Nostalgia just ain’t what it used to be

[TarnishedPenny]

Seriously, while much of the ‘Good Old Days’ can be chalked up to rose-coloured rear-view mirrors, there were some things way back when which were indeed better.

As just one example, if you didn’t have an alarm clock, you could call any taxi company, give them your phone number and ask for a wakeup call. And they would. For free.

As another, you could book an airplane flight over the telephone, arrive at the airport half an hour before scheduled departure and pay cash, no body searches, no worries.

You could also go to the airport and tell the agent at the counter you’d like to go Standby. They’d pencil your name on a list and, just before boarding, if there were empty seats, you could fly half-price, just like that.

Others?

 

[crookedletter]

As just one example, if you didn’t have an alarm clock, you could call any taxi company, give them your phone number and ask for a wakeup call. And they would. For free.

You're saying not only are you having to get up before your body naturally wakes, but you have to talk to someone too? And this is better?

But... to contribute...

Social media didn't exist.

People didn't walk around with wireless speakers in their pockets. If someone wanted to inflict their bad music on the world they had to do the work of carrying a big 10-pound box with them. And those couldn't manage speaker-phone conversations.

 

[MrPixel]

As another, you could book an airplane flight over the telephone, arrive at the airport half an hour before scheduled departure and pay cash, no body searches, no worries.

Or, in my case, have our company's travel agent make the no-notice reservation for a "VIP" ticket (coach-plus, basically), dash to the airport, actually run through the terminal, and go straight to the gate with a flight attendant standing at the door welcoming me by name, then closing the doors after me. Happened three times this way. At LAX. Impressed this 25-year-old, to say the least.

I'll add one - company CEOs made maybe 5X my salary. Not >>5000X my salary. There was some lifestyle parity in most quarters.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

As another, you could book an airplane flight over the telephone, arrive at the airport half an hour before scheduled departure and pay cash, no body searches, no worries.

You could also go to the airport and tell the agent at the counter you’d like to go Standby. They’d pencil your name on a list and, just before boarding, if there were empty seats, you could fly half-price, just like that.

Others?

And as you boarded, the cockpit door was open and you could look in and talk to the flight crew.

 

[Britva415]

today you have to takeoff uphill both ways

ah, wait, that's not different

 

[AG31]

As just one example, if you didn’t have an alarm clock, you could call any taxi company, give them your phone number and ask for a wakeup call. And they would. For free.

I never knew that!!!

 

[Voboy]

And as you boarded, the cockpit door was open and you could look in and talk to the flight crew.

And, when you landed, your loved ones were right there at the gate waiting to hug you.

After you came down the stairs and strode proudly across the tarmac, because the jetway? Was way too expensive for most airports.

And people didn't try to clog the boarding process by smuggling their whole lives into their carryons and trying to pray them into the overhead bin.

Air travel used to be a delightful adventure. Now it's no better than riding a bus. Same with answering the phone: it was an exhilarating thrill, tinged with mystery, every time you picked up the phone. Because you had no idea who it was.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

It used to be as easy as riding a bus though. Show up, pay your fare, hop on.


Last time I was on a plane was in '98 sometime and I never plan on it again.

 

[Nynah]

And, when you landed, your loved ones were right there at the gate waiting to hug you.

Some airports in the United States have programs that allow non-ticketed visitors to enter and access most of the terminal. Not quite the same as how it used to be, but a nice option if you live near or are flying to one of these. When I flew into Seattle a few months ago, it was neat to see friends greet me right at the gate.

 

[Voboy]

Some airports in the United States have programs that allow non-ticketed visitors to enter and access most of the terminal. Not quite the same as how it used to be, but a nice option if you live near or are flying to one of these. When I flew into Seattle a few months ago, it was neat to see friends greet me right at the gate.

We used to go pick up travelers and wave madly through the terminal windows, and then they'd wave just as madly through the windows of the plane. Notwithstanding we'd be greeting each other within ten minutes or so.

It felt special.

 

[MrPixel]

What's sad, for us at least, is we do not fly. Not now, not for anybody. The airlines have made flying such a degrading and insulting experience, and they continue to explore the bottom of how much the traveling public will tolerate. Apparently there is no bottom.

Train travel in the US used to be fun, too. Then Amtrak restructured fares and services about 8 years ago and the experience turned into crap.

We drive, or we don't go.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

On an entirely different note: Once upon a time, I paid actual money for a cool ringtone. Multiple, actually, so I had a different one for each of my friends/family members. Before that, I even picked up the phone without knowing who it was.

Now? I would smash this bad boy with a hammer if it made a sound in public and rarely turn the ringer on at home unless I am waiting on an urgent call.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

As just one example, if you didn’t have an alarm clock, you could call any taxi company, give them your phone number and ask for a wakeup call. And they would. For free.

Holy shit, I'm too young for this thread! I've never heard of this, and I was born before Literotica was.

 

[MrPixel]

Speaking of driving, another nostalgia hit - cars. They used to be simple, and you could pretty much jump into any car, turn the key, and go on your way. Owner's manual was, oh, maybe 3/8" think.

These days? You gotta be kidding. Manuals are over 1" thick and you need an index to the index. There is so much complexity and some engineer's idea of a "better way" to do something that is totally confusing and/or unclear. And touchscreens? Take your eyes off the road to turn on... whatever? Who needs to stare at your phone, unsafe distractions are standard features.

Holy shit, I'm too young for this thread! I've never heard of this, and I was born before Literotica was.

Don't feel bad, I never heard of this, either. Must've been a big city thing. Grew up in a small town.

Dial a number for the time: "At the tone, the time is... four... seventeen... P M... [beep!]." Fun, but I don't miss it. Amusement could be had by repeatedly dialing it at 2 a.m. proximate to the fall change from Daylight Savings Time to Standard, and hear it go into the past by an hour.

 

[SimonDoom]

A few things I think were better about my childhood than my kids' childhood:

We were less afraid. I walked to school by myself, about half a mile, when I was 9. Today there are parents who would consider that child abuse. But the reality is that crime rates are lower today, or at any rate no higher, than when I was a kid. The point of being a parent is to raise your kid to be a well functioning adult. But over the last generation it sometimes seems like parents prioritize keeping their kids alive at all cost, even if it means that they may be less self sufficient and less courageous as adults.

We didn't have the tools people have today for instant gratification, like cell phones and the Internet (both of which I consider, on balance, to be good things, so I'm not a Luddite). We created our own entertainment, or learned to deal with quiet periods and boredom.

Silence. It's good, sometimes. The music doesn't have to be constantly playing. It's better if sometimes it's not.

Manual transmission. Everybody should learn how to drive stick. You feel more connected to the car you're driving.

More bugs. Insect populations are way down. I miss the prevalence of butterflies in the air.

In general, I don't believe in the "good old days." Things overall are better than the way they used to be. But there were some things that were better.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I'll toss in another. Kids were almost universally free-range. Unless there was something special on the B&W tube and they had special permission, they would be outside playing, with other kids, not an adult in sight. They climbed trees (and, yes, occasionally fell out of them), invented games, competed to see who could ride a (one-speed) bicycle the fastest or slowest. And if your kid showed up at school with a black eye from horseplay, the school didn't call the police.You solved your own problems, or at least learned which problems could be solved.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'll toss in another. Kids were almost universally free-range. Unless there was something special on the B&W tube and they had special permission, they would be outside playing, with other kids, not an adult in sight. They climbed trees (and, yes, occasionally fell out of them), invented games, competed to see who could ride a (one-speed) bicycle the fastest or slowest. And if your kid showed up at school with a black eye from horseplay, the school didn't call the police.You solved your own problems, or at least learned which problems could be solved.

I remember being a free-range kid. It was great. You learn independence and self-sufficiency.

 

[iwatchus]

We were less afraid. I walked to school by myself, about half a mile, when I was 9. Today there are parents who would consider that child abuse. But the reality is that crime rates are lower today, or at any rate no higher, than when I was a kid.

This is a pet peeve of mine. When I lived in Pittsburgh, there was a tragic story about a child who refused help from strangers and ended up freezing to death (literally) waiting for their single parent who had gotten into a car accident on the way to pick them up. There are vanishingly few kids abducted by strangers. It's almost always "trusted" adults -- priests and scout leaders, among others. I suspect teaching kids to be terrified of strangers does not even keep them safer in the short term and certainly does harm to them and society long term.

 

[alohadave]

Train travel in the US used to be fun, too. Then Amtrak restructured fares and services about 8 years ago and the experience turned into crap.

Back in the 90s, I was looking at going home halfway across the country and asked the travel agent about Amtrak because it sounded interesting. She said it would be 6 days, and was like $1000. A flight was $500 and I'd be there in 4 hours.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I'll toss in another. Kids were almost universally free-range. Unless there was something special on the B&W tube and they had special permission, they would be outside playing, with other kids, not an adult in sight. They climbed trees (and, yes, occasionally fell out of them), invented games, competed to see who could ride a (one-speed) bicycle the fastest or slowest. And if your kid showed up at school with a black eye from horseplay, the school didn't call the police.You solved your own problems, or at least learned which problems could be solved.

Ah yes, and we learned to aim real good while the tree you were up was being shaken. That the only thing more psychotic than an improperly supervised child was a bored teen with too much free time on their hands. That random vans being driven down the road and lone adults walking through the woods were to be avoided at all costs. That feral dogs won't leave you alone unless you throw sticks and stones at them. And to not tattle on no one no matter what cause you'd just be sent out there again and they'd be real mad if you went telling tales. Such important life lessons learned on the fly...

 

[dirk2024]

My wife and I keep talking about missing thunder and lightning storms. We live in Northern California and there were many of these. Loved them!

Now, they hardly ever drift through. And its not a recent - in the last few years - thing. They've been diminishing for years.

 

[Baztrachian]

Dial a number for the time:

The number for the time in most places was either 555-1212 or the infamous 767-2676 (POPCORN).

And you didn't have to dial the fucking area code.

 

[Baztrachian]

And if your kid showed up at school with a black eye from horseplay, the school didn't call the police. You solved your own problems, or at least learned which problems could be solved.

As a kid I endured bullying at school because any trouble at school meant a savage beating from my psychopath father at home. I tried the bullshit of going to the teachers for help with the bullying and they didn't GAF.

Then one day when I was fifteen my father came at me and I put his fucking lights out. He never touched me again.

With the biggest monster in my life out of the way I went on the warpath against anyone and everyone who thought they could bully me.

And the same useless fucking teachers who sat on their asses while I got bullied fell all over themselves when I started beating the shit out of the bullies. They were the victims.

Lucky for me we had this exceptionally cool black guy for a Vice Principal who would get involved and tell the morons not to fuck with me if they didn't want to get curb stomped.

These days the kids get bullied and the fucking teachers and the fucking cops all go after the victim for fear the victim might fight back.

They still don't do shit about the instigators.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Don't feel bad, I never heard of this, either. Must've been a big city thing. Grew up in a small town.

I grew up in a big city and never heard of that.

Dial a number for the time: "At the tone, the time is... four... seventeen... P M... [beep!]." Fun, but I don't miss it. Amusement could be had by repeatedly dialing it at 2 a.m. proximate to the fall change from Daylight Savings Time to Standard, and hear it go into the past by an hour.

This one I've done. I think that hotline is still active to this day. Which reminds me the last time I used a rotary phone was at the tail end of the 00s.

 

[RetroFan]

I have a lot of fun in my stories set in the past with older characters getting into moral panics or fretting about things that were popular amongst young people at the time.

As one example, in my story 'Mandy Makes a Man of Mark' which is set in 1964 at the height of the British Invasion Mark's religious zealot mother worries about the influence of 'The Insects' and how their music may corrupt young people like her son. Likewise in my story 'Cindy's Close Encounter' which takes place in 1959 an elderly spinster English teacher is concerned what sort of music is going to be played at the high school's Halloween dance, and harasses the principal (to whom in 1914 she had given a detention when he was a student at the school for driving his older brother's Model T Ford too fast) about this. Of particular concern is that the band might play songs by a certain young man named 'Alvin Priestley' whom according to this teacher is a terrible influence upon teenagers.

In 'Pretty Paula's Poodle Skirts' which takes place in 1957 Paula's father Doctor O'Donnell tries to talk like teenagers to his kids and fails dismally, saying that he understands they like 'Rock or Roll' music but that it isn't 'squared' to study hard, much to the despair of Paula and her younger brother. From more recent decades, Dino's authoritarian father Salvatore from 'Sexy Savannah at Number 9' which is set in 1997 is completely out of his depth with the new technology at the time, yelling at his son for using 'an internet' which he suspects is for the purpose of 'looking through the windows to see naked girls'.