In article , Mike Coslo
writes:

N2EY wrote:
In article et, "Dwight
Stewart" writes:


Now, we have someone talking about
the "golden" past like we can all just snap our fingers and go back to that
supposedly perfect time.


1950s & early 1960s, huh? Well, that was a time when surplus was plentiful
and
cheap, Generals and Conditionals had full privileges, homebrewing was a lot
more common and there was reportedly a lot less nonsense on the bands.
Anti-antenna CC&Rs were unknown and there was little competition from other
electronic avocations.

However, there was a dark side back then:

How about this for a reason, Jim?

I take it you mean "why some folks call it a golden age"...

Many of the people complaining about
how good it used to be have been hams for a long time.

I've got 36 years next month.

Some of the
youthful enthusiasm has gone away, and now they are perhaps a little
bored with it.

Not me. I'm looking forward to the next 36 years.

Plus the creeping crankies start to set in, and you have
a ripe field for "It ain't as good as it used to be" syndrome to set in.

I think *most* humans have a built-in memory mechanism that tends to remember
the good things more than the bad ones. (Otherwise most women would never have
a second child!) Also, we know how the past turned out, while we don't know how
the future will. So there's a natural tendency to pretty up the past.

That doesn't mean that all eras are the same. Maybe it really WAS a "golden
age". Certainly some things in ham radio were better back then. And some things
are better now. We can learn a lot from those times. The good things can be
preserved and the bad things improved.

Nothing is ever as good as it used to be! And never was.

"The good old days weren't always good
Tomorrow's not as bad as it seems" - Billy Joel

"And the seasons, they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return, we can only look
Behind to to where we came
And go round and round and round in the Circle Game" - Joni Mitchell



73 de Jim, N2EY