What do you miss from your youth?

Discussion in 'Old Hippies' started by granny_longhair, Apr 18, 2010.

  1. Piobaire

    Piobaire Village Idiot

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    I miss my mate's happiness. She used to literally radiate joy.
    I miss her thoughtful rationality, before TBI and psychosis robbed her of that.
    I miss our lovemaking. She was the most wonderful lover I've ever known, and our lovemaking was truly epic.
    I miss not being in pain every fucking moment of every fucking day. I've never been one for opioids, but I absolutely get the desire to just to take a break from the pain for a while.
    I miss steadyness and dexterity. I used to put ships in bottles, now I tremble so much I have difficulty with buttons, or eating with a spoon.
    Speaking of which, I miss having a full compliment of teeth.
    I miss warm feet. Back in the day, I'd go out in the snow in Birkenstocks. Now I live in heavy wool socks all year.
    I miss that sense of competency; the delusion that my career was on an upward trajectory.
    I miss the delusion that if I just kept playing and practicing, I would someday suck less as a musician (and at numerous other things).
    I miss sleeping soundly all night, without waking up screaming from PTSD nightmares.
    I miss having more entertaining (and much less expensive) hobbies than innumerable doctor visits.
    I miss sailing; moonless nights far offshore under a brilliant canopy of stars.
    I miss puttering about on my one-cylinder 500cc motorbike.
    I miss SCUBA diving. The reefs of the Keys used to be forests of Staghorn, with majestic Elkhorns and huge brain coral, giving shelter to millions of creatures. Now high-nitrate urban runoff has reduced them to rubble, smothered with algae and fire coral. Back in the day, I could easily fill a cooler with mackerel, trolling from my sailboat. No more. Last I went diving on the Gulf coast, repeated red tides had killed every living thing out to 30 miles offshore; the water column was dead from top to bottom.
    I miss mobility; hiking, climbing, kayaking, contra dancing. Now I walk with a cane, and have difficulty getting out of chairs. I fell three times last month.
    I miss living in a country where you had to go to Vietnam to get an AR-15, and nobody but the sheriff's deputies routinely carried sidearms, and nobody could even imagine a scenario of shooting up a school.
    I miss the Gemini and Apollo programs; Dr. Salk, Jacques Cousteau, Neil Armstrong; when we revered science and respected expertise and education, before stupidity became a virtue.
    I miss all the songbirds. In my lifetime, their populations have declined 75%.
    I miss the delusion that when I die, the natural world would continue unabated. We're now experiencing the Anthropocene Mass Extinction Event and anthropogenic climate change, which will probably wipe out at least a third of all species on Earth (assuming runaway positive environmental feedback loops don't end up making the Earth resemble Venus).
    I miss living in a community where people thought of one another as neighbors and fellow countrymen; equally committed to shared ideals, not something reminiscent of the waning days of the Weimar Republic.
    I miss the delusion that the Great Society was actually achievable, and that we could collectively come together and bring it about.
    I miss the delusion that what we did actually mattered.
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2022
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  2. themnax

    themnax Senior Member

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    the level of public transportation that was still available and that there were places you could legally build and live in what you could build yourself without having to worry about building codes or zoning approval. that you could go for a walk almost anywhere as long as you didn't get too close to someone else's house, no one objected to your being there. of course, i wasn't living in cities. and because the roads were narrow and twisty, you could get there as fast on a train as you could on a bus or in a car, and there were at least three trains each way every day, and at least eight scedules of buses. there's more things i don't miss then that i do though. i missed the internet not yet existing, or even the personal computer. yes i dreamed of these things and having them before anyone else would have the slightest idea what i was talking about. i miss wooden toy trains being something cheap and affordable even for poor kids. i miss landlords not charging extra, nor forbidding entirely, the keeping of cats, or other small, mostly harmless, non-human companions. i miss there being several legal ways in which a person of ordinary means might aquire land or at least the use of it, to build on. i miss model train hobby shops and electronic component retailers. i miss the only non mom and pop retailing being the catalogue stores like sears, monkey wards, and pennies. i miss school being an escape from family. but i don't miss family being something needing an escape from. being able to take long walks by yourself being as good or better of a one. not having to go for miles surrounded by pavement to get to where you could be surrounded by nature instead. i miss not missing, but looking forward instead of back.
     
  3. Dude111

    Dude111 An Awesome Dude HipForums Supporter

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    I mi$$ the good days!!
     
  4. Rots in hell

    Rots in hell Senior Member

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    Youth !!
     
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  5. ~Zen~

    ~Zen~ Ancient Mariner Administrator

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    Sadly, I am with you as I now am almost 70 years younger than I was.
     
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  6. Tishomingo

    Tishomingo Members

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    The political stability and consensus on basic democratic values.
     
  7. Echtwelniet

    Echtwelniet Members

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    Carelessness........not having to worry about....................peace of mind:D

    And not having every little thing(non issue) in my face(interwebz/(social/mainstream)media)

    [​IMG]

    Mzzls
     
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  8. soulpoker

    soulpoker Senior Member

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    Hope
     
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  9. Vladimir Illich

    Vladimir Illich Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    Being able to bend over a snooker table and play for hours on end without excruciating pain in my spine.
     
  10. Dude111

    Dude111 An Awesome Dude HipForums Supporter

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    Kind people...........
     
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  11. roadhogg

    roadhogg Senior Member

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    racing cars around local estates ,ford cortinas ,no speed bumps in those days
     
  12. The pleasure I got when my favorite song came on the radio. The radio was all I had, so when that song was played everything else ceased to exist.
     
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  13. granite45

    granite45 Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    Picking wild asparagus along the road with my mother as we road home in our Model A from Kindergarten.
     

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