Nostalgia just ain’t what it used to be

[PennyThompson]

I resonate with very little in this thread, but I do wish we could resurrect the streetcar as the primary mode of urban transportation in more places.

I live in a "streetcar suburb" neighborhood, the main road is unreasonably wide because it used to have two lanes of streetcar tracks down the middle of it. There are some just wonderful brick business storefronts along the street with big beautiful frontage windows, two or three storeys of apartments above the ground floor business, a comfortable sidewalk with awnings and street trees.

It's such a lovely, human-sized, walkable place, and it's now illegal to build in most parts of North America because of setback rules and parking minimums and restrictive building use zoning

 

[MrPixel]

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...

I'm not talking about 1950s rustbuckets. Reliability came in the 2000's, in spades. I expect the two '00-era daily drivers I have with >200,000 miles will easily make it to 300K.

Current vehicles are loaded with all sorts of tech which gets in your way and costs obscene amounts to repair when it fails. And fails it can, in very strange ways.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

In a few years we'll be having this same discussion and saying ....

'Remember when there were pennies and prices would end in .99 and with taxes the total sale might end in .03 or .07 ?'

 

[Kelliezgirl]

In a few years we'll be having this same discussion and saying ....

'Remember when there were pennies and prices would end in .99 and with taxes the total sale might end in .03 or .07 ?'

Like old Brits talking about farthings and bobs.

 

[DeMont]

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?

@TarnishedPenny...
Easy question.Della Street (Barbara Hale) in "Perry Mason". Whadda set of pins on that broad!!!

"The Case of the Velvet Claws, the first Perry Mason novel, was written in the early days of the Great Depression. In it, Della Street is revealed to have come from a wealthy, or at least well-to-do, family that was wiped out by the stock market crash of 1929. Della was forced to get a job as a secretary. By the time of the TV series in the 1950s and 1960s, this would not have fit well with the age of the characters as then portrayed. According to The Case of The Caretaker's Cat, she is about 15 years younger than Perry Mason.

Several instances of sexual tension are seen between Mason and Street in the Gardner novels, multiple glances, kisses, and so on, and several proposals of marriage, all of which Della turned down because, at the time, wives of professional men did not work. Thus, she could not have continued as his secretary (and effective partner) and she did not want to give up this aspect of her life." ~ Wikipedia.com ~

That and the British "supermarionation" kids series' "Captain Scarlet" and "Thunderbirds", 21st Century, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. 1960's.

Well, you asked...
Deepest respects,
D.

 

[MrPixel]

That and the British "supermarionation" kids series' "Captain Scarlet" and "Thunderbirds", 21st Century, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. 1960's.

I was a Supercar and Fireball XL5 fan. I had grown out of interest in that genre by the time Thunderbirds reached US syndication.

 

[DeMont]

I was a Supercar and Fireball XL5 fan. I had grown out of interest in that genre by the time Thunderbirds reached US syndication.

@MrPixel,
Ah haa...! "Fireball XL5" fan eh? Terrific, Steve Zodiac, Robbie Robot, Prof. Matt Matic and Doctor Venus!!! Marvellous. It was a real pity that "Thunderbirds" never made syndication here really but I believe that "Captain Scarlet" got picked up by a U.S. network, no? That was my all time childhood favourite.
Respectfully,
D.

 

[Britva415]

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?

Everything’s computer!

 

[MrPixel]

Everything’s computer!

More than you think. They're even putting a computer between the inside and outside door handles and the latch. How can that possibly go wrong?

 

[TheLobster]

I resonate with very little in this thread, but I do wish we could resurrect the streetcar as the primary mode of urban transportation in more places.

Oh god, no. Streetcars — or as we call them here, trams — are the veritable scourge of many European cities.

They offer little speed advantage over buses, but at the cost of tons of space taken by their tracks. They make driving far more complicated because of the onerous rules for when they do or don’t have the right of way. They are much problematic when the inevitable accidents happen, because you cannot simply tow a broken tram out of the way like you would a bus.

Public transport should go with the flow of traffic, ultimately aiming to displace some of it (buses); or it should be grade-separated (subway, elevated trains) in places where the density warrants the investment. Trams are neither, and to make things worse the existence of a tramline is often used by municipal governments as an excuse not to build subways.

 

[SimonDoom]

I remember when television channels would sign off at midnight. I vaguely remember something involving fighter jets on the screen before that happened. Then nothing until programming resumed in the morning.

 

[Robin_Starveling]

I remember when Donna Reed replaced Barbara Bel Geddes as Miss Ellie in Dallas midway through season 8. WTF? I’ve lost faith in soup operas ever since.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Pop music. It used to be good. Now it sucks! There have always been bad songs in pop music, some horribly bad, but when I was younger there were good ones mixed in. We had Nirvana, REM, Ben Folds 5, Digital Underground, Sheryl Crow, Jamiroquai. You could walk through that mall and you'd hear a couple of good songs. Now it's 100% garbage. Katy Perry and Maroon 5 and a host of acts that I don't know and don't acre who they are. They all sound the same. All those American Idol voices on sticks, fed cardboard fodder songs written by (literally) the same 3 bums churning out lowest common denominator schlop. The 80s were even better. There was Prince and Duran Duran and Van Halen, all three acts ahead of their time. And when I go through my Mom's records, the 70s were also diverse and amazing. There was Abba and the Bee Gees and Earth Wind and Fire, all incredible composers.

This is not my subjective opinion, neither. I'm educated in this. I have a professional understanding of the craft. Studies have been done. Pop music is not as deep and far less diverse than it was 25 years ago. They've studied and the same intervals are used over and over in melodies far more than ever before.

Songs used to change and move and take you places. Now they just make a beat loop, throw 3 or 4 chords onto it, loop it and put some filler cliche rhymes on it and call it a song. What happened to0 bridges and hooks, mode changes, breakdowns? Country might even be the worst these days. The schlock that that Luke Bryan putz has churned out for the past 15 years is grade school rhymes. Nothing ever rises above the literal. Purely lowest common denominator. Music to keep stupid people stupid. Or there's a shock value like Wet Ass Pussy, like a dumb joke that you might laugh at once - ONCE (get a mop and a bucket ...) yet everyone plays it dto death, do you hear her say that filthy stuff? Play it again, play it again. No, let's not. Instead I have one - Why did the chicken cross the road? - the joke equivalent of Cardi B. It's as if the industry is afraid of alienating anyone by going even the slightest bit over their head. They don't need to do this. A band as deep and arty and avant-gard as Rush both musically and lyrically had multiple top 40 hits. You can challenge and elevate minds and still appeal to the masses. It's okay. But no, they're afraid to. They feed us garbage and we eat it up. Why? because it's been so fucking long since we've heard something good that we don't know what good is anymore. We buy up the shit that's shoved in front of our faces.

 

[Off_base]

Oh god, no. Streetcars — or as we call them here, trams — are the veritable scourge of many European cities.

They offer little speed advantage over buses, but at the cost of tons of space taken by their tracks. They make driving far more complicated because of the onerous rules for when they do or don’t have the right of way. They are much problematic when the inevitable accidents happen, because you cannot simply tow a broken tram out of the way like you would a bus.

Public transport should go with the flow of traffic, ultimately aiming to displace some of it (buses); or it should be grade-separated (subway, elevated trains) in places where the density warrants the investment. Trams are neither, and to make things worse the existence of a tramline is often used by municipal governments as an excuse not to build subways.

Do all nostalgic memories have to be practical and convenient for today? There's something to be said about how it was when life moved a little slower and people were more comfortable sharing public spaces.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Oh god, no. Streetcars — or as we call them here, trams — are the veritable scourge of many European cities.

They offer little speed advantage over buses, but at the cost of tons of space taken by their tracks. They make driving far more complicated because of the onerous rules for when they do or don’t have the right of way. They are much problematic when the inevitable accidents happen, because you cannot simply tow a broken tram out of the way like you would a bus.

Public transport should go with the flow of traffic, ultimately aiming to displace some of it (buses); or it should be grade-separated (subway, elevated trains) in places where the density warrants the investment. Trams are neither, and to make things worse the existence of a tramline is often used by municipal governments as an excuse not to build subways.

As an L.A. survivor currently residing in a European city, I respectfully beg to differ. I find them utterly delightful. There is a tram that takes me to work, and the stops are right outside my home and work and it clanks and clatters and has a bell for shooing pedestrians off the track. I love my 10 min tram commute to work. Definitely an upgrade from 45 minutes to an hour each way on the 405… (and that’s a short commute lol)

 

[SimonDoom]

As an L.A. survivor currently residing in a European city, I respectfully beg to differ. I find them utterly delightful. There is a tram that takes me to work, and the stops are right outside my home and work and it clanks and clatters and has a bell for shooing pedestrians off the track. I love my 10 min tram commute to work. Definitely an upgrade from 45 minutes to an hour each way on the 405… (and that’s a short commute lol)

Is LA the only place where people refer to their freeways with "the"?

I remember taking the 405. And the 10. And the 5. And the 101.

I'm not there anymore. No more "the's."

 

[TheLobster]

Is LA the only place where people refer to their freeways with "the"?

I remember taking the 405. And the 10. And the 5. And the 101.

I'm not there anymore. No more "the's."

It's a Southern California thing. I've spent some time in the North and it was always just "101". I have no idea if there is a particular Mason-Dixon line below which you add the "the", though.

 

[TheLobster]

There is a tram that takes me to work, and the stops are right outside my home and work and it clanks and clatters and has a bell for shooing pedestrians off the track. I love my 10 min tram commute to work.

Well, duh.

 

[StillStunned]

As an L.A. survivor currently residing in a European city, I respectfully beg to differ. I find them utterly delightful. There is a tram that takes me to work, and the stops are right outside my home and work and it clanks and clatters and has a bell for shooing pedestrians off the track. I love my 10 min tram commute to work. Definitely an upgrade from 45 minutes to an hour each way on the 405… (and that’s a short commute lol)

One of my oldest stories here takes place on a tram in Amsterdam: Fun with Fingers.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Is LA the only place where people refer to their freeways with "the"?

I remember taking the 405. And the 10. And the 5. And the 101.

I'm not there anymore. No more "the's."

Its definitely an LA thing, and maybe a SoCal thing.
I’m from the PNW and have a distinct memory of getting teased for saying ‘I-405’ or ‘I-5.’
tbf if you go to seattle or portland and call I-405, ‘the 405’ you might get a more visceral reaction lol. But tomato tomata, its still the same parking lot.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

As a child of the 60s and 70s, there are so many memories in this thread.

One I didn't see mentioned was party phone lines. Two to four families would each have their own number but would share the trunk line with only one family able to call out or receive calls at a time. If you wanted to make a call, you had to pick up to see if the main line was in use and then wait your turn until the then-current user finished. If you had an emergency, you could speak up and ask them to end their call, but sometimes kids would make their presence known by listening in and making little noises until the current-callers got fed up and hung up. Then there were the eavesdroppers who'd just listen in for the gossip.

Loss of innocence and fear of strangers? In our area, it was the sexual assault and murder of a young girl who went out to sell GS cookies like so many other girls but she never came home and it introduced fear in the lives of many kids our age in our area who'd never known it.

I remember when television channels would sign off at midnight. I vaguely remember something involving fighter jets on the screen before that happened. Then nothing until programming resumed in the morning.

The one like this that I recall included the poem "High Flight". The national anthem played afterward and then the striped off-the-air sign-off sign would appear.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

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.

This makes me sound like a crotchety old person, but I never have had any problem with answering or making phone calls. Need some information: ring up for it.

But 'younger' people (under thirty at least) really seem to dislike answering the phone altogether, and seem to prefer sending a text to calling anyone. I often find myself watching them spend twenty minutes composing a polite message with just the right tone, when a thirty-second phone conversation would have done the trick.

 

[crookedletter]

Is LA the only place where people refer to their freeways with "the"?

I remember taking the 405. And the 10. And the 5. And the 101.

I'm not there anymore. No more "the's."

 

[pink_silk_glove]

In a few years we'll be having this same discussion and saying ....

'Remember when there were pennies and prices would end in .99 and with taxes the total sale might end in .03 or .07 ?'

This has already been the case in Canada for something like 20 years. The banks have (purposely) mismanaged the money to the point where small change has become obsolete.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

Its definitely an LA thing, and maybe a SoCal thing.
I’m from the PNW and have a distinct memory of getting teased for saying ‘I-405’ or ‘I-5.’
tbf if you go to seattle or portland and call I-405, ‘the 405’ you might get a more visceral reaction lol. But tomato tomata, its still the same parking lot.

It's definitely not just the PNW or LA. I've lived and grown up all over the Northeast and we have "the" in front of many of our major roads, especially interstates, but even our smaller highways have "the" in front of them. Not all of them, mind you - and I honestly couldn't tell you why one is Route 9 while another is the 87 but, I bet someone could.