Shame on you for thinking of a dirty limerick! I can’t quite put a finger on the origin of this line, but I think it goes way back. Any thoughts? I know Edgar Allan Poe used it in his poem Eldorado . . .
Anyway . . .
Natalie O. suggested we start a discussion listing the things we miss the most about the “old days” —our life before all this malarkey pulled us into the abyss. . . such as having dinner out with family and no one was on a cell phone. Stuff like that.
I’ll start out by saying I miss having a ton of friends who all had different views politically, socially, musically, etc. and we all still got along. I miss not worrying about family and friends who may eventually succumb to the unlawful medical intervention we all have had to endure. I miss not seeing people terrified of the air they breathe or the people they come in contact with in public. I also miss, which probably always has been an illusion, a government I can basically trust not to overtly hurt me with lies and criminal actions (I guess I am saying I miss being able to live rather comfortably in denial!! J ).
So go at it. Let’s see what others think about missing from “days of old” . . .
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I just read through your article Todd, and all of the excellent comments that I completely agree with. So I will add a few things that were difficult during the plandemic in terms of primarily my relationship with family and friends.
It seems so petty, but I really enjoy a good stand up comedian. So my wife (who can probably get a free coffee with her next vaccination ;-) ) and I would enjoy when a comedian we liked had a new special. But since all this has gone down, I cringe at observational humour now because it is primarily pandemic related and you really get to see who has been guzzling the kool aid.
Also, once the shots were available and I made my position very clear, just watching normal broadcast TV became impossible. Not only were commercial breaks filled with panic and fear propaganda PSAs, but even just watching things like sporting events they would have to comment about Covid protocols and have shots of all the fans with masks (or empty stands).
It just seemed that everything was geared towards getting that fear message across.
But here is the positive that came out of all that. I cut the cord, stopped watching live TV, except for certain sports. But when I watch those, I mute all commercials and even the intermission commentary. I have learned to filter out as much of the crap as I possibly can. I know that I can't assume that anyone is going to have the same views that I do so I spend time listening and strategizing how I would answer certain questions or steer conversations in different directions.
Unfortunately these are all things I need to do to protect myself in the society we are becoming. Luckily, I have a lifetime of experience in this area.
I miss the possibility of anonymity and privacy in life, when cameras were not ubiquitous. and every move and purchase were not captured as data to be used against your will or knowledge. This quiet time would be pre mid 90's, I guess, before each one of us became just a widget in government and corporate minds.
Privacy, and a sense of privacy, are very interesting psychological phenomena. I will have to do some research on this to speak intelligently about it. There certainly was a time in my lifetime where the loss of even a modicum of privacy was something really big to yak about. Certainly sexual privacy and the violation of that privacy was huge. There also used to be a radical sense of violation and invasion when even the simplest infringement of privacy took place.
Today, no one seems to give a crap. I am working on an article titled "Pathological Tolerance" which will delve into this idea a bit more. It all boils down to "safety" which is probably the number one human desire considering we, in our flesh bag bodies, have a greater sensitivity for safety or lack of safety since we seem so utterly vulnerable all of the time. If we didn't viciously protect our privacy, it would be easier for others to violate our autonomy—look at the US "Wild West" era where everyone carried a gun, "don't tread on me or you will be staring down a barrel of a six shooter". I believe part of the agenda has been to desensitize us of our penchant for privacy.
Look at "Alexa"...a generation ago no one would tolerate such a thing. Now no one seems to care at all that some device could be listening to you..."I have nothing to hide" is the general come back when someone mentions the possibility. So they think...ha...
Reality TV definitely fed into this, but I would argue that Farcebook (and then Instagram, TikTok, etc.) provided a platform for people to "share" everything. It suddenly became OK to post about every idiotic detail of one's life. Of course we over 50s generally didn't do this and have never been able to comprehend why anyone would post what they ate for dinner last night. There were a number of factors that desensitized us to a lack of privacy and social media is a huge one.
it's like discounting the need for those in charge to surveil the population, and forget about "confession" in the church. they are always afraid. it's larkin's idea about the tiny dot. paranoid weirdos don't get my attention anymore. when you elect yourself as the prime minister of your life it gets easier. try it. peace.
Jun 10, 2023·edited Jun 10, 2023Liked by Todd Hayen, PhD, RP
I am with you Todd as the thing I miss most is being able to converse with friends and others who are expressing a variety of differing , interesting and divergent views while being accepting and respectful of each other. This is mostly gone . Meaningful exchanges have in large measure been replaced by judgement and labels. Perhaps a positive outcome for me is that it has led to a change in how I assess people and who I let into my inner circle.
There is definitely a "silver lining" to all this. My wife complains that I am always looking for the negative now...I reply that I don't really have to "look"...and again, to use the Matrix as an analogy...it is better to know the ugly truth than to live a pretty lie. Some people honestly do not believe this...I do...
I couldn't agree more. It seems far less safe to have honest conversations as you never know who will label you a domestic terrorist for loving freedom, not wanting kids to be mutilated, or for not sacrificing for the "greater good."
Amen. What has happened? Is it in the water? Quite literally, probably so. There are lots of reports of the vax causing personality changes, lower IQ, and negative cognitive function. If that is true, we have to give up getting into conversations with these people. We would have better luck trying to teach our dogs to go grocery shopping for us.
It’s hard to look back and say “I miss ---“, knowing it was all a veneer of falsehoods. I’m over the grief & I will always choose the ugly truth over a beautiful lie.
I miss looking at an overcast sky (especially if it's been like that for days) and not wondering if it's because they've sprayed something on us.
I also miss people not shutting you up and getting livid if you talk about something they disagree with. My sister-in-law, who has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's (almost certainly vaxx-induced) in her 60s, came for a walk with us today. She's perfectly lucid. The problem was that, while sitting in the park, she started talking about Boris Johnson (we're in the UK), which led her on to Trump. I said I didn't like Trump, but in terms of 'treasonous' actions, which she was talking about in relation to Trump, he couldn't hold a candle to Joe Biden - also that BIden wasn't competent and was being 'managed'. She really angrily shut down the conversation, saying, OK, we just have to stop this conversation - I literally can't listen to this. When did people get like this?
Whoa!!! You really touched a nerve with this comment!! It is probably my number 1 complaint...I just had one of these sorts of conversations with my wife...she was complaining about how the US (we are in Canada) doesn't prioritize expenditures (specifically national health care and maternity leave) and, thinking we might actually share some views, I blurted out, "well, if they stopped pumping billions into this Ukraine war they might have some money to spend on more important things."
She blew a gasket! "It has NOTHING to do with Ukraine!!!!" I thought she was going to throw something at me...followed by the usual "I don't want to talk about this."
Yes, the same response from me..."When did people get like this??"
Any time I have the misfortune of criticizing the West for any of its insane policies or apparent decadence, my husband immediately proposes that I move to Russia or China (I once responded that he could suggest other places like Costa Rica 😆); there are a number of subjects where discussions have become impossible indeed. *SIGH*.
That’s the point ie ideally being able to leave a conversation having had an exchange of views , perhaps not in full agreement but hopefully learning something …..at least accepting the right of the other person to have a POV . Never mind I was called a Fascist ( perhaps misspelled ) for saying I would prefer a Trump over a Biden presidency .
I miss my life before deciding to come to earth to learn whatever life lesson I agreed to learn 😜! I’m not sure I really understood what I was getting into🙆♀️
I miss beautiful blue skies; going to town without being triggered by masks; going to the movies on a Friday night; planning my life without a survival plan involved; breathing in clean air without the smell of smoke; buying veggies and meat without worrying about the mRNA shit in it; not worrying about living in a communist surveilled country with the threat of reeducation camps. And to go anywhere without seeing a fucking rainbow flag😡😞. I miss having full days when I didn’t swear!
The whole rainbow flag thing still intrigues me. I can't really figure it out and do wonder if "normal gays" like all this attention. I can see the agenda's incentive in all of it, but I can't see how the people actually waving the flags see anything positive about all that attention...go figure.
I think LGB... are a tool just like blacks were in the past, to fragment people and to set new social norms as old ones are destroyed. Mega rich only care about power and money, not people's sexuality or skin color. Flags are the rallying symbol to give their campaigns legitimacy and imagery, as we live in a world with indigestion of visuals.
I miss, if it ever was more abundant, common sense and courage.
Exactly...we can see all the "tactics"...the flag being a particularly obvious one...all nations have flags to "rally around"...it is an object that represents "division" to the people that wave it—"we are special" "we are different" and often "we are better"...
Such an obvious symbols of non-unity...although of course meant to be a symbol of unity...one group's unity and another group's non-exclusion. When no boundaries are set, and there is no "difference" to ACKNOWLEDGE as different, then we are truly united. No one group should declare "pride" or an attitude of "look at us, we are different, respect our difference, note it, pay homage to it"...that is the opposite of unity and inclusivity...isn't that obvious??
You're so fucking right! Sorry, couldn't resist swearing. I'm still triggered by masks as well and the rainbow flags make me gag. So long as you keep the kids out of it, do whatever you want in your personal life and I could care less. That's the best way to be an "ally" -- to simply not care. Same with Convid -- you do you and leave me alone and we'll get along just fine. I miss everyone just minding their own damned business!
The "not caring" part is absolutely the way to go if the agenda wasn't behind it. That is how I used to be with most things, it IS a free country after all (choke choke sputter sputter). BUT...now that it seems the agenda is behind nearly everything, I can't sit silent. All of this is a conscious effort to destroy humanity...(I am not saying supporting the rights of homosexuals is "destroying humanity"...needless to say) ...I think you know what I mean...
It's natural to gag when something is forced down your throat. Nobody cared about being gay, bisexual, trans, etc. until they shoved it down our throats and proclaimed that our silence was violence and that minding our own business somehow made us transphobic. And then they started targeting kids and many sane people saw that as crossing the line. The backlash was inevitable but, as you say, it's all part of the divide and conquer agenda.
And don't get me started on how they mess with language. I'm sorry, but I will not refer to a singular person as "they." I'm not transphobic, I merely have respect for language and biological reality.
Well put. Your comment reminds me of the bully tactic to tell someone who is just minding their own business that someone else made fun of them, and the person they are claiming made fun of them thinks the person the bully is telling the lie to are this or that awful thing. And then the person the bully is lying to gets pissed, and angry, and wants to confront the other innocent person, who was not doing anything the bully said they were doing, and tell them "oh yeah??!! what did you say about me??"
This starts a fight of course.
In this case the bully is the government, or some other nefarious entity, telling gays, bi, non binary, whatever's that we, the general public who really don't give a crap, that we have persecuted them in some way, that we are homophobic, transphobic, or whatever and that we should be accused of hate crimes and so and so. So the trans/gay/?? gets angry with us, and says "prove you respect us!! Prove you don't think ill of us by honoring our "right" to be called certain pronouns (or whatever other demands...fly our flag, wear rainbow t-shirts, whatever) and if you don't, then you are committing a hate crime"...blah blah blah.
The bully that "started all this" just sits back and chuckles and watches as this absurdity plays out in front of them.
i miss my mom. who was 'skimmed' 17 years ago by the staff at a cottage country hospital. morphine induced coma. i didn't even suspect anything til the plandemic. i also miss blue skies. as for the people who have gone from my life. they never were friends. i really made an effort with some of them. the gulf was too wide. the connections not genuine. leonard cohen - And I loved you when our love was blessed
Yes, "I miss the ignorance of the '80s" is more accurate. Anything any of us say we miss is going to have at its foundation "I miss being in denial." Yes, there are "things" that were better...like no cell phones, etc. but there has always been that dark ugly drive toward evil.
Think "The Matrix"...if we are in the matrix, anything we once enjoyed was still in the matrix, it was just less clear where we were.
I miss kids playing junk football and hockey in the street, yelling “car!” when they need to get off the road; roaming miles away from home and coming home “when it’s dark”. My kids will never know this wonder of freedom and independence. Even if THEY were willing to wander (I have a child with some severe anxiety, and she wouldn’t wander even if she wanted to), there wouldn’t be any other children from them to romp and play with. :/ But then I didn’t grow up in a city suburb, but in a country suburb with miles of fields behind my house or on enclosed military bases, and maybe that’s part of the difference for my kids. But i don’t think it’s only that. My kids got the cops called on them because they were sitting on a curb in our own yard. 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️ (The driver was concerned she might hit them...which, if she manages to hit three children sitting on a curb, they weren’t the problem anyway...)
Oh wow...you have the same experiences I had as a kid! I forgot about the calling out of "car!!" ... And yes, I wandered around the neighborhood until dark...always knowing when to come home. My mother had this weird call she would let out when she wanted us to come home...obviously we never ventured far enough where we couldn't hear it.
It is astonishing how different things were, and how they were the last bastions of true human civilization. I truly believe the full breakdown really didn't start until a generation or so ago in the West. And just what you describe is the beginning of it.
Watch the movie "The World of Henry Orient" for a city (NYC) version of what you describe, probably around the same era (1964), It is quite astonishing what two young girls (14 or so) did in NYC of that time compared to now.
I miss virtue, sanity and wisdom.
I just read through your article Todd, and all of the excellent comments that I completely agree with. So I will add a few things that were difficult during the plandemic in terms of primarily my relationship with family and friends.
It seems so petty, but I really enjoy a good stand up comedian. So my wife (who can probably get a free coffee with her next vaccination ;-) ) and I would enjoy when a comedian we liked had a new special. But since all this has gone down, I cringe at observational humour now because it is primarily pandemic related and you really get to see who has been guzzling the kool aid.
Also, once the shots were available and I made my position very clear, just watching normal broadcast TV became impossible. Not only were commercial breaks filled with panic and fear propaganda PSAs, but even just watching things like sporting events they would have to comment about Covid protocols and have shots of all the fans with masks (or empty stands).
It just seemed that everything was geared towards getting that fear message across.
But here is the positive that came out of all that. I cut the cord, stopped watching live TV, except for certain sports. But when I watch those, I mute all commercials and even the intermission commentary. I have learned to filter out as much of the crap as I possibly can. I know that I can't assume that anyone is going to have the same views that I do so I spend time listening and strategizing how I would answer certain questions or steer conversations in different directions.
Unfortunately these are all things I need to do to protect myself in the society we are becoming. Luckily, I have a lifetime of experience in this area.
I miss when Government didn't look at us like they were a Turkey Vulture and knew we were gasping for our last breath!
I also miss the time when we had some privacy left.
I miss when THE TERMINATOR was just a fictional movie with no possibility of reality.
I miss the pre-2020 world. I miss the time when I could tell what is true and what is false. I miss when women were women and men were men.
I miss people who looked at politicians and corporations with suspicion.
I miss when I didn't need reading glasses to type this comment :)
I miss the possibility of anonymity and privacy in life, when cameras were not ubiquitous. and every move and purchase were not captured as data to be used against your will or knowledge. This quiet time would be pre mid 90's, I guess, before each one of us became just a widget in government and corporate minds.
Privacy, and a sense of privacy, are very interesting psychological phenomena. I will have to do some research on this to speak intelligently about it. There certainly was a time in my lifetime where the loss of even a modicum of privacy was something really big to yak about. Certainly sexual privacy and the violation of that privacy was huge. There also used to be a radical sense of violation and invasion when even the simplest infringement of privacy took place.
Today, no one seems to give a crap. I am working on an article titled "Pathological Tolerance" which will delve into this idea a bit more. It all boils down to "safety" which is probably the number one human desire considering we, in our flesh bag bodies, have a greater sensitivity for safety or lack of safety since we seem so utterly vulnerable all of the time. If we didn't viciously protect our privacy, it would be easier for others to violate our autonomy—look at the US "Wild West" era where everyone carried a gun, "don't tread on me or you will be staring down a barrel of a six shooter". I believe part of the agenda has been to desensitize us of our penchant for privacy.
Look at "Alexa"...a generation ago no one would tolerate such a thing. Now no one seems to care at all that some device could be listening to you..."I have nothing to hide" is the general come back when someone mentions the possibility. So they think...ha...
Reality TV definitely fed into this, but I would argue that Farcebook (and then Instagram, TikTok, etc.) provided a platform for people to "share" everything. It suddenly became OK to post about every idiotic detail of one's life. Of course we over 50s generally didn't do this and have never been able to comprehend why anyone would post what they ate for dinner last night. There were a number of factors that desensitized us to a lack of privacy and social media is a huge one.
wth do you all think reality TV was about?
it's like discounting the need for those in charge to surveil the population, and forget about "confession" in the church. they are always afraid. it's larkin's idea about the tiny dot. paranoid weirdos don't get my attention anymore. when you elect yourself as the prime minister of your life it gets easier. try it. peace.
To me privacy or lack of is huge, even rats die if they lack it.
Mary Harrington recently wrote a good piece on this: https://reactionaryfeminist.substack.com/p/devour-me-mummy
https://reason.com/2023/06/07/why-are-so-many-younger-americans-okay-with-big-brother-monitoring-their-homes/
I am with you Todd as the thing I miss most is being able to converse with friends and others who are expressing a variety of differing , interesting and divergent views while being accepting and respectful of each other. This is mostly gone . Meaningful exchanges have in large measure been replaced by judgement and labels. Perhaps a positive outcome for me is that it has led to a change in how I assess people and who I let into my inner circle.
There is definitely a "silver lining" to all this. My wife complains that I am always looking for the negative now...I reply that I don't really have to "look"...and again, to use the Matrix as an analogy...it is better to know the ugly truth than to live a pretty lie. Some people honestly do not believe this...I do...
I couldn't agree more. It seems far less safe to have honest conversations as you never know who will label you a domestic terrorist for loving freedom, not wanting kids to be mutilated, or for not sacrificing for the "greater good."
Amen. What has happened? Is it in the water? Quite literally, probably so. There are lots of reports of the vax causing personality changes, lower IQ, and negative cognitive function. If that is true, we have to give up getting into conversations with these people. We would have better luck trying to teach our dogs to go grocery shopping for us.
It’s hard to look back and say “I miss ---“, knowing it was all a veneer of falsehoods. I’m over the grief & I will always choose the ugly truth over a beautiful lie.
I commented the same thing somewhere...like the matrix...yeah, there are things to miss, but bad stuff was still underneath it all.
I miss looking at an overcast sky (especially if it's been like that for days) and not wondering if it's because they've sprayed something on us.
I also miss people not shutting you up and getting livid if you talk about something they disagree with. My sister-in-law, who has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's (almost certainly vaxx-induced) in her 60s, came for a walk with us today. She's perfectly lucid. The problem was that, while sitting in the park, she started talking about Boris Johnson (we're in the UK), which led her on to Trump. I said I didn't like Trump, but in terms of 'treasonous' actions, which she was talking about in relation to Trump, he couldn't hold a candle to Joe Biden - also that BIden wasn't competent and was being 'managed'. She really angrily shut down the conversation, saying, OK, we just have to stop this conversation - I literally can't listen to this. When did people get like this?
Whoa!!! You really touched a nerve with this comment!! It is probably my number 1 complaint...I just had one of these sorts of conversations with my wife...she was complaining about how the US (we are in Canada) doesn't prioritize expenditures (specifically national health care and maternity leave) and, thinking we might actually share some views, I blurted out, "well, if they stopped pumping billions into this Ukraine war they might have some money to spend on more important things."
She blew a gasket! "It has NOTHING to do with Ukraine!!!!" I thought she was going to throw something at me...followed by the usual "I don't want to talk about this."
Yes, the same response from me..."When did people get like this??"
Any time I have the misfortune of criticizing the West for any of its insane policies or apparent decadence, my husband immediately proposes that I move to Russia or China (I once responded that he could suggest other places like Costa Rica 😆); there are a number of subjects where discussions have become impossible indeed. *SIGH*.
That’s the point ie ideally being able to leave a conversation having had an exchange of views , perhaps not in full agreement but hopefully learning something …..at least accepting the right of the other person to have a POV . Never mind I was called a Fascist ( perhaps misspelled ) for saying I would prefer a Trump over a Biden presidency .
I miss my life before deciding to come to earth to learn whatever life lesson I agreed to learn 😜! I’m not sure I really understood what I was getting into🙆♀️
I miss beautiful blue skies; going to town without being triggered by masks; going to the movies on a Friday night; planning my life without a survival plan involved; breathing in clean air without the smell of smoke; buying veggies and meat without worrying about the mRNA shit in it; not worrying about living in a communist surveilled country with the threat of reeducation camps. And to go anywhere without seeing a fucking rainbow flag😡😞. I miss having full days when I didn’t swear!
Very nice list...agree with it all.
The whole rainbow flag thing still intrigues me. I can't really figure it out and do wonder if "normal gays" like all this attention. I can see the agenda's incentive in all of it, but I can't see how the people actually waving the flags see anything positive about all that attention...go figure.
Anyone gay here care to comment?
I think LGB... are a tool just like blacks were in the past, to fragment people and to set new social norms as old ones are destroyed. Mega rich only care about power and money, not people's sexuality or skin color. Flags are the rallying symbol to give their campaigns legitimacy and imagery, as we live in a world with indigestion of visuals.
I miss, if it ever was more abundant, common sense and courage.
Exactly...we can see all the "tactics"...the flag being a particularly obvious one...all nations have flags to "rally around"...it is an object that represents "division" to the people that wave it—"we are special" "we are different" and often "we are better"...
Such an obvious symbols of non-unity...although of course meant to be a symbol of unity...one group's unity and another group's non-exclusion. When no boundaries are set, and there is no "difference" to ACKNOWLEDGE as different, then we are truly united. No one group should declare "pride" or an attitude of "look at us, we are different, respect our difference, note it, pay homage to it"...that is the opposite of unity and inclusivity...isn't that obvious??
You're so fucking right! Sorry, couldn't resist swearing. I'm still triggered by masks as well and the rainbow flags make me gag. So long as you keep the kids out of it, do whatever you want in your personal life and I could care less. That's the best way to be an "ally" -- to simply not care. Same with Convid -- you do you and leave me alone and we'll get along just fine. I miss everyone just minding their own damned business!
So true! Just mind you’re on freakin business is right! And thanks for humouring me with some swearing 😜
The "not caring" part is absolutely the way to go if the agenda wasn't behind it. That is how I used to be with most things, it IS a free country after all (choke choke sputter sputter). BUT...now that it seems the agenda is behind nearly everything, I can't sit silent. All of this is a conscious effort to destroy humanity...(I am not saying supporting the rights of homosexuals is "destroying humanity"...needless to say) ...I think you know what I mean...
It's natural to gag when something is forced down your throat. Nobody cared about being gay, bisexual, trans, etc. until they shoved it down our throats and proclaimed that our silence was violence and that minding our own business somehow made us transphobic. And then they started targeting kids and many sane people saw that as crossing the line. The backlash was inevitable but, as you say, it's all part of the divide and conquer agenda.
And don't get me started on how they mess with language. I'm sorry, but I will not refer to a singular person as "they." I'm not transphobic, I merely have respect for language and biological reality.
Well put. Your comment reminds me of the bully tactic to tell someone who is just minding their own business that someone else made fun of them, and the person they are claiming made fun of them thinks the person the bully is telling the lie to are this or that awful thing. And then the person the bully is lying to gets pissed, and angry, and wants to confront the other innocent person, who was not doing anything the bully said they were doing, and tell them "oh yeah??!! what did you say about me??"
This starts a fight of course.
In this case the bully is the government, or some other nefarious entity, telling gays, bi, non binary, whatever's that we, the general public who really don't give a crap, that we have persecuted them in some way, that we are homophobic, transphobic, or whatever and that we should be accused of hate crimes and so and so. So the trans/gay/?? gets angry with us, and says "prove you respect us!! Prove you don't think ill of us by honoring our "right" to be called certain pronouns (or whatever other demands...fly our flag, wear rainbow t-shirts, whatever) and if you don't, then you are committing a hate crime"...blah blah blah.
The bully that "started all this" just sits back and chuckles and watches as this absurdity plays out in front of them.
i miss my mom. who was 'skimmed' 17 years ago by the staff at a cottage country hospital. morphine induced coma. i didn't even suspect anything til the plandemic. i also miss blue skies. as for the people who have gone from my life. they never were friends. i really made an effort with some of them. the gulf was too wide. the connections not genuine. leonard cohen - And I loved you when our love was blessed
And I love you now there's nothing left
But sorrow and a sense of overtime. peace
Well put, as usual.
I think I can sum up your sentiment with "I miss the 80's." (Or, perhaps more correctly put, "I miss the ignorance of the 80's."
Yes, "I miss the ignorance of the '80s" is more accurate. Anything any of us say we miss is going to have at its foundation "I miss being in denial." Yes, there are "things" that were better...like no cell phones, etc. but there has always been that dark ugly drive toward evil.
Think "The Matrix"...if we are in the matrix, anything we once enjoyed was still in the matrix, it was just less clear where we were.
I miss kids playing junk football and hockey in the street, yelling “car!” when they need to get off the road; roaming miles away from home and coming home “when it’s dark”. My kids will never know this wonder of freedom and independence. Even if THEY were willing to wander (I have a child with some severe anxiety, and she wouldn’t wander even if she wanted to), there wouldn’t be any other children from them to romp and play with. :/ But then I didn’t grow up in a city suburb, but in a country suburb with miles of fields behind my house or on enclosed military bases, and maybe that’s part of the difference for my kids. But i don’t think it’s only that. My kids got the cops called on them because they were sitting on a curb in our own yard. 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️ (The driver was concerned she might hit them...which, if she manages to hit three children sitting on a curb, they weren’t the problem anyway...)
Oh wow...you have the same experiences I had as a kid! I forgot about the calling out of "car!!" ... And yes, I wandered around the neighborhood until dark...always knowing when to come home. My mother had this weird call she would let out when she wanted us to come home...obviously we never ventured far enough where we couldn't hear it.
It is astonishing how different things were, and how they were the last bastions of true human civilization. I truly believe the full breakdown really didn't start until a generation or so ago in the West. And just what you describe is the beginning of it.
Watch the movie "The World of Henry Orient" for a city (NYC) version of what you describe, probably around the same era (1964), It is quite astonishing what two young girls (14 or so) did in NYC of that time compared to now.
Good lord! Poor kids🙄