Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Monumentfloyd is coming to the defense of the original poster because Monumentfloyd IS the original poster. He is Vasinger. Vasinger has two accounts.
Two accounts? One for each side of the tracks in Utopia?!
I hate to say it, but I kind of feel sorry for vasinger. He should change his signon name to Frank Burns. The character on MASH that always seemed to get on people's nerves. It seems like vasinger is forever getting himself into trouble. For what its worth, vasinger. I don't hate you or want to belittle you. I think you should just be a little more..... ah forget it. Who am I kidding? He's an adult. He knows what he is saying/posting and who am I to soap box?
Back on topic before I get the MOD boot. The funny part is this "Utopia" existed! Somewhere. Maybe not only in the form of TV and Norman Rockwell.
Could that be one reason why so many people on CD Forum are running for the hills? Trying to get away from stark reality of 2007 America and recapture this utopian life of yesteryear? Think about it. How many posts are asking for nice neighborhoods, good schools, low crime and no taco bells?
<<... begin sound effects theme from Leave it to Beaver... >>
Last edited by _redbird_; 04-12-2007 at 09:35 PM..
Reason: because it needed it
I too want utopia, I want for my three daughters the times I had when I could ride my bike all over the city, stay at the playground all day or just get the waterhose out on a hot day and have fun. I wish they could have the fun of building a go cart,cap guns, and playing with tonka trucks. The joy they would have playing baseball in the street or in the alleys were bases were rocks or trash can lids and the children governed themselves and learned social skills. I had so much fun and wonderment as a child I didn't realize how poor we were untill I was grown.
As I grew up and would visit my mother while on leave from the marines, she would tell me the many nights she worried how the bills would be paid and the rent paid, how she made a deal with the landlord to reduce the rent if she would mop and wax the front and back stairs, keep the lawn maintained and paint when needed, collect the rents from the other three families and generally run the property, she did these things because many other doors were closed to her but she still had a family to support.
Unfortunately I live in an age when I must screen everything on the television and radio, not allow them to walk to school even though the school is only four blocks away, where I'm about two paychecks from chap13 and I worrying how I'll pay for college for three girls.
Yes,I would love a simpler life were my wife didn't have to work and the children could walk to the library. I'm working on having that quality of life now and slowly we are getting there, this makes me very happy.
The only difference is that I wouldn't want that high of a standard if it meant that some unfortunate group would have to forever have that quality of life denied them so that I could have the lion's share of all this nation has to offer whether I earned it or not, the original op wants the time not only when it was seen as utopia for some, but when many more were unfairly denied the chance to attain that same dream.
I hope for a utopia where ALL people, if they so choose through hard work and sacrifice have an equal and unbiased opportunity to have the american dream.
I too want utopia, I want for my three daughters the times I had when I could ride my bike all over the city, stay at the playground all day or just get the waterhose out on a hot day and have fun. I wish they could have the fun of building a go cart,cap guns, and playing with tonka trucks. The joy they would have playing baseball in the street or in the alleys were bases were rocks or trash can lids and the children governed themselves and learned social skills. I had so much fun and wonderment as a child I didn't realize how poor we were untill I was grown.
As I grew up and would visit my mother while on leave from the marines, she would tell me the many nights she worried how the bills would be paid and the rent paid, how she made a deal with the landlord to reduce the rent if she would mop and wax the front and back stairs, keep the lawn maintained and paint when needed, collect the rents from the other three families and generally run the property, she did these things because many other doors were closed to her but she still had a family to support.
Unfortunately I live in an age when I must screen everything on the television and radio, not allow them to walk to school even though the school is only four blocks away, where I'm about two paychecks from chap13 and I worrying how I'll pay for college for three girls.
Yes,I would love a simpler life were my wife didn't have to work and the children could walk to the library. I'm working on having that quality of life now and slowly we are getting there, this makes me very happy.
The only difference is that I wouldn't want that high of a standard if it meant that some unfortunate group would have to forever have that quality of life denied them so that I could have the lion's share of all this nation has to offer whether I earned it or not, the original op wants the time not only when it was seen as utopia for some, but when many more were unfairly denied the chance to attain that same dream.
I hope for a utopia where ALL people, if they so choose through hard work and sacrifice have an equal and unbiased opportunity to have the american dream.
Your last paragraph really touched me, reconmark. I grew up in an incredibly hardworking mixed race family who only got ahead financially in the 50's and 60's by leaving their community to live in places where people would not recognize by surname that they were Aboriginal. Imagine trying to fit in, pretending you are suntanned---but that's how my sister born in the 50's remembers it. And being born in the very early 60's I remember walking home from Sunday school where children of the "best families" would walk behind us calling us "halfbreeds". It was only utopia for some.
reconmark - your kids can't walk 4 blocks to school? That is really sad, I walked to school when I was a kid in the 80's, and generally had fond memories of that (except that one time I got beat up on the way home, but that happened to kids in all eras, even the 1850's).
I do notice though that outside of urban areas, kids don't walk to school like they used to (I grew up in the suburbs, and things have changed with the whole 'walking to school thing' even there. I currently live by a school that kids walk to (but then again, admittedly, I wouldn't want to send my kid to that school, it is pretty rough).
People are way too sensitive these days. Someone says one thing and they're quick to say "racist!". Just like the Imus thing. Its crazy. Sure, the guy said something stupid, but he shouldnt be fired over it.
Freedom of speech.
Just wanted to make a point about freedom of speech. What happened to Don Imus is not a violation of rights granted in the first amendment which really has nothing to do with the private sector. It is basically a bunch of companies putting some distance between themselves and him to preserve business. A.K.A. "damage control". I'm sure when it's all said and done he'll find himself a nice gig on satellite radio and do just fine.
I just don't want to misinterpet the o.p.'s context. Meaning, I am not sure if vasinger was implying utopia in the 50's was some all-white town. I think vasinger was trying to state HIS perception of America in the 1950's.
I don't think anyone should equate a utopian environment with an "all-white" neighborhood.
It is not my intent to take issue with anyone who wants to live in an all-white neighborhood either. After all, it is their life and if that is what makes them happy, so be it.
When I first went to KS State University, I met many kids in college who had grown up in small towns in KS with no or very few minorities. In fact, I had a friend who stated he had never seen an African American until he was 28 yrs old! He told me his parents made a special trip and drove him 65 miles to town to see one.
I don't equate crime with skin color. I see too many criminals on a daily basis and they come in all colors and socio-economic backgrounds.
The closest this nation ever got to a "true" utopia is during the Nineties. The economy was doing well, women were going in the workforce because they wanted to, and not just to get by. Minorities who wanted to succeed (including blacks and latinos) were seen as equal Americans, and not illegal immigrants or crime-brewers. The nineties was the decade that the highest amount of people in U.S. history went from a low income status to a middle and high income status. Although the nineties wasn't perfect, it was the best that this nation has done for the most amount of people.
I just pray that the 2010s is a remnant of the 1990s, if not better.
We are moving to the mountains, in a small town that is about as 1950 as you can get, we much rather have a safe clean but boring kind of town, that the ones we been living in for the last 20 years or so....To us the tradeoff is well worth it!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
a tribute to the good ol' days
