Kind of a weird question....

[Chickpea]

I have a strong feeling that I belong in a different era, and I too get "homesick" (good word, very describing) by the mere thought of past times.
What I long for is what I percieve as a certain simplicity and optimism towards the future. I truly adore the music and fashions (20s through 50s), and would both dress the part and live the part if I weren´t afraid people would believe me to be a complete nutter!

I have been ponding the question weather this is escapism and something to be surpressed, but I have had this longing for so long as I can remember. As a teenager I secredly taped Marilyn Monroe songs that I would listen to when nobody knew. I loved Hollywood glam and still do. I totally connect to the style, the manners, the family values, the way people stuck together.

But then again, I´m not blind to the poverty and the narrowness of mind that you would find. Racism, ignorance, cruelty, just as we find today.
So I dream of myself as a privileged (and snottylol ) upper class lady lunching, dining and going on exciting adventures (ie The English Patient)

 

[RetroModelSari]

If I could choose between the 40s that were and between now I would choose now. The reasons: I don´t like wars and can´t really imagine I´d survive in the Third Reich. No place for real individuals and excentrics over there really... If I look at the 50s I see more postive things, but I keep in mind that things were booming and unemployance wasn´t around BECAUSE there was a war before with many many people killed and they had to rebuild it all.

I prefer to have my own sugar-coated version of the past today with only the positive things eventhough I get nostalgia and a feel of regret when I look at magazines, clothes and books from that era.

 

[Tomasso]

most people were more polite I think than they are now. Maybe it's the fact that there are more people now? [huh]

U.S. Population 1920 106 million
U.S. Population 2000 291 million

 

[Midnight Palace]

Well, of course there's going to be good and bad with any era. Take the present for example. We're at war now. The gas prices are ridiculous, the cost of living is going up and the salaries are going down, it's sort of like today's version of the depression. We may not look at it as such because we're not standing in soup lines or stealing apples. I would say technology is the only advantage that today has over yesterday, and there are times when I think that's a bad thing because it requires people not to think. Technology or not, I think people back then were 100 times smarter than they are now.

 

[Paisley]

Materiallly, Americans are way better off than they were in the 30s and 40s. To wit: http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=18725

And there were people who had it far worse than my parents did.

 

[Twitch]

Being a WW2 combat historian/writer I'd always longed to be able to have been a fighter pilot.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Well, of course there's going to be good and bad with any era. Take the present for example. We're at war now. The gas prices are ridiculous, the cost of living is going up and the salaries are going down, it's sort of like today's version of the depression. We may not look at it as such because we're not standing in soup lines or stealing apples. I would say technology is the only advantage that today has over yesterday, and there are times when I think that's a bad thing because it requires people not to think. Technology or not, I think people back then were 100 times smarter than they are now.

It's like that old saying,..."The more things change, the more they stay the same."
But as to the general level of culture and education, I think we have regressed quite a bit over the last 100 years. Especially with the advent of television. Before television, people actually read books.
In looking at books from the Victorian era, I see lots of big words that would never be used in modern writing.
As a society, we are being dumbed down, to me this is by far the worst thing about life in this time.

 

[Midnight Palace]

Without question! We have dummied down a great deal. You can even see it in the entertainment industry. When you watch the old flicks, you can TELL they were smart (the actors/writers, etc...). Now it's like "cliff notes for dummies, the short bus special edition"

 

[Sweet Polly Purebred]

"the short bus special edition"

lol :eusa_clap lol

 

[ScionPI2005]

While I have a great fascination with the "Golden Era", I don't really think I could live there. While life in our current time period is not really all it should be, I feel that for a couple of reasons, my life may not be all that great in the past either.

Sometimes when I'm in an antique store, and see a broken radio in a glorious cabinet, or I see a run down, broken pocket watch, I imagine how glorious and amazing it must have been to see those things when they were new and in their prime. I just don't think anything could compare to that.

On the other hand, I hate the way our society has focused on the idea of being disposable. We're expected to get new cell phones every two years at most, computers are outdated within just a few years, and when something breaks, the main response is "go get another one".

The mere fact that I have a 70 something year old phone sitting on my desk right next to me that still rings and scares the crap out of me every time someone calls, or the fact there is an old tube phonograph here that plays beautifully for being 55ish years old tells me something.

Those things that we drool over in antique stores or on ebay were just built better. More than likely, during their lives, if they were just shown a little TLC and not abused or lit on fire, they still work. I'm not sure we can say that about some of the general consumer products that are produced today.

Movies and films are another thing. As some folks here have pointed out, there is something missing it today's films. No offense to anyone here, or to my good college friends who absolutely love Jackass the movie, I saw that, and I didn't get it. I didn't really think it was funny, and I didn't understand why I was the only one in the theater not laughing. Yes, movies from the past were smarter, more cleverly written, and required the audience to THINK about them; not a bad thing at all. I mean, don't get me wrong, not all movies today are like Jackass. There are some very brilliant movies being created today.

Now to the subject of vehicles. My dad has told me that when he was a kid, cars seemed to have personalities. The headlights, taillights, and the grills were all designed differently, and you could tell exactly what model a car was from a good distance in front of you. Cars seemed to have been designed more creatively than they are now. In fact, if you look at the vehicles built today, they almost all look alike. I think it someways, this may represent that our society is losing its individualism. We don't know our neighbors anymore, and I'm not sure we really care about our fellow man.

Aside from the new technological safety inventions, such as airbags, I think I'd much rather have a car from the past. But, considering I would stick out like mad during a surveillance, or the really poor gas mileage, I'll stick with what I've got.

So yes, to sum up this post, I think some things in the past were certainly better technology wise, and community wise. I guess every era has its pros and cons.

 

[LadyStardust]

I suppose there is a little bit of comfort in being able to pick and choose what parts of the past to enjoy. I was recently asked by someone if I was excited over the emerging trend in present-day Hollywood of stars dressing like it's the 30's and 40's. I can honestly say I'm not excited about it, and it actually annoys me! LOL! I think it's because - to me - it cheapens the era. It seems like they use it more as a gimmick or an image to market. It just doesn't seem like they have a genuine love for the time. That's just me though

It's completely not just you, I have always always felt this way! I feel that way exactly because of that horrid word you mentioned --trend--, which I absolutely loathe. I feel like true, deep appreciations don't just "ZOMG!happen overnight", it develops over time, and becomes much deeper and more meaningful than a "trend" and I dislike when Hollywood talks about these all of a sudden "transformations".

As regards the original topic, I absolutely feel a deep yearning for past times. And different from most people, I do actually feel I would rather live back then, it's something I want. I know the devastation they faced, and the dangers, and the suffering, but I still think I just would've lived a much richer, as in a more fulfilling life. And I would have been much more content, surrounded by the culture and society I love best.

 

[Midnight Palace]

Exactly LadyStardust - I love that name by the way

I purposely tried to refrain from getting too deep with it because I don't want the other members to have me committed LOL! But if you ever want to go into more detail, just PM me

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Communication yesteryear: Pen pals, literacy, radio, stage.
Communication today: You're looking at it.

Fashions yesteryear: Grace, style, modesty, fabrics and cuts.
Fashions today: Where is it? Nothing but trendiness.

Cars yesteryear: Chrome, lots of chrome; power, style, one make doesn't look like another.
Cars today: Look-alike non-metal blobs.

Architecture yesteryear: Style, individuality.
Architecture today: Boxes.

Consumer goods of yesteryear: Sturdy, repairable, stylish.
Consumer goods today: "No user-servicable parts inside."

As much as I like the technologies of today, I still have a yearning for days past. I couldn't give up this computer and all my Fedora Lounge friends, or air conditioning, but I'd like to go back in time for a little while - like in Somewhere in Time. (And I think I'd be just like Richard Collier, wearing an outdated, even for then, suit. ) I would like to experience living in any of the decades of the Golden Era: Visiting a club, being a soldier or pilot, building a home, driving in light traffic. But mostly, people being held responsible, not given excuses, for their actions.


Lee
____________________

"Raking the leaves of the past is tedious work that can leave you deader than the leaves you're raking." - Kinky Friedman

 

[Story]

An essay by William Gibson that relates to the topic
http://www.infinitematrix.net/faq/essays/gibson.html

Not a chance. That's my size, too.

Oops, my bad - I'm a 7 5/8's

 

[K.D. Lightner]

When I was young, I had a nostalgia for the American frontier or the old west and used to wish I could have lived in that era.

Probably, I would have found life too harsh, brutish and short -- for me, for others, for animals.

I have no desire to live in any other era now, though I love to see the land the way it looked before settlers plowed it up, the way it looked when only Native Americans were here. I love the wild places.

I figure by the year 2050, the U.S. will be one giant strip mall from coast to coast. I won't be here, then, unless I live to be 108.

karol

 

[Diamondback]

For as long as I can remember, I've basically been "out of time"--then again, I am also very much a product of early Cold War attitudes...

If I could take all my technology back with me to the Golden Age, I'd seriously consider going. (That also means having the satellite network up 50 years early, too!)

 

[HadleyH]

Obviously we all feel some sort of connection to the past. I'm just wondering if I'm alone in how deep mine goes. Does anyone ever feel actual "melancholy" over not being around then? I have to admit, sometimes when I watch the movies of the 30s or 40s, or see photographs, hear the music, etc... I have this heaviness that comes over me, almost like a "homesickness" if that makes any sense. I'm wondering if anyone else experiences this?

Midnight Palace, I do.
That's exactly how I feel about the past! That's why I surround myself with old movies and old music and books about that time, it's not the perfect way to reach it but at least it's something [huh]
I really like that word that you mention - "homesickness" - it reflects perfectly my feelings about times gone by!

 

[Clarke]

As much as I like the technologies of today, I still have a yearning for days past. I couldn't give up this computer and all my Fedora Lounge friends, or air conditioning, but I'd like to go back in time for a little while - like in Somewhere in Time. (And I think I'd be just like Richard Collier, wearing an outdated, even for then, suit. ) [/I]

That's one of my all time favorite movies I think it would be cool to go back in time to see when my great-grandparents and grandparents lived in 20's and 30's. My grandmother has spoken about when life was different today than when she grew up in Boston. I'd take that recent decade any day to "fit in" with a mind that seems old-fashioned even among my peers (sadly).

 

[Cobden]

I think it would depend on who I was back then. If I was, say, a wealthy young gentlemen in London, or a Pukka Sahib in Bmbay or some other far flung outpost of the Empire, probably. If I was a mill worker in the North of England with nothing to look forward to except tuberculosis, most certainly not!

Oh, and I'd have to avoid that war thingy somehow...

 

[Rick Blaine]

"Nostalgia ain't what it used to be."

- Yogi Berra