Adifferent type of nostalgia

[rickismom]

Now--- at the risk of people thinking that I am a fault finder (which in general I am not-)- I want to try to take a different type of nostalgia:

that we have been nostalgic for the "good old days", ... which I enjoyed... but,lets get realistic:

Remember when there was no synthetic penicillin, and few alternatives if you were unluckey enough to be allergic to it?

Remember when the ice box really didn't keep your ice cream very frozen?

Remember when mailing a letter overseas and getting replys took at least two weeks?

And when pictures of a wedding performed overseas (or a new baby) took two weeks to reach you? (A week to develop the film, and a week to send it through snail mail )? [ I sent my mom in the USA a digital pic of our son's fiancee the night of their engagement--how happy she was!]

Remember when you droped your coke bottle, it BROKE!

Remember when an interstate phone call was a big expense?

Remember getting flue and chicken pox and measles (and maybe even hepititus)? Remembering your mom sending you to a friend to catch German measles so that you had it as a girl, and not as a young soon-to-be- mother?

Remember when eye-glasses were glass and the danger that entailed?

Remember the freight train that passed through town each day, taking ten minutes... and there was no bridge above or tunnel below, and your mom prayed that you would never need to be rushed to the hospital on the other sude just when a train came through?

Years in braces was the ONLY cure for orthodontic problems, not any of the easier and faster solutions that they have today.

No white fillings.

Remember "whites only" toilets in gas stations in the south? [ I remember my mom making a stir when on a trip to scuba dive in florida, my mom sat us all down at the "blacks" sandwhich bar in a drug store. The poor waitress was sure that we Northern folks were too ignorant to understand that we were in the wrong place.Until mom assured her that she knew exactly what she was doing...]

Remember that before cable TV you only had the choice of two or three channels?

Remember the very scratchable and breakable records? And big bulky tape recorders?

Remember when teachers could do almost ANYTHING to a student, even if it destroyed his sence of self forever?

and those terrible ice cube trays of metal that were the devil to operate?

Remember when nearly everyone bottle fed? [ In the nutrition class at our nursing (registered nurse) school, our instructor was horrified when she realized that only two of the class had any intention of trying to breastfeed when we would get married and have kids...I am proud to say that I was one of the two...]

And of course, remember when kids with DS were not expected to live through their teen years, if at all?

Yes, I like nostalgia I really do... but lets be gratefull for today as well!

And please don't think I'm knocking the nostalgia post, I enjoyed it too! I just thought that this topic might also be fun...

[shellk]

You forgot

8 track tapes
Atari game systems
5 cents got ya 4 pieces of candy.

I remember some of what you posted but I am an 80's child. I do remember hearing my mom talk of some of those things. I am glad that we have advanced to what we are today..Cause, of not for technology my little Kourtney might not be here today.



Michele

[Chris]

I am fairly mature (as in age) and was raised in Texas. I never remember the "white only" drinking fountains, restrooms, etc. I moved to Michigan in 1990 and was shocked at how the communities are segregated, at least in the metro Detroit area.

I do remember having the measles, mumps, and chicken pox. The mumps were the worse!

When my older daughter was born, she had a terrible time learning how to nurse and my mother kept trying to convince me that formula was more nutritious.

I'm not so sure that cable tv has been a real improvement to American lives. It has taken so much time away from playing outside and visiting with neighbors. I think my family would be better off without cable tv or the internet. I just don't have enough will power to give them up.

It saddens me that our nation has lost it's values and that is what really makes me yearn for the good old days. As a child, it was comforting to know that mommy would be home when I got out of school. We always ate dinner together as a family. We would go around the table and tell what happened to us that day. We knew that Sunday was church and family day. It never occurred to us to even ask to go to a friends house on Sunday because we knew that we had to spend it with our family.

Yes, we have made a ton of technological advances but we have lost a great deal, too. I'm not so sure that we are better off socially, at least not the white middle class. I'm rambling and could debate with myself all night long!

Thanks for the memories!

Chris

[rickismom]

Yes Chris, I have to agree- about the lost values and about cable TV. We don't own a tv and I am happy about that! When I was a child, my mom limited us to 2 hours of TV a WEEK. Due to that, I love to read. And indeed, the computer also takes us away from sport and FAMILY centered activities....