“The Good Old Days”

Were they really as good as we remember?

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A day doesn’t go by where I don’t hear someone say, “well, things were better back in the old days.” Or they mention something used to taste so much better when they were a kid. I am as guilty as anyone, I do it myself. Just recently we went to something we had been going to for over 25 years. I couldn’t wait to go again. We were there for a half hour and left. “It just wasn’t the same.”

The picture I have on here is from Atlantic City, NJ. It is me and my dear, sweet sister Rhonda on the boardwalk looking at the pigeons. I posted it in a group I belong to on Facebook just the other day when we were talking about Atlantic City and The Steel Pier. Someone had posted a picture of the Diving Horse and it made me think of this picture. Atlantic City was “the” place to go back when I was growing up. The boardwalk and beach were pristine and my parents took us every year. Now it is a place to go to gamble and instead of seeing a beautiful boardwalk you see closed casinos and stores. “It just isn’t the same.”

Was it better back then? Do I remember it correctly or am I just remembering how wonderful it was because I was with my parents and sister?  Does the fact that all of them are no longer here cloud my thinking? Is it that things have changed or is it the people we are missing?

But what about the food? Oh yes, truly one of the best parts of growing up was the wonderful food. My Grandmothers were both wonderful cooks and I made many cookies and pies with them. One of my favorites were pie. I loved my Grandma Gibbons pecan pie. I was at a diner recently and saw they had pecan pie. It looked just like hers, didn’t look like the stuff you see in the supermarket at all. So I got a piece and couldn’t wait to dig in. “It just wasn’t the same.” It was ok, and of course I ate the entire thing, but it just wasn’t quite the same. Why? Maybe the reason was because I didn’t make it with my Grandma?

Everything changes. I don’t expect everything to stay the same. Time goes on and we are constantly being told that this or that is new and improved. But is it really? Don’t get me wrong, sometimes change is good. I definitely wouldn’t want to be wearing some of the things we wore “back in the day”. I can still feel the pain in my poor feet while wearing my platform heels. Most recently I have been wanting a jumpsuit. I don’t know what made me decide I had to have one, but I saw they were back in style this year and for some reason just had to have one again. I found a really cute one. On sale… So I got it. I forgot why I didn’t like them back in the day when I wore one the first time. You have to take the whole darn thing off to go to the bathroom. And I go to the bathroom a lot more these days..sorry for the TMI…. It is still cute and I will wear it, but I definitely won’t be drinking anything while I have it on.

I can honestly say I don’t know the answer to my question? “Were the good old days really as good as we remember?” And, let’s not forget that someday these very days will be the good old days for someone. What do you think? Are things so terrible today or are we simply missing those people that made the past so great?

 

15 thoughts on ““The Good Old Days”

  1. I think the reason we loved those times was about the freedoms we had. From morning, until dinner time, we were on bikes, riding from neighborhood to neighborhood, creating good times. We walked to Playland with siblings and swam on hot summer days, no parents in sight. These days, parents must know where their kids are at all times.

  2. Gonna try this again…think its gonna take this time, lol….i LOVED this blog, but I wanna know where ya got a pantsuit, hahaha…But yep, some things were good then and some things are good now, but MEMORIES are what matters most, good and bad, right? Love ya.

  3. As i was reading this, I kept thinking of the words to the Barbra Streisand song, The Way we Were–” Could it be that life was so much simpler than, or has time re-written every line?” i think we have selective memories and we enhance the good memories. But, when it comes to pie–I’m sure the pies of your childhood were like those of mine and they were made with lard ( or maybe to be “healthy”, crisco) and with lots of sugar and always hand-rolled pie crust. Pies of today just can’t come close!

    1. I agree with you, Cheri! I remember watching my Grandmothers rolling out dough for pies & pot pie – taking it all in but doing it myself is yet another story! 🙂 Loved the closeness with my grandmothers – the ‘feel good’ feeling we’d get just having her there. That made her creations taste that much better.

  4. Some things were better then (like my waist line) and somethings are better now (like no smoking in restaurants, airplanes, offices, etc.)

  5. i think it’s more than one thing, Renee, more like a combination of a few things. One being missing the people we were with & the dynamics of how those interactions felt at the time; another being that we were younger & smaller, so… A) our perspective is different due to that, & B) our world view is different due to our life experiences since then, & C) our brains were not fully developed back then, so that slime gives us different perspective now. I believe all of that contributes to those feelings of nostalgia never being actualized anymore as we grow further & further from them in age. I agree with all you said & often feel the same!

  6. I believe ‘the good old days’ are our memories of the good times we experienced, not necessarily the period of time in which we lived. Have things changed? Sure, change is continual. And as mentioned by the ‘Hellion’, not always for the best. I recently scanned a newspaper from 1957 that was saved because my father’s obituary was included in that edition. The headlines are remarkably similar to what we see today….150 dead in Gulf hurricane…Ike criticized on Civil Rights position…Oriental Flu Epidemic…Youths Kidnap Bus…Jury Acquits Mayor….and so on. Of course, there are positive headlines too, but you get my point. Our good times today will certainly be the ‘good old days’ of tomorrow.

  7. I like it and agree lots of things were better in our “Good Old Days”. Maybe because we miss our innocence and trust in our surroundings.

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