Did you appreciate living in the 70s, 80s and 90s?

[billd766]

4 hours ago, Adumbration said:

If you can remember the 60's you didn't really have that good a time did you?

Yes, I had a great time in the 1960s in the RAF.

 

In the early part going on a pub crawl of 13 pints in Hampshire on a Friday night, then a year in Bahrain which wasn't that bad. 16 months further training near Wolverhampton, 2 1/2 years based in Norfolk with jollies to Norway, Libya, Germany and Gibraltar plus Sardinia.

From mid 1968 to the end of 1971. Jollies to Malaysia Hong Kong, Penang, Butterworth plus the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. Going to the beach in Johore Bahru.

 

I had a great life that if I had stayed in the UK I never would have known.

[Burma Bill]

On 9/11/2023 at 1:39 PM, thaibeachlovers said:

did you appreciate that you were living in the best of times

Yes, very much so. Not only the 70's, 80's and 90's but for me, also the 50's and 60's. As a UK citizen, I lived throughout the reign of Queen Elizabeth 2nd. As a child, I can still remember our local street party to celebrate the Coronation of HM. Reflecting, I think the "swinging" 60's were the most exciting.

[Adumbration]

4 hours ago, JonnyF said:

I was too young to remember much of the 70's but the family pics are hilarious.

 

The 80's were great. BMXing, skateboarding, playing football (jumpers for goalposts) in the local park and going home for dinner when the street lights came on. Watching 80's TV, ET, Star Wars, Ferris Bueller etc. while playing Scalextric and gaming on the Spectrum 48 and Commodore 64/Amiga.

 

Then the 90's came with the illegal raves taking pills to dance music in farmer's fields, then off to Uni to get wasted for 3 years during the Oasis Britpop scene before backpacking around the world with my hot blonde 21 year old girlfriend.

 

Then came the noughties ????. The slide started with Blair and then 9/11. Then we were treated to social media and the rise of the smartphone. Political correctness, the precursor to the scourge of Wokeness etc. Fortunately I still have a great time as I moved to Thailand in 2006 and laugh at much of the nonsense in the West but I am very happy to have grown up when I did.

You are lucky you had a good family to provide you with stability and all your toys.

 

I was in survival mode in the 80s after my mother died of cancer and my father took off with the neighbor's wife leaving me to fend for myself.  As a young teen I worked two full time jobs and rented a car garage from a friend of my mum in a <deleted>ty housing commission suburb to live in.  

[JonnyF]

15 minutes ago, Adumbration said:

You are lucky you had a good family to provide you with stability and all your toys.

 

I was in survival mode in the 80s after my mother died of cancer and my father took off with the neighbor's wife leaving me to fend for myself.  As a young teen I worked two full time jobs and rented a car garage from a friend of my mum in a <deleted>ty housing commission suburb to live in.  

I'm sorry to hear that. Although such a situation would have been difficult in any decade.

[khunPer]

On 9/11/2023 at 8:39 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

The world wasn't overpopulated, people were not taking to leaky boats to invade western countries, most of us had the option of many jobs, petrol was cheap and travel easy, before the security on airlines ruined the flying experience, other countries welcomed us, the music was better than now, do I need to go on about how good it was?

 

The only bad thing that I recall was the Vietnam war, and that didn't affect most of us not American.

For those of us that are not Americans, Vietnam – and Cambodia and Lao – was luckily just something to read about in the news, at that time.

 

I'm vary happy that I was teen and young in the later 60s and during the 70s. Great time with the youth revolution for freedom, the pill, the flower power and hippies. Furthermore, the change in the musical scene, and all the things one could do without people being offended or infringed. Furthermore it was easy to start up something, a time where you could borrow money in the bank based on a good idea...????

 

During the 80s things began to change – a lot – at least in Europe, where I originates from. However still good memories even that many things got little more tough to deal with, the same during the 90s.

 

Coming to Thailand in 2001 and especially Samui, it was like getting back to the good old time – apart from cell-phones and digital cameras – lots of the old music and a party life like the one in the late 60s and early 70s; furthermore cheap petrol, compared to Scandinavia, and lots of partying young girls in hot pants and even some topless on the beaches...????

 

I decided to stay and fully relive the "good old times" like "summer of '69" – cell-phone and digital cameras merged into smartphones, which were easier to carry, and faster Internet made the expat life a lot more attractive, like sitting under a coconut palm and checking the banking business at home while a couple of young girls serv ed cooled drinks – and I still enjoy all-year-summer and barefoot-xmas, the parties, the nightlife; and also the new great music...????????

[xylophone]

5 hours ago, xylophone said:

In the 70s......travel and adventure:-

In the 80s....White water rafting and sailing the NZ Americas Cup Challenge boat:-

In the 90s....Setting up an investment division and playing tennis against Steffi Graf (a friendly warm up)
in the 20s.....Thailand and my lovely Daughter

Couldnt have asked for anything more!

I forgot to mention that the "love of my life" in the 60s was playing football, and luckily enough I got paid for playing as did the rest of the team, even more if we won the match. I lived for football and would play on Saturday and in the mid-week floodlit league on Wednesday, and again on the Saturday and also played for a senior Sunday league side, as well as training midweek whenever possible, so I was very fit and just loved my football – – although it didn't stop me from partying occasionally, especially in the off-season!

 

This pic is of us lining up before the start of the Cup Final at Brighton's ground in 1968/9 in front of a crowd of around 9,000........plenty nervous!

[jingjai9]

One force I did not appreciate in the 60's - 90's and beyond was the transformation of hippies to yuppies and then guppies (greedy boomers) who transformed many of our countries around the world into the bifurcated or two-class system we find ourselves living in presently. We could label the two classes as the greedy and the needy. the middle class is being hollowed out.

 

It is the baby boomer generation which I am a member of that lead many nations in many parts of the world presently. The billionaire class that heads the tech giants, banks and telecommunication companies are in this generation. Not in recent memory have the  salaries of the CEO's of the  giant corporations been at a higher ratio to the rank and file workers; in some companies the ratio is 300:1. 

For every dollar the workers earn, the CEO's get 300 or more. 

 

The music was so cool oh yeah, I personally loved it. But I cannot accept the idea that "our music was the coolest of all" in the 60's and 70's. The 1930's with the Harlem Renaissance was equal to the 60's,

 

We must be realistic and leave our egos at the door. What kind of world are we the people from the 60's to the  80's leaving to our children and grandchildren. We wanted to change the world and we sure did, but can we be proud? We did many good things but the mistakes are huge.

 

"We have not inherited the world from our parents. We have borrowed it from our children." 

 

I appreciated the  60s and 70s, but saw it slipping away in the 80s and 90s and now I stand here in the 2020s shaking my head with a tear in my eye.

[OneMoreFarang]

I just saw this. Lots of good memories from the good old times.

 

 

[bignok]

On 9/11/2023 at 2:40 PM, retarius said:

I can't honestly say I enjoyed my life more when I was young. I was young but had kids, a single income and lots of worries and pressures. I love my life now in my 70s, I loved it a decade ago as well and a decade before that. If a pill existed to take me back to my 20s I'm not sure I would take it to be honest. my life is drawing to a close and I'm happy with that.

What is your gender?

[bignok]

I don't care about 2 weeks ago. I used to think about the 1980s but its just a waste of time. I look 3 months ahead at a time.

 

Yes music is crap now but you can listen to Muddy Waters on youtube.

[thaibeachlovers]

13 hours ago, billd766 said:

I was in the RAF in the 1960s to the early 1980s and whilst there was 'supposedly' free love it never got as far as Norfolk though it did work, to some extent on the odd base and intermittently in Singapore though not in Bahrain.

 

Music in the 1960s to the early 90s was much better apart from punk and grunge music.

You mentioned Singapore. If you were there in the 70s you may recall a British female presenter on ANZUK radio, whose name I forget, but when I had to go to the station on some errand I got to meet her and I would certainly have welcomed a bit of "free love" with her, given that she was drop dead gorgeous. Needless to say, such was not forthcoming, though she did dedicate a song to me the next show she presented.

30 years later she was working for the BBC, and I knew the voice straight away soon as I heard her.

[thaibeachlovers]

13 hours ago, billd766 said:

Going to the beach in Johore Bahru.

I quite often used to walk across the causeway and stay the night at an hotel a bit past the sultan's tiger zoo, as they had a decent show there.

The satay down near the causeway was excellent.

[thaibeachlovers]

8 hours ago, jingjai9 said:

One force I did not appreciate in the 60's - 90's and beyond was the transformation of hippies to yuppies and then guppies (greedy boomers) who transformed many of our countries around the world into the bifurcated or two-class system we find ourselves living in presently. We could label the two classes as the greedy and the needy. the middle class is being hollowed out.

 

It is the baby boomer generation which I am a member of that lead many nations in many parts of the world presently. The billionaire class that heads the tech giants, banks and telecommunication companies are in this generation. Not in recent memory have the  salaries of the CEO's of the  giant corporations been at a higher ratio to the rank and file workers; in some companies the ratio is 300:1. 

For every dollar the workers earn, the CEO's get 300 or more. 

 

The music was so cool oh yeah, I personally loved it. But I cannot accept the idea that "our music was the coolest of all" in the 60's and 70's. The 1930's with the Harlem Renaissance was equal to the 60's,

 

We must be realistic and leave our egos at the door. What kind of world are we the people from the 60's to the  80's leaving to our children and grandchildren. We wanted to change the world and we sure did, but can we be proud? We did many good things but the mistakes are huge.

 

"We have not inherited the world from our parents. We have borrowed it from our children." 

 

I appreciated the  60s and 70s, but saw it slipping away in the 80s and 90s and now I stand here in the 2020s shaking my head with a tear in my eye.

Agree with a lot of that, but I don't think the people in the 60s to 90s were any different to people now. Bad people do win, quite often, and there was no shortage of bad people during those decades.

[fredwiggy]

5 hours ago, bignok said:

I don't care about 2 weeks ago. I used to think about the 1980s but its just a waste of time. I look 3 months ahead at a time.

 

Yes music is crap now but you can listen to Muddy Waters on youtube.

It makes me laugh when people say music is crap now, because, being an avid music lover of all genres, I see and listen to good music coming out all the time. I can name many relatively new artists that have made very good music the past 2 decades, especially in the progressive rock, folk rock, southern rock, blues and others. I came from the 50's, and listened all through the decades until now, so I've heard it all.

[bignok]

1 hour ago, fredwiggy said:

It makes me laugh when people say music is crap now, because, being an avid music lover of all genres, I see and listen to good music coming out all the time. I can name many relatively new artists that have made very good music the past 2 decades, especially in the progressive rock, folk rock, southern rock, blues and others. I came from the 50's, and listened all through the decades until now, so I've heard it all.

Who cares what you think.

[fredwiggy]

9 minutes ago, bignok said:

Who cares what you think.

A lot of people actually. I know music, and from your statement, I can see you don't. Pretty simple.

[bignok]

Just now, fredwiggy said:

A lot of people actually. I know music, and from your statement, I can see you don't. Pretty simple.

You don't know anything. Pretending to be an expert on women and music. 

[fredwiggy]

11 minutes ago, bignok said:

You don't know anything. Pretending to be an expert on women and music. 

I don't pretend to be an expert on anything. I do understand women, and relationships, and how they work, even if I have had a few that went sour, like most of us. Music I do know, as well as most anyone on earth, because like hunting and fishing, it's a passion. I have over 40,000 cd's, which would explain that to most anyone, and I know the music on them, meaning I only buy or burn music that is good, and don't waste my time listening to soulless pap.

[toofarnorth]

I think a lot of your good times had to do with your age , music which is/was rubbish to many was cool depending on what age you were. To me the best music was between 1965 and 1975 . I was born in '47.

There it is to me the best was when I was a bout 20.  In 1968 at 21yo I had a Morgan , went to The Netherlands to visit an aupair that in England spent many hours in the Morgan.  Never was a better year. Music .......what about Wizard    Run and get the fire brigade.

[RamenRaven]

70s - appreciate not being alive

 

80s - appreciate still not being alive, didn't exist back then

 

90s - drinking milk, throwing tantrums, learning my ABCs and not having any smartphones

[spidermike007]

Yes! I had the great fortune of living in New York City for the entire 1980s and into the early '90s. It was a golden era in New York, the city was coming up from a terrible time in the 70s, and things were really vibrant and alive. Lived in huge lofts downtown, for $2000 a month! (They are now $15,000 and up, per month). Needless to say, when you brought a woman back to a space like that, you got a strong reaction. Always very positive!

 

The nightlife was amazing, I was into the club scene back then, and of course I was much younger. The ratio of single available straight women to single available straight men was seven to one. It was absolutely ridiculous, like fishing for salmon in Scotland or Alaska. I had a lot of gay friends at the time and they would invite me these incredible loft parties (I guess I was the designated straight friend) where there were 200 people, and 130 were women. Maybe 70 guys, and typically only two straight men in the entire loft, and I was one of them! It was insane. Alot of the women were supermodel types, as they love their gay friends. They were totally open with me, would give me a bear hug and a kiss when meeting me, as they assumed I posed no threat! Ha! Needless to say those those kind of parties resulted in a very good time. Sometimes, I would have to prove to these women, that I was straight, as they could not believe a straight man would want to hang out with their gay friends!

 

The fashion was horrible back then, and with the exception of Warhol, Basquiat, Mapplethorpe, Kiefer, and Richter, not much great artwork. But red and white Burgundy was cheap, and so were the other great wines of the world. Rents were low, properties were affordable, the standard of living was good, the politicians were less toxic, there was no social media, and the world felt like a better place.

 

That was really a glorious era, and I look back on it with a lot of fondness.

[spidermike007]

2 hours ago, fredwiggy said:

I don't pretend to be an expert on anything. I do understand women, and relationships, and how they work, even if I have had a few that went sour, like most of us. Music I do know, as well as most anyone on earth, because like hunting and fishing, it's a passion. I have over 40,000 cd's, which would explain that to most anyone, and I know the music on them, meaning I only buy or burn music that is good, and don't waste my time listening to soulless pap.

You more or less confirm my theory that the current decade (and perhaps the decade prior to this one) is utterly hopeless for new music. Very little of it seems to have soul, wit, charm, or quality. An extraordinary amount of junk music, that seems to be about good marketing, social media hype, and not much else.

[fredwiggy]

8 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

You more or less confirm my theory that the current decade (and perhaps the decade prior to this one) is utterly hopeless for new music. Very little of it seems to have soul, wit, charm, or quality. An extraordinary amount of junk music, that seems to be about good marketing, social media hype, and not much else.

How did I confirm your theory about music when I stated a lot of good music has been coming out all along? Many, and I mean millions, of people have no idea what is out there. Most good music doesn't hit the radio stations. Most is pop music, which sounds a lot the same, promoted towards teenagers who go to their concerts, buy their music, and have no idea there is tons of music much better that they will never hear. There are progressive rock bands, who have some of the best musicians worldwide, that never get heard by again, millions of people, because promoters themselves either don't understand what good music is, or go for the money, the teens and early 20 crowd that buy a certain kind. Some people live their whole lives not knowing hat good music is. My girlfriend here had only heard some of what's popular of American and European music, not getting close to touching what I've turned her onto the last almost 3 years. She understands English pretty well, and I've been turning her onto music 95% of Thais will never hear, and also movies that will never be seen on any Thai channels besides the same action movies with the same stars. All about money. If you told me what genre of music you like, hopefully not pop, I can give you examples of new or relatively new music that's good. When I say good, I mean musically, melodic, good lyrics, rockin', drawn out guitar solos, etc. Of course most music innovation came out from the 50's to the 80's, and a lot are copying others styles, but that doesn't mean there isn't any good sounding music that's new now.

[Robin]

If only I could do it all again, knowing what I know now.

One ambition ( dream ) I had then was to visit Thailand.   I had read abut it in some underground magazine.

Thailand has not disappointed.

 

[spidermike007]

4 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

How did I confirm your theory about music when I stated a lot of good music has been coming out all along? Many, and I mean millions, of people have no idea what is out there. Most good music doesn't hit the radio stations. Most is pop music, which sounds a lot the same, promoted towards teenagers who go to their concerts, buy their music, and have no idea there is tons of music much better that they will never hear. There are progressive rock bands, who have some of the best musicians worldwide, that never get heard by again, millions of people, because promoters themselves either don't understand what good music is, or go for the money, the teens and early 20 crowd that buy a certain kind. Some people live their whole lives not knowing hat good music is. My girlfriend here had only heard some of what's popular of American and European music, not getting close to touching what I've turned her onto the last almost 3 years. She understands English pretty well, and I've been turning her onto music 95% of Thais will never hear, and also movies that will never be seen on any Thai channels besides the same action movies with the same stars. All about money. If you told me what genre of music you like, hopefully not pop, I can give you examples of new or relatively new music that's good. When I say good, I mean musically, melodic, good lyrics, rockin', drawn out guitar solos, etc. Of course most music innovation came out from the 50's to the 80's, and a lot are copying others styles, but that doesn't mean there isn't any good sounding music that's new now.

Thanks. Your words are encouraging. Perhaps I am not looking hard enough. I love many forms of electronica (not techno, and not house or dub), jazz, classical, progressive or underground hip hop (not the contemporary, commercial garbage) rock (not hard rock), folk, and world music. My taste is very broad, and I am incredibly open minded, for a man of my age. Help me out, please.

[JimTripper]

Is this a joke? I would do almost anything to grow up in the 80’s again.

 

Was into the heavy metal scene in the sf Bay Area. Went to many shows at the corner tavern. Saw Metallica, slayer, exodus, venom, etc when they were still garage bands. Also, punk bands at Gilman street. Good times! Lots of drinking, craziness & general immortality!

[fredwiggy]

1 minute ago, spidermike007 said:

Thanks. Your words are encouraging. Perhaps I am not looking hard enough. I love many forms of electronica (not techno, and not house or dub), jazz, classical, progressive or underground hip hop (not the contemporary, commercial garbage) rock (not hard rock), folk, and world music. My taste is very broad, and I am incredibly open minded, for a man of my age. Help me out, please.

I'm not into electronica or hip hop. Classical, is great,I grew up listening to my dad's Mantovani, Chopin, Back, Schubert, Brahms, etc etc records and will always have them in my heart. Try Neal Casal for one. Folk and rock, not hard. Took his own life from depression a few years back, but was not only a solo artist with a dozen good cd's, in another 6 bands, but contributed to many others albums. Progressive rock, Mostly Autumn, who have some of the best female singers in rock, Of course Enya, my personal favorite female singer. Downes Braide Association, The Flower Kings, Pendragon, Proto Kaw, RPWL, Spock's Beard, The Old North, Mark Knopfler (still making good music), just to name a few. If you look these artists up, others will appear that are relatively new and comparable. If you like Southern Rock, Rival Sons, Robert Jon and the Wreck, Blackberry Smoke, Whiskey Myers, The Steel Woods, are some that aren't too heavy but along the line of the Allman Brothers, Skynyrd and The Outlaws.

[billd766]

9 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

You mentioned Singapore. If you were there in the 70s you may recall a British female presenter on ANZUK radio, whose name I forget, but when I had to go to the station on some errand I got to meet her and I would certainly have welcomed a bit of "free love" with her, given that she was drop dead gorgeous. Needless to say, such was not forthcoming, though she did dedicate a song to me the next show she presented.

30 years later she was working for the BBC, and I knew the voice straight away soon as I heard her.

I never listened to the radio very much over there. I spent most of my free time in the NAAFI or the Malcom club on camp depending on which still had duty free beer, the darts club behind the NAAFI, at one of the bars in the village, around Bugis Street in downtown Singapore, the Britannia Club opposite Raffles playing slot cars or sleeping.

 

I was also in the yacht club at Seletar and the RAF gliding club at the RM helicopter base at Sembawang.

 

I drank and ate too much in keeping with servicemen traditions when posted abroad but I had a great time.

[thaibeachlovers]

6 minutes ago, billd766 said:

I never listened to the radio very much over there. I spent most of my free time in the NAAFI or the Malcom club on camp depending on which still had duty free beer, the darts club behind the NAAFI, at one of the bars in the village, around Bugis Street in downtown Singapore, the Britannia Club opposite Raffles playing slot cars or sleeping.

 

I was also in the yacht club at Seletar and the RAF gliding club at the RM helicopter base at Sembawang.

 

I drank and ate too much in keeping with servicemen traditions when posted abroad but I had a great time.

Great times in Singapore indeed. Certainly my most enjoyable posting.

If you mean the gliding club at Kangaw, I used to see the gliders flying there from Dieppe Barracks. I was also quartered at Nee Soon with the famous Transit Road for all things desired.

I spent many a night in Bugis Street- certainly nothing like it anywhere else I have ever been.

Happy days, but all gone to history.

[thaibeachlovers]

1 hour ago, JimTripper said:

Is this a joke? I would do almost anything to grow up in the 80’s again.

 

Was into the heavy metal scene in the sf Bay Area. Went to many shows at the corner tavern. Saw Metallica, slayer, exodus, venom, etc when they were still garage bands. Also, punk bands at Gilman street. Good times! Lots of drinking, craziness & general immortality!

70s for me. Saw the world, enjoyed life. 80s were spoiled by the wrong woman, and the 90s were interesting, but only enjoyable on the times I spent in Thailand ( as often as possible ).

Music was just background then. Didn't get into it till the 90s, but never rap or hip hop etc. Loved Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac, Springsteen, De Burgh etc.