The good old days when things were bad

[StrojanHerefords]

I have been thinking a great deal about how as a society we have a mindset that the farm of days gone by is a place that we should return to. We are so lucky to live in a time where having to much to eat is a larger problem than starvation. And it isn't just quantity of food, never before in history have we had access to fresh fruits and vegetables regardless of season. I am twice as big as my grandfather was because my grandmother always made sure to fill me up because she didn't have enough to eat when she was girl.
Farming has gotten a lot better over the past 100 years due to technological advancements. Just going back to a world before Roundup would double farmers cost of production. For our own segment of the industry implants allows us to produce beef with 10% fewer inputs. I find it ironic that as a society the same groups that defend the pill are against implants; they are the same drug. There are deep issues within agriculture that need to be addressed but we can't go back to the dust bowl.

 

[mickroos65]

I have been thinking a great deal about how as a society we have a mindset that the farm of days gone by is a place that we should return to. We are so lucky to live in a time where having to much to eat is a larger problem than starvation. And it isn't just quantity of food, never before in history have we had access to fresh fruits and vegetables regardless of season. I am twice as big as my grandfather was because my grandmother always made sure to fill me up because she didn't have enough to eat when she was girl.
Farming has gotten a lot better over the past 100 years due to technological advancements. Just going back to a world before Roundup would double farmers cost of production. For our own segment of the industry implants allows us to produce beef with 10% fewer inputs. I find it ironic that as a society the same groups that defend the pill are against implants; they are the same drug. There are deep issues within agriculture that need to be addressed but we can't go back to the dust bowl.

The good old days were not always good.

 

[tex452]

I have been thinking a great deal about how as a society we have a mindset that the farm of days gone by is a place that we should return to. We are so lucky to live in a time where having to much to eat is a larger problem than starvation. And it isn't just quantity of food, never before in history have we had access to fresh fruits and vegetables regardless of season. I am twice as big as my grandfather was because my grandmother always made sure to fill me up because she didn't have enough to eat when she was girl.
Farming has gotten a lot better over the past 100 years due to technological advancements. Just going back to a world before Roundup would double farmers cost of production. For our own segment of the industry implants allows us to produce beef with 10% fewer inputs. I find it ironic that as a society the same groups that defend the pill are against implants; they are the same drug. There are deep issues within agriculture that need to be addressed but we can't go back to the dust bowl.

So true, my grandparents told me all about the Great Depression, my grandpa said he'd rather be dead than live through another one.
All of the pictures of my family, especially men, they were all skinny as a rail.
The Great Depression was terrible but it taught people how to save and ended up making the country stronger.
I hear of starving people in this country, the only way that happens is with mental illness, drug addiction or just too lazy to go to the welfare office.
I farmed and raised cattle with my grandparents for nearly 20 years, I'm so glad I got to learn from them.
Without that education I don't think I would be where I am today.
We didn't have much money at all growing up , but we did eat good, my mother and grandmother cooked the best food I have ever ate.

 

[rollinhills]

An older fellow told me once, that the only thing good about the good ole days is that they are gone.

 

[greybeard]

I supppose it depends which part of "the good ol days' one is speaking of. That is, what period of time. And, not allof society in any given period shared in the 'good times'

 

[greybeard]

My father (born 1918)went thru The Great Depression (worked for $30/month in Civilian Conservation Corps, worked as a share cropper at one time on land that is now under Lake Fork Texas). Farmed other land he and his family owned and worked at Ford dealerships as a mechanic on Model A Fords and newer models, but really struggled to make ends meet. Many people made lots of $$ and had it good financially during WW2 but that period and prior was hard on him. They would be considered money poor but rich in life.
His Good Old Days really came only after WW2 late 40s thru the 1970s when he moved his family down from deep East Texas to the Houston/Baytown area and went to work for Humble Oil and Refining.

My own Good Old Days kinda mirror his. late 1960s thru the 1990s tho a large chunk of that time period was filled with Vietnam and 8 other years in the military then, being a single parent 4 kids. Since then certainly hasn't been any harder for me financially.

The Good Old Days is mostly just a nostalgia thing, with lots of pieces just forgotten.

 

[Logan52]

As I am now an old man, with the habits and outlook of an old man, they do look like the "good old days" to me.
Not the hard times of the 1930s, but the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.
You can make the case our country peaked during those years. Lifestyles and the economy were rising. A man with a decent job could pay for a home and have his wife stay home with the kids. Try that today.
You could make a living on a farm under 100 acres and have time to go fishing or hunting whenever you felt the need. Try that today.
The generation coming of age today is overweight, unfit for military duty, lacking in common sense, and addicted to technology in an unhealthy way. We are not even replacing ourselves and were it not for immigrants our population would have peaked and begun to decline.
Yes, in some ways I think they were the good old days.

 

[tex452]

I bought my first new truck, 1978 Silverado for $7,500, making around $3/hr and made the payments easy.
Things are more out of balance now.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

When I see or hear things like this, the phrase "The more things change, the more they stay the same" always comes to mind.

 

[Travlr]

I have been thinking a great deal about how as a society we have a mindset that the farm of days gone by is a place that we should return to. We are so lucky to live in a time where having to much to eat is a larger problem than starvation. And it isn't just quantity of food, never before in history have we had access to fresh fruits and vegetables regardless of season. I am twice as big as my grandfather was because my grandmother always made sure to fill me up because she didn't have enough to eat when she was girl.
Farming has gotten a lot better over the past 100 years due to technological advancements. Just going back to a world before Roundup would double farmers cost of production. For our own segment of the industry implants allows us to produce beef with 10% fewer inputs. I find it ironic that as a society the same groups that defend the pill are against implants; they are the same drug. There are deep issues within agriculture that need to be addressed but we can't go back to the dust bowl.

I've wondered how Amish farmers profits compare to those of farmers using present day strategies.

Not sure I would assume that "modern" methods are more advantageous.

 

[Caustic Burno]

My parents were born in 1914/15 you learned to be frugal where I was raised.

 

[backhoeboogie]

I graduated HS and moved out. Been on my own for 45 years now. I owe my parents and grandparents an awful lot because they were so dang mean and made me work all the dang time.

I am blessed. I have been seriously blessed. Maybe lucky too. Knew and worked with a lot of great folks through the years.

 

[gman4691]

Every generation has its ups and downs and every generation has to find its own way. However, isn't it funny how we remember the good of the "good old days" with more fondness than we remember the bad with grief? Guess the good outweighs the bad for many in spite of (or maybe because of) the bad. Much better to thrive than simply survive regardless of the struggle to do so. Live like somebody left the gate open!

 

[backhoeboogie]

My parents were born in 1914/15 you learned to be frugal where I was raised.

I took risks that they would not have taken. Sometimes I lost but most of the time is was successful.

I never went in debt for toys or luxuries. But I went in debt for real estate if it penciled out. We have 8 rentals now. Houses worth more than I thought they'd ever be worth. Still owe a small amount. Could sell one house and pay everything off and have capital gains left over. Made a fortune when I sold the farm on the Brazos and rolled most of it. Some of the houses are worth 3 times what I paid now.

CB it was risks and those who sustained through the depression would not have taken such a risk.

I was lucky. I was blessed. I worked for it.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I took risks that they would not have taken. Sometimes I lost but most of the time is was successful.

I never went in debt for toys or luxuries. But I went in debt for real estate if it penciled out. We have 8 rentals now. Houses worth more than I thought they'd ever be worth. Still owe a small amount. Could sell one house and pay everything off and have capital gains left over. Made a fortune when I sold the farm on the Brazos and rolled most of it. Some of the houses are worth 3 times what I paid now.

CB it was risks and those who sustained through the depression would not have taken such a risk.

I was lucky. I was blessed. I worked for it.

Yep I learned early on to pay cash. Credit people didn't like it.
My great grandfather lost 300K when the banks failed, made an impression on my bunch.
I haven't had a mortgage since 1982, or paid on a vehicle over 24 months. I have the cash to pay it off.
I have heard this a thousands of times growing up.
It's not what you make it's how you manage it.

I will pay for AC having another unit put in right now.

 

[tex452]

I graduated HS and moved out. Been on my own for 45 years now. I owe my parents and grandparents an awful lot because they were so dang mean and made me work all the dang time.

I am blessed. I have been seriously blessed. Maybe lucky too. Knew and worked with a lot of great folks through the years.

That's how I grew up, you better be working, there were no excuses, not only was my daddy a hard @$$ but grandpa and uncle's were as well, during the summer going to school, you better be working somewhere, I use to haul hay, most people still square baled then.
The schooling I got, especially from the ones that lived through the depression is priceless.
Like someone already said, it's not how much you make, it's how you take care of what you make.
My grandpa was always proud of my work ethic, I wish he was here today so I could show him my places and my cow pens.
He would say g d boy what's the matter with you building pens like that lol.

 

[Ouachita]

The last few post make me think about my grandparents. They were both born in 1917. They were born into the Great War, grew into adulthood during the Great Depression, and then went back to war.

They married shortly after the end of WWII, and lived on the same place until their death. Both very frugal, but not risk averse. Granddad started the first rural trash pickup service in our county. He also had a full service station and raised cattle and kids, along with peanuts and corn, all at the same time.

They got phone service before they got electrified. My dad graduated high school in 1963. Granny and granddad didn't spring for electricity until 1967. They lived in that house without indoor plumbing, and granny still cooked on the wood cook stove until 2004. That's when the family had to intervene and all pitched in to buy them a "proper" house.

It was an almost new trailer house with central heat and air conditioning. They had to get rid of the rotary dial phone about the same time. They both died within five years.

I think the family was trying to do a nice thing, but looking back, I think we robbed them of that reason to keep on living.

 

[dave_shelby]

Ill give you that starvation isnt common here. But it sounds like you've been reading marketing material for Bayer and Zoetis and Deere.

I question if our success is sustainable. The dollar, debt, phosphate and potash deposits, topsoil loss, plastic.

 

[Texas G@l]

Yep I learned early on to pay cash. Credit people didn't like it.
My great grandfather lost 300K when the banks failed, made an impression on my bunch.
I haven't had a mortgage since 1982, or paid on a vehicle over 24 months. I have the cash to pay it off.
I have heard this a thousands of times growing up.
It's not what you make it's how you manage it.

I will pay for AC having another unit put in right now.

My parents were born in 1921 & 1923. I heard them say the same thing all my life along with wear it out, make it do or do without.

 

[Ouachita]

Ill give you that starvation isnt common here. But it sounds like you've been reading marketing material for Bayer and Zoetis and Deere.

I question if our success is sustainable. The dollar, debt, phosphate and potash deposits, topsoil loss, plastic.

On this, you can open a deep dive discussion with folks who care, but you'll probably have to move (or start a new thread).
I will participate.