Back in my day......

Archeron · 13-09-2007 01:56PM #1

So here's a thread for all the fogies and wannabe fogies out there.

Looking at the world now, do you ever get a tear in your eye when you hark back to the good old days when life had a bit of a sepia tinge, and everybody walked in that really weird quick way and wore tophats?

I was talking to my dad the other day, and he was talking about the good old days in Dublin city centre when the kids used to almost murder each other in "playful" gang warfare, and the adults would kill each other with slash hooks for a decent paying job involving crippling manual labour. The local schools would be run by evil malicious monsters who would hang people out windows by their ears, and the local priest was a man to be greatly feared as he weilded all types of power in the community. Not to mention the diseases and plagues that would often wipe out a member of every second family, and would be signified with a black ribbon hung on the door.

I wondered what exactly was so wonderful about all of that, also considering he was not part of a wealthy family, and lived in one of the poorer areas of the city where his family oft went hungry due to lack of money. The same thing applies to my mums family as well (except the gang warfare part, she was more into dolls).

I look back to my own good old days (I'm 30 now by the way) and I have to say, my rose tinted glasses dont seem to work at all. There is very little about life when I was a kid that was better than life is today. Kids IMO are no worse behaved now than in my day, and so many people are better off now. Fair enough, thats given rise to some fine little spoiled brats, but meh, I can live with that as long as most people are able to provide for their families.
I still find that there is a good sense of community where I live, so even that isnt lacking, although I know it is not the case in a lot of places. I do realize by the way that not all people have reaped the benefits of the Celtic Hippo, but pretty much everyone I know has, so I am purely talking about my own perspective.

So do you hark back to days of yore when the Fiat Ritmo trundled around our roads with no floors in the back? Do you miss the days when a bag of tayto was actually filled with crisps instead of air? Do you miss the times when you could go into a sweet shop and ask for a marathon bar without getting punched? Or perhaps you miss the days when you could admire the milky white legs of a Ban Garda from a distance without having to try and take her trousers off first?

And if not, then GET OFF MY LAWN YOU DAMN WHIPPERSNAPPERS!!!

patrickc · 13-09-2007 02:01PM

ah back in the day....:D

cance · 13-09-2007 02:02PM

not really tbh

Ruu_Old · 13-09-2007 02:06PM

Bring back A-Team crisps, it went down hill from there. I am well and truly stuck in my childhood, good times. In my day, I'll tell ya <insert Grandpa Simpson type rant>. Now I'm going out to play a game of football until my legs seize up.

5starpool · 13-09-2007 02:09PM

I remember when I ran all the way to Hazelbrook farm.......

Where's Grandad?

BA!!!!!

etc, etc

Cuddlesworth · 13-09-2007 02:10PM

How do you feel about a new zimmer-frame tax?

Jesus Wept · 13-09-2007 02:10PM

I was here when this was all fields.

SpitfireIV · 13-09-2007 02:14PM

Archeron wrote:

I look back to my own good old days (I'm 30 now by the way) and I have to say, my rose tinted glasses dont seem to work at all. There is very little about life when I was a kid that was better than life is today. Kids IMO are no worse behaved now than in my day, and so many people are better off now. Fair enough, thats given rise to some fine little spoiled brats, but meh, I can live with that as long as most people are able to provide for their families.

Aye, true, but at least 'back then' you could hit kids a good slap (and I got many myself) and knock them back into line! Kids have FAR too much these days! Whens the last time you seen a child making a car or an imaginary spaceshuttle out of a cardboard box? I LOVED playing with boxs, haha, what child didnt years back, the possibilities were endless. Hell....I even made an airplane from a wardrobe! Kids had imagination, now they have these things called 'computers' and 'mobile phones' and worse again....money!

......no creativity for themselves.

Beruthiel · 13-09-2007 03:14PM

I miss real people.
The ones that used to answer a phone when you called up a company, now you get a recorded message suggesting 10 options, none of which you want and this takes up to half an hour to get through.

I really miss when you walked into your bank and you actually knew the people behind the counter, cos they stayed there for more than 5 mins.

I miss manners

zuutroy · 13-09-2007 03:20PM

Thats the great power of the mind, to filter out all the crap, and make everything in the past look brilliant, and damn it, it was!

Dun laoire · 13-09-2007 03:25PM

Hey Archeron why dont you come down a floor to the Retro lounge where we discuss atari 2600's, bmx 20's, carpet jackets etc...

Drift · 13-09-2007 03:28PM

Beruthiel wrote:

The ones that used to answer a phone when you called up a company, now you get a recorded message suggesting 10 options, none of which you want and this takes up to half an hour to get through.

Keep hitting buttons that aren't mentioned like the hassh key or the star ... if you mash away at your keypad the system doesn't know what to do so it just puts you onto a human operator

Ruu_Old · 13-09-2007 03:34PM

Beruthiel wrote:

I miss real people.
The ones that used to answer a phone when you called up a company, now you get a recorded message suggesting 10 options, none of which you want and this takes up to half an hour to get through.

I really miss when you walked into your bank and you actually knew the people behind the counter, cos they stayed there for more than 5 mins.

I miss manners

True, the ones that ask you to talk are worse.

Please say your account number
123456789
I'm sorry, I cannot understand your request. Please repeat and press the hash key.
*shouting*123456789
I'm sorry, I cannot understand your request. Please repeat and press the hash key.
*slam phone down and storm off in a fit of rage*

Gaz · 13-09-2007 03:34PM

I miss grushies ( I think thats what we called it) basically hanging around outside a wedding and just as everyone was leaving a loads of coins would be thrown at all the waiting kids ... or was that just in my poor run down kip of a neighbourhood ??

Oh oh and i think we had a chant ... "throw it out , throw it out ! Turn yer pockets inside out !!!"

zuutroy · 13-09-2007 03:37PM

Ruu wrote:

Please say your account number
123456789

*gets notebook*
And what bank is that with?

EdgarAllenPoo · 13-09-2007 03:45PM

I've been an old man since the age of 13. Always hated loud music, binge drinking and clubbing.

Cartoon were a lot better when I was a kid (early 90's) than the merchandise shilling muck they show now.

I have found that in this day and age there seems to be very little evidence of any particular style of anything which this period in time will be defined by there is such a wide variation of tastes in everything nowadays that I just don't see that happening.

Also I think society in general stopped being shocked or disgusted by things around 1998/99.

Can anyone think of a topic orsomething you could say now that would even get a rise out of people compared to the reactions certain issues got in the 70's,80's and early 90's?

zuutroy · 13-09-2007 03:54PM

GDM wrote:

Also I think society in general stopped being shocked or disgusted by things around 1998/99.

Can anyone think of a topic orsomething you could say now that would even get a rise out of people compared to the reactions certain issues got in the 70's,80's and early 90's?

Thats nonsense, the boundaries of acceptibilty are constantly being pushed. I could say 100 things now that would be highly inappropriate in 2007, but I'd get banned.

EdgarAllenPoo · 13-09-2007 04:09PM

Yes but you'd probably get away with saying them in public whereas you wouldn't have a few years ago. Again I can't give examples here though.

cance · 13-09-2007 04:39PM

GDM wrote:

Can anyone think of a topic orsomething you could say now that would even get a rise out of people compared to the reactions certain issues got in the 70's,80's and early 90's?

if i was that way inclined, i would make a joke about the McCann situation, resulting in being owned with the ban stick.

other that that point i agree,

Nailz · 13-09-2007 04:49PM

'In my fathers time' we had to walk 4000 miles in our bare feet in rain and muck to school and back! And we didn't even have time to do homework because of all the work on de' farm! And when the master realised we had no homework done, he'd kick the shít out of us! We had bread and water for dinner, which we got once a week. You young bastards nowadays have it fúcking brilliant!

zuutroy · 13-09-2007 05:31PM

For those of you who are lucky enough to be seeing this for the first time, prepare to laugh a lot

tallus · 13-09-2007 06:06PM

Darth Homer wrote:

I miss grushies ( I think thats what we called it) basically hanging around outside a wedding and just as everyone was leaving a loads of coins would be thrown at all the waiting kids ... or was that just in my poor run down kip of a neighbourhood ??

Oh oh and i think we had a chant ... "throw it out , throw it out ! Turn yer pockets inside out !!!"

hahah I lolled! haven't seen a grushie in donkeys years!! Usually the father of the bride had the pleasure of throwing the coin. Ohhh happy days.. *adjusts rose tinted glasses*

mental07 · 13-09-2007 11:28PM

Well, now I'm the grandad...

Sangre · 13-09-2007 11:35PM

Back in my day the maximum sentence for statutory rape was lower and there was none of this new fangled sex offender malarky...*sigh*

Wishbone Ash · 13-09-2007 11:49PM

Archeron wrote:

I look back to my own good old days (I'm 30 now by the way)........

......YOU DAMN WHIPPERSNAPPERS!!!

30 you say? Sure you're only a youngster! You weren't born until the late 1970s!! What would you know about "Back in my day.." :rolleyes:

Archeron wrote:

Do you miss the days when a bag of tayto was actually filled with crisps instead of air?

Some of us paid for our crisps in 'old' money (and I ain't talkin' bout pre Euro).

bronte · 13-09-2007 11:57PM

Ruu wrote:

Bring back A-Team crisps, it went down hill from there.

My parents still have an a-team crisps box, now filled with junk and stuff.
I always wondered what they tasted like.
I think the box said "spicy flavour"...are there any similar tasting crisps on the market today?!

Terry · 14-09-2007 12:18AM

bronte wrote:

My parents still have an a-team crisps box, now filled with junk and stuff.
I always wondered what they tasted like.
I think the box said "spicy flavour"...are there any similar tasting crisps on the market today?!

Nope. None.
I also miss Bacon and Bean flavour Postman Pat crisps.

bronte · 14-09-2007 12:27AM

that's a shame..I'll always wonder that they were like

Terry · 14-09-2007 12:45AM

bronte wrote:

that's a shame..I'll always wonder that they were like

10p crisps were the greatest thing ever.

14-09-2007 12:49AM

The-Rigger wrote:

I was here when this was all fields.

"but it's all fields now!"
"yes, but then factories were built, then there was a recession - now it's fields again"

Wishbone Ash · 14-09-2007 12:49AM

Terry wrote:

10p crisps were the greatest thing ever.

I still have a packet of Tayto somewhere in the attic with a 3p price on them. I must have a look and get a pic!

Back in my day......

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