Controversial: Not Everything Was Better When We Were Young

It feels like most people in my approximate age group (old) believe things were much, much better when they were young. I’ve made that claim too, usually in relation to parenting. We seasoned citizens love to talk about how, during the summers, we left the house in the mornings and didn’t return until dinner time, or sometimes when the streetlights came on. Just out wandering the town, playing Wiffle ball, riding our bikes… whatever. And we mock the hyper-protective and paranoid parents of today. Rightly so, in many cases. I mean, sure a few of us experienced death by misadventure, but not that many. It was just the cost of doing business.

And a lot of us old farts claim music was better back then. You know, when we were young and excited and amazed by everything? Versus today when we’re tired and bitter and couldn’t give a tiny apostrophe-shaped shitlet about any of it? Huh. Wonder why it seemed like the songs were so much better during those days?

For the record, I do believe many things were better when we were younger. But I try to be fair about it. I make an effort to not be a stereotypical old guy who bitches about everything that’s modern and newish. And I take context into consideration, which is a little too much nuance for many folks, I think. However, and I know this might be controversial among us tenured mortals, there are things that are definitely better now than when we were young. Yes, I know, it’s painful to admit. But I’ll share a few off the top of my head and invite you guys to add more in the comments. Let’s get started, shall we?

TV Shows

This is an obvious entry. When I was a kid, during the 1970s, television shows were shockingly bad. Not to mention stupid. I mean, have you watched an episode of Welcome Back Kotter lately? That thing is about as funny as eye cancer, and it was wildly popular. Mork and Mindy is a crime against humanity, and shit like Alice and Three’s Company are so terrible it almost makes me cry. We loved this stuff! Some of the old cop shows were somewhat better, and there was M*A*S*H and the Mary Tyler Moore Show. But overall, it was just an open sewer flowing straight into our living rooms.

Today? There are so many incredible shows I can’t even keep up with them all. Every network and streaming service offers several programs that would’ve been considered the greatest thing in the history of TV during the ‘70s and ‘80s. It feels like we’re living through the golden age of television, right now. It’s an embarrassment of riches.

Check out the Happy Days channel on Pluto TV if you insist things weren’t so bad back then. Every episode, after the first season, is an exercise in idiocy so heinous it feels like prison sentences would’ve been warranted. And we ate it up. “Sit on it!” used to cause the entire country to convulse in laughter. Just think about that for a minute.

TVs

Not only are the programs a million times better, but the equipment we watch them on are undeniably superior, as well. When we bought our first home, in Atlanta, we had a 19-inch TV – which was a standard size of the time – and it weighed about the same as a Volkswagen Jetta. When we upgraded to a 27-inch a couple of years later we were accused of trying to live above our means, by my mother. She was correct, of course; we’re probably still paying for that thing, somehow. Today you can pop into a Costco and pick up a 75-inch TV for a fraction of the cost and hang it on your wall like a framed portrait. And the picture quality is so incredible it would send a time traveler from 1976 straight to the psych ward.

Cars

Remember the rolling shitboxes of the ‘70s and ‘80s? Boy, oh boy. They looked hideous and were about as reliable as a Nigerian investment broker. It felt like roughly 25% of them were brown, which is appropriate, I suppose. But why would anyone purchase a brown car?! During those days they’d nickel and dime you until you reached 100,000 miles, then they’d seize up or catch fire. Just pure junk that rattled and creaked and gave Toyota and Honda a gaping entrance into the United States market.

Today? Everything is good, foreign and domestic. You almost can’t go wrong. And they’re so much safer too. During the ‘70s the crumple zone was your legs being permanently rendered inoperable during a fender bender. The airbags were your punctured lungs. It was just an entire generation of dubious ugly-ass cripple wagons.

Music availability

This is controversy heaped upon controversy, I realize. But I’m a latter day convert to music streaming. I mean, how can someone bitch about an international database of every song ever recorded? Oh, I know. The artists don’t get paid much, which sucks. But they’ve adapted by charging us $300 for concert tickets. And the sound quality is supposedly an issue, but I can’t tell the difference. Sounds good to me!

Sure, I miss the days of going to record stores on a perpetual treasure hunt. And the powerful rush I’d feel when I’d finally find a rare copy of something I’d been seeking for months or years. I’m also proud of the giant CD collection I’ve built through the years – the Surf Report Wall of Sound. But do I listen to those CDs much anymore? No, I do not. I fire up Spotify and within seconds I’m listening to exactly what I want to hear.

How can someone bitch about that? I have a feeling it’s possible, because people are very resourceful.

Litter and pollution

During the 1970s it felt like the entire world was trashed. Folks would polish off a Three Musketeers bar, and just toss the wrapper on the ground without giving it a second thought. And nobody said a word about it. Cigarette butts were everywhere, and the roadways were littered with fast food bags and beer cans. The rivers were so polluted they were odd colors and would sometimes catch fire. The air was so polluted they couldn’t keep the bridges painted. Now? So much better. If a person tossed a candy bar wrapper on the ground today, someone would make an issue of it. Or there’s a threat of that happening, at least. Which is good. We need more shaming.

Food diversity

Maybe this is a regional thing, but when I was a kid there was meat and potatoes, and a smattering of Italian. That’s about it. There was no Mexican or Chinese, or anything of the sort. Oh, it might’ve been available somewhere, but I don’t remember anyone actually eating it. Not anyone I knew, anyway. When they opened a chain restaurant called Chi Chi’s, which was Americanized Mexican food, it felt wildly exotic and adventurous. Some people were afraid of it. Chi Chi’s! Nowadays it’s a freaking international market in every grocery store, and all manner of popular restaurants serving food from around the world in most communities. There’s no downside to that. For the record, I was not afraid of Chi Chi’s, but always played it safe and ordered the “fajeetuhs.”

What do you have on this subject? What’s better today than it was when we were young? Are you able to admit it? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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