Does anyone else here long for the good-old days?

Question

My old friend Merle Haggard did. Does anyone else, besides Merle & me, wish they lived in Muscogee?

We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee;
We don't take no trips on LSD
We don't burn no draft cards down on Main Street;
We like livin' right, and bein' free.

I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,
A place where even squares can have a ball
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
And white lightnin's still the biggest thrill of all

We don't make a party out of lovin';
We like holdin' hands and pitchin' woo;
We don't let our hair grow long and shaggy,
Like the hippies out in San Francisco do.

Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear;
Beads and Roman sandals won't be seen.
Football's still the roughest thing on campus,
And the kids here still respect the college dean.

Sounds like my kinda town. I wish there still were places like this in America, but it seems that even the most Conservative states have been infected by the Hippie culture. I don’t want to go downtown and have my children see two guys holding hands. I don’t want my son smoking pot. I don’t want my daughter practicing “safe sex”. I don’t want her practicing ANY sex until she is married.

Does anyone else here long for the 1950’s again? Does anyone else wish they could live in Muskogee?

Answer 1

There are the "Those days were wonderful" people and there are the "Those days were really awful" people. If we could pick and choose the things out of the 50s to keep, such as innocence, a stronger sense of community, common sense, then yes. And leave behind the institutionalized racism and misogyny? Yes, that would be nice.

Answer 2

I am older and remember the 50's somewhat. I think all of this stuff happened then too. The gays just stayed in the closet, the pregnant girls were whisked away to another town, the main drug was alcohol, children of divorce were ostracized, and there were far fewer people. Wives didn't have to work so families seemed tighter even though many women suffered in silence with mental disorders. You were likely to live in the same quiet neighborhood most of your life and your father probably worked at the same job most of his life.

The Viet Nam war was the catalyst to lowered morals along with the influx easily available drugs. The educated of the baby boom generation did not buy into all of the hypocrisy of the 50's. I'm of that generation, but I never used drugs or protested. The majority didn't, but they weren't news worthy.

That being said, yes, I wish we could go back to the days when you didn't have to lock your door or be worried about being sued for absolutely nothing. Society has taken a bad nosedive. It's a lot easier and more fun to just be nice, corny as that may sound.

Answer 3

I can't long for a time I never experienced (and you aren't young enough to remember the 50's, either, I remember you mentioning you're not as old as me). But I do with the Okies would go home.

But, I have to admit that the 50s seemed a better time in many ways - at least, viewed through the lens of old movies, the memories of our parents' generation, and history.

Answer 4

Until I had children, I didn't appreciate my innocent childhood. We lived in a suburb, rode bikes during the summer from dawn to dusk, (had to be home by the time the street lights came on), rang the doorbell of the new kids' house to see if he/she wanted to play.

Now, it's all about having to look out the window every five minutes to make sure your 9 year old is still out front on her bicycle, play dates are scheduled in advance (and only after you have met the parents), and kids know more at 10 than I did at 20.

And I grew up in the 1970's!!

Answer 5

The fifties was the calm before the storm.
The sixties was a decade of change and well, you know all about it. Riots, racism, fights, and death.
Everything that has happened in each decade has shaped the way which influences behavior for the next.
Can you imagine what is in store for our children?
I agree with you, but because of the rich controlling elite few, the world will continue to deteriorate as the rich elite controlling few live for only themselves regardless of the destruction to others.
Christ came to save us, so it is up to each individual to get right with Him and set the example.

Answer 6

wow I couldnt agree with you more. Id love to live back in the 50's. It was a great mostly care-free era. You described how I feel perfectly... I want my children to grow up in a moral setting, to be taught to respect adults and their peers, that being gay is not "normal" or "acceptable". The 80's with Reagan as president slightly improved upon the 70s, but the 90s under clinton ruined it again. This day and age is even worse as we now make excuses for, and tolerate things that would be entirely unacceptable in the 50s. It's sad really.

Answer 7

With all my heart...I want to be able to let my children play in the yard without having to stand guard at the window...I want to be able to stop mowing the lawn to go to the bathroom and the lawn mower still be where I left it...I want people to genuinely care about each other with having to be politically correct at ALL TIMES...I wish America still had some of her old values...
I really wish people didn't try to make freedom of speech cover public displays of indecent exposure...as well as other things that have NOTHING to do with speech no matter how many things you write across your butt with a marker...
It would be a beautiful world if we all went back in time to those values...but left out the discrimination part...

Answer 8

sure. late Nineteen Seventies would desire to be the better area of my existence. issues have been stable in those days in the past the hot international order creeps started each and every of the BS interior the middle east. whilst the silent majority imbeciles rioted i knew then, it became into the commencing up of the tip.

Answer 9

Well our lil ol M Haggard is a meth addict and an alcoholic,

but i understand what you were trying to say...

I with i lived in 1950. it seems like the world screwed up on the 60's

Answer 10

Hey, I remember that song!

Anyway, I miss the innocents.

I miss riding my bike hell and back with my friends to go fishing. I miss riding my bike to the park and playing baseball with my friends. I miss camping out in the yard in tents. I miss going to the lake with my friend’s family. I miss going to my grandmothers and making ice cream.

I feel bad for today’s kids. They hardly leave the house because their parents have plopped them in front of a video game or TV. their whole life so that they didn’t have to deal with them.

I also feel bad because kids can’t do the things I did. They would get run down by a car or kidnapped or molested.

Sad to see the innocents lost.