Nostalgia? All it's cracked up to be?

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I was lamenting the disappearance of old time auto parts places and it got me to thinking. Just turned 60 and remembered when I was a kid. Banks closed at 5pm and if you needed cash on the weekend you waited until Monday at 9 am. Same for shoes, clothes, etc. Most places closed Friday afternoon and opened up Monday morning. Some places had a half day on Saturday. I was living in San Jose in the 1960's and remember 7-11 being open from 7-11. I also remember the dairies and orchards that have been gone for decades now. Internet? Cell phones? Cash machines, money less transaction's.....Netflix. the list goes on and on. Given the chance who would turn back the clocks to 1965?
 
Lots of good memories but some not so good. The war for one. Business and shopping was more personal.

If you could take today’s technology and add in the respect and consideration people had back then it might be almost a perfect world.
 
In many ways life before all that stuff was much easier and people actually did things for entertainment. Kids went outside and played with friends, today they are glued to screens playing video games getting fat and under developed.
A cell phone as a convenience is great but it too has some people addicted to stupid text messaging at every red traffic light. The list goes on and on but the fact is we all found a lot of enjoyment in life despite the TV going to a test pattern at midnight.

I would go back in a minute without too many regrets.
 
I was lamenting the disappearance of old time auto parts places and it got me to thinking. Just turned 60 and remembered when I was a kid. Banks closed at 5pm and if you needed cash on the weekend you waited until Monday at 9 am. Same for shoes, clothes, etc. Most places closed Friday afternoon and opened up Monday morning. Some places had a half day on Saturday. I was living in San Jose in the 1960's and remember 7-11 being open from 7-11. I also remember the dairies and orchards that have been gone for decades now. Internet? Cell phones? Cash machines, money less transaction's.....Netflix. the list goes on and on. Given the chance who would turn back the clocks to 1965?
Other than the internet's features which is why lots of today is what it is We survived quite will back then. I was 12 back then. I grew up in Millbrae California then. My neighbor had horses near by
 
As a kid I loved helping Dad work on our cars. The day he let me hand lap all the valves on his 1966 GMC 305 V6, I thought I had it all!!! Picking up soda bottles and getting deposit for them. Ya, I go back for sure. Now if we could just get rid of texting and driving.........
 
1965 - vehicle safety wasn't even a thing except for lap belts. Cars were worn out at 100k, tires good for maybe 30k.

No such thing as a full size truck with 400 hp getting mid 20s mpg. Was dad doing an engine job because he enjoyed it or because he had to? No thanks.
 
1965 - vehicle safety wasn't even a thing except for lap belts. Cars were worn out at 100k, tires good for maybe 30k.

No such thing as a full size truck with 400 hp getting mid 20s mpg. Was dad doing an engine job because he enjoyed it or because he had to? No thanks.


Yep and the lap belt didn’t keep your head from impacting the metal dashboard or the hard steering wheel. Tires would be considered good if they lasted 30k. Flats were very common and tube repairs were quick. I remember tubes that had several patches on them. If it could hold air it went back into the tire. As kids we fixed our own flats on our bicycles.
 
Yep and the lap belt didn’t keep your head from impacting the metal dashboard or the hard steering wheel. Tires would be considered good if they lasted 30k. Flats were very common and tube repairs were quick. I remember tubes that had several patches on them. If it could hold air it went back into the tire. As kids we fixed our own flats on our bicycles.
My '63 Chevy II didn't have seat-belts but my '65 Comet did. The Chevy II didn't have a padded dash or a windshield washer either. The Comet had both. There was rapid progress in those days.

But I've never driven an automobile with tube type tires. Bicycles and tractors yes, but never on an automobile. My car tires generally lasted 20,000 miles. I replaced 2 tires every year and put them on the front (which people believed was the best place for the better tires in those days).

And most auto engines were done by 100,000 miles. The engine in my Comet was done by 80,000 miles.
 
I was lamenting the disappearance of old time auto parts places and it got me to thinking. Just turned 60 and remembered when I was a kid. Banks closed at 5pm and if you needed cash on the weekend you waited until Monday at 9 am. Same for shoes, clothes, etc. Most places closed Friday afternoon and opened up Monday morning. Some places had a half day on Saturday. I was living in San Jose in the 1960's and remember 7-11 being open from 7-11. I also remember the dairies and orchards that have been gone for decades now. Internet? Cell phones? Cash machines, money less transaction's.....Netflix. the list goes on and on. Given the chance who would turn back the clocks to 1965?
There was less BS back then. Not higher quality of life though.
 
"Given the chance who would turn back the clocks to 1965?"

That is before my time.

I think 20 years ago is good for me. Pre- Walmart (superstore)/Amazon/Smartphone/Social Media

I use all of those things now because its just the way it is to get what you want.

My mom is 78 this year and doesnt use any of them.. but i almost have to for her. She has lost her grandkids and great grandkids because she is not on social media and doesnt have snapchat or whatever. The grandkids and great grandkids will not mail letters. So 1955-1965 would be excellent for her.
 
Hmm, go back to 1965, that way I could live through 70's vintage vehicles?

The simplicity of the technology and the pacing of life may have been better, but I'm not sure I'd want to go back. But my formative years were in the 90's, so I don't "know" what the 60's were like.
 
Instant gratification, endless sources of indoor entertainment, and modern attitudes toward raising children have done nothing positive for how people interact in society. There is no way in H E double hockey sticks I'd bring a child in to this world. I don't think I'd want to go back to the 60s, but mid-80s sounds good to me.
 
Speaking of 1965 ... Yesterday, I took my '65 Rambler American to get its annual safety inspection. Massachusetts insists that the inspector drive the vehicle into and out of the inspection bay, but the 20-something inspector didn't know how to operate a car with a "three-on-the-tree" shifter. He had to get another employee (an older gentleman) to drive it in. Massachusetts also forbids the owner of the vehicle to be present in the inspection bay during the inspection, so I stayed outside, watching from afar.

With the inspection underway, the young inspector came out of the bay to ask me how to operate the windshield squirters. I explained that the Rambler came from the factory without the squirter option, so it's impossible to operate them because they don't exist.

Shortly thereafter, the inspector appeared again. He wanted to know where the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) was located. I told him the factory welded the VIN plate to a brace under the hood. The inspector thanked me for the info and went back into the inspection bay where I could see him frantically looking under the dashboard for the hood release.

Unable to find it, the inspector came to me for a consultation about the whereabouts of the hood release. Patiently, I explained that the Rambler's hood release is located outside the vehicle, behind the grill. At that point, the inspector said, "Screw the rules. Please come in and open the hood."

In the end, the ol' Rambler passed inspection, and the older guy was called upon to drive the Rambler out of the bay. I'm not surprised that the young inspector needed help when dealing with a 55-year-old vehicle, but this experience reminded me of how much things have changed over the years.
 
Speaking of 1965 ... Yesterday, I took my '65 Rambler American to get its annual safety inspection. Massachusetts insists that the inspector drive the vehicle into and out of the inspection bay, but the 20-something inspector didn't know how to operate a car with a "three-on-the-tree" shifter. He had to get another employee (an older gentleman) to drive it in. Massachusetts also forbids the owner of the vehicle to be present in the inspection bay during the inspection, so I stayed outside, watching from afar.

With the inspection underway, the young inspector came out of the bay to ask me how to operate the windshield squirters. I explained that the Rambler came from the factory without the squirter option, so it's impossible to operate them because they don't exist.

Shortly thereafter, the inspector appeared again. He wanted to know where the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) was located. I told him the factory welded the VIN plate to a brace under the hood. The inspector thanked me for the info and went back into the inspection bay where I could see him frantically looking under the dashboard for the hood release.

Unable to find it, the inspector came to me for a consultation about the whereabouts of the hood release. Patiently, I explained that the Rambler's hood release is located outside the vehicle, behind the grill. At that point, the inspector said, "Screw the rules. Please come in and open the hood."

In the end, the ol' Rambler passed inspection, and the older guy was called upon to drive the Rambler out of the bay. I'm not surprised that the young inspector needed help when dealing with a 55-year-old vehicle, but this experience reminded me of how much things have changed over the years.
My uncles '68 AMC Javelin came with the vinyl washer fluid bag and the rubber foot operated bellows to squirt, along with those vacuum operated wipers.
 
As a kid I loved helping Dad work on our cars. The day he let me hand lap all the valves on his 1966 GMC 305 V6, I thought I had it all!!! Picking up soda bottles and getting deposit for them. Ya, I go back for sure. Now if we could just get rid of texting and driving.........
Ah yes, picking up pop bottles. We lived one block from US-66 and used to take our wagon and collect empty pop bottles along the Mother Road from what is now Wyoming Blvd. east to Tijeras Canyon in Albuquerque.
 
I find Dune to be an incredibly philosophical series of books and consider Frank Herbert to have been a genius for some of the ideas and portrayals in his books. I'll put up this quote which I came across a few years back that hit pretty hard at the time. From Frank Herbert's 1981 "God Emperor of Dune":

“Most believe that a satisfactory future requires a return to an idealized past, a past which never in fact existed.”

To me, that statement implies that nostalgia is often deceiving and it is against our nature to be satisfied with the present. Instead we either look forward to a "better" future or lament the loss of the "better" past.
 
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