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Here's another one for you... I remember going to the grocery store with my friend and his father to "Test" a couple of tubes he had removed from the TV... The picture kept flipping and vertical hold didn't hold
One of the things I miss most about the consumer goods of the 60's is that they were still built to be repaired as opposed to the throw away stuff sold today...
After 25 years on that old Zenith Color set and it was like letting go one of the family when the tuner went out... Dad went right out and bought another Zenith and it works great... took the folks awhile to get used to the "Fade to Black" screen image between scenes though...
I've asked Mom what she wants to do come next February and the Digital switch... so far she's said that she might just give up TV "If" that happens...
I remember my dad buying a Zenith 24" color console TV... we were the first on the block and that in itself made it something to remember because my Dad never had a new car or bought anything to keep up with the neighbors...
Anyway, it was a Saturday morning when the set was delivered and as soon as we had it set up... all of the neighborhood kids settled in to watch the Saturday Cartoons and nothing had more color than the Mighty-Mouse cartoon... By the end of the day... all the neighbors had come through and it wasn't too long before everyone had a color set...
By the way... that old Zenith kept working all the way into the 21st Century...
My first experience with "Bad" people came on a Halloween night... m brothers and I had each carved Jack o Lanterns and some "Bad" people went down the street and tossed everyone's pumpkins into the road... that was the end of my innocence...
Yes, a lot of appliances lasted a long time back then. A freezer my mom bought in 1959 lasted until 1991.
And I still have a working Sears "Silvertone" radio from the mid-'60s.
The average person physically does not work as hard.When I was a teegaer almost the other kids I knew for instance had jobs after school and on weekends.A good per centage wrok part time while going to college. I grewup in a upper middle class family but we most eat at home and only went to a restaurant on occasions. WE did go to hamburgewr stands about very tweo weeks. My parents saved for our collage and retiremant and did not waste too much money.I saved also for college.Wehn I came out I owed no one and if I had had to borrow: i doiubt I would have gone.My father could easily have afforded to buy another car but he didn't because it was just thought of as foolish.People then came out of the depression and didn't believe in wasting money or getting too far in debt.
The average person physically does not work as hard.When I was a teegaer almost the other kids I knew for instance had jobs after school and on weekends.A good per centage wrok part time while going to college. I grewup in a upper middle class family but we most eat at home and only went to a restaurant on occasions. WE did go to hamburgewr stands about very tweo weeks. My parents saved for our collage and retiremant and did not waste too much money.I saved also for college.Wehn I came out I owed no one and if I had had to borrow: i doiubt I would have gone.My father could easily have afforded to buy another car but he didn't because it was just thought of as foolish.People then came out of the depression and didn't believe in wasting money or getting too far in debt.
I agree. I remember going with my mother when she bought a washer (we didn't have a dryer; used a clothesline in the back yard as did everyone else, or a clothesline in the basement during winter) -- and seeing people counting out greenbacks at Sears to pay for appliances. No such thing as buying "on time" as they called it; people kept their homes from generation to generation, and I remember my grandfather paying "cash" for a small grocery store in an ethnic neighborhood.....
i'am tired of people complaining how better life was back then whos fault was it you didn't have to buy all the modern appliences and you didn't have to let your children sit in front of the t.v/computer all day so don't blame those who were born here.
I'm speaking here from an Irish perspective. My childhood here in the Dublin of the 1950s was happy for me but hard for my parents.
My dad got work wherever he could find it... that decade here is known as the hungry 50s. We were a relatively new nation, having only achieved our independence 30 years before, and then gone through a civil war. So as a nation we were struggling.
But when I'm asked what did I play with back then I reply, "I used my imagination." No computers, no tv, some had radios, if you saw a car in our street it was usually a doctor on a house call. Sex was unheard of -- girls were for jibing at as they played on swings made of ropes and tied to a lamppost.
We entertained ourselves. How many kids today get together and sing? I mean stand at the halldoors or the street corners and harmonise? Or when was the last time you saw someone walking up the street whistling? Signs of contentment eh?
Or how about murders? If there was a murder trial people queued up at the court to watch proceedings... it was big news... it might happen once a year. Now it seems that life is cheap.
But of course there were the drawbacks. If you had to have surgery for instance it was a pretty major thing. I had my appendix taken out -- 3 weeks in hospital and a long scar against a couple of days now and barely a mark.
As it says in the book, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Well...I think times have never been better now, but I fear they are on the precipice of falling off a cliff.
40 years ago, if you were the wrong color, you were treated as a second-class citizen every second of your life. There was also the Vietnam War, as well as assassinations and turmoil throughout the country. Yes, we have Iraq and polarization...but the magnitude was far greater 40 years ago.
30 years ago, while diversity increased, a sense of malaise due to stagflation and the collapse of the industrial economy enveloped the country. We have higher inflation and unemployment now, but the numbers in the late 70s make today seem like a walk in the park.
20 years ago, the Cold War was starting to wane, and the fear of nuclear war was ebbing. However, the specter of World War III was still in the minds of many people. Also, crime and murder were rampant...despite beliefs to the contrary, this was much worse back in the 80s and early 90s.
Now, ten years ago probably was the start of the long plateau of "good times", which might be ending now. Although we had a little "hiccup" in 2001-2003, we have (mostly) been in a boom economy the last 15 years...we (mostly) learned to get along with others...the internet has proliferated, and is now a major part of everyone's life. However, the last year, with the housing collapse, ever-increasing oil, and a credit crisis, we may be on the verge of a shift in our ways of living our lives. More people are struggling...people are getting frustrated...confidence is tanking. Granted, historically speaking, things are pretty damn good. However, for a long time, we only expected things to get better...the sentiment over recent months might be a rude awakening for American society. Only time will tell...
Of course better technology, easier travel, more gadgets, cheaper gadgets, probably more spending power just since I was a teenger - being 35 now.
But I guess the world feels like its gets more competitive all the time - but that could be just getting older.
Every year we see exam grades improving, world record in athletics being broken etc - so what was a top performance 20 years ago now is just average.
With the internet available for everyone - is it possible that a teenager today is much smarter than a teenager in 1980s because of increased competition and the sheer amount of knowledge available.
50, 60 years ago, my dad, with grade four education, got up and went to work every morning, confident that he would have his job all his life. He got off at 4 oclock and could go hunting or fishing every day after work. On Friday afternoon he put his pay envelope on the dining room table and my stay-at-home mom paid the bills, and there was always enough, because we were raised to want only what we could afford. Us kids played outdoors all the time, knew when to come home, and if we were sick, the doctor came to our house. When dad retired he had a little pension and social security, and my parents both died in their 90s in the little town they got married in.
I don't know if that's a "hard life" or not. If it was, they didn't complain.
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Whos fault
