Harking for a simpler time.....

[Edward]

I found this interesting because I feel the same way....I have social anxiety issues and sometimes just the thought of having to make chit chat with someone, even if it's just a shop clerk, makes me die a little inside. But at the same time I know that if I isolate too much, that's equally bad for me. I'm so thankful for the internet where I can communicate (like now!) and express my thoughts without having to make eye contact and stammer and stutter, lol.

I'm a big fan of the web as a communication tool. Not necessarily everything that is communicated on it, but hey, don't shoot the messenger and all that...

While I know this isn't what anyone is saying, I see nothing wrong with someone saying: "I think X was better back then, but Y is better now." It certainly does require more critical thinking than most people who outright state that there is nothing to learn from the past can probably muster though.

Exactly. I find blinkered extremists of all sorts tedious. The ones that raise the biggest laugh, I have to admit, are those few who refuse to accept that there could possibly be anything good created after (to pluck a date out of thin air) 1959, and like to hear themselves talk about this at great length....... on the internet. lol

Every era has its positives and negatives. The trick is to look at all of it with an open mind and recognize it for what it is, and not what you think it is. If you're going to have an opinion, at least base it on fact. That's how I try to do it.

Exactly.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Lizzie's Personal List of Good Things That Post-Date 1959

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (which reinstated elements that had first been proposed for the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and which had been actively sought by leaders in both parties since the end of WW2. However, it took the arm-twisting skill of LBJ [born 1908], to compel Southern lawmakers to see the light.)

The Environmental Protection Agency, (with due thanks to Mr. Nixon [born 1913]).

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (ditto).

Title IX, even though I personally hated co-ed gym classes.

Manned space exploration.

The 1967 Boston Red Sox

"The Dick Van Dyke Show"

Misterogers' Neighborhood

The 1975 Boston Red Sox

"Jeopardy," but only the Art Fleming version.

Carnation Instant Breakfast. I got thru my entire school career on this stuff.

Clumping cat litter, without doubt the finest invention of the second half of the century. Invented by William Mallow (born 1928).

Plastic garbage bags. Makes it a lot easier to dispose of the cat-litter clumps.

I-tunes, the only computer application I'd sincerely miss if it went away -- it's the automation engine for my flea-power home-based AM radio station that I listen to all day.

The 2004 Boston Red Sox.

 

[KayEn78]

A lot of those are great positives. I'll add to that list:

The Beatles
My favorite television shows from the '60s and '70s
When dee jays actually were allowed to play what they wanted and not what some computer told them to play.

-Kristi

 

[Marc Chevalier]

.
I'd add a slew of post-1959 movies, among them:


"Lawrence of Arabia"

"Dr. Strangelove"

"Network"

"Being There" (The Greatest Generation's funeral dirge, as far as I'm concerned.)

"The Player"

 

[LizzieMaine]

And don't forget "The Artist."

 

[Marc Chevalier]

And don't forget "The Artist."

True! And "Paper Moon."

 

[Miss sofia]

I'm seconding the clumping cat litter!

 

[KayEn78]

Here's something that's better for the ladies--beltless sanitary napkins!

-Kristi

 

[Flicka]

If you ask me, all the best music was either written before 1775 or after 1960. Also, I think it'd be hard not to admit that democracy in Eastern Europe was a good thing. And don't get me started on various things in our legislation and social security system.

And, yeah, the music.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ack, there's where you lose me. I think with few exceptions popular music fell into a hole at the time of the first Petrillo strike in 1942, and it's yet to climb back out -- one of the most unfortunate casualties of the war was the ability to write a decent song in A-A-B-A format.

Postwar classical music isn't much better, to my ears. Who do you think you're kidding, Mr. Cage? (And lest anyone think I'm picking on a boomer, he was born in 1912. God only knows what childhood trauma involving a burlap sack, a dark closet, and a toy piano pushed him to do what he did.)

As for beltless napkins, they were extremely unpopular when they first came out due to certain defects in the adhesive. We can be thankful, at least, that something was done about that.

Couple more things I'll add to my own list: anything that was done, is being done, or will ever be done by Bob Newhart or Bill Cosby.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Music was on the decline by the sixties, in my opinion. Country held true to its roots a bit longer, but still was on the decline.

 

[KayEn78]

For me, music began a slow decline in 1967 and really hit bottom in 1975 and afterward.

-Kristi

 

[KayEn78]

If you ask me, all the best music was either written before 1775 or after 1960. Also, I think it'd be hard not to admit that democracy in Eastern Europe was a good thing. And don't get me started on various things in our legislation and social security system.

And, yeah, the music.

This is rather interesting---such a huge gap--not only in decades, but in centuries as well. I'm just curious, why is this gap so large, if you don't mind me asking?

-Kristi

 

[KayEn78]

On my previous post, that doesn't mean I didn't like anything between 1967 and 1975, I do, quite a bit actually. I just feel the decline began then and went faster by 1975 and afterward. Sure, I like a few songs here and there, but that's when I think music began to hit bottom. It's beyond the bottom now and has been for about over three decades.

-Kristi

 

[AtomicEraTom]

The last gasps for great music ended in 1982 when the Lawrence Welk Show ended. I'm sure I've said here before that it's the date I put on the tombstone for great music.

For me, music began a slow decline in 1967 and really hit bottom in 1975 and afterward.

-Kristi

 

[KayEn78]

Yep, music hit an all-time low by 1982/1983. Before that, I liked only a handful of songs and the earlier you got the more songs I enjoyed. But after 1982/1983, that's when I really disliked the majority of the songs I heard.

-Kristi

 

[Blackjack]

Ack, there's where you lose me. I think with few exceptions popular music fell into a hole at the time of the first Petrillo strike in 1942, and it's yet to climb back out -- one of the most unfortunate casualties of the war was the ability to write a decent song in A-A-B-A format.

Haha, Lizzie you do realize that there probably only a handful of folks here on the lounge who would have any idea what your referring to with that...yer schpeekin musician talk there kiddo...

 

[Sharpsburg]

Lawrence Welk???? You are joking, I must assume, because LW WAS a joke, musically!

 

[Blackjack]

Lawrence Welk???? You are joking, I must assume, because LW WAS a joke, musically!

I wouldn't say that at all. The players Welk used were the same guys that floated in and out of many other bands. If you didn't like his "style" thats one thing but he was far from a joke.

 

[LizzieMaine]

As has been discussed in other threads, anyone who tries to judge Welk with a jazz/blues/rock sensibility won't think much of him. But faulting him for not being any of those things is like criticizing a turnip for not being a grapefruit. If you consider Welk for what he actually was, a cross between a 1920's European musette group, a 1930's hotel dance band, and a vaudeville troupe, he stacks up quite well. He wasn't up to Kay Kyser's standard in the show-band category, but he was far better than Sammy Kaye or Blue Barron, and about equal to Horace Heidt. As for musicianship, by the time of his television show, the market for dance-band musicians had dwindled to the point where Welk was one of the few games left in town, and he could have his pick of some pretty fine talent.

The stereotype of the Era is that it was dominated by zoot-suited jitterbugs cutting a rug to hot jazz and swing -- but that's far from the truth. Hot bands were actually only a small part of the total popular music picture of the time, and never a truly dominant part -- most people older than their mid-twenties preferred the sweeter bands, and there was a very strong market for outfits like Welk's.