I loved the mid-sixties. Rock music was starting to mature beyond 3 chords and a mediocre guitar player (like me) could put a band together and make some coin doing something other than flipping burgers. Granted the war was an ugly backdrop to the times and I would probably serve again. It was a heck of a ride.

Hawaii around 400 AD, which is before humans set foot there.

Anytime but this one.

Posted by Sigcrazy7,

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
The problem with living in any “Golden Age” is that you cannot see it when you’re in it. Sixties and Seventies muscle cars? I’d wager that the true Golden Age of muscle cars was the 2000s-2018. You lived right trough it but didn’t notice, or more likely, couldn’t afford to participate in it.

1990s? Living through the AWB sucked. 1980s? The minute you realize you cannot Google every question, or that you cannot get Amazon delivery in 24 hours, you’ll pine for the 2020s.

This illustrates the paradox. You’d have to go back to your desired time with no memory of the current time, which would cause you to not realize you are in your selected ideal time.

You’ve got a great point. Nostalgia aside it is entirely possible we are currently living through the golden age of both muscle cars and motorcycles and many of us are unaware of this possibility. I think the late 80’s-mid 1990’s was Japan’s golden era for Sports cars when you consider how many iconic Japanese cars were all in production around the same time (Supra, RX-7, Skyline, Fairlady Z, NSX, 3000GT etc) our golden age could very well be happening right now.

That said I still wish I could have been alive to see the two stroke era of motorcycle racing. Any time I come across someone with a story of going to a race as a kid or if maybe it’s an older gent who attended a race I always love to hear their stories about that it was like. It’s hard for me to imagine what a race would be like when the sport didn’t have high tech airbag suits and protective gear to save them like they do today.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
The problem with living in any “Golden Age” is that you cannot see it when you’re in it.

1980s? The minute you realize you cannot Google every question, or that you cannot get Amazon delivery in 24 hours, you’ll pine for the 2020s.

No, I won't. I rarely order from AMZ and can find things elsewhere. I spend more time explaining shit to people on the Internet than I do Googling a question. Is it easier to look up a business and their wares? Yes, but it was almost as easy opening the yellow pages and calling.

I would gladly trade the advantages of e-commerce today for the culture of the '80s... so long as I can take my family & buddies back in time with me. Many of us who were teenagers in the '80s knew we were in a special time and place.

I think he is more referring to the concept that people often do not realize what they have (and fully appreciate it) until it’s gone. Perspective is the key. Those living in the golden age of Rome were likely by and large unaware of how good things were until they weren’t so good anymore.

1950

I love history and would visit during the Revolution, Civil War, WWI, WWII.

quote:

Originally posted by Dakor:

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
The problem with living in any “Golden Age” is that you cannot see it when you’re in it.

1980s? The minute you realize you cannot Google every question, or that you cannot get Amazon delivery in 24 hours, you’ll pine for the 2020s.

No, I won't. I rarely order from AMZ and can find things elsewhere. I spend more time explaining shit to people on the Internet than I do Googling a question. Is it easier to look up a business and their wares? Yes, but it was almost as easy opening the yellow pages and calling.

I would gladly trade the advantages of e-commerce today for the culture of the '80s... so long as I can take my family & buddies back in time with me. Many of us who were teenagers in the '80s knew we were in a special time and place.

stickman428 gets the point. You cannot tell you are in the golden age of anything while you're in it. You can only recognize a golden age in retrospect, and by then it's always past tense. Put another way, you never feel wet while swimming in the lake. You only feel wet when you get out.

You not fully using the information available on the internet is more of an outlier, like the rare woman who can graduate BUDS; but it is not the norm. Just last week I was changing the timing belts on my 1978 Honda Goldwing. The pictures in my Clymer manual sucked, all black and white. Onto the internet I go, where Randakk's Cycle Shop had a full blog post about it, with full color photos, links to youTube videos, the works. I had instant access to years of collective knowledge on the very job before me. It was so nice, and I didn't have to run down to the library and test my Dewey Decimal skills. I think we tend to take this amount of instant information for granted when we wax nostalgic for the past.

The fact that we can have this dialog kinda makes my point. In the 1980s we'd have been pen pals, and this exchange would be into its third week already.

Apparently neither of you read the last sentence in my previous post and you’re making my point for having to point that out. Let’s just agree to disagree.

It is possible to know you are living through a special time in history sure, I realized this during Social Media’s Wild West days before jokes became hate speech and many of the people I followed had not yet been canceled or deleted.

I do think by and large people tend to really appreciate something once it’s gone and they have gained some perspective. That doesn’t mean someone cannot appreciate and be aware of living through a great era while they are in it.

I would like to have been living on the island of Britain BEFORE the Celts got there and changed everything.

Say 2000 BC. Today we have the Welsh language - the Celtic language of the ancient Britons, apart from those in the far North - the people called the Picts by the much later Romans. So we DO have a distant echo of the language that they heard when they arrived. But prior to the Celts? Nothing. Except maybe a few river names that are not Celtic.

I'd sooooooooo love to hear that pre-Celtic British being spoken.

Tuesday, last week, at about 4:30.

Early to mid 1980’s…buy a warehouse full of transferable FA’s and three more warehouses full of ammo to feed them. And Arena rock concerts…hair metal, heavy metal, and even the ‘pop’ at the time would have been great!!

quote:

Originally posted by Tuckerrnr1:
We both agreed that the mid/late 1930's would be the time. World travel was evolving, the world didn't completely hate everybody else and there were still things to discover. Blame it on Raiders of the lost Ark if you want, but that is when I would want to experience.

My issue with that time frame is the depression. 1929-1933, and then 10 years later WWII, and after that 5 years of catch-up. Id say the 50's, but I actually spend my adolescent/high school during that time. It was great, but I guess that's not what the question is. I can't see myself way back with questionable hygiene and medical procedures without anesthesia. Nope, not for me. So I guess I'd say 1920~. Think the Great Gatsby time period. As long as I was among the rich.

Victorian era, puffy sleeves, black waist belt, single shot black powder pistol, chasing debutants with questionable reputations. I would insist on modern deodorant and boxers for underwear though.