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^ yeah, except for the unbelievable crime rates in the early 90's (which were strongly concentrated in select areas), I think the 80's and 90's were pretty good.
Awesome economy, people still socialized with strangers without the extreme fear that anyone you don't know naturally wants to kill you, etc.
I honestly think one of the things that disturbs me most about the modern age is that people seem to spend almost all their time either on computers, smart phones, playing video games, listening to Ipods, or watching TV and DVR. I mean how many times do you hang out in a group and notice that more and more people are obsessing with their phones? Facebook, games, texting, etc.
I was just talking with my friends how we feel so lucky to have grown up in the 80's before a childs life evolved into computer games, cell phones and TV. I mean we use to watch TV, but we'd still just run outside about 80% of the time and our parents weren't terrified we were OUTDOORS ALONE and they didn't know exactly where we were. Now it seems parents think that everyone out there wants to destroy their children, and they have constant contact via cell phone. I appreciated being able to run outside and play as a 10 year old and trust that I can work basic things out and come home without adults instilling a constant fear in me.
It seems almost amazing that in the 50's and early 60's kids in the middle of huge cities like Chicago and New York would just run outside in the morning and be around the neighborhood playing and going to corner stores, alleys, etc. until dark - most said when the streetlights went on that was the universal sign that you'd better get home. They'd just go from house to house, no one ever called or anything, and parents really never knew exaclty where they were.
Drop a couple 10 year olds in Chicago or Brooklyn now and have them run the streets alone from dawn to dusk and you'd probably have people saying the parents should be arrested for endangerment. Back then the people I've seen interviewed and have talked with said kidnappings and random crimes really never entered into the equation. You were just a kid out playing in the back alley or around the neighborhood. Things have changed GREATLY in that sense. Everyone use to know everyone else on the entire block, all the store clerks, etc.
As a child, I'd spend most of my weekends (minus Sunday for church) outside, playing with friends. My parents trusted us, and they weren't in fear as long as we stayed within a half-mile of the house.
My wife freaks out, as though everyone out there is some deviant or murderer, and she states that she wouldn't allow a child to go beyond the yard, or perhaps to a next door neighbors.
Quality of life, the only way it's better 50 years ago was if you were white, male, straight, and protestant. Oh, and not under the spector of McCarthyism. And even then you didn't have the nice inventions of today.
Also I think quality of life started declining though around 1998-1999 and that really everyone is to blame in mainly living beyond their means.
Personally I think there are some good things about the 50s and 60s that we could learn from today. We shouldn't throw the whole baby out with the bath water.
The problem with the 50s and 60s is that alot of social problems were covered up by people. People were molested just as much as they were today, it is just no one talked about it. I think as a society people are more willing today to confront wrong. Back in the 50s you were just expected to suck it up.
That being said I think the 50s had a few good virtues, such as admiration of true heros unlike our celebrity worship today.
Last edited by Bo; 02-26-2010 at 08:55 AM..
Reason: orphaned - the post you were referring to was deleted
Back in the 50's and 60's, most families had one car, dad went to work, and mom stayed home with the kids. This was the norm then - families didn't need two incomes to survive. Kids played outside in the summer; and inside, played with board games (such as Sorry, Monopoly, checkers, etc.) They didn't have video games, IPods, Wii Games, etc. Dishes were usually done by hand, and clothes were hung on the clothesline to dry.
Obviously, with advances in technology, our lives are easier now. Does this make our lives better? Advances made in medicine are definitely a good thing. Would we be better off with one car and less time spent at the office? Would most families be able to survive (comfortably) on one income? Were we better off as a whole then or now?
50s or 60s maybe if your white.....lol
However, lots of older blacks will comment on how much safer neighborhoods were and how much respectable and mannered younger blacks were back than.
It's hard to say which time period was better for black people... Is it better to have a job and get shot at by other people, or to not have a job and get shot at by your own kind?
It's about equal for women I'd say. Back then, women didn't have much of a choice but to stay at home, and now they don't have much of a choice but to work.
elderly blacks drank out of colored water fountains and were looked down when speaking to white ppl. some of them were spit on, called monkeys, animals, racial slurs, etc. the blatant lack of education was laughable. schools were overcrowded and without books. lets not even go there about them talking about the neighborhoods being safer. sure, they were...but they eventually had to leave the neighborhoods and work as somebody's maid, or in some factory or wherever making 2343423% less than their counterparts.
ppl got lynched for going against the status quo. our govt was seemingly blind and didn't care about what went on DAILY.
this thread cannot be serious at all. the responses are ridiculous.
Moderator cut: see comment
thats what ppl want to go back to? for real? word??
wooooow.
smh in disgust.
Last edited by Bo; 02-26-2010 at 08:54 AM..
Reason: orphaned - the post you were referring to was deleted
elderly blacks drank out of colored water fountains and were looked down when speaking to white ppl. some of them were spit on, called monkeys, animals, racial slurs, etc. the blatant lack of education was laughable. schools were overcrowded and without books. lets not even go there about them talking about the neighborhoods being safer. sure, they were...but they eventually had to leave the neighborhoods and work as somebody's maid, or in some factory or wherever making 2343423% less than their counterparts.
ppl got lynched for going against the status quo. our govt was seemingly blind and didn't care about what went on DAILY.
this thread cannot be serious at all. the responses are ridiculous.
the stupid female dog a few posts above mine is talking about the aryan race but can't even spell "aryan" and has trouble with basic english...then she's calling black ppl the n word...
thats what ppl want to go back to? for real? word??
wooooow.
smh in disgust.
Lynchings weren't that common in the 50s or 60s though compared to the early 1900s.
My grandparents would say back than you could sleep with your doors unlocked and windows open without having to worry about anything. At about this time; you still had segregation and blacks working as maids; however, I'd think the quality of life for blacks was a huge step up compared to the early 1900s to 1930s.
You had lots of black owned businesses and black professionals around the 50s and 60s. The 70s is when the black on black crime really began to peak.
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