Thanksgiving, a day late

[amurderofcows]

On a Wednesday afternoon in 1924, President Coolidge's two sons-John, 17, and Calvin, 16-played a game of tennis on the south lawn of the White House. Wearing shoes without socks was something of a fashion among teenage boys of the era, a fashion trend that has come and gone repeatedly in the decades since, probably because it dovetails neatly

Comments

[tko_ak]

Deep.

It is amazing what a few years (relatively speaking) can do tot he sum of human knowledge. On the other hand, despite our progress, we still seem to know how to be destructive and kill people (and the planet).

As a recent college graduate, I can't even imagine how my parents coped in college, what with no internet or computers. It's so uncivilized.

[amurderofcows]

I was on the internet during most of my college years, via a 1200 baud dialup modem, but I was an extremely early adopter. Most of my classmates, except for the computer science people, were unaware of what the internet was.

It's hard for me to compare since I've never been a student with the internet, but I think the biggest changes are

[tko_ak]

My parents are in their mid 50s, so what you say they lived only magnified. They were both old enough to understand the threat of the Cuban Missile Crisis but too young to fully grasp it. My Dad talks about being afraid the world could end at any moment for a week or two. As if hiding under a desk would accomplish anything.

I also heard stories about going to college in the 1970s and how they had to wait in line for hours to sign up for classes, work because there were no such thing as loans or financial aid, spend hours at the library studying and using typewriters and fixing mistakes. Too much work. My Mom said she didn't watch TV while in college, and couldn't believe how much free time I had in college.

[amurderofcows]

Berkeley made me wait in a lot of lines, but I signed up for classes by filling out a form with a #2 pencil indicating my choices and alternates for classes. A computer prioritized us, spat out a schedule, and if we didn't like it, we could try to talk profs into adding us to their classes

Unusually rambly

[homais]

I get touchy about this sort of thing. See, I agree with you wholeheartedly, partly for straightforwardly selfish reasons: there's no way I would have survived childhood before, ohh, the 1940s. But even on less selfish dimensions, I'm really, really grateful to be living at this time - as I probably would have been had I been born in the even more advanced future (assuming it will actually be more advanced, which I have some worries about

Re: Unusually rambly

[amurderofcows]

I don't think your touchiness is warranted. I find history endlessly fascinating, and some substantial percentage of my reading is about history. I find historians who idealize the past pretty unbearable, but I too enjoy immersing myself in some completely different time and place. I've never had trouble doing so without idealizing those times and places, or without my mind being constantly being interrupted with thoughts about how much their teeth must've hurt

The advantage of possessing a pair of testicles

[gingerdavid]

I suspect that you might not have such a romantic idea of the past if you were a woman.

Life may have been fulfilling for a Renaissance man or for a Victorian gentleman, but it was a whole lot less fun for the women, who were treated in much the same way as the Taliban currently treat their womenfolk today.

Re: The advantage of possessing a pair of testicles

[homais]

You're sort of demonstrating my point here, David. At what point did I express a longing to live in the past? At what point did I express a romantic idea of the past? I'm pretty sure I did neither of these things, and yet every time I mention something like what I mentioned in my comment, I'm told that I'm romanticizing some time period that was full of disease and oppression.

[nikolarulz]

Awesome, I completely agree!

[amurderofcows]

Thanks, Nikola.

[agriking]

Yes, unfortunately the medical science of the time ended up being Washington's undoing. But I've always maintained that the time you live in is always the best possible time. Its not like we can move forward and who would want to move back. Well the amish maybe but they're weird to begin with.

[amurderofcows]

Yep, he died of medical practices which were considered quackery even by the quackish standards of 1799. Although dying at 67 still meant you were ahead of the game in the 18th century