mostly the ratio of public transportation to population, also there were still places where anything you wanted to build could be your legal residence. i miss what the future we're living in now, could-have would-have should-have been. i miss no one openly admitting that free and peaceful world was something they didn't want, and nearly everyone actually wanting it, even if they did want it in different ways, or had different ideas what they meant by that. i miss conservatives actually being conservatives instead of fascists. i miss most people realizing that consideration was for their own benefit, and not just everyone else's, or because someone said so or they read it in some book. doctors making house calls, and even though there weren't treatments for everything, no one had to go without what there were because they couldn't afford them. i miss people (yes even conservatives) believing some things should never be about money, and knowing that you could have capitalism, without making everything have to be. i miss people realizing that anything you could kill with was a responsibility, not a toy. and that there were times, situations and places they'd actually be better off without one. i miss, because i grew up in such places, not having to walk more then a mile or two, to be out of town and completely surrounded by unmolested nature. i miss a cheap lunch being a mom and pop 'greasy spoon' and not a mic-formica franchise. i miss three or four passenger trains and eight busses, each way every day, stopping in every little town where anyone wanted to get on and off. i miss the crummy lunch counters at intercity bus stations. they were crummy. but i still miss having them. i miss candy bars being a dime (my parents missed then being a nickle) i miss america claiming to welcome immigrants more then any place else, whether or not it ever actually did. i miss the sherman anti-trust act preventing anything from being too big to fail. i miss real diversity of choices being mostly mainstream (i was born more then 30 years before raygun) i miss school lunches having been free for everyone when i was in grade school in the 50s and high school in the 60s. and big yellow buses to and from school being operated by the school district and free too community colleges being the free alternative to the first two years of university, and THEY provided free bus transportation too. and university engineering and science libraries, though they didn't advertise the fact, being open to anyone who wanted to walking in and look things up, or just read the scientific and technical journals. you only had to be registered as a student if you wanted to check something out to read at home. i miss people not destroying targets of opportunity that someone else might need, use or enjoy. or imagining they were doing the world some kind of political favor to do so. (i don't mean creatively decorating, i mean actually physically destroying)
I honestly miss the carefree nature of things we used to do as kids... playing in the woods... recording lip syncing music videos with my siblings... pulling the trampoline next to th pool to jump in during summers when we were off but my parents were working still... freedom to be a silly idiot those were the days
I miss cartoons on TV at the time. I miss not having everything being so high tech. I miss Music stores with CD's. I miss Toy R US.
The newspaper. Locally controlled radio. I create a technology light zone each week I miss the free time one had to be in their head without screens being so ubiquitous, even as I revel in accessing more information. Swimming. I was able to swim a lot more as a kid.
I miss buying pot illegally in an alley and it was mostly leaves, with stems and seeds included. Just kidding! It's legal here in Oregon where the supply has far outstripped the demand and we get high quality shit cheap or free! I don't miss that crap one bit!
Smoking weed, discovering oodles of new music, no responsibilities! eternal optimism/seeing life through rose tinted glasses, lots of friends.
I miss the attitude of weed smokers. There was a peaceful bond between the hippie culture, with no hang up about race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. Hanging out and enjoying everything life brings. The violence and separation of today's youth is disturbing and backward thinking.
So this thread has been revived. I miss believing that we will never have a worse President than Richard Nixon and we will never see a crazier time than the sixties!
I miss joy riding. Cruising. Whatever you used to call it. Road trips. Pointing the front end of an over-powered coupe at a road and following it. Plus I miss girls in short shorts.