h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Rev Nick and Hypatia have suggested a possible topic for another Collaborative Entry

I am willing to have a go at collating the results of a discussion, so I'm posting this on their behalf:

'The "good old days" covers a large period of time, depending on who is evoking them. Know what I miss about my good old days? Cleaning products that actually clean!

What does "the good ol' days" mean to you?'

I think 'Good old days' can be any clearly definable period that took place before now, regardless of whether or not it was actually long ago. So for instance, at work it is clearly understood that the 'Good old days' means 'before the current VC took over and restructured everything 18 months ago'.

<BB<

Chocolate bars that were a proper size!

Yes, I know I was smaller then, but I'm certain the bars were bigger.

Being able to sit on a train seat in comfort.

Actually, being able to sit down at all.

Entertaining and original TV shows, with proper actors and quality scriptwriting.

Music that was distinctive, original, unique, tuneful - I'm afraid that most of the stuff on the radio today all sounds the same - too much computer and auto-tune, not enough musicianship. When an original song comes along it's so unusual that they play it incessantly

Icy, you're not wrong. Chocolate bars were larger. It's a very old tactic they use now sometimes referred to as "shrinkflation".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/quality-street-not-the-only-chocolate-product-that-is-shrinking-say-experts-a6777886.html


As for "good ol' days", I'd have to say those days before our MOT and code-gutting by the BBC. Especially a few years earlier when this place was hopping with new front page stories daily and very active forums. And before so many active researchers ed.


Speaking of which, where is Hypatia hiding? I haven't seen her post here in a couple of years.

The 1950s and early 1960s were the good old days. Eisenhower was in the White House keeping everybody safe. Then JFK brought Camelot to the country, and only made two mistakes: Bay of Pigs, and riding in the open in Dallas without body armor. [Well, to an impressionable youth that's how it looked!].

You could get an ice cream cone for ten cents at Howard Johnson's. The brooks in front of and in back of my house were full of frogs. Salamanders lived under most rocks. Lady slippers by the hundreds bloomed on the banks of my family's brook. There were good, honest, experienced teachers who taught phonics and honest math [not the new math rubbish] and English grammar that you could understand. The town fair was held in town in September, not in an adjoining town in August .

And even when we did Silly things, they were well-meant. The bottom floor of my elementary school had a large assembly room which we called the auditorium. When there were mandatory air raid drills, we all went into that auditorium, even though the entire building would have collapsed on us if we actually had been bombed.

There was a nuclear fallout shelter in the town next door, stocked with provisions that became outdated and stale in the next twenty years, but who cares, it was the thought that counted.

For me, the 60s and half of the 70s weren't so good. But for me, I would say the late 70s were pretty good.

I had very few true concerns - uniform cleaned, pressed and presentable daily. My part of the defence of the country done as well as I could. And waking up somewhere that I recognized.

To me, "the good old days" was the title of a of the music hall programme broadcast by the BBC from The City Varieties theatre in Leeds in the 60s and 70s.
I once went to the theatre in the early 60s to set up Leeds University's rag revue and the owner spent the whole interview checking out my legs.(If I had minded, I wouldn't have worn a mini skirt to a strip joint.)

I also liked the 1970s, to be honest, but there were some really scary things happening as well

The day I went for my draft physical (in 1970) was the worst day of my life. I was hassled on the subway. I lived in a rooming house, and somebody on my floor stole my food from the refrigerator. Even some of the n ice things were bittersweet. I loved Harvard Square, which had some great restaurants and music shops. All of them are long gone by now, and I miss them.

Not big issues, granted, especially since I survived them and am still healthy, but why does the good stuff not hold up?

I miss the past

Affordable cinema is one thing, then there is the lack of crime and the ability to walk after dark and the collapse of the standards of public behavior, everything from littering to public to obnoxious children, apparently they have the right to spoil your day buy bad behavior.

And
Enjoying motoring the open 2 seater kind and bending the speed limit a bit, technology is a pain sometimes.

No nanny state telling us what to think and what to say what to do and what is dangerous.
What is all this politically correctness all about!

Hmm.... on several... well, at least two... More I guess as the question intended, the good old days, IMO, is when house prices had some kind of basis in reality and real-world monitory income for actual people, and likewise, when a pint of beer, in a pub, wasn't the same as 1/4 our joint weekly expendature on food.
Personally.... the good old days, was any time before my body got so damn broken and useless which, actually now I think of it, more or less does translate to the same time bfore beer prices went so insanely inflationary....
Oh, and the good old days, were when pubs were pub, not stupid food outlets w who have their only concern at the food they're doing, and just how much they can rip people off with charging for a ing

I think that mostly when people talk about the good old days, they are recalling certain pleasant aspects of the past while forgetting the bad things.
( that could be one of the reasons Breit won....)

Good old days at work was when we were well staffed, had tea breaks and full lunch hours.
In general, when we didn't have to shop around for insurance/utility/ phone providers. When the railways was a joined up service, when public services were run for the public and not for profit.

And this time .... chiefly ..... YOURSELVES!!!!

Don't forget that trains used to have both leg room and elbow room. I've no idea what shape people the seating on the Class 450 carriages is designed for. But things were definitely better when the trains and ferries were all run by BR, so that if the Island Line train was 5 minutes later, the ferry would wait and the connecting train at Portsmouth would wait to, and by the time you'd arrived in London you'd probably made the time up. Now the ferry goes at its scheduled time so you have to spend an hour waiting for the next one.

In the Good Old Days Woolworths sold everything. Still miss Woolworths – used to do all my Christmas shopping there.

Oh, and Blackgang Chine Theme Park was bigger (ie, less of it was wet).

<BB<

Woolworth's in its prime was the best store in town it sold everything.
You are right BB!

I'm not so nostalgic about Woolworths, but they did have cheap LP records for many years. The local Wilko or Poundstore covers much of what Woolworths did towards the end of its life.

I've heard of Wilco and Wilkinson, but like Smyths Toy Store, ToysRus, Pound World, Ikea and Debenhams, they're shops that don't really exist anywhere except on the Mainland.

<BB<

" obnoxious children, apparently they have the right to spoil your day buy bad behavior." [bobstafford]

I'm not here to defend obnoxious children, but is it possible that in your version of he good old days there were adults who numbered you or your friends among them?

There was a time when, no matter what I did, I was not accorded respect solely because of my age. Now I seem to get respect for my gray hair. If only they knew what darkness lurks inside me!