It was back in 61. A completely different world. I remember rolled up tee shirt sleeves with a pack of Camels (can you still say Camels?) in them. 57 Chevys. Poodle skirts. (loved it when they swirled).

For proper mood here you need to hum a few bars from Happy Days.

We had a different government back then too. Not that it didnt have its problems, but in at least one way it had a better attitude. Heres an example.

A friend of mine (and just to show you that a Texan can be magnanimous - he lives in CA) who lurks here, well call him ReaderGuy, has in his grubby little hands a book entitled "Fallout Protection", subtitle "What to know and do about nuclear attack". This little book was put out by DOD - Office of Civil Defense and is dated 12/61.

It contains the following text:

[start text]

"Probable Reaction to Disaster"

"Experience has shown that many human beings act cooperatively when disaster strikes, many feel helpless, a few panic. Disaster studies indicate that information, planning and preparation clearly increase the extent of cooperative and constructive behavior following a disaster"

[end text]

It goes on with other insane activities like actually informing the public about the possible effects of a nuclear attack and what preparations they might take. ReaderGuy was a little stingy with exact quotes but Mrs. ReaderGuy read a bunch to Greybear. Will try to get more exact quotes.

Hmmmm. Somewhere along the line the idea of an informed public seems to have gotten lost in the occasional fog that envelopes DeeCee.

--Greybear, who upon rereading this post wants to assure everyone that he was looking at the Poodle skirts NOT wearing them. NOT I tell you. NOT.

-Got Information?

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), March 07, 1999

Answers

Ummm, hey Bear,

OK, OK, OK, I believe you! Who in the hell wants ta see that any how? I mean, well, you know, shave yer freakin'legs would ya?

-- Lurking against my will (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), March 07, 1999.

What is wrong with Poodle skirts? Mine wears one all the time.

-- Frenchie (dog@lover.here), March 07, 1999.

Say the secret woid and win $50.

Is is really you?

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), March 07, 1999.

Looks like it is GB! And I bet he's been lurkin' "against his will" and "sanity" all along ;-)

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 07, 1999.

I think he's posted, too. You can see my opinion several days (weeks?) ago on the FRL thread.

In case I was wrong, WELCOME BACK unhappy lurker!

Oh, BTW GB, in 1961 I was knee-high to a - , so I don't remember if the gov't was more open then, or if they just seemed that way.

BM (blond moment)- what is that one's knee-high to? a bullfrog, a grasshopper? Help! (I'm not even blond, now, got darker as I got older :-)

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), March 07, 1999.

The original dwon here was grasshopper.

BTW, I like that. I;m gonna use it - "Wait, I'm having a BM"

that outta stop the next staff meeting in it's tracks.

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), March 07, 1999.

GB, if it doesn't crack them up completely, they've lost all sense of the ridiculous. Just imagining the scene gives me the belly laughs.

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), March 07, 1999.

Arriving in New Orleans, thence to San Angelo, Texas, in 1967, I found kind neighbors the norm, well-behaved children and adults common, courteous and efficient sales clerks everywhere, tolerance for all but the utmost radical, and great optimism for the future permeating all. (That was the year of the Moon Landing, I think.) By then the poodle skirts were gone but I owned some cool mini-skirts and go-go boots.

Back then you could work at the same place for 30, 40 and 50 years--and you got a nice retirement check, none of this complicated 401(k) and IRA crap. Health care was relatively reasonably priced--one size fits all, and no agonizing over which plan to choose. If you said "downsizing" back then, people probably would have thought you referred to diet. Road rage was unknown, very few people knew anyone who had been murdered or hurt in a crime, people were far less stressed. They were indeed "Happy Days."

I knew in the late seventies that the country had changed but it wasn't until the early eighties that I finally admitted to myself it would be a long time before the mood changed to something more humane. Now I'm afraid it never will.

One last thing. I think the common denominator in almost everything that's gone wrong with this country is greed. Now, now, don't jump on me. I didn't say we should go to communes or Marxist principles, God forbid, I said "greed." That's far removed from a very comfortable lifestyle by dint of hard work and independent thinking. My definition of greed is what you get when someone or several make decisions which they know will hurt a lot of people in order to give themselves an extra hundred thou or million or billion a year on top of the very nice sum they already have. Decisions like moving a factory abroad.

Okay, I'll buy that you didn't wear the skirt, Greybear. But a few years later, did you have long hair and did you ever tie it in a pony tail? Huh?

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 07, 1999.

YKK

Send my prize money to the ASPCA, bitte.

-- helpless junkie (gettin@hisfix.com), March 07, 1999.

Greybear: The nuclear explosion practice in grade school during the 50's was called "duck and cover." I remember vivdly getting under my desk, hunching into a ball and covering my head. Now that I think about it, it has left scars on my emotional well being to this day, who can I sue? They scared the heck out of you! Oh yea, they even had a song to go along with it! We rented a video a few years back that had all those weird government topics and we ROTFLOAO...but you gotta watch them stoned!

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), March 07, 1999.

OG,

OG,

Funny you should mention hair. MaMa Bear has been trying for 28 years to get me to try this or that style. This ol Bear has worn his hair exactly the same way since he was four yrs old.. Normal short cut. part on left. That is except for when he was a cop. Wore a burr then - leave nothing that can be used as a handle.

bardou sweetie,

The Bear started first grade in 1951. Do I ever remember the drills. There is one mystery I've never been able to solve related to those drills. It has to do with the structural strength of those desks. I know they must have been exceeingly strong. But exactly how much gum can be stuck on the bottom of one before it colapses.

Hey junkie,

That sounds like some kind of old, not particularly funny joke. Hell, there might even be a couple more. It do get addicting don't it?

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), March 07, 1999.

Yep, it was him. Once addicted, it's tough to stay away for long. :-)

Old Git, the moon landing was July, 1969.

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), March 07, 1999.

As a grade school kidlet, living near Vandenberg AFB, during the Cuban Missle Crisis, there was a whole "keep the community informed" and "drill the kids in safety" effort.

Our desks were our friends.

Remember a lot of neighbor's building bomb shelters too. No one called them wacko's for "getting ready."

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), March 07, 1999.

random reflections...

I was born in 1971. When I was growing up, I heard of no one preparing for survival through a nuclear war. We in the schoolyard numbly accepted that we would die in one. Graying activists from the '60s were now protesting the Bomb, and trying to enlist us kids into their ranks. At the time I felt mildly chastised by many elders for being such a carefree 10-15 year old, for being part of that no-good, wild generation that a large number tried to abort out of existence. I was made to feel responsible for the Bomb. I saw _the Day After_ and was very frightened.

I stumbled on an old civil defence pamphlet lay underneath a stack of magazines on the coffee table, comprising of info on how to build yer own bomb shelter and tips on how to avoid staring at the Flash. Thus, when I was 10, I wanted to build that bomb shelter. (Too bad in Florida, one can only go down about 4 feet and you hit water...My friends and family thought I was nuts, and condescendingly pat me on the head.) But this was the golden age of the MIRV and MAD, mind you. (Back in '61 there were only a handful of soviet ICBMS. One could at least scramble the air-to-air interceptors to take them out. Survival was almost believable.) When I found that there were tens of thousands of megaton-sized warheads aimed at us, what was the point?

You see, I grew up in a very pessimistic and cynical time, never personally knowing that there could ever be such as thing as "good old days." I still don't understand the concept of "good old days." I thought that ALL times are filled with worry and sorrow, with just a few rays of beauty and hope to tease you into moving on and living life as best you can.

But from time to time I hear "Safety Dance" from Men Without Hats or Van Halen's "Jump" and something tells me that everything's going to be alright in the long run.

Back in the '80s, retro-50's was hip. Back in the early 90's, retro 60s was hip. A coupla years ago, retro 70's was hip. Now retro 80's is hip. As Frank Zappa (God rest his soul) says, "nostalgia is catching up with the present." Information overload shortens the length of time that people focus on things, including these "retro" fads. So before long, if you extrapolate on the trend, by 2006 we will be feeling great nostalgia for 2005.

-- Coprolith (Coprolith@rocketship.com), March 07, 1999.

NIce to see the old curmudgeon (through teh fog) back.

Grew up in teh 50's and 60's, just down wind from Griffis AFB (a little [former] SAC base in Central NY). tried to do teh shelter thing in the basement. folks figgered I'd grow out of it. How wrong they were11 lol.

I DO remember times as GOOD OLD DAYS, but they were in the early 60's. Dad's round ball team (then it weas bassket ball and no other name allowed) going undefeated (from a SMALL town), courtesy, politeness, kindness, summer days, summer nights, weekends in teh Adirondaks, campfires and songs.

Gotta quit and dry out the keyboard. GB thanks for the reason.

Got Hankies???

Chuck

-- Chuck, night driver (rienzoo@en.com), March 07, 1999.

Chuck,

Glad to see you seeing us.

I was afraid you might get down over all that sutff.

Glad to see that you're up Chuck.

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), March 08, 1999.

Thanks, Gayla, you know how the memory plays tricks when you're an old git. The Moon Landing, Hurricane Camille and divorce from No. 1 in the same year--you think there's a connection?

Chuck, glad everything went okay.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 08, 1999.

My nostalgia wayback machine goes no further than the early eighties, which featured, as I remember it, Different Strokes, Plastic Bertrand, and footy players with dodgy haircuts.

-- humpty (no.6@thevillage.com), March 08, 1999.

Remember what a big deal it was that they televised Queen Elizabeth's coronation?

-- Hardliner (searcher@internet.com), March 08, 1999.