Posted on 09/19/2007 2:18:28 PM PDT by decimon
Where did all those babies come from? Turnip Trucks???
I wuz hatched. That’s what Mom told me, anyhows...
I don't think anyone who ever disparaged the 1960s actually wants live bombs and bomb craters in their neighborhood.
This "those were the good old days" vs. "there never were any good old days" argument really doesn't go anywhere.
But I guess it does indicate why the US is more conservative than Britain or Europe.
We don't associate the 1950s with rationing and austerity, but with prosperity and tail fins.
It's much easier for Britons to view it as a time of gray oppression.
What they are talking about here is homosexual "expression." Until sometime in the 1960s, homosexual activity was a crime in the U.K. Non-homosexuals were free to go about their, um, business of expressing themselves, but out-of-wedlock births did not become the norm until the welfare state was fully planted.
The Pods. It was the Pods.
Central heating is unnecessary; space heaters, sweaters, and quilts work just fine. Having no inside tolets or water sucks, so let's keep those. As for TV — life would be better without it. (Or, if we must have TV, let's program it like they did back then.)
2. Racial discrimination was widespread, with signs saying "No blacks, no dogs, no Irish" commonplace. Tensions boiled over with the Notting Hill riots in 1958.
Legal segregation was immoral, no doubt — but are race relations any better today? Not that I can see.
3. Food rations until 1954. Fruit was a luxury, chicken or sweets a rarity. Queues outside butchers lined the streets. Petrol was rationed in 1956-57.
It can be argued that frugal diets make for healthier, happier people. And walking instead of driving enhances the health of the population, as well as slowing the pace of life in general.
4. Smog, or peasoupers, were thick and yellow, made worse by coal fires. Some have described the fog as a "yellow wall" outside the front door. Parents gave children scarves to wear over their noses and mouths and street lamps were still gas.
Nobody wants to go back to the days of coal power. (Gas streetlamps, however, have a certain charm).
5. Britain had to come to terms with being humiliated in the Suez War and its influence on world events being greatly diminished.
At least the UK had a military back then...
6. Bomb sites littered British streets, while air raid shelters, unexploded bombs, gas masks and seaside defences provided a reminder of the horror that had gone before.
Yes. They also provided a reminder of the heroism and common cause that had gone before.
7. The Cold War intensified throughout the 50s, with tensions illustrated by the Soviet invasion of Hungary and the McCarthy witch hunts in the US.
At least we knew who our enemies were, and were not ashamed to fight them. And the "witch hunts"? Poor old Joe McCarthy turned out to be right after all!
8. Sporting humiliation arrived when England's football team lost 6-3 to Hungary at Wembley, the first ever defeat to a non-British team at home.
Soccer. 'Nuff said.
9. Smoking prevalence among UK men aged 35 to 59 was 80% in 1950, and half of deaths of middle-aged men were caused by tobacco.
It was a free country, and they knew the risks.
10. Sexual expression was frowned upon and even criminalised.
And life was so much happier for it.
There were plenty of bad things about the "good old days". There were also many good things. I say bring back the 1950s/early 1960s, only this time with modern medicine, nuclear power, and trains, and without legal segregation, polio, and coal-fired power plants.
Sector 473 of the Greater West Europe Co-Prosperity Sphere.
And after that, the Islamic Republic of Anglistan.
My fathers family lived in a 20 room house in central London in the 50’s, while the neighbors converted a bomb crater into a pool in their backyard...
Not in Midwich.
” I say bring back the 1950s/early 1960s, only this time with modern medicine, nuclear power, and trains, and without legal segregation, polio, and coal-fired power plants. “
I’m with you !
Yeah, the 50s were great! High taxes, expensive airfare, small houses. Kinda like Sweden, except without the boring sex.
And they had unions that were "good for the workers." Heard many variations on that.
My father came over from Calabria and was put to work on the New York docks as his first job here. I read that Albert Anastasia was ILA chief at that time so I asked dad if he'd known him. He said that everyone on the docks knew him. I asked dad what he thought of Anastasia. "He was good for the workers.", said dad.
“6. Bomb sites littered British streets, while air raid shelters, unexploded bombs, gas masks and seaside defences provided a reminder of the horror that had gone before.
Yes. They also provided a reminder of the heroism and common cause that had gone before”.
Amen to that.
One more thing: In the 1950s it was the Depression years that were the good old days. People were just better then.
I heard cabbage patches, hence the popular doll.
My grandfather taught me from an early age that "the good old days" were far from good.
I was found under a gooseberry bush!
My wife, who was born and raised in Norwich, will enjoy this article. She’s told me many things about growing up during the fifties and sixties in England. Especially interesting was the explanation about the Mods and the Rockers. But her memories of her childhood and teens was mostly positive.
No, but there is always an undercurrent of resentment whenever someone mentions the “good old days” - usually couched as in the above in racial, war of the sexes, etc. Apparently it is not possible to enjoy any aspect of the past with respect to the present, since the past was not perfect. I think it’s OK to prefer certain aspects without wanting to keep the wife locked in a dungeon somewhere, but that’s just me.
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