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Dave Barry: Grown-ups used to have fun

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Dick Whitman, Mar 2, 2015.

  1. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Heck, we didn't even have seat belts back then.

    And I remember when my toddler sister fell out of the car on Green Road in South Euclid, Ohio, after my mom turned left out of the grocery store. I had to run back and pick her up in the middle of the street.

    And she turned out .... hmm. ... Maybe that's not a good example.
     
  2. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    George Burns lived to 100. So much for all the anti-smoking hysteria!
     
  3. Mr. Sunshine

    Mr. Sunshine Well-Known Member

    I don't smoke, I haven't had a drink in years, I love spending time with my kids. I am perfectly happy with every one of those decisions. But my dad was 100 times more fun than I ever was. Of course, he was born during the Depression, and those guys knew how to have fun! Not like those pussy Baby Boomers.
     
  4. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    Another thing he (conveniently) doesn't address is that people didn't get prenatal tests to find out if things were wrong with their babies because they couldn't. Yet somehow living in that ignorance is implied to be more noble than developing the technology to detect fetal abnormalities and acting accordingly. He's arguing that it's more "fun" to live in ignorance without a shred of intellectual curiosity because, well, gosh darn, that's what people did 50 years ago before they had a choice in the matter.

    Put another way: Who's better? The people who lived through the Great Depression or the people who created and took advantage of measures designed to ensure we never have another one?
     
  5. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    We went to prenatal classes and I hated every second of it.

    I think I refused to go to the last two or three sessions. Just flat-out wouldn't go.
     
  6. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Creosote, is he arguing it? Or is he just saying "you know, there were some things about back then that were different in a good way."
     
  7. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    It's not your fault, Dick. You weren't even born yet. Your parents shouldn't send you to school until age 3 or 4.
     
  8. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    One thing this generation has going for it is that back in those days none of the moms ever attended a party that was in the tradition of a Tupperware party but with sex toys as the merchandise.
     
    Hokie_pokie likes this.
  9. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    Ummm ... MC? Stipulating arguendo that said measures did that ... just who do you think came up with them?
     
  10. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    So, living in blissful ignorance is just "different in a good way?" And that in no way implies greater nobility?

    Okey dokey.
     
  11. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    This is an extreme example, but there is a huge amount of people who will not submit to prenatal testing, because they are going to keep the baby no matter what they find. It's a religious decision for them. They're living much as previous generations did in that regard. Are they making a worse decision?

    At the other end of life, all kinds of polls show that a decent percentage of people would rather not know if they have a terminal illness. Can't do anything about it, would rather just go on with life until that day comes.

    Those are two examples of what you would call blissful ignorance. A lot of people feel like they're better off under those terms.

    Man, the depth we're going to over a Dave Barry column ...
     
  12. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    Rephrased, we're living through a recession that never became a Great Depression, likely because of a million different factors, a large portion of which didn't exist in 1929.

    Can our generation only be considered "great" if we subject ourselves to a depression, when it's needless now?
     
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