Elders

I had a good time at…the place…in…

Can’t remember.

Not until I remember what I came into this danged room for!

We didn't know Madonna and Trump were yet to come.

Age allows one to view the "good old days" with more clarity and insight.

Drop some more pearls, R4

Ah yes I remember it well

AIDS, Herpes, Crack, Kuwait, '87 stock market crash, yuppies, homelessness and Milli Vanilli... yeah, it was a real gas.

Does anyone smell burnt toast? I think I’m ky.y.hjaehrvbliay….ocei.ouhqkaefvhkk,here ash,

Let’s discuss that feisty up-and-comer, Siggy Weaver! I just saw her movie last night.

I think we were at Yale together. Go, bulldogs!

That's a new movie! Looks so futuristic like Star Wars! I've never seen things like that before!

Back in the day there was no woman quite as hot as First Lady Nelly Taft!

The sky was so blue that day.

Spontaneous (usually oral) sex was thrilling! You never knew who, when, or where – you found a partner, you got off, and your day was brighter because of it. For something more than a quickie, you went to a bar and cruised in person. Sometimes you struck out and went home alone, but sometimes you managed to engage in a conversation with someone and went on a date.

These days, youngsters (and oldsters) seem to be on the apps for hours and days at a time, repeatedly scanning their curated grids of torsos, hoping beyond home that today might be the day the guy they have tapped a hundred times might take the bait and message them. It seems terribly depressing to spend all that time for nothing.

Our “entertainment” was Little House on the Prairie (a show about hardships on the frontier after the Civil War) and The Waltons (a show about a family during the Depression).

My former boyfriend from the 70s and… purple is my favorite plant.

R13 that isn’t living. It’s dying and being too stupid to know it

Get off my lawn!

So much body hair which led to bald headed comb-overs later.

Everybody dance now!!!

Bum.

Bum.

Bum. Bum.

Bum.

I remember there was a thing that happened with a guy

Strike a pose

You felt you could trust gay men. Of course it was an illusion, but there was such a powerful sense that men were trustworthy.

Hypodermics on the shore, China's under martial law, rock and roll and cola wars, I can't take it anymore.

Did you say…. CHINA?

We had a future.

The United Colors of Benetton were going to guide us!

We were all one-hit wonders. And there's nothing wrong with that.

What?

You have Jake Paul, we had das schnuppy.

I miss the days when everyone wasn't photographing themselves with their mouth open.

I miss the discotheques and the great music they played.

A car cut across the cross walk as I was walking on a green light, so I opened the door and went to his house and fucked. Cuban architect. Never learned his name.

Didn't need no Grindr in those days if you were reasonably attractive.

Drag was for grown-ups. In bars. At night. Not brunch. Or fucking story times in libraries.

Smoking on a plane

Disco.

Corn Pop was a bad dude.

Wow, R27. That dude is like an even gayer Bobby Sherman. Did he think he was filming a Breck shampoo commercial?

And with just the one hit, I guess he never had a chance to learn how to lip-synch either.

r38 -- Roger was married twice and had two children. Poor guy had a bum liver and died in 2003.

It's not that all generations are equally good or bad. The German youth in the 1920s and 30s really fucked it up, didn't they?

R27- I’m mesmerized! It’s like David Brenner and Andy Gibb had a secret love child!

Just off the top of my head there were few mass shootings, no need for guards or metal detectors or code red and code yellow drills at school, air travel was more luxurious and there weren't as many fights on planes as there seem to be now, films were more original before remakes and sequels, Broadway shows were better before jukebox musicals and musical versions of films (Beetlejuice, Mean Girls, Mrs. Doubtfire, Tootsie) . . . people were more civil, had a better work ethic and made good neighbors.

R24, "Just you shut your mouth."

Tell a story, elder! Make it take place before 1990

60 years ago was 1964.

In 1990, 60 years ago was 1930, before WW2.

The Berlin Wall just fell.

I've been dreaming about driving my Big Wheel on the freeway.

[quote] Roger was married twice and had two children.

Well that's irrefutable proof of absolute heterosexuality.

I newspaper 🗞 route in the spring and summer of 1979. The houses were nothing to look at- ranch and split levels. I was 13 and into cars and noticed cars. The late 1970’s was the last hurrah for American manufacturing. By the early 1980’s it was all falling apart- as was our standard of living. Almost everyone had American cars ( big American cars in their driveway) in 1979. One couple drove Mercedes but everyone else drove Buicks, Oldsmobiles , Cadillacs , and a Mercury at one house I delivered to.

If people had you over and made you watch a slideshow of their vacation, it was torture.

Now FB & Insta make billions off of hate likes.

Common courtesy, people actually gave a damn about their appearance. Kids had respect for teachers and the parents supported the teachers.

What age is considered "elder" now?

In the early 70’s I’d park my car, walk to the gay bar but usually get picked by a cruiser before I got there. Slutty? Yeah, but I loved it and had no worries.

I want to hear from the 80+ crowd

Long hair, love beads, hallucinogens available everywhere, roach clips and free love.

I still can't remember 1970. Seriously.

The big bad NYC of the 1970s...I'd go back in a heartbeat.

We saw all the good bands and the top price was $6.75.

The country wasn’t flooded with cheap death rifles.

[italic]So here’s to that invincible bunch, the dinosaurs surviving the crunch.[/italic]

Everybody died.

We only had two genders. And none of us had blue hair. We had a lot of fun with our friends on the weekends where we would hang out at the mall and watch movies or go miniature golfing. We'd go toilet paper our friend's houses after the Friday football games. We passed notes in class and hoped we didn't get caught. Good times.

[quote]So here’s to that invincible bunch, the dinosaurs surviving the crunch.

Everybody RISE!

people weren't looking at their screens all the time and actually made eye contact with others and smiled and looked happy

People enjoyed life's simple pleasures

Tattoos were considered an abomination.

Snorkel parkas were all the rage in the 70s.

There were Democrats and Republicans and they often would work together to solve problems. News anchors were respected and news corporations were not owned by political ideologues. The Fairness Doctrine was a real thing until Ronald Reagan got rid of it in 1985 and now we have a shit show of "fake news" stations. Most Americans owned homes and two cars on one income. It was rare to hear of anyone working two jobs. Kids had to actually go to a library to look shit up and respected their teachers and principals and the parents would kick our asses if we disrespected them.

Universities and protests, why?

People seemed better educated and more articulate

We laughed more. A lot more.

You could kite checks (pay with money not yet in your checking account) because your check took about a week to clear the bank.

We lived in a man's world, before mass neuroses. You knew where you stood at any given moment.

People had a sense of humor rather than a sense of outrage

The inmates didn't run the asylum. We had asylums.

SNL was watchable

Moving out at 18, getting a crappy apartment, and still having enough money to go out nights even though you had a low-paying job.

Smoking everywhere.

Still a delineation between kids’ music and movies and those for adults.

All In The Family got more laughs in one night than months of SNL did. We could laugh at ourselves then.

Angela Lansbury was an up and coming actress.

Sometimes we used phones to make prank calls.

All the little gayboys wanted to be That Girl!

You could be good looking and hot and never know it. Vanity was heavily frowned upon. It made the possibilities very exciting.

Was it better? Wouldn't you give up all those olden days to have a life full of Instagram and cute selfies hamming it up with friends?

It’s really difficult to compare. When I was young, I lived in a small town. I couldn’t buy many books, there weren’t a lot of channels, and you had to wait for movies to come to town after they were in big cities. If they ever came.

My knowledge of gays? Sex scandals, AIDS, and bullying at school.

When I got to college, I spent hours in the library soaking up everything I could. Now I can information about nearly everything by tapping on my phone.

I’m glad I grew up hungering for knowledge, but wouldn’t live to go back to that time.

You had to go to a gay bookstore to get most gay books.

"Fatso" hurt and kept a lot from obesity. "Faggot" hurt and could kill.

We had to remember things. No googling.

Which city was that R52?

We were all going to change the world.

Then Cobain offed himself and it was over.

Before it ever began.

*

[quote]In the early 70’s I’d park my car, walk to the gay bar but usually get picked by a cruiser before I got there. Slutty? Yeah, but I loved it and had no worries.

People today will never understand the sexual freedom in US cities during the 1970s.

Never look back.

Try r89, try

No trans shitty ideology. If you wanted to change sex you did without screaming and fucking with gay kids brains and fucking with their bodies. You lived the life you wanted without demanding everybody look at you. And the original Prince/Sondheim productions were better than you've been told. Trump was a speck nobody ever heard of and even Republicans thought that Nixon was a criminal. There was more sanity than there is today. Despite the 70s being it's own kind of insane. When they say well it was the 70s they mean it in a good way.

The meme was "everyone is bisexual to some degree"

A friend and I dropped acid and went to a Sly and the Family Stone concert at Harvard Stadium. A good time was had by all.

[quote]And the original Prince/Sondheim productions were better than you've been told.

We will nevervever again have the talent Broadway had back then: dramatists, composers, lyricists, choreographers, directors, set designers.

I miss The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Rusty Staub's all male parties. My friend went with Bubba Smith.

I’m the cryptic crossword, with no need for all of these Will Shortz nonsense words.

I miss Mennen Lime deodorant and Little Debbie Boston Creme Rolls.

I'm the remote that noisily moves the channel dial on the TV. We didn't have many channels then.

In my day, we received good customer service!

i loved it when tv was . . TV

One Day at a Time

It was a happy place. We had flowery meadows and rainbow skies. And rivers made of chocolate where the children danced and laughed and played, with gum drop smiles.

(^.^) and now . . .

Student protes leaders faced the public, explained themselves, didn’t hide behind masks, and practiced civil disobedience.

I drank lots of Tang so our astronauts could get there first.

R100- I’m the hand that changes the channel because there is no remote.

Few people I knew had 📺 with remote control in the 1970’s- they were expensive.

My best friend had a color tv with one of those big clunky remotes in the 70s. His mother made us sit 6 feet back from the set so the radiation wouldn't kill us.

I started getting ready to go out to the clubs around 11 pm, listening to Love's Theme by Barry White and whatever else was on WBLS. I'd come home around 4, make it with the guy I picked up on Christopher Street, get two hours of sleep, shower, dress, and walk from the Village down to Wall Street for my boring clerk job.

Nowadays I can't even stay awake till 11 pm.

We had two controls for the TV in the late fifties. One to change the channels on the TV and another, not remote (it sat on top of the TV, wired) to change the direction of the antenna on the roof. That way we could get an amazing 7 stations.

The remote for the TV was like a flashlight. You aimed it at the corners of the TV. It said it was harmless to humans so we'd aim it at the cat. It was harmless to cats, too. It didn't work that great, though: if a lot of lights were on in the room or there was bright sunlight coming through a window, it could screw up the signal.

In my day, entertainment has-beens gracefully adapted to television commercial endorsement work instead of allowing themselves to go to seedy drug addicted early demise. There was incentive not to freak out on monsterous plastic surgery accidents were you to desire a life in the public eye. Kim Novak could have been spared had she the humility to scrub out stains as Annabelle, the Comet cleanser maven.

Way back then parents seemed to be more interested in their child's welfare than being the agent of their death

People seemed to be able to settle disputes a little more amicably years ago

[quote] We had two controls for the TV in the late fifties. One to change the channels on the TV and another, not remote (it sat on top of the TV, wired) to change the direction of the antenna on the roof.

R111 We had an outdoor antenna rotator in the 1960s that was also controlled by a box that sat on top of the TV. Our backyard was adjacent to a forest, so we had lots of animals and birds around. One night as we pulled into the driveway, the car headlights lit up a very large owl sitting on the TV antenna. I still recall the owl’s green eyes in the headlights. The owl stayed there while we quickly we into the house.

For some reason, I decided I was going to get the owl off the antenna using the rotator. I rotated the owl to the left and to the right, but it just went along for the ride. Then I tried a lot of abrupt stops and starts, but the owl hung on. Maybe there was some prey in the area, and the owl was not going to give up its vantage point on the antenna. Meanwhile, my father saw me “monkeying around” with the rotator (which he had installed) and told me to leave it alone before I broke it.

The next day, the owl was gone. I never saw it return for another ride.

[quote]We had two controls for the TV in the late fifties. One to change the channels on the TV and another, not remote

Are you sure you had the "Flasht-Matic"? It only sold for one year in 1955. It did more than just change channels but it was rather impractical, didn't perform well and quickly went out of production.

^Flash

My Dad was a hippie and started a commune in our house. Everyone wore "love beads" made by someone else in the house. This was early 70s. I took them all to a gay bar in Manhattan (The Gold Bug on W. 3rd) and we all danced together like the Manson family.

Was the Gold Bug owned by the same people who owned the Red Witch, r118? I remember ending up there a couple of times in high school. I didn't think it was gay, but who knew at that time (late '60s).

Dunno R119. All the bars were owned by the Mob back then. Don't remember the Red Witch. A lot of old clubs listed here...

There's a book about the gay clubs in NYC and the Mafia. There were so many cool places like The Sanctuary, David's Loft on Bleecker and B'way, the old Limelight on 7th Ave South, The Tenth Floor on W. 28th opposite the old Everard Baths, and the best one was Le Jardin in the old Diplomat Hotel on W. 43rd St.

People recognized a ribbon clerk when they saw one.

No answering machines, much less texting, voicemail or email. If you really wanted to hear from someone, you waited near the phone.

If someone called a place of business LONG DISTANCE, then the intended call recipient would hustle to the phone.

People had secretaries/receptionists/admins who wrote done their phone messages. Usually on a small pad of pink forms. The person who took the call filled in the name, time, return #, and sometimes a short message.

If you worked for assholes, you used spiral bound sheets of multiple smaller message forms with sheets of carbon. So you could retain a carbon copy and prove you correctly recorded the message.

Parents knew stuff from the REAL olden days. Like what it was like the first time their family had a car. And how people sold pencils on the street in NYC during the depression. In less urban areas, the legend was that hobos who got a meal at your house would leave a secret mark on it so that the other hobos would come ask for something to eat. A blue plate special was a cheap lunch restaurants were legally mandated to offer.

There was only one fat kid.

I remember the early 70's and my father climbing onto the roof of my house and turning the antenna so we could all watch The Carol Burnett show together. We would yell out to him when we go the channel in focus.

I miss the days of having real telephone conversations with my friends. We would sit for hours on the phone just catching up. I still have a few friends who do this with me but it's not as often.

I miss Lesbian bars where women (and no men pretending to be women) would simply hang out, play some pool together and maybe dance with other women. My friends and I would go often in our twenties and it was so nice having a space to simply be who we really were, without having to worry about some creepy dude hitting on us. Lesbian bars are rare now.

I miss going to a grocery store and having there be enough clerks and baggers for each lane. You were in and out rather quickly. The other day I waited 20 mins at a self checkout for the guy in front of me who was waiting for anyone to come and help him scan his cantaloupe. I hate self check out and all the issues it causes. Went to El Pollo Loco a few days ago. Wanted to add some additional tortillas to my order and to get two breasts instead of the breast and the wing and because it was a self order kiosk, there was no way to do this. I had to call someone over to help but it took them at least 6 mins to get to me when in the past, the order would have been adjusted in seconds.

I remember a kid in my science class was being completely disruptive in the early 70's and my teacher, Mr. Martz, who was a quiet, strict guy we all respected finally just walked over to the kid, picked his ass up, threw him over his shoulder and walked down the hall where he promptly dropped the little asshole at the Principal's office. All of us had NEVER seen anything like that before and we all just sat there quietly until he returned. He didn't even mention it, just went right back to teaching. That is so vivid in my mind because it was just unheard of for a kid to act up like he was doing and then to see a teacher just straight up not fucking messing around with him was both awesome and terrifying. I bet the kid's parents beat his little ass when he got home instead of threatening to sue the school for touching their little snowflake.

I used to wear an onion tied around my belt, back in the day.

Grandpa Simpson in da house.

[quote] Mr. Martz, who was a quiet, strict guy we all respected finally just walked over to the kid, picked his ass up, threw him over his shoulder and walked down the hall where he promptly dropped the little asshole at the Principal's office.

That was not me

How do you start a lesbian bar? Where have all the lesbians gone?

I miss tops and bottoms. Both sexually and in the day to day life of a relationship.

Yes, I know it's heteronormative and rigid. But it was also kinda hot and fun.

I'm glad that I'm not a young person now. A country where an insane criminal became president and is running again would have scared the shit out of me for my future.

r128 they've all turned trans.

R129 the correct nomenclature was Greek active or passive and French active or passive. Every Elder knows that…

It was better. In elementary school was JFK was Pres. Wrote letter to him. Received a Manila envelope - return address The White House. It contained a three page typed schedule of how the President spends his day, a couple of “ autographed” 8 x 10 pictures . I lost the pictures but still have the envelope and the schedule .

I touch it and pretend to feel the energy of the 60’s. It was great. Of course , 11:22.63 JFK shot. So there’s that, but we held onto the dream for a bit

The President was shot and killed and then a few months later it was Beatlemania. The 1960s were a wild ride.

[quote]the correct nomenclature was Greek active or passive and French active or passive.

I speaks several languages, but mostly Greek and French.

Be best

Three posts and it's a Trump thread. Kudos ...

[quote]Three posts and it's a Trump thread. Kudos ...

Fine, r136, I'll make it a FOLLIES thread...

R76- It’s like beating a dead horse 🐴

SNL has been bad since all of the original cast left in 1980.

It should have been removed from the airwaves 44 years ago.

Lorne said people typically think the SNL cast lineup at the time they were in highschool and college is the best.

I never did what society expected. Didn't get married and have kids. Not sorry.

-if you wanted to watch an old movie after it had left its first and second runs, you were out of luck. Unless you happen to catch it on the million dollar movie on your local TV station or a local art house decided to show it. -If you missed a first run episode of TV, you were out of luck until summer reruns.

Nonsense there were re-issues of popular movies all the time, and not by art houses.

I disagree r142. Most of the old movies I saw were in little art houses

It's where I saw films like Rebecca the first time

Nobody knew what the opening weekend grosses of a film were. Unless they had a subscription to Variety. And no one cared.

When I was a kid we only need to dial five numbers to call out. If there was an emergency you called the operator.

Actually the big films didn't open wide, anyway. They played in one big theater in each big city and then played in the smaller cities, then the suburbs.

There was a party line phone up at my grandma's in the Catskills. Those old ladies could always tell if you were trying to listen in. They stayed on forever.

The man go up in the man, you know.

Up. In. The. MAN!

Divorces and custody battles seem more amicable in years past

R143 I saw Gone with the Wind at a neighborhood theater in the 70s and Lawrence of Arabia, Rear Window, Vertigo and Fantasia decades after their original release in first run theaters and multiplexes in the 80s and 90s.

I once did this thing in the past that was fun.

Nostalgia was better when I was young.

My family never owned a camera when I was young. We would borrow one from friends for special occasions, but there are whole years of my young life which are not caught on camera.

That seems a vast improvement on today, where everybody photographs every mundane event a million times over. No-one wants to see pictures of your dinner, or of the traffic you get caught in on the way to work or of the waiter serving you who looks a bit like your uncle, or of your child’s first trip to the dermatologist. No-one gives a shit, just stop!

and taking pictures seemed so much safer back in the day R153

Revolutionaries didn't seem so whiny back in the day