What would you miss most?

[tonyb]

A friend of mine has a pick-up truck with hand crank windows. One day, her ten year old nephew rode somewhere with her and was puzzled as to what the strange handles in the doors were for. Donna showed him, whereupon the kid spent the balance of the trip repeatedly raising and lowering his window. Donna said he acted exactly the same way she did the first time she rode in a car with electric windows.

I'm sure that kid will one day post on some 2028 version of a vintage oriented forum about riding in his elderly aunt's old truck with mechanical windows.

AF

It's been more than 20 years ago now that my then 10-year-old niece had a friend over to the house who wished to call home to ask permission to stay for dinner. Poor kid had no idea how to operate a rotary dial telephone. She'd never seen such a thing before.

 

[tonyb]

"The Backwards Ballcap Lounge"

The one thing that makes my life bearable is the realization that I won't be alive fifty years from now.

Please don't tell me that's the only thing that makes your life bearable.

But I think I catch the drift ... Mortality ain't all bad. Certain things in this world -- things I can't do much about so I remind myself not to waste my time and psychic energy on them -- will be here after I'm gone. Y'all can have it, thank you very much.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Please don't tell me that's the only thing that makes your life bearable.

But I think I catch the drift ... Mortality ain't all bad. Certain things in this world -- things I can't do much about so I remind myself not to waste my time and psychic energy on them -- will be here after I'm gone. Y'all can have it, thank you very much.

Well, there's always pastrami. That helps, too.

In all seriousness, though, the thought of living to see The Fascinating World Of The Future doesn't appeal to me at all. I wasn't born into *this* world -- it didn't come along until I was well into adulthood, and I never even had a vote on it -- and that being so, I think I'll just continue to opt out of it. I'll stay here amidst the last dregs of the twentieth century, *my* century, until it's time to punch out.

 

[rjb1]

When I was a kid and read a *lot* of science fiction I thought the future would be great and I'd enjoy "driving" the flying cars and going to the moon for the weekend.
Well, it didn't turn out that way at all. Aside from not having flying cars, I am at best neutral toward, and usually hostile to, what goes on today.
I don't like the movies today, don't like the so-called movie "stars", and especially not the "celebrities" with which we are cursed.
I avoid the "grumpy" part of the "grumpy old man" role by being as oblivious as I can get away with to the modern world. I use what little I find useful and ignore the rest to the extent possible.

(I'm putting a 1966 Chevy pickup back into service, partly because it's a family heirloom and partly because it has exactly the proper number of computers that a car should have: zero. - and it's fun...)

Of those aspects of the modern world that I do use, and would miss most if transported to the 1930's or 1940's, I think near the top would be modern dentistry and air conditioning.

 

[Horace Debussy Jones]

Folks are saying they would miss air conditioning, however it was invented by Willis Carrier in 1902, and available for residential use by the 1920s. So no need to worry there, except for auto air conditioning though which is another of the many modern automotive amenities that I would sorely miss. Like many folks here though, I arrived on earth somewhere in the mid twentieth century and have gradually phased into the twenty first, so I am accustomed to those old - timey things like rotary dial phones. So reverting back wouldn't be too terribly painful. And just think, we could simply invent the things we miss before the people who actually did invent them.

 

[Stearmen]

You could get anything from a cream separator to a reversible raincoat to a rebuilt Model T engine to spermicidal jelly from the Sears catalog.

You forgot the most important item Lizzie! You could order all those items and more, while sitting in the comfort of your living room in the home you ordered out of the Sears catalog. [video=youtube;b8nn0ek0qyQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8nn0ek0qyQ[/video]

 

[Fading Fast]

Well, there's always pastrami. That helps, too.

In all seriousness, though, the thought of living to see The Fascinating World Of The Future doesn't appeal to me at all. I wasn't born into *this* world -- it didn't come along until I was well into adulthood, and I never even had a vote on it -- and that being so, I think I'll just continue to opt out of it. I'll stay here amidst the last dregs of the twentieth century, *my* century, until it's time to punch out.

I share many of these sentiment. I enjoy my life, have no desire to go before my time (which is hopefully decades away), but also have no desire to live past my time. I don't think things are going to turn out well (and hope I'm wrong), but feel that the country, culture and its values have moved so far away from those I grew up with, that in another decade or two it would be unrecognizable to my grandmother and maybe even my father. I probably should have been born three decades earlier. I have kept up with all the technology and all the cultural changes in business (there are plenty) to keep my self relevant, but it does get exhausting on some days. I will be happy to have, hopefully, lived a full life and equally happy to say no mas.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Folks are saying they would miss air conditioning, however it was invented by Willis Carrier in 1902, and available for residential use by the 1920s. So no need to worry there, except for auto air conditioning though which is another of the many modern automotive amenities that I would sorely miss. Like many folks here though, I arrived on earth somewhere in the mid twentieth century and have gradually phased into the twenty first, so I am accustomed to those old - timey things like rotary dial phones. So reverting back wouldn't be too terribly painful. And just think, we could simply invent the things we miss before the people who actually did invent them.

Window-unit air conditioners very similar to those sold today were available before the war -- Philco and Westinghouse, among other companies, had full lines of them. They were expensive, and not many people figured they were necessary, but they were available. Why spend a month's pay on an air-conditioner when you can just set a bowl of ice in front of an electric fan like normal people do?

I'd not miss AC at all. Where I live, there are maybe five days out of the entire year where it'd be nice to have. Otherwise a fan or just opening the door to the front porch is all the ventilation I need.

 

[Fading Fast]

My Dad used to say "you'd go to the movies to cool off."

That said, in NYC in July and August, I'd miss air-conditioning. We have a box unit in the bedroom that broke a few summers ago - wow, does it get stifling hot in our apartment in the summer. And we are not big air-conditioning people - it doesn't go on until it is at least 80 out and we use fans instead even then a lot. But somehow, the heat of the day settles in overnight as we've measured it and the temperature inside our apartment peaks at midnight even with the windows open and fans on (on the hot, stifling days that is).

Only from what my Dad said, but he thought he remembered some fancy cars having air-conditioning pre-WWII, but he described it almost like a box unit in the back window (if my very dated memory is remembering his, at the time, very dated memory correctly).

 

[LizzieMaine]

New Yorkers in the Era used to go out and sleep on the fire escape. Very refreshing unless you happened to be a sleepwalker.

Packard offered AC as an option beginning in 1939, with the evaporator unit mounted in the trunk, but it was very expensive and not particularly popular.

On any prewar car you can get a pretty nice breeze just by opening the cowl vent. It doesn't help when you're in stop-n-go traffic, but on the open road you really don't need anything more.

 

[Fading Fast]

He must have seen a Packard (I know he didn't own one - or anything close then), but to a boy whose family lost almost everything in the depression, a big Packard with air-conditioning in 1939 must have seen like Oz to Dorothy.

 

[GHT]

No apologies if this sounds cheesy: I would miss my wife, and how.

 

[Fading Fast]

No apologies if this sounds cheesy: I would miss my wife, and how.

Not cheesy, beautiful - I think that is wonderful. I could not image Susan not coming with me on a trip back in time (and she'd be very disappointed in me if I didn't take her). If she couldn't come, I'd spend the entire time thinking about how much she'd like this or wold want to see that and I'd try to embed it in my memory so that I could tell her about it.

 

[Shangas]

Everyone keeps saying they'll miss air-conditioning. Don't folks have desk-fans anymore?

 

[Fading Fast]

Everyone keeps saying they'll miss air-conditioning. Don't folks have desk-fans anymore?

We have several fans and use them all the time. Also, we live in a 1920s apartment building that was designed for maximum airflow pre-airconditioning (windows on two sides, vents, etc). And up to the low 80s (or high 70s if the humidity is very high), it all works fine without air-conditioning. During the day, even five degrees higher is okay. But at night, especially if the breeze is low, the apartment becomes stifling even with the fans on high. That is when we turn on the ac and are quite thankful for it.

Could we live without it - definitely. Do fans - as you suggest - and other things done in the pre-ac days help - yes, but for about (in NYC) 30 to 50 night a year, ac is the only thing that makes sleeping possible.

 

[ChiTownScion]

People not smoking: I think I could adjust to almost everything, but I couldn't return to that world where smoke was everywhere (like in the 1960s and most of the 70s). Just today, I walked by a single smoker on the street and it reminded me of how disgusting all that smoking used to be (and not just on the streets, but in offices, stores, restaurants and airplanes and even peoples homes). Ugh.

That pretty much says it for me as well. It's one subject upon which I make no pretense at rational discussion: I've seen too many die decades before their time because of smoking. And to expose a child to second hand smoke is nothing but child abuse.

 

[Texfield]

It would be a love/hate affair; I would miss fast international travel. I would love the slow going elegance of ocean liners and early airlines (especially if I could afford travel in First!) but I would really miss being able to get to Europe or Africa within 24 hrs start to finish.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Everyone keeps saying they'll miss air-conditioning. Don't folks have desk-fans anymore?

Desk fans are outlawed in my office. We're also not allowed to use scissors.

As for the effectiveness of desk fans, when it's 103 degrees and 97% humidity, blowing hot, humid air on you really doesn't match air conditioning.

 

[green papaya]

I would miss the cheap prices on all the made in China imports, I remember when common stuff like food , clothing, tools, etc was more expensive, back then you didnt have all the choices you have today.

When I was a kid I was lucky to get one pair of tennis shoes a year and it was always the cheapest bargain priced brand, maybe two pairs of pant and a couple shirts, the rest of my clothing was home made, I use to wear a white tee shirt and wear my jacket all day to hide it because I didnt have enough shirts to wear to school, when I see all the kids these days wearing expensive clothing and carrying Ipods and other fancy gadgets I think of how spoiled and lazy and fat the kids have become these days.

 

[HeyMoe]

Family aside,

I think the only things I would miss is the speed of information. Example, accessing 911. That brings me to my second item I would miss: modern medicine.

Other than that, bring it on.