Would you rather live then or now?

[missjo]

I agree.
I would miss certain modern conveniences at first, such as my PC,...but if I didn't know any better, maybe over time listening to the radio would be all the entertainment and news I would need.

But there was much more!
The music hall, the tea dansant, bars, cafes, calling friends around for playing boardgames, simply sitting outside your house talking to neighbours or watching kids play.
Today theres a lot of entertainment but so much of it is solo, you dont get to share the fun with others.
Back then social life was much more active.

By the way, your website is awesome, Miss Joeri, very nice! :eusa_clap

Thank you dear, one does ones best

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

But there was much more!
The music hall, the tea dansant, bars, cafes, calling friends around for playing boardgames, simply sitting outside your house talking to neighbours or watching kids play.
Today theres a lot of entertainment but so much of it is solo, you dont get to share the fun with others.
Back then social life was much more active.



Thank you dear, one does ones best

Yep, I remember life before the internet.
I've only been online for about 2 years myself, so the nolvelty of it to me has not worn off just yet.
Though I'm sure I wouldn't miss it and I would have no trouble adapting to the past.
When I perfect time travel, shall I swing over to Amsterdam and pick you up?

 

[Wild Root]

Considering the way I as a Black woman would have been treated in those times, I much prefer living in the year in which I currently live. I barely want to clean my house let alone having to do it for a living cleaning someone else's.

Yes, this one part of the past I'm not crazy about. However, it was very bad in the south and some of the other states weren't as racist. But, the US was a pretty prejudice place for the most part in the 1930's to the 1960's.

Now, I did see a very interesting photo once... it was of a young man dancing with a young lady in the famous Savoy ballroom in Harlem. The interesting part was the young man was white as a sheet! How was this possible? I guess Harlem was some what neutral in the 30's? Not sure.

It's really sad that even today in most parts of the southern US prejudice is still alive... sad.

=WR=

 

[missjo]

Yep, I remember life before the internet.
I've only been online for about 2 years myself, so the nolvelty of it to me has not worn off just yet.
Though I'm sure I wouldn't miss it and I would have no trouble adapting to the past.
When I perfect time travel, shall I swing over to Amsterdam and pick you up?

Yes that would be ever so kind!
Ill bring a picknick basket!

 

[Rosie]

Now, I did see a very interesting photo once... it was of a young man dancing with a young lady in the famous Savoy ballroom in Harlem. The interesting part was the young man was white as a sheet! How was this possible? I guess Harlem was some what neutral in the 30's? Not sure.

It's really sad that even today in most parts of the southern US prejudice is still alive... sad.

=WR=

Harlem was pretty neutral back then. Even today at least in NY, there are many non black people living in and welcome in what are considered to be "black" neighborhoods without incident.

A bit off topic but, my great grandmother was White, married to my great grandfather who was Black. They left the South because you, know, they had to basically. They lived in Harlem without incident until they both died in the 60's. So you're very right.

 

[Twitch]

The 30s is a good place to imagine about in the 2000s but not actually be there. Everybody I have talked to who lived through those years had hard times. All of them didn't know they were hard times since they were much the same for all their peers. If everybodys working for $2 a day and has just 2 shirts and pants and no car it seems normal. But in retrospective, even those that were not directly effected by the Depression and the Dust Bowl had a low standard of living comparable to now. The middle class then would be considered poor by today's standards relative to richer folks. I think that's the way it's going for us again too.

I'll stay in 2006 and just pick and choose the 30s stuff to be nostalgic about

 

[Caledonia]

Then. But only if I'm ready to stop whinging, being lazy, and generally bemoaning my state of life. I'm pretty sick of the fat, rich, have it all, do it all, notion that is today's society. Even the poor are rich (well they are over here in the UK at any rate - nanny state and all that). Nostalgia is a wonderful thing, but the reality means work, and all the things that we moan at whatever decade we're in. Then, now, what's the difference. Do I detect a slight angst to my post? Live where and when you exist. It's what you've got and time machines are irrelevant!

Definite angst, must be a bad night!

 

[missjo]

The 30s is a good place to imagine about in the 2000s but not actually be there. Everybody I have talked to who lived through those years had hard times. All of them didn't know they were hard times since they were much the same for all their peers. If everybodys working for $2 a day and has just 2 shirts and pants and no car it seems normal. But in retrospective, even those that were not directly effected by the Depression and the Dust Bowl had a low standard of living comparable to now. The middle class then would be considered poor by today's standards relative to richer folks. I think that's the way it's going for us again too.

Yes but does that make the 1930s a bad time or does that make us just spoiled rotten?
Ive been poor, ive lived in a house that had ice on the ceiling during winter, no washing machine, no car, old gas heater, victorian house with holes in the windows.
I loved every minute of it

 

[missjo]

Ive got the best solution.

Lets get a bunch of us mad people together and buy a estate somewhere.
Doesnt have to be big.
Or even better, lets buy a ghost town.
Either way, we build our own 1930s society, everything looks, smells, tastes, behaves like in the 1930s but if someone has a terrible accident we can call for a helicopter, upstairs hidden away from view we can have internet, etc, etc.

 

[Wild Root]

Ive got the best solution.

Lets get a bunch of us mad people together and buy a estate somewhere.
Doesnt have to be big.
Or even better, lets buy a ghost town.
Either way, we build our own 1930s society, everything looks, smells, tastes, behaves like in the 1930s but if someone has a terrible accident we can call for a helicopter, upstairs hidden away from view we can have internet, etc, etc.

Is this a new idea? No, afraid not!

I've often wanted to do just that... find a plot of land and build my very own town... have all the best of the 1930's with out racism and Depression. Drive the old cars, cook out of old cook books, have a small radio station that broadcasts old programs and music... have a nice movie house that plays old movies only, have a full service gas station, a market place, a ballroom, everything about a nice humble small town from the 30's but with out the bad stuff!

I'd say, let's do it!!!

=WR=

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

Ive got the best solution.

Lets get a bunch of us mad people together and buy a estate somewhere.
Doesnt have to be big.
Or even better, lets buy a ghost town.
Either way, we build our own 1930s society, everything looks, smells, tastes, behaves like in the 1930s but if someone has a terrible accident we can call for a helicopter, upstairs hidden away from view we can have internet, etc, etc.

That's basically what some of us do in a smaller scale.

Anyway, I'd be dead very quickly in the Golden Era for several reasons. I'm happy I live today (hope the world won't get into a big war or the like), and so I'm using my thirties 'phone, but can read faxes and listen to messages to the same line at my computer or in any internet caf?© if I like. I play Art Tatum's music on a piano built in warm-toned old tradition, and if it's in the middle of the night, I put it on mute and plug in headphones.

 

[Wild Root]

I play Art Tatum's music on a piano built in warm-toned old tradition, and if it's in the middle of the night, I put it on mute and plug in headphones.

Plug in headphones?!? Brother, you need a REAL piano!lol

=WR=

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Is this a new idea? No, afraid not!

I've often wanted to do just that... find a plot of land and build my very own town... have all the best of the 1930's with out racism and Depression. Drive the old cars, cook out of old cook books, have a small radio station that broadcasts old programs and music... have a nice movie house that plays old movies only, have a full service gas station, a market place, a ballroom, everything about a nice humble small town from the 30's but with out the bad stuff!

I'd say, let's do it!!!

=WR=

Count me in. I'll be the town's rich eccentric.

 

[Wild Root]

For me, it's a toss up what I'd do in a vintage town... I'd love to have a soda fountain but, also run a gas station... hummm... ok, I'll do both! lol

=WR=

 

[missjo]

For me, it's a toss up what I'd do in a vintage town... I'd love to have a soda fountain but, also run a gas station... hummm... ok, I'll do both! lol

=WR=

Ill run a newsstand or a small cornershop.
This way I can sell lots of lovely things in reproduction packages, like these I made earlier;

 

[missjo]

Count me in. I'll be the town's rich eccentric.

Rich ey?
I'll be the femme fatale then, at least till you put me in your will and then you will have a mysterious accident, all filmed in black and white of course lol

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Ill run a newsstand or a small cornershop.
This way I can sell lots of lovely things in reproduction packages, like these I made earlier;

You made those!? Cool!
Are they based on an actual product of the same name, or did you invent it? (What is "Luchtbescherming" in English, if I may ask?)

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

Plug in headphones?!? Brother, you need a REAL piano!lol

But that's the point!

It is a real piano, and a great one at that, built by a smaller company that was around in the thirties and forties, too. The muting is mechanical and, in principle, not a modern thing, but the device that optically measures your keystrokes and turns it into sounds in your headphones is decidedly post-Golden Era.

 

[missjo]

You made those!? Cool!
Are they based on an actual product of the same name, or did you invent it? (What is "Luchtbescherming" in English, if I may ask?)

Air defence.
These bars were sold in 1939-1940 when the Netherlands were fearing the war would come to our shores.
On the back of these bars you would get some tips on what to do when the airraid siren would go and some of the money paid for the bar would go to a fund training volunteers for air defence.
I made these for the time we ran a little 1939 shop at a museum, they have real chocolate bars inside and we sold them to the public.
I have the best job in the world...

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

I'll team up with a skinny guy and we'll deliver pianos. lol