How do you remember America?

[308]

How do I remember America?
There was this girl named Katie Nelle...

 

[cigars]

Before the internet...

"Gig economy" was called a handy man, paper route, etc.
Hobo's lived out of sight and tried to maintain some dignity. Now they're drug addicted bums who cr@p and sleep wherever they please.
Our vote was our vote and it was nobody's business who we voted for.
Neighbors were still neighbors, despite who they voted for.
A library was a place to read and learn, not see deviants and perverts reading to children.
I can go on, but I don't want to turn this into a dissertation. Current generations know nothing of life prior to the internet and can not fathom life without it. Yet before the internet, we somehow managed to crack the atom and put a man on the moon with nothing but slide rules, pocket protectors and birth control glasses. AI is going to be bad news within a decade. It will ultimately be all about control but right now they are really polishing up that turd.

 

[cigars]

Yep and almost everybody smoked cigarettes and when they died they were buried at astronomical cost.

So, burial or cremation?

I'm not nostalgic, so cremation/no service for me.

You can get er done fer between $850 to $1250. Shop around...it'll save thousands for those you leave behind.

How's that for nostalgia?

Starting at $565. I'm a repeat customer.

Cremation Services at Oregon Cremation Company | Afterall

Cremation services from Oregon Cremation Company, personalized for you. Learn more at Afterall, your partner through the end of life experience.

oregoncremation.com

 

[ma96782]

Starting at $565. I'm a repeat customer.

Cremation Services at Oregon Cremation Company | Afterall

Cremation services from Oregon Cremation Company, personalized for you. Learn more at Afterall, your partner through the end of life experience.

oregoncremation.com

Thanks for the link. I never knew it could be that affordable. But, since I'm in WA.....

When my time comes (assuming I die in WA).....will they take me across the river? Pun intended.

Oh such a sick puppy, to joke about death. Not really. Just make sure that you make the best of your time remaining. Here's wishing everyone a long and happy life. Cheers!

Aloha, Mark

 

[4Freedom]

I remember an America that didn't sit on its butt when Jihadis in Persia fueled by their "prophetic" ayatollahs were building nuclear arsenals and getting ready to take over the world's oil supply.

Our gas prices jumped 0.20/gal in one day, WTF!!

 

[PDXbiker]

As this is a firearms related website, a short story on how I remembered the perception of firearms years ago. True story. Mid 1960's, Montana high school. Every year there would be Western Day and all the kids would get duded up. One kid dressed up as a gunslinger and showed up at school with a leather gun belt, a holstered Ruger SA revolver and ammo ringing the belt. The real deal. He spent the entire day going from class to class with this. No one batted an eye. Teachers didn't care, the other students complimented him on his outfit. It was a different world back then. Kids, don't try this today.

 

[cooper]

I'm a 76'r....
Geez , community,neighborly, class, seemed like everyone were equals.
Grew up in Gearhart OR.
The RICH FAMILY...Ben McKenzie wore tan slacks and his shirts had alligators.
POOR BEN..LAME LOOK

 

[Ratfink]

Up at first light to eat breakfast which was ALWAYS Eggs, taters, and Bacon and strong cofveve! Grabbed the .22 rifles and bolted out the door to be first to bag a grouse or Ringneck for Grand Mom to cook up for supper. did our chores as needed and went swimmin at lunch. loaded hay the rest of the after noon and finished up cleaning the barn before dinner! T.V. consisted of He-Haw, and Lawrence whelk unless it was Saturday! Riding my Honda Mini Trail 50 every where I wanted to go, usually with cousins or to a friends house's to go fishing, shootin, or other fine sunny day activities! Standing up in class in unison and saying the pledge of elegance! Marching to lunch and laughing at the latest dirty joke, or admiring the new girls physical attributes before passing judgement of approval! Saving up my paper route money and law mowin money to buy my first car, including tires and endless amounts of cruisin or racin gas! blowing the engine and rebuilding a junk yard replacement to make it better! Buyin up "Old" muscle cars for less then a new dirt bike or good old 4X4, and getting tickets for insane things like smokin the tires, or loud exhaust, or blinkers that were not bright enough! Being a kid was a lot easier back then, high tech was duel points distrubuters, electric can openers, and microwave ovens! I remember when the John Deere tractor shop came out with a new model and every one had to swing buy to see what it was all about! Log trucks rollin coal back before it was cool, and takin the back streets through town around quittin time so the log trucks had a strait shot to the mill to get the last load in and get paid!

Funny, most of our memories were grounded in outside activities. Something I think the generations after us have missed out on.

 

[Boboclown]

I remember it as trucks being cool.

Now their all aero and automatic. America is too automated.

 

[Howard1955]

The towns I lived in when I was a kid felt safe. It was common for little old ladies to invite trick-or-treating children into their house to take pictures of costumes and try to guess who the kids were.

I sold Christmas cards door-to-door when I was 8 or 9 years old. Had a binder/catalog of cards, and would be invited into people's homes after ringing the doorbell to show the cards and take their orders. No one ever treated me with anything but respect and kindness.

Dad worked. Mom kept hearth and home clean and welcoming. We were poor, but I didn't know it.

Sex and sexuality wasn't even discussed, until I reached puberty. Then Dad had a little talk with me.

Looking back at how the various races got along, the old expression "Birds of a feather flock together" seems to apply. There was no government-forced bussing, no open hostility between the races. The black folks lived in their part of town, and the white folks lived in their part of town. People were polite to each other in public, whatever color they happened to be.

My grandfather in Arkansas had, at some point, worked for "the railroad". He was "dirt poor and land rich", having 32 acres of good soil where he could grow corn, potatoes, etc. There was enough rain in the sweltering summers that he didn't have to irrigate his crops. We always had plenty to eat when we visited them, and Momma Jones was a great cook.

She cooked everything on the stovetop, and avoided using the oven. The story is, she used to warm up her brassiere on cold mornings before getting dressed. (This must've been when they had a woodstove.) But, after they got a propane tank and a gas stove, and she went to warm up her bra, something went wrong. There was a small explosion. After that, she never wanted to use the oven again, and even made cakes on the stovetop.

There were no "girly-men" in my experience. Some men were a bit rougher around the edges, but I didn't know any who were feminized. Women were very feminine and mysterious to me.

If something or someone was bad, it wasn't tolerated. If my parents thought someone was bad for me (or dangerous, like my friend's uncle) they would say "stay away from that one" - and I did. There was no hand-wringing about people's feelings - if they were being bad, they were avoided.

School was wonderfully hard. We studied. We learned. We fought. We had tons of homework. I could feel my brain stretching to take it all in.

We didn't have a television. I made my own crystal-diode AM radio. My cousins and I roamed the woods and waterways of Southeast Texas like we were Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

Houses were left unlocked. Car keys were left in ignitions. Life generally felt safe.

 

[teflon6string]

This is a cool thread.

My neighborhood expanded quickly starting around 1950 or so. My sister and I arrived that decade (I was EXACTLY 9 months after the previous Christmas Eve). 4 out of 5 homes had kids, usually 2-3, and a few had 4-7. Going out to play was not a matter of with whom, but how many. Bikes, balls, toys of the era, BB guns and cigarettes. Forts in the woods were fallen trees overrun with blankets of English ivy. In summer it was jeans or shorts, usually with bare feet, shirts were optional for little boys and girls.

My dad helped other dads with projects, and they showed up for him when he hand-mixed and poured a huge patio and surrounding walls. Mom and my sister were Bluebirds and Camp Fire Girls (when it was still okay to say that), Dad and I were in Indian Guides, Cubs and Boy Scouts (ditto there). I forget which camp it was (probably Collins) where I fired my first bolt action .22 rifle. Dad (an actual expert) gave me just a little info about iron sights and backed away. I was hooked.

 

[MrTwentyTwo]

What a bunch of old fogies!


(I can relate to most of this stuff)

 

[teflon6string]

I'm enjoying an interesting memoir on audiobook by Chris Offutt, "My Father the Pornographer." Odd title, not really about porn. Very skilled writer. Some here may remember growing up in a house like this...

"The deprivation and indignity of growing up during the depression imprinted my father with intense frugality. Dad salvaged narrow slivers of soap, the grimy remains of bars that he rescued before the water rinsed them down the sink. He dampened each piece and formed a new chunk of soap, lined with dirt and hair. He placed it by the sink where it lay untouched, hardening as it dried, cracking into dark fissures."

 

[Xrperry]

I remember my parents leaving the house unlocked and the cars unlocked. Never a problem. I remember in school if you had a problem with someone in school you went out back and beat the hell out of each other, no guns. I also remember when I could make acetylene bombs, touch them off in a field without going to prison

 

[Mikej]

I'm enjoying an interesting memoir on audiobook by Chris Offutt, "My Father the Pornographer." Odd title, not about porn at all. Very skilled writer. Some here may remember growing up in a house like this...

"The deprivation and indignity of growing up during the depression imprinted my father with intense frugality. Dad salvaged narrow slivers of soap, the grimy remains of bars that he rescued before the water rinsed them down the sink. He dampened each piece and formed a new chunk of soap, lined with dirt and hair. He placed it by the sink where it lay untouched, hardening as it dried, cracking into dark fissures."

That was my parents. Dad born 6/7/1920 and Mom 2/7/1926. Both born into poor working families. Both hoarders. Mom's hoarding was a sickness.

Depressing thread.

 

[nwslopoke]

I remember farthers telling their sons, stop being stupid. Use your brain and figure things out. Good sportsmanship. Offering a bully "these hands", win, lose or draw. You'd win just for standing up for yourself.

I remember the media saying things more like, courage, instead of repeating how scared everyone is. Being stationed in Europe late 80s thru early 90s, I remember old Germans literally still saying thank you. Young Europeans asking how America was so good at so many things and just wanting to know you because you were American.

The negative sides are there but our worst is still better than the worst of other countries by miles. The majority of problems in the US are self inflected.

 

[Ratfink]

I remember my first rifle (other than a BB gun). Christmas 1970. I'm not smiling because, well, if you knew my dad you wouldn't smile either.

 

[North Plains]

I remember in the fall all the boys and some of the girls had guns in the truck window racks in the high school parking lot. We also brought guns into shop classes to try our hands at gunsmithing. It was never a problem back then.

 

[Marine Airedale]

For me I remember America as a Continent.

 

[Stomper]

The quality of American porn has gone WAY up and off the charts these days compared to all that "untrimmed" 60's stuff.....








JUST KIDDING! Porn is poison to the soul...