If You Had A 2nd Chance In Life What Period Of Time In American History Would You Prefer To Live In?

Personally the 50’s. was everything perfect “NO’ but IMHO it was better time in American history


* you never had to lock the front door and could leave the front windows open.
* There was no swearing on TV, people in general were more respectful
* A father, by himself, could support a family - and still have money left over to go on vacations
* Neighbors knew each other.
* If you wanted to talk with someone, you generally had to meet them in person. (Phone calls were OK, but not the same.)
* Chewing gum was a nickle.
* Hostess Cupcakes were 13cents.
* You could walk around the neighborhood at age 6 after dark, no cell phone, no neighborhood watch, no nothin' - and my parents didn't worry, and you always came home safe and sound.
* World War III didn't happen.
* Baseball was actually interesting.
* You could play in the middle of the street and drivers would patiently wait for you to get out of the way...
* Very few people were in a rush.
* As a child you were allowed to be a door-to-door salesman, selling crafts that You made and was never harassed by anyone. Always you made it home safely.
* you could ride your bicycle without a helmet
* You never had to deal with political correctness, the nanny state, or new math, or any of the other "experiments" from governments and activists who "only want to help."
* Phone numbers had only 7 digits, the first two being letters.
* Everyone kept up their front yards.
* In general you could afford home if you wanted to own a home.
* Movies - almost always double-features - with a cartoon short - were 35cents.

So people ask what happened “Society Threw God out of the Picture”

 

I dunno. I doubt that God had much to do with it, and whether you liked nostalgia then depended on your race, gender and sexual orientation. Women and racial minorities and gays "knew their place": in the kitchen, the back of the bus and the closet, respectively. AND NO HIPPIES!!! (they did have beatniks, who were the missing link.) Married couples were shown in the movies and on TV as sleeping in separate beds (to satisfy the censors). The United States could intervene militarily anywhere in the world and nobody in this country raised an eyebrow. People were assured there was no danger of nuclear war because of Mutually Assured Destruction Deterrence (MADD). Anyone who expressed views slightly left of center risked being ostracized or hauled before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Joe McCarthy was riding high, accusing everybody and his dog of being a commie. My elderly white neighbor who lived through it tells about the time when he, as a kid, tried out the "colored" water fountain and was reprimanded by a shocked bystander. The entire culture was gripped by mindless conformity. Ah yes, the good old days. I can hear Archie Bunker singing in the background "Guys like me, we had it made. Those were the Daaaayze!"

But there were bright spots: Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 set the ball rolling toward racial desegregation. Eisenhower stood up to McCarthy, sent the National Guard to Littlerock, and warned us about the danger of the military industrial complex.

 

If I could do it, the nineties would be my choice. The senior Bush was exceptionally well-qualified in the foreign policy field, and a reasonable, moderate Republican, as Republicans go. He wasn't so hot with the "economy, stupid", and was not re-elected because of that. Clinton was a sleazeball, but did a competent job as president, and was so successful on the economic front that the country was able to eliminate the Reagan-Bush deficit and leave (just in time) with a booming economy and stock market. And parties were still able to work together, get things done, and hold free elections without incident. People weren't at each other's throats and still thought of each other as fellow Americans. And they rightly thought the country was still great. I lived through most of it, and they were Happy Days!

 

When did that happen? Are you talking about the school prayer decisions? Hugo Black, the fundamentalist Baptist who authored the first of those, Engel v. Vitale in 1961,, read his constitution the way he read his Bible: literally. When the First Amendment says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" he thought No Law meant No Law! He further reviewed the history behind those words and came to the conclusion that they were meant to protect religion from the State, as well as the State from religion, by keeping the two separate. Before then (and actually after then until the next Supreme Court decision in Abington Township v Schempp in 1963,there were states like Pennsylvania that required that at least ten verses from the Holy Bible be read at the opening of each school day", often followed by recitation of the Lord's prayer. The Bible used was invariably the King James Version (not approved by Catholics). With the Lord's prayer, the Jews wouldn't say it at all. The Catholics would drop off somewhere before the end, and the diehard Protestants would carry it to conclusion.

And you're saying that doing away with that is responsible for the collapse of the Happy Days values of the fifties? Excuse me, but that seems so Roman pagan. The Romans were convinced that the refusal of "atheists" (AKA, Christians) to honor the deities by the perfunctory act of dropping some incense into a fire was pissing off the gods and a threat to civil order, and that feeding them to the lions would make the gods happy and bring back the Good Ol' Days. I think it's actually the nasty behavior of some Christian evangelicals in Trump's base that is turning folks away from religion, but God is able to take care of Himself. He's doing much better here than in the industrial countries of western Europe.

 

Sometime before the Europeans got here and trashed the place...

 

Yeah, that might work--sometime before the U.S. government forced us out of our tribal homeland and dumped us here in Oklahoma. Except I'd have to change a lot to fit in. Even before the Europeans got here, my tribe, the Chickasaw, were constantly at war with somebody or other. We generally won until we sided with the Confederacy, and were one of the last holdouts against the Union. Not my thing.

 

Yes, remembering that Lucy & Desi had separate beds; and the impact of seeing Oliver & Lisa Douglas in bed together kissing.

 

I think maybe the 1800s. The reason? Simplicity. Tact. Grace. I feel like we're losing a lot of our moral fabric, so I would insert myself into a time that had fewer distractions.

 

IMO - every decade had it's positives and negatives. I'm a "boomer" (a phrase used by some today as an insult) and there are things I'd like to see return ........ and others that deserve to stay forgotten history.

Everyone smoking as in the past - NO !!! It killed both my parents. And for those that don't realize it / know it .......... it actually STINKS.
Women being treated as "second-class citizens" - NO !!!
Racial hatred, bigotry, segregation - NO !!!
Gas-guzzling, heavy, "lead-sled", high-polluting cars - NO !!!
Easy, EASY ways to pollute, dumping industrial waste into streams & rivers, burying chemicals in the ground - NO-NO-NO !!!
McCarthy-ism - NO !!!
Dangerous drugs & the gang-mentality / behavior / violence they've spawned - NO !!! (Marijuana seems like beer compared to the dangerous drugs of today)
A return to censorship of TV, movies, reality being kept hidden - NO !!!
Policing the entire world by the U.S. military - NO !!! Too many lives lost and what was gained??? Not very damn much.

Belief in FACTS, OBJECTIVE JOURNALISM, SCIENCE - YES !!!
Less violent crime - YES !!!
HONEST people, who have REAL INTEGRITY - YES !!!
Neighbors all knowing each other and being good role models for kids - YES !!!
Schools were FUN, as well as educational. We didn't FEAR going to school because of guns, knives, bombs. - YES !!!
Presidents with the HIGH INTELLECT that Bill Clinton had. He was a Rhodes scholar - you don't get there being average. You have to be exceptional to get a Rhodes invitation. - YES !!!
Presidents who ACTUALLY KNEW where other countries were, as well as their names, and had a grasp of foreign policy. - YES !!!
Honest-to-GOD, HONEST politicians, who know the meaning of integrity - and act with integrity - YES !!!
U.S. elections without false claims of "fraud" and violent threats - YES !!!
Slower pace of life - YES !!!
Friendliness displacing "tough-guy, he-man, threatening bluster" - YES !!!
Kids can play outside without bullets flying / child molesters - YES !!!
Concern for, and protection of ......... our environment - YES !!! ................. We only have ONE EARTH. It's the only place we (and our kids, grandkids) have to live.
Respect for each other as fellow human beings / Americans. - YES !!!

The 1960's were still pretty uptight and "cloistered" in a way. (If Lawrence Welk was your idea of excitement ....... you were pretty "cloistered" !!! ) The 70's and 80's were fairly open and FUN compared to today. The 90's weren't bad either - LOTS of work everywhere, pay rising, economy booming. Things REALLY started going down the tubes after 2000. I'd pick the 30 years from 1970 to 2000 as my favorite period.

 

All these posts are true. How can they be? Well--they CAN be. Born in '39, I have lived through all these eras. Each post is , of course how each individual recalls the reality of the times in which they lived. I can agree with all posts , and I must say that the reality of the 40s the 50s the 60s and the 70s --looking back now--were my favorite times to have been alive and young. You had to be there, I guess. The unlocked doors, leaving the house at 6 years old and returning only at 6: pm for supper and then going out again during the hot , seemingly endless summers of the San Joaquin valley. Never heard about crime, felt perfectly safe --my life in the 40s was almost like a Tom Sawyer type existence with never a care. Hometown was just a few thousand--very glad about that. Saw very little racism , but of course it was there just below the surface as it has always been. However as a shiny little white boy with my fine clothes and fine house to grow up in---what did I know about the impact on my little black classmates. Tried to have a black friend, but racist family members warned off that. Oh well.

The 50s? Oh brother. 6 foot 3. A fine looking young man. An athlete. A reasonable grasp of the language. A penchant for always going for the laughs. Plenty of friends. At times, a crazy son of a bitch. Yeah. to be a white boy in the 50s was just too fuckin easy for me. I look back fondly. Friends from those days all dead now. Oh well. They live on in my memories.

The 60s. Oh boy. Changes a'comin'. From music, societal attitudes, enlightenment through certain drugs, desolation through certain drugs, murderous entities eliminating leftist politicians, the roads and highways full of travelers, communes good , bad and interesting, Haight Ashbury and all that history.

I suppose I may finish this mess sometime. No matter.

 

^ ^ ^ Scratcho -
I'm a bit younger, but my friends and I used to sleep out on local hill tops - woods, fields, all in complete safety and peace. No tents - just sleeping bags under the stars and small fire pits to make "bug fires" to keep the mosquitoes away. No locked doors either at home. A stolen bike was a big deal, crime-wise. Rode our bikes everywhere - no fears. Swimming in local creeks and streams all summer long - when we weren't fishing. We even built a raft out of big-rig truck inner-tubes and plywood. I can feel your "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" existence too!!

Simpler, safer, much more FUN times.

 

You've covered maybe 10% of American history in your answer.

 

* you never had to lock the front door and could leave the front windows open.
* There was no swearing on TV, people in general were more respectful
* A father, by himself, could support a family - and still have money left over to go on vacations
* Neighbors knew each other.
* If you wanted to talk with someone, you generally had to meet them in person. (Phone calls were OK, but not the same.)
* Chewing gum was a nickle.
* Hostess Cupcakes were 13cents.
* You could walk around the neighborhood at age 6 after dark, no cell phone, no neighborhood watch, no nothin' - and my parents didn't worry, and you always came home safe and sound.
* World War III didn't happen.
* Baseball was actually interesting.
* You could play in the middle of the street and drivers would patiently wait for you to get out of the way...
* Very few people were in a rush.
* As a child you were allowed to be a door-to-door salesman, selling crafts that You made and was never harassed by anyone. Always you made it home safely.
* you could ride your bicycle without a helmet
* You never had to deal with political correctness, the nanny state, or new math, or any of the other "experiments" from governments and activists who "only want to help."
* Phone numbers had only 7 digits, the first two being letters.
* Everyone kept up their front yards.
* In general you could afford home if you wanted to own a home.
* Movies - almost always double-features - with a cartoon short - were 35cents.

So people ask what happened “Society Threw God out of the Picture”

 

I believe that the horses were brought over by the Spanish first. There were no native horses.

 

Maybe correct but I remember reading once that Horses are very much 8ndigines to North America. Maybe 40000 years back

 

I totally get your opinion but at that time in history, Native Americans had a very short life span and there's a very good probability that almost all may have been totally wiped out by the Russians.

 

By the Russians?!! When did that happen? The main contact between Russia and Native Americans seems to have been in Alaska in the 18th century. They certainly had a negative impact on the population there. But the big wipeout came earlier, mainly by the Spaniards who brought diseases we had no natural immunity to. About 90% of the indigenous population bit the dust. And at that time, just about everybody in the world had a short life span, relative to ours!

I'm sure you read it, cuz it's certainly out there on the internet.Indian Horses BEFORE Columbus It's an article of faith among Plains tribes, passed down from the elders who said they always had horses. Mormons and scholars at Brigham Young University have also assembled "hard evidence" of horses in the New World, to support claims in the Book of Mormon that people there were riding around in chariots back in the day. “Hard” Evidence of Ancient American Horses Reportedly, my people, the Chickasaw, from the woodlands of the southeastern U.S., may have been the first tribe in North America known to have had horses, when we acquired them in 1540 from De Soto and his visiting conquistadors. From all accounts, it wasn't a friendly encounter, and exactly how the horses were acquired is better left unmentioned. Anyhow, we developed our own breed from these horses (known as the Chickasaw horse, of course), and they were prized by European traders.

Genus Equus originally evolved in North America, but the horse seems to have became extinct here about 5,000-10,000 years ago, probably as a result of climate change. There have been claims that some survived, and even some archaeological evidence Centuries-old bones of horses unearthed in Carlsbad but not enough evidence to convince most of the scientific community yet.

 

SO?? The question by the OP was "what period would you pick to live in?" I picked the 30 years from 1970 to 2000. Others noted good and bad points from our U.S. past - so did I.

The U.S. is 245 years old. Your 10% of U.S. history suggestion would = 24.5 years ............ not 30 years.