The Good Old Days

[Bazile]

We often hear folk talking about the ' Good old days '

But when / what exactly was the good old days ?

What is different about today and the good old days ?

Any example of the good old days ?

[Buenchico]

The good old days are whenever you were a child.

For example, the good old days for me were back in the 1950s/60s, when we couldn't afford to heat the house (even in the coldest weather) until well into the winter, when 'food' equalled 'boring stodge', when everyone expected to get chilblains every winter, when parents and teachers routinely hit their children for the slightest misdemeanours, when the physical and sexual abuse of children took place but everyone turned a blind eye to it, when there was just one TV channel, when we never went away on holiday because we couldn't afford it, when families were terrified of diseases such as smallpox and polio, when children could play alone on dangerous building sites, when men could only wear sombre colours, when women had to spend hours (and money they could ill-afford) getting permanent waves, when TV interviewers treated politicians like gods,when there was dog poo on every pavement, when children's entire futures were determined by a single examination at the age of 11, . . .

Ah, yes, those were the good old days ;-)

[janbee]

In the good old days, I was young slim and everything still pointed north but, alas, it's all headed south now so it's now the bad new days !

[elliemay1]

That has cheered me up no end, Bueno!

[Bazile]

lol - chris - i'm glad there wasn't a bad old days

[andy-hughes]

The 'good old days' refers to distant and serously selective memories where clever filtering of almost all the negative aspects of live - as so wonderfully declaimed by muh colleague's post above, leaves a nice rosy glow of nostalgia about how it never rained, we all drank from the same pop bottle, we could roam all day, and so on and so on ....

Take half of each, and you'll get a balanced view of what 'the good old days' were actually like.

[Svejk]

ca. 1970. Great music, plenty of work, fantastic money. No PC nonsense(personal view. Others will have had different experiences)

[Peter Pedant]

Diana Ross of the Supremes cut a 'b' side on this very subject

came up the usual - [ there werent any ]

[Graham-W]

These are the good old days. Retired early, on a good pension, happily married, house paid for, car paid for, grandchildren who visit once a week and enjoy it, cheap last minute holidays, good health, in debt to no-one, a few quid in the bank (not loads but makes me smile).
Best years of my life so far .

[Bazile]

Consider this - 'today' will become the good old days for future generations

[Barsel]

//What is different about today and the good old days ?//
In our street nobody owned a car so we could play in the street all day in safety. Mums and Dads would sit on the doorsteps to keep an eye on us and the majority of neighbours were also friends.

[Buenchico]

>>>In our street nobody owned a car so we could play in the street all day in safety. Mums and Dads would sit on the doorsteps to keep an eye on us

It's still exactly like that on my street (which is a cul-de-sac) - and ruddy noisy those little horrors are too!

[Bazile]

So - wasn't the good old days , when you could get a loaf of bread , go to the cinema , buy a bag of gobstoppers - and still have change from a farthing ?

[Old_Geezer]

The good old days were when the councils didn't claim they had to switch the street lighting you paid for, off in your street, even though the next one seems allowed it, and didn't claim they could only have rubbish collections you paid for on a fortnightly basis when a weekly one was a basic compromise. And there were coppers on the beat dissuading folk not to act in unsociable manners. And so on and so forth.

As time passees some things improve, but we lose much of what made things great in the process. Any era can be criticised, but equally praised. There seems no value given to doing things well now, it's all deadlines and get it in regardless, and no value to staff they are just there to be hired and used.

But thank goodness for medical advances and other discoveries/inventions. Now if only they could be afforded and offered to all equally regardless of age or location.

[Mosaic]

I think the only real difference is that ther were far more jobs in the good old days. Round here they actually seem to have ended twofold, once in the early 1960s as textile production seeped abroad ever more quickly, and again when Thatcher's notions of how society should be took wider root and were adopted by Tony Bliar.

[Buenchico]

Exactly, Bazile!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

[Peter Pedant]

GW // These are the good old days. Retired early, on a good pension, happily married, house paid for, car paid for, grandchildren who visit once a week and enjoy it, cheap last minute holidays, good health, in debt to no-one, a few quid in the bank (not loads but makes me smile). //

odd how many points werent present in the good old days ( 50s and 60s )

1. retire at 65. Pensioners not rich. Those who had joined up for the war has screwed their pensions. My uncle who had remained a bank mgr in SA had the largest of all. There will still people around who had retired before 1945 and got nothing and also non-pensionable jobs
2. house usually rented - most did not have a car
3. cheap last min holidays. DOes anyone remember Clarksons ? People paid for a holiday and then when they went bust ( 1972) DIDN'T go on holiday that year at all !
Good health well at least it was free at the point of use....

[tamborine]

Good old days were when my kids were young enough to be clipped round the ear by me. Now, I tread eggshells in case am chased into a care home :(

[New Judge]

"So - wasn't the good old days , when you could get a loaf of bread , go to the cinema , buy a bag of gobstoppers - and still have change from a farthing?"

No, Baz, you could get far more than that:

Do you know when i were a lad you could get a Tram down into't town, buy 3 new suits n an overcoat, 4 new pair of good boots, goo n see George Formby at Palace Theatre, get Blind Drunk, have some Steak n Chips, Bunch of bananas n 3 stone of monkey Nuts, and still have change out of a farthing.

Now they WERE the Good Old Days!

Mind you, you should also bear this in mind:

We had lots of things in them days they haven't got today: Rickets, Diptheria, Hitler, and my we did look well going to school with no backsides in us trousers n all us little heads painted Purple cause we had Ringworm.

They don't know they're born today!!

(With grateful thanks to the late Tony Capstick)

[Barsel]

Buenchico we were even different as children in those days as we were not allowed to scream like some kids of today do and we certainly were not allowed to give any cheek.