Time perspectives

[Darth Despot]

Sometimes I contemplate the passage of time by thinking about things that happened in history by looking at the time scales. So I will think "that was x years ago, but what was going on x years before that"?

So in the mid seventies, when we sat down to watch "Happy Days" we were nostalgic for a period 20 years in the past. Twenty years ago today Bill Clinton was getting ready to start his second term. I was born 19 years after the World War II ended.

Today is December 7. Seventy-five years ago, just before 1PM eastern time, the Japanese attack on Pearl harbor started. 75 years before WWII, the nation was grappling with reconstruction and coming to terms with the death of Abraham Lincoln.

It's amazing how much has changed on these scales. My own grandparents were born in the 19th Century, before the automobile and electricity were in use. When Bill Clinton was starting his second term the internet was just a curiosity. Twenty years before that the Cold War was still going on, though the end was in site.

Ronald Reagan was elected 36 years ago, 36 years before that FDR was elected for the fourth time. As a generation, we've seen quite a bit, but imagine, if you're a grandparent, what was the world your grandparents were born into like?

 

[AllWorldTE]

I do the same thing.

I've done the Pearl Harbor one myself.

The Western Roman Empire "fell" in 476 AD 503 years after it's recognized establishment. 2016 minus 503 years is 1513.

Jaws came out 41 years ago so a movie that came out 41 years before that came out in 1934! Taxi Driver came out 40 years ago so 1936 ugh.

The time period between the building of the Great Pyramid of Giza and the death of Cleopatra is longer than the time between the death of Cleopatra and today.

 

[Number Cruncher]

Today is 2016.

57 years ago, in 1959, the "Mercury 7" astronauts are named by the US Space Program.

56 years prior to that, in 1903, the Wright Brothers maintained a powered flight of about 15 seconds.

Where will we be flying in 2073 ?

 

[Baron Samedi]

There was a time when your truly was the television remote control and antennae. "Samedi, go turn it to Channel 4. Dan Rather is on".

Floor model TV, by the way.

Oh, and microwaves were new...and cool....and......my mom was so thrilled, she cooked dinner in it the first night we got home. Hamburgers....cooked from raw.:Eason: There was a learning curve, there.

I have a great appreciation of history. Sometimes when I am on my dayhike...I stand in one spot, and look down at the ground. I wonder what history took place on that very spot, and try to send my mind down through time, into the past, and imagine extinct species walking where I am standing, native Americans, dinosaurs, forest fires, glaciers towering over my head half a mile thick...that sort of thing. The dirt remembers. It keeps a record, down somewhere below my feet.

Also, I truly believe and understand....the more one knows about the past, the further they can see into the future. Recognizing the patterns of the past allows you to see what is going on today and where we are going. It's not that hard, if you understand that history repeats itself, because history is really human behavior, and human behavior repeats itself. Ignorance of the past makes us blind to the future. Knowledge of the past allows us to digest and understand where we are in that endless, repeating circle of human behavior.

 

[Beaglebay]

My maternal grandfather was born in 1896 (Utah admitted to the Union, and the year of the first modern Olympics); in 1996 (AOL crashed and blacked out 6M users), I was signing papers to purchase my house, and my nephew was born.

 

[patswin]

I have considered what transpired in my parents lifetimes.
My Dad was born in 1919 and lived his entire life and never saw the Sox win it all. Or the Pats for that matter and he was a fanatic for both teams.
When my parents were born, few people owned a car or a telephone. They saw Lindbergh cross the Atlantic in a primitive airplane and saw men walk on the moon and send spacecraft to the stars. They lived through the Depression and through a post war economic boom. They fought a war against tyranny, and saw amazing advances in medicine that easily prolonged their lives by twenty years. They were born in homes lit by gas lights and saw the entire world electrified.
To witness this in a single lifetime. No wonder they were the greatest generation.

 

[BostonTim]

A time perspective thing I used to do with my students was this. On the fourth of july 1950 on our summer vaca in vermont. I shook hand (I was almost 3) with one of the very few living Civil War veterans who was guest of honor in the parade. Students these days have the typical youth view of time. EG the Beatles and Elvis are truly ancient history from where they stand. So the Civil war, to them was something lost in the remote corner of time. I would shake hands with a class member and then explain they had just shook the hand that shook an American Civil War veteran's hand. It just isn't all that far, and it all goes by so fast. IMO, time perspective for sure.


Cheers

 

[AllWorldTE]

A time perspective thing I used to do with my students was this. On the fourth of july 1950 on our summer vaca in vermont. I shook hand (I was almost 3) with one of the very few living Civil War veterans who was guest of honor in the parade. Students these days have the typical youth view of time. EG the Beatles and Elvis are truly ancient history from where they stand. So the Civil war, to them was something lost in the remote corner of time. I would shake hands with a class member and then explain they had just shook the hand that shook an American Civil War veteran's hand. It just isn't all that far, and it all goes by so fast. IMO, time perspective for sure.


Cheers

This is fantastic. Things that seem so far off really aren't. There are people alive today who knew people who knew Lincoln.

John Tyler, who was born during George Washington's second year in office and who served as President himself from 1841-1845, has two living grandsons which I find amazing.

 

[bideau]

I do things like that all the time, especially with my family.

When I got married in '82, my mother was 51 and my dad was 55. I am now 56.

In '82, VCR's were a new novelty, cable was a few channels, cell phones were science fiction, we had a full set of encyclopedias and some guy named Trump was trying to start the USFL.

My son is 33. When I was 33, I had a 10, an 8 year old and had been living in my current home for 3 years.

 

[jetsknicks1]

I like to look back just through my time here and I'm always amazed at how much I've already seen.
I remember when as a kid, our home phone number still had letters in it instead of numbers........... Home & pay phones are now something my adult kids know nothing about.

When I was 5, we landed on the moon. My 5 year old granddaughter will probably see man land on Mars in her lifetime.

My first home computer was a monstrosity that took forever to do anything on. The average teen now carries their computer in their pocket and it is more powerful than what the astronauts used to get to the moon.

Things like these always make me wonder what my grandkids will see when they reach my age (52)

 

[benhamean]

My wife's grandfather died about 15 years ago. He was born right around the turn of the century.

I often thought of the perspective of his life:
He was in his 20s in the 1920s, in his 30s in the '30s, 40 in the '40s, etc.

You know people get to be 100 without it being too rare, but maybe don't stop and consider what things have occurred and what changes have come during that time. My wife's grandfather's timeline lined up with the decades in a way that really brought that home to me.

 

[Mark_Henderson]

My parents were born in 1928 & 1930. They were culturally hip to things when they were younger (loved Sinatra), but remarkably unaware of anything from 60s rock or beyond (couldn't have said who Jimi Hendrix or Mick Jagger was). As I got older, that seemed weird to me, since I wasn't tuned out to music/pop culture when I was in my 30s.

I think my parents were a little extreme with this, even for their generation, but there was a huge cultural change that took place then in music, society, birth control, a youth oriented counterculture that wasn't there before. It's pretty much stayed with us, with "classic rock" from the era being a staple that youth today is aware of, where big band music from 15 years earlier is ancient history.

But, I often think of how much life changed between 1900 and the '60s vs. the 50 years since. Between 1900-1965, the changes were overwhelming. Cars, routine plane travel, household appliances like refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioning, shopping malls and the suburbs.

The change was so drastic, that people thought it would continue at the same rate. Future visions imagined we'd all have jet packs and flying cars now. Science fiction like Space 1999 didn't seem to be such a reach.

It's interesting how much less drastically things have changed between the 60s and now. Obviously cell phones/internet/computers have been huge, but someone from 1965 transported to today's America wouldn't be nearly as blown away as someone from 1900 who was transported to 1965. The 1965 person would probably be surprised that the world isn't more different today.

Also, even though there was a lot of turmoil in the 60s, I think most people had a confidence then that life in America would continue to improve, that they don't have now.

 

[Mark_Henderson]

This is fantastic. Things that seem so far off really aren't. There are people alive today who knew people who knew Lincoln.

John Tyler, who was born during George Washington's second year in office and who served as President himself from 1841-1845, has two living grandsons which I find amazing.

Although the odds of that are increased because John Tyler had 15 kids.

 

[Number Cruncher]

John Tyler, who was born during George Washington's second year in office and who served as President himself from 1841-1845, has two living grandsons which I find amazing.

And conversely, there are a bunch of 40 year old grandmothers walking around out there....

 

[Mark_Henderson]

Mods - what do you think of moving this thread to the main forum? There's nothing really political about it and a lot more people would post in it.

 

[bideau]

My parents were born in 1928 & 1930. They were culturally hip to things when they were younger (loved Sinatra), but remarkably unaware of anything from 60s rock or beyond (couldn't have said who Jimi Hendrix or Mick Jagger was). As I got older, that seemed weird to me, since I wasn't tuned out to music/pop culture when I was in my 30s.

I think my parents were a little extreme with this, even for their generation, but there was a huge cultural change that took place then in music, society, birth control, a youth oriented counterculture that wasn't there before. It's pretty much stayed with us, with "classic rock" from the era being a staple that youth today is aware of, where big band music from 15 years earlier is ancient history.

But, I often think of how much life changed between 1900 and the '60s vs. the 50 years since. Between 1900-1965, the changes were overwhelming. Cars, routine plane travel, household appliances like refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioning, shopping malls and the suburbs.

The change was so drastic, that people thought it would continue at the same rate. Future visions imagined we'd all have jet packs and flying cars now. Science fiction like Space 1999 didn't seem to be such a reach.

It's interesting how much less drastically things have changed between the 60s and now. Obviously cell phones/internet/computers have been huge, but someone from 1965 transported to today's America wouldn't be nearly as blown away as someone from 1900 who was transported to 1965. The 1965 person would probably be surprised that the world isn't more different today.

Also, even though there was a lot of turmoil in the 60s, I think most people had a confidence then that life in America would continue to improve, that they don't have now.

Our parents are pretty much the same demographic. My dad was born in '26 and my mom in '30. My mom is still with us at 86. When she was born, the radio was the center of family life. She has seen incredible changes in her lifetime.

My mother was definitely a bobby socker and loved the big bands. She can still call out the songs and bands when she hears one. She did like some of the music of the 60's and 70's, especially the Beatles (She was 34 when they went on Sullivan).

---------- Post added at 07:49 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:49 AM ----------

Mods - what do you think of moving this thread to the main forum? There's nothing really political about it and a lot more people would post in it.

Agreed, this is a good thread.

 

[BostonTim]

I grew up in a duplex in Gloucester. The building was owned by my great aunt Martha who lived in the other half of the duplex. She was born in 1882 in Missoula MT and died in 1974. Her grandfather Civil War Veteran Major David W Low was a surveyor (head surveyor, we believe) for the Rocky Mountain District of The Northern Pacific Her Father Frank D. Low worked with him.

They were both Present on 9/8/1883 when U.S. Grant Drove the Golden Spike at Golden Creek. Aunt Martha spent the first eight years of her life in Missoula while David and Frank continued surveying for the feeder lines being fed into the Main line. They all returned to the family home (my childhood home) in the early '90s. On July 20, 1969 (I was just 3 mos home from VietNam) we all sat together in our Living Room (Aunt Martha had no desire for technology) and watched one small step for a man.

She said something about the life she had led (don't remember her words exactly). But we all talked about her life, what she had lived through, which had life begun watching her dad and grandad completing the last of the great transcontinental railroads basically completing the westward expansion and here she was 80 something years later watching Man walking on the moon. The radio, automobile, the airplane, the great wars, television and hundreds of historically significant inventions and events.

What a life she led.


Cheers

 

[patfan64]

My parents paid $17,000 for our first house in East Haven, CT in 1969.

In 1987, my first real job with Merrill Lynch, I earned an annual salary of $17,000.

I paid $17,000 in legal fees to try and keep my son from getting convicted of a possession with intent to sell charge (unsuccessfully) in 2014.

 

[bideau]

There was a FB post yesterday with footage from the 1970 Fitchburg 4th of July parade and celebration. In the parade, WW2 vets were marching. They looked so young and strong. I figure most were 45-50 at the time. Most probably still had kids in high school, were in the primes of their careers and the leaders of our communities.

In 1970, they were 25 years removed from the war. That would be 1991 for us. That doesn't seem so long ago. In fact, the 1st Gulf War vets would be the equivalent.

 

[Mark_Henderson]

A few people have mentioned the moon landing. I was 5 years old and vividly remember my parents bringing me to the tv to watch Neil Armstrong's walk. Other events have had more viewers because there were more people and satellite feeds to more countries, but I wonder globally, where this ranks in terms of the percentage of potential viewers that were tuned in to it.

I'd think it has to be near the top of the list.