A Bygone Age

[Mike047]

Adapting to modern life, with its endless gadgets has made many things possible, but other things harder.

 

When I was born, we got married first, then lived together. We thought fast food was something on trains and planes. A 'big Mac' was an oversized raincoat. A website was found in the garden. Apse were in churches and not bits of software (software were woolly clothes, anyway). Word processors were as rare as food processors. A joint was meat for Sunday's.  McDonalds was a farm, somewhere where the singing of 'ee eye ee eye oh', could be heard. A gay person was the life and soul of the party. Coke was kept in a fireplace. Aids was something offered to those in trouble. A chip was a piece of wood, or possibly a fried potato. Sheltered accommodation was found at a bus stop.

 

We used to have great freeness of speech, but now we have to be reminded that certain words cannot be used in public as they may offend someone. 

 

Anyone born before 1950, at least in the UK, would know exactly what this was all about, but how was it in other countries?

[Pikachu]

On 12/26/2023 at 7:45 AM, Mike047 said:

 

When I was born, we got married first, then lived together. We thought fast food was something on trains and planes. A 'big Mac' was an oversized raincoat. A website was found in the garden. Apse were in churches and not bits of software (software were woolly clothes, anyway). Word processors were as rare as food processors. A joint was meat for Sunday's.  McDonalds was a farm, somewhere where the singing of 'ee eye ee eye oh', could be heard. A gay person was the life and soul of the party. Coke was kept in a fireplace. Aids was something offered to those in trouble. A chip was a piece of wood, or possibly a fried potato. Sheltered accommodation was found at a bus stop.

Is this a joke and a play on words, or is this something that's actually serious? I'm 30 years old, so I'm not too familiar with some of what you are talking about. But if it is real, then wow! Did the world ever change.

[GeordieGirl]

22 minutes ago, Pikachu said:

Is this a joke and a play on words, or is this something that's actually serious? I'm 30 years old, so I'm not too familiar with some of what you are talking about. But if it is real, then wow! Did the world ever change.

Some are a bit of a play on words,  like website (spider webs), overall it is factual. The world was very different back then. There have been more changes in every aspect of life in the last 50 years than since the beginning of the industrial age. 

Edited December 28, 2023 by GeordieGirl

[Qapla]

There is a US equivalent that I heard several years ago - but don't know where to find it ... there are also some lines in a Country song with the same sentiment.

 

 

[WestBro]

You just reminded me of a strange feeling I get from time to time, a nostalgia for something I've never experienced. Some call this anemoia.

 

I like change, but the fast-paced life has left many scars over time. Things that are left behind so quickly that sometimes we doubt they ever existed. Anyway, that's just my two cents.

 

Here is a definition of anemoia (someone already posted this link somewhere on this forum):

 

https://youtu.be/wH6ZCIRjI14?si=9JwQ19JYnCNFw_FF

[Hotteok]

I wish I had a time-traveling telescope through which I can watch people's lives of the past..

I promise I will not peep into their private lives, of course.

 

But it'd be something touching and poignant. 

 

[Dages]

https://youtu.be/wH6ZCIRjI14

[GeordieGirl]

I have some photos of my great grandparents and a couple of my 2x great grandmother and you can feel the difference between their lives and ours just by looking at them.

I also have a couple of photos taken at Heathrow, from when I came to Australia 50 years ago. We were about to get on a long haul from London to Sydney. There's me in a long dress and my husband in a suit and tie. 

When we got off the plane in Sydney, we walked through an area that looked like a supermarket checkout lane. That was what customs looked like back then. 

Yes, things have definitely changed in the last 50 years. 

[Hotteok]

 

 

I'm not even Japanese and wasn't born around this time but I miss it anyway! 

 

[Mike047]

11 hours ago, GeordieGirl said:

I also have a couple of photos taken at Heathrow, from when I came to Australia 50 years ago. We were about to get on a long haul from London to Sydney. There's me in a long dress and my husband in a suit and tie.

 

Terri, was that on the £10 assisted passage scheme?  I remember some friends heading off to Canada when I was in my late teens early twenty's, and never did find out what happened to them. I was not in the congregation at that time, but it would be great to hear how things went for them, and maybe include a bit of witnessing? 

[GeordieGirl]

1 hour ago, Mike047 said:

 

Terri, was that on the £10 assisted passage scheme?  I remember some friends heading off to Canada when I was in my late teens early twenty's, and never did find out what happened to them. I was not in the congregation at that time, but it would be great to hear how things went for them, and maybe include a bit of witnessing? 

No Mike, we paid our own way. The assisted passage to Australia was by ship. Some neighbours of ours came out on the assisted passage scheme and put the idea into my head. However, a grand aunt of mine had died when I was 7 and left me a small amount of money in trust till I was of age, 21 when she died but 18 by the time I 'came of age', so we used that. 

We could have ended up in Canada but the flight to Australia left 2 days before the one to Canada, and that was what we based our decision, of where to go, on - which flight left first. 😬