

 

[CandiCame]

Is this genuine interest, or are you self-promoting, Candi?

Quite a few times, you and your friends made ageist comments in debate threads, while leading with Your youth.

Age isn't important on a message board. The content of one's posts is.

Given the type of person I am I highly doubt it's me that you're thinking of. I've never been in a debate thread. I don't even know what that is.

Edit: Also what would I be promoting? That's not... my documentary. I wish I worked for the BBC.

 

[CandiCame]

My mother-in-law used to tell about when she was a kid and they first got electricity wired to their house. She used to sit and stare in fascination at the light bulb. My wife and her brother teased her unmercifully about it.

This kind of shit is what I was actually looking for. I wish I could hear it from people who actually lived it, though.

 

[MrHotnspicey]

Grew up in 50's and 60's

I grew up in the 50's and early 60's. No TV, we were too poor. Listened to the radio a lot. I remember Eisenhower vs Stevenson presidential election in 1952. Ike promised to get us out of Korea. He Won. Ike won again in 1956 and Kennedy vs Nixon in 1960.
Brother and I put up $25.00 a piece and bought our first TV ( used ) in 1959.
Carried it in our arms for 9 blocks to get it home. My skinny ass had to stop and rest 3 times. I feared for my life if i dropped my part. Rabbit ears and aluminum foil made for decent antenna.
First car was a 1957 Plymouth. Bought in Feb 1962, made downpayment with Fed. tax return . I was a senior in high school.
Married in 1965, with $250.00 to my name. Furnished apartment with baby on the way. Welcome to adulthood.
My life has been blessed with a wonderful wife and three great children.
Thank You Lord.

 

[bellisarius]

I'll lead off honestly here. And I'll do so with the admonition that you are going to be 'old' too. Keep that in mind in the future.

"Times were harder then." Yes they were which is why most of us worked out asses off to make sure our kids didn't have to put up with the shit we did. Making the complaint the 'kids are softer today' so ironic. They are and we made damn sure they were. Obviously that turned out to be a two-edged sword. What today's kids claim to be a debilitating obstacle we laugh at.

"Family meant something." Yes it did. It wasn't unusual for four generations to be gathered together on occasions. The young got the benefit of the wisdom of the elders and the elders got the benefit of the vision of the young. The discussions were civil and everyone had the luxury of chewing on what they'd heard before the next round. Today it can hardly be said that family exists at all. The 'mobile' society has insured that. Today the young are influenced by (un)social media more than by their parents which leads to the formation of tribes. And while tribes always existed, not to the extent they do today.

More later.

 

[CandiCame]

I grew up in the 50's and early 60's. No TV, we were too poor. Listened to the radio a lot. I remember Eisenhower vs Stevenson presidential election in 1952. Ike promised to get us out of Korea. He Won. Ike won again in 1956 and Kennedy vs Nixon in 1960.
Brother and I put up $25.00 a piece and bought our first TV ( used ) in 1959.
Carried it in our arms for 9 blocks to get it home. My skinny ass had to stop and rest 3 times. I feared for my life if i dropped my part. Rabbit ears and aluminum foil made for decent antenna.
First car was a 1957 Plymouth. Bought in Feb 1962, made downpayment with Fed. tax return . I was a senior in high school.
Married in 1965, with $250.00 to my name. Furnished apartment with baby on the way. Welcome to adulthood.
My life has been blessed with a wonderful wife and three great children.
Thank You Lord.

That TV thing is so cool. That's the kinda stuff I was talking about, not like, "Who was president?" like I could look up online. I mean like human stuff. Like packing a TV for 9 blocks in 59.

Wait you furnished an apartment with $250? I mean, I guess you could because inflation but like... where'd you work/how much did you make? Because that blows my damn mind.

Like I mean I get that you can't get a second-hand TV right now for $20 but if I tried real hard I could probably get one for $50 so that makes a little bit of sense to me. But the 'furnish an apartment with a nursery in it' thing blows my mind. You must have had a hell of a baby shower.

 

[MrHotnspicey]

lol no

No. I only had $250.00 to my name. The first apartment was furnished. First night,
about 4AM, I heard the awful racket in the apartment above me. The hubby had come in drunk as a skunk and the wife was beating hell out of him. Welcome to
Married Life, ha,

 

[CandiCame]

I'll lead off honestly here. And I'll do so with the admonition that you are going to be 'old' too. Keep that in mind in the future.

I sincerely don't understand why you and Beew think I was using "old" as an insult. You both came out real defensive when I went out of my way to be as polite as I could.

I honestly feel old right now.

Like what I mean, because I don't think people are getting it, for this thread-

A lot of people here have lived through stuff I haven't, in the really real world. they've had experiences that I will never have, like living, full time, without, for example electricity. Like when I was a little kid, I didn't have internet. I didn't even have my own phone or computer until middle school. To my kid, that's insane. When I tell her about dial-up, or about not being able to stream shows, having to plan your weekend in such a way that if your ass wanted to watch Pokemon, your ass got up to watch Pokemon because there wasn't no turning on Netflix and watching it whenever you wanted- that shit blows her mind.

When I tell her about Napster and waiting all night to download one game? That shit blows her mind.

She legit did not believe me when I told her that my first gameboy wasn't backlit because 'no one would make a game system that nobody could see to play'. She's grown up on cell phones and a Switch. This kid will never know a world where all of human ingenuity, history, literature, the entire sum of human knowledge, is not always instantly at her fingertips.

The school library has an online search function. When I was a kid we still had a card catalogue. That's like a tangible, real thing that is a major difference. This kid can find any book she wants, instantly. I couldn't do that.

And I was a little bit in the economic boom, before the dot com bubble burst and we went into that first recession. I have vague memories of a world when the economy was flourishing that high, on the crest before it burst, but not enough to really pull from. Bitesize is spending her formative years in a post-recession economy. That's going to be two very different formations. I mean, it's not like we're destitute La Boheme or anything, but the world around us is different, the attitudes are different, because of it.

Like if we compare a movie from the 90s, like, I don't know, pull something out of my ass, something I liked- Independence Day. Compare my VHS copy of Independence Day to like... actually I can't think of a comparable movie she likes. Do they... huh. I think I just realized that they stopped making disaster movies. Maybe we went through a phase because like, the closest thing I can think to compare to Independence Day is "War of the Worlds" and it sucked. I don't remember one cool explosion from that movie. And nobody punched an alien, did they?

Which I guess makes my point about the different environments being different to grow up in. Kids today don't have any cool disaster movies. My plan was to compare how they were different but I just literally can't think of any.

 

[CandiCame]

No. I only had $250.00 to my name. The first apartment was furnished. First night,
about 4AM, I heard the awful racket in the apartment above me. The hubby had come in drunk as a skunk and the wife was beating hell out of him. Welcome to
Married Life, ha,

Those thin walls and loud domestic violence sounds had to be awful while you were pregnant. Hope those mood swings didn't hit you as hard as they hit my gf. Your neighbors might have been dead, lol.

 

[bellisarius]

I sincerely don't understand why you and Beew think I was using "old" as an insult. You both came out real defensive when I went out of my way to be as polite as I could.

I honestly feel old right now.

Like what I mean, because I don't think people are getting it, for this thread-

A lot of people here have lived through stuff I haven't, in the really real world. they've had experiences that I will never have, like living, full time, without, for example electricity. Like when I was a little kid, I didn't have internet. I didn't even have my own phone or computer until middle school. To my kid, that's insane. When I tell her about dial-up, or about not being able to stream shows, having to plan your weekend in such a way that if your ass wanted to watch Pokemon, your ass got up to watch Pokemon because there wasn't no turning on Netflix and watching it whenever you wanted- that shit blows her mind.

When I tell her about Napster and waiting all night to download one game? That shit blows her mind.

She legit did not believe me when I told her that my first gameboy wasn't backlit because 'no one would make a game system that nobody could see to play'. She's grown up on cell phones and a Switch. This kid will never know a world where all of human ingenuity, history, literature, the entire sum of human knowledge, is not always instantly at her fingertips.

The school library has an online search function. When I was a kid we still had a card catalogue. That's like a tangible, real thing that is a major difference. This kid can find any book she wants, instantly. I couldn't do that.

And I was a little bit in the economic boom, before the dot com bubble burst and we went into that first recession. I have vague memories of a world when the economy was flourishing that high, on the crest before it burst, but not enough to really pull from. Bitesize is spending her formative years in a post-recession economy. That's going to be two very different formations. I mean, it's not like we're destitute La Boheme or anything, but the world around us is different, the attitudes are different, because of it.

Like if we compare a movie from the 90s, like, I don't know, pull something out of my ass, something I liked- Independence Day. Compare my VHS copy of Independence Day to like... actually I can't think of a comparable movie she likes. Do they... huh. I think I just realized that they stopped making disaster movies. Maybe we went through a phase because like, the closest thing I can think to compare to Independence Day is "War of the Worlds" and it sucked. I don't remember one cool explosion from that movie. And nobody punched an alien, did they?

Which I guess makes my point about the different environments being different to grow up in. Kids today don't have any cool disaster movies. My plan was to compare how they were different but I just literally can't think of any.

Beew speaks for herself. I was merely stating a fact, not an admonition. OK?

You started this thread, stay with it. It's not about you, capiche?

 

[CandiCame]

Beew speaks for herself. I was merely stating a fact, not an admonition. OK?

You started this thread, stay with it. It's not about you, capiche?

Lord, honey, you're tedious. Y'all make me tired.

 

[nowisthetime]

Before reading through this board, I used to believe that wisdom becomes stronger once one advances into his twilight years.

I regret to say, that's not the case with many on here....

 

[bellisarius]

Lord, honey, you're tedious. Y'all make me tired.

Still all about you huh?

 

[CandiCame]

Still all about you huh?

You know what, Belli? You come in here, trying to stir up trouble in my wholesome thread of wholesomeness? You are banished from my thread. I hath decreed it.

I have no power to enforce it, but I will be ignoring everything else you say in the thread, and I encourage others to do the same.

 

[bellisarius]

You know what, Belli? You come in here, trying to stir up trouble in my wholesome thread of wholesomeness? You are banished from my thread. I hath decreed it.

I have no power to enforce it, but I will be ignoring everything else you say in the thread, and I encourage others to do the same.

I'm stirring up trouble? How? I answered you in a forthright manner. No references to you or anyone else on a personal basis. I spoke freely of my observations over the years. If anyone's stirring up shit it's you. You're the one asking for an elders view on history and I'm answering. I didn't ask for you to agree, but I didn't start the thread.

 

[butters]

hi, Candi - well i'm 60 and there are a few things that may be of little interest other than a laugh.

english currency was 12 pennies to a shilling, twelve shillings to a pound, and there were farthings (quarter-pennies with a wren on)), half-pennies (self-explanatory and with a sal ship on), threepenny pieces (or thrup'ney bits as we called them with a portcullis on or sometimes clover flowers i think) which were 12-sided, sixpences, shillings, florins (2 bob bits=2 shillings), half-crowns (2shillings and sixpence), crowns, ten 'bob' notes, pound notes, (guineas went out of circulation in 1813). five pound notes and more paper monies. this all changed with decimalisation in 1971 when adding money became a whole lot easier for kids with 100 pennies to the pound instead of 144!

pre-decimalisation, you could buy 1 lb of potatoes for 2d (2 pennies), sixpence could buy you a bag of chips (fries), 3d a jamboree bag (an assortment of hard candy and shit like 'tattos' you put on your arm/hand/whatever and made wet with saliva then peeled off, leaving behind the picture), and the ice-cream van used to call every day in the summertime... mr whippy and, the better icecreams from 'nelson'. no idea if nelson was the guy's name, a comapany, or what, but i think his van played 'greensleeves' - a song written by (it is claimed) king henry the 8th i shit you not.

after decimalisation, prices virtually doubled overnight, just replacing the 'd's with 'p's, so what had cost 2d the day before now cost 2p and so on. some people made a killing, and people weren't familiar enough with the currency to realise what was happening till too late.

if you had a phone in the house, it was usually just the one, in one set place, limited by the spiralled wire, so getting privacy to speak on the phone (and this was in the 70's in my particular household), you had to make sure doors were closed and you spoke quietly. you answered a call to your house with your phone number and 'may i help you' spoken very politely not 'yeah?' as is more common today.

you'd have breakfast, maybe elevensies if you were home, lunch (or dinner, as we called it), four o'clocksies (post school snack time), tea-time (6-ish) and supper time (if you wanted) at around 8. little kids went to bed around 7pm, and bed-time was bed-time, though you might be allowed to read or did with a torch under the covers or sat at a window making use of the street light outside.

summer holidays lasted FOREVER, and christmas was a blast.

 

[beew]

You don't understand?
When you mention your "youth" every 10 posts or so? Lol.

And on on the occasions when you get paranoid about certain people, your knee-jerk reaction is to call them either racists, homophobes, rapists in the making, or old and decrepit. As do your ‘SJW’ friends.

Indeed, the difference is that they are more motivated by malice, whereas you are just young and immature. But don't feel shocked and picked on when people get annoyed.

I sincerely don't understand why you and Beew think I was using "old" as an insult. You both came out real defensive when I went out of my way to be as polite as I could.

Why do you think I'm being defensive?
You think everyone over the age of 40 belongs in the Old folks' home?

 

[butters]

candi, the best thing you can do is not to get tangled in conversations with those posters. they bring nothing to the table but noise and bad manners.

 

[beew]

candi, the best thing you can do is not to get tangled in conversations with those posters. they bring nothing to the table but noise and bad manners.

Go it a pie or chips or something.

 

[AnneSexton]

Jesus. Born in the 30s. How old do you think we are?

Wait. I’m excited. I think this makes me young here.

 

[butters]

Jesus. Born in the 30s. How old do you think we are?

Wait. I’m excited. I think this makes me young here.

there are people of all ages here, some in their 80's. a lot of young people have grown to middle-age since joining lit. and some of us are just, well, ageing!