Nostalgia just ain’t what it used to be

[SamanthaBehgs]

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.

I fell on the opposite side of this. I grew up in the time of community, when you weren't supposed to be afraid of strangers, except we were in our house. We lived in an area where there was a literal serial killer picking up kids. They'd be missing a while and then we'd hear the awful tales of how they died once they were found. Legit one of the cases that led to the stranger danger trend happening in practically our back yards.

I knew many free range kids, who got up to all sorts of shennanigans. Not all of them made it to graduation because of it. There's gotta be a balancing point.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

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?

But flying back them was also hideously expensive. People who talk about how glamorous flight attendants were, and how people got dressed up for flying forget that.

 

[iwatchus]

I fell on the opposite side of this. I grew up in the time of community, when you weren't supposed to be afraid of strangers, except we were in our house. We lived in an area where there was a literal serial killer picking up kids. They'd be missing a while and then we'd hear the awful tales of how they died once they were found. Legit one of the cases that led to the stranger danger trend happening in practically our back yards.

I knew many free range kids, who got up to all sorts of shennanigans. Not all of them made it to graduation because of it. There's gotta be a balancing point.

When I was in high school, I knew one of the kids (neighborhood) who was kidnapped by a serial killer. For whatever reason, he was not killed, but was held captive while he killed another abductee. It broke my heart because he had been one of the sweetest kids I ever knew and going through that has to be horrible for you. Inever saw him afterwards -- that was only a few months before I went away to college.

 

[iwatchus]

But flying back them was also hideously expensive. People who talk about how glamorous flight attendants were, and how people got dressed up for flying forget that.

By the time they deregulated the airlines (one of the stupidest moves ever), the prices were very comparable to now (if you include extra fees they charge now). Slightly cheaper now for major airport to major airport (although that has been evening out) and way more expensive now to fly from smaller airports than it was then. And yes, that is adjusted for inflation.

 

[billrokra]

In the UK, milk was delivered in bottles to your door via an electric milk float, and your empty bottles were taken away to be cleaned and re-used. Before that, and before my time, the milk was delivered by horse and cart. How eco-friendly can you get?

 

[AG31]

More bugs. Insect populations are way down.

Ha! I've been wondering about that for the last 10 years or so. I've found myself worrying about the absence of potato bugs! Never mind mosquitoes.

I remember being a free-range kid. It was great.

This is a huge loss.

 

[crookedletter]

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.

You still don’t have to dial the area code, if the receiving number matches your own. Or at least that works on my phone. But with cell phones people don’t necessarily have the local area code anymore.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

You still don’t have to dial the area code, if the receiving number matches your own. Or at least that works on my phone. But with cell phones people don’t necessarily have the local area code anymore.

Yes! One of my first postings, the local telephone numbers had but five digits.

 

[iwatchus]

You still don’t have to dial the area code, if the receiving number matches your own.

They started requiring us to do that last year. There is only one area code here, so you always know what it is, but I hate dialing the extra numbers.

At least with touch tone "dialing", you don't have to wait for the dial to come back around again like you used to. I remember being excited when we got touch tone dialing.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

When I was in high school, I knew one of the kids (neighborhood) who was kidnapped by a serial killer. For whatever reason, he was not killed, but was held captive while he killed another abductee. It broke my heart because he had been one of the sweetest kids I ever knew and going through that has to be horrible for you. Inever saw him afterwards -- that was only a few months before I went away to college.

I cannot even imagine. I hope he came home to a supportive family and a ton of therapy.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

By the time they deregulated the airlines (one of the stupidest moves ever), the prices were very comparable to now (if you include extra fees they charge now). Slightly cheaper now for major airport to major airport (although that has been evening out) and way more expensive now to fly from smaller airports than it was then. And yes, that is adjusted for inflation.

I don't believe it is adjusted for inflation.

https://simpleflying.com/us-airfares-1970s-cost-history/

According to Travel + Leisure, a domestic round-trip ticket, such as from New York to Los Angeles, could cost upwards of $550, which, when adjusted for inflation, equals approximately $3,500 in today's dollars.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

In the UK, milk was delivered in bottles to your door via an electric milk float, and your empty bottles were taken away to be cleaned and re-used. Before that, and before my time, the milk was delivered by horse and cart. How eco-friendly can you get?

Eggs, too!

Oh, and the one-quart milk bottles had a tulip-shaped secondary thingus at the top, which was for cream. There was a special tiny dipper to ladle out the cream before you used the milk.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

They started requiring us to do that last year. There is only one area code here, so you always know what it is, but I hate dialing the extra numbers.

At least with touch tone "dialing", you don't have to wait for the dial to come back around again like you used to. I remember being excited when we got touch tone dialing.

I'm willing to dial those extra numbers because of *why* they started requiring it (for a nationwide mental health hotline so that a single number could be used no matter where you were).

I do kinda miss a rotary phone, though. It gave a satisfying ticking to it as the dial came back.

 

[Ian_Snow]

I miss not having my phone attached to me every second of every day. I can't just disappear for days on end the way I used to.

But to add to the conversation, I miss the tactile feel of typewriters. I know they still exist but I miss the normalcy of them. I also miss librarians rubber stamping books, which sounds odd, but if you know, you know. That ka-thunk was satisfying.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

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.

We actually discussed that in a marketing class. Some artists were making more money from ring tones than selling CDs. Then it all went away.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I miss not having my phone attached to me every second of every day. I can't just disappear for days on end the way I used to.

But to add to the conversation, I miss the tactile feel of typewriters. I know they still exist but I miss the normalcy of them. I also miss librarians rubber stamping books, which sounds odd, but if you know, you know. That ka-thunk was satisfying.

You know, you can just leave it at home. No one is going to check and make sure you have it.

 

[iwatchus]

I do kinda miss a rotary phone, though. It gave a satisfying ticking to it as the dial came back.

The ticks were how it worked. The sound of them went over the phone line to the exchange. And they had a regular timing to them, so a simple machine at the office could count them. ENIAC, the first publicly known computer, used this technology to send data around the machine.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

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.



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.

They were also waaaaay less reliable. There's a reason old cars only had 5 digit odometers. Getting over 100,000 miles was something, these days it's no big deal.

Today's cars are faster, quieter, ride better...

 

[SimonDoom]

Magic Fingers vibrating beds. A staple of motels in the 1970s. You'd insert a quarter or two and the bed would vibrate for a while.

Why? I don't know. It made no sense to me when I was a kid. But we always had to try it out.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

Magic Fingers vibrating beds. A staple of motels in the 1970s. You'd insert a quarter or two and the bed would vibrate for a while.

Why? I don't know. It made no sense to me when I was a kid. But we always had to try it out.

My bed vibrates now. It's an adjustable one because I have a bad back, but it also has a vibrate feature. You can find one today if you miss it!

This will be a weird one for an erotica site but: I miss trying to catch boobs on Showtime after hours if you watched the fuzzy channel.

 

[alohadave]

They were also waaaaay less reliable. There's a reason old cars only had 5 digit odometers. Getting over 100,000 miles was something, these days it's no big deal.

It used to be a 5 year/50,000 mile warranty on the engine, now it's 10 year/100,000 miles.

My Rav4 is 20 years old at 175,000 miles and it's still chugging along. I do have to change the oil more often than I used to, but it should last at least 250,000 miles.

 

[dirk2024]

They were also waaaaay less reliable. There's a reason old cars only had 5 digit odometers. Getting over 100,000 miles was something, these days it's no big deal.

Today's cars are faster, quieter, ride better...

more boring...

 

[gunhilltrain]

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?

It seems that Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda completely missed there goals for their various terrorist attacks, including the biggest one on 9/11. They expected to unite the Muslim world (especially Bin Laden's home nation of Saudi Arabia) against the United States, end support for Israel, and a number of other things that never happened. They also expected that America would be too shocked to respond strongly, which was a big miscalculation. (Pearl Harbor, anyone?). But they did unintentionally mess up air travel security, possibly forever, and for that his picture should be posted on every TSA checkpoint. "Don't blame us; blame him!"

Maybe some technology will reverse it eventually.

 

[AlexBailey]

It used to be a 5 year/50,000 mile warranty on the engine, now it's 10 year/100,000 miles.

My Rav4 is 20 years old at 175,000 miles and it's still chugging along. I do have to change the oil more often than I used to, but it should last at least 250,000 miles.

Five long years! Or fifty-thousand miles! Whichever comes first!

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Magic Fingers vibrating beds. A staple of motels in the 1970s. You'd insert a quarter or two and the bed would vibrate for a while.

Why? I don't know. It made no sense to me when I was a kid. But we always had to try it out.

I saw this in a cheesy movie once. Didn't think it was a real thing.