“Which is why I cling to my DVDs”
Same here. I have a huge DVD collection, and CDs too. I wanted to lend a DVD to my daughter (age 24) but she didn’t even have a DVD player. Stars like Cary Grant, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, Lana Turner are unknown to her. She might have heard of Judy Garland and Liz Taylor.
Old movies are a really great way to see how people lived. Movies made in the 40s of the early 20th century (or movies made depicting one generation before) are interesting and accurate because many of people making them actually lived through those times.
People had guns, they smoked cigarettes, men wore suits and women wore dresses.
“Blazing Saddles”
I'd thought of that as a way of defining my youth -- those were America's days of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms, things interwoven into the popular culture.
That, and there were common notions of decency, and people knew right from wrong even though they misbehaved sometimes, and people dressed up to go shopping downtown or to go traveling, and ladies wore head coverings and gloves, especially when attending church.