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Thread: Life 50 years ago.. for better or worse

  1. #11
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    I loved my big heavy solid rotary phone that always worked. Got rid of the landline. Sometimes I wish it was all I had. Was also a good protective device. I could really hurt someone if I hurled it at them and hit them. Its ring would cause me to jump right out of bed at attention because it was so loud.

  2. #12
    Senior Member Ultralight's Avatar
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    I imagine life being better from about 1974 to 1981. Why? No Vietnam and no AIDS!

  3. #13
    Senior Member rosarugosa's Avatar
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    I checked my records and we retired our rotary dial phone in 2003. We had painted the kitchen and the once-white phone was so discolored from smoking that it was too hideous to hang on the wall again (and wouldn't come clean). We too had an incident where a young (and drunk) person could not figure out how to use the phone.
    We don't have a dishwasher or a garbage disposal or a garage (let alone an automatic opener).

  4. #14
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ultralight View Post
    I imagine life being better from about 1974 to 1981. Why? No Vietnam and no AIDS!
    That was a sweet time, I agree. Well past 1981 into 1985 I would say.

  5. #15
    Senior Member Ultralight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
    That was a sweet time, I agree. Well past 1981 into 1985 I would say.
    1985? For straights... But that would have applied to me.

  6. #16
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    Some sweetness from 1968, "C'mon Baby Light My Fire", Jose Feliciano version.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RtTWDv-yWM

  7. #17
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    When I got married it was the husband who was considered the head of the household and most everything was put in his name. I put credit cards and all kinds of credit in my name fearing that if my husband divorced me, I would not be able to get any credit. Years later, when we started a business, my husband actually had trouble because of this. There was very little credit history on him. Now, this is a marital property state and his credit is my credit. It actually was scary marrying at that time because of this.

    ETA: At the time, I worked as a supervisor for a credit company and made decisions on who got credit.
    Last edited by frugal-one; 1-12-18 at 8:03pm.

  8. #18
    Senior Member Tradd's Avatar
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    I was born in 1969, but a lot of the technology was had was of the simpler sort. However, we always had a push button phone. We had several independent TV stations in the Detroit area, besides ABC, CBS, NBC, and we had the CBC from Windsor, Ontario, just across the Detroit River. No dishwasher. The record player we had was one of those heavy, expensive wood cabinet models that had a radio/record player built into it. Everyone in the family had their own radio. I got to talk on the phone in relative privacy in high school since the phone in my parents room, right next to mine, was on a very long cord. I just took it into my room! We had one bathroom for four people. Oh, the horror!

    No VCR until I left home and got my own. The 12" TV I took away to college with me in 1987 was a black & white model! All through college (graduated in 1991), I typed my papers on a typewriter, although I did get an electronic typewriter my junior year. I remember very well what life was like before the internet. I didn't have my own computer at home until 2000. Your sources for news were TV, radio, the big city newspaper, and your local suburban paper.

  9. #19
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    I think the biggest change since the time I grew up in is a certain lack of civility. Of course, those who are of color or otherwise "different" would say that things are much better now. The thing I always wonder about is what exactly did we do with all that time when before the computer became an integral part of our lives. I kind of miss rotary phones. I can still hear the sound of that dial going round and round. Taylor 6-2165. I grew up in a weird time for women - caught between someday your prince will come and women's liberation.

  10. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rogar View Post
    I could probably argue a case that life is simpler now with all the electronic devices and media. I can remember a time as a kid when we did not have a dishwasher, garbage disposal, or garage door opener. We trimmed the lawn edges with hand clippers. Cars were always breaking down and since Dad always bought retreads you needed tires every 10,000 miles or so. The houses in my block had an alley and next to the alley everyone had a concrete or brick ash pit in their backyard where they would burn trash, which seems pretty wild these days. And we were pretty middle class..

    It all seems to have freed up a lot of time for people to use cell phones, play computer games, and watch cable TV (joking, but there were some better things about the old days).

    Oh My I remember hand clippers!!Imagine that today.

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