unkleGsif":2eo5poyk said:
Somebody in another thread somewhere (think it was the "why I love" thread) stated that nostalgia is a powerful and potent drug... so as a product of the 70's and 80's, and a late teen in the early 90's, but a fan of fence sitting, I will counter all the glorified items listed with:
Three day working week
Power cuts
Maggie and Conservatism
Riots
IRA
Crap TV
ONLY 3 Channels of Crap TV
Embarrasing fashion
The cane at school
Polution
Fly Tipping
Rubbish brakes on Chromed rims
Police beatings
NHS glasses
Outdoor swimming pools at school
It wasnt all so rosy and sepia tinged like an old polaroid photo
I recognise a lot of that, and did point out that at least for me, it wasn't all rosy - but all the same, I think there's some merit to the nostalgia.
As you say, for a kid growing up - and certainly in context of later decades - TV was crap. But then compared to earlier times, was probably a boon. But the lack of focus on kids in such times mean I got an exposure to TV and movies from other eras - that I very much suspect you don't see the same light of, in recent times. I watched my first Hitchcock films in the late 70s and early 80s on TV, and grew up loving things like Columbo. If TV had been more focussed on kids, there's probably things that I wouldn't have experienced that, over time, and certainly now, created interest in things that as a kid would have probably not organically chosen.
Also, things like bikes and outdoor interests were very much more in focus when I grew up - bikes were a big thing. I look at my own kids, and it's nothing like the same - but back then, bikes were something of a right of passage - and a door to greater freedoms and mobility. Nowadays, with there being much more things for kids to do, so there doesn't seem the same kind of individual, key things that have the same significance.
Which leads me on to another point, as I grew up, I had hobbies / pastimes or significant interests - the big, key ones have never left me - I'm still doing things in my spare time (that's a laugh, these days...) that I was as a teenager growing up - perhaps some of that was of it's time - parents and families (especially if coming from the 70s) had a focus on frugality that whilst may have been eased with greater affleunce in the 80s, didn't have the perspective of getting involved in hobbies, with associated setup costs, glibly. With a lot greater choice, these days, and a radical difference in consumerism and disposability (more about things / possessions, than income) that sort of longevity seems more unlikely.
Addressing the nostalgia / potent memory modifier... I'll say this - it cuts both ways - I mentioned in the other thread about a certain degree of revisionism, here - which is true - it's often countered by the "nostalgia isn't all it's cracked up to be..." point - which is largely a distraction.
There are plenty of early choices that people rightly celebrate - their first true mountain bikes - the Bear Valleys, the Karakorams, the Rockhoppers, the Cinder Cones, the Ascents, et al - that were all very decent, capable, mountain bikes - that whilst both then, and more likely now, are far from inspirational fodder - all the same, were decent, capable mountain bikes, that many would have had happy and inspiring introductions to mountain bikes, and were the start of a hobby and obsession that evolved.
Some, now, would tar such bikes as crap, because they are nothing more than mass-produced, entry level / mid-range, bikes, that are run-of-the-mill, 10 a penny, and not aspirational. Now I have no issue with people having no interest in such bikes - why should they be interested in anything other than they're interested in - the only thing I think is a shame, is for revisionist views to make people label such things as crap, when back in the day, they most likely would have had a big fecking grin on their faces after they'd just come back from a thrash on the very same things, that with smug glee, and a clique-y bandwagon, now label as "crap" because they've moved on and are interested in different things. Now there's nothing wrong with the moving on, and the interest - but the revisionist labelling of "crap" of things that people were / would have been, perfectly happy with BITD, just seems such a crock and a shame.
And I will point out, I do truly accept that not all nostalgia was so peachy - some peoples' early "proper", albeit, probably not very good, mountain bikes were possibly crap - and in some cases, if you could rewind and ask them what they thought
then they'd most likely say the same.
My point on this is not to celebrate something that doesn't really warrant it - merely the opposite - to not trash, or heap invectives on things for appearances sake,
now.
When that happens, and you hear people with the "nostalgia is not all it's cracked up to be..." I shake my head, and think without such steps along the way, where would the interest be?
It's almost like it's an embarrassment for some, the things they enjoyed then - that doesn't mean nostalgia is a crock - far from it - if people don't want to celebrate their early bike history, that's purely their choice, it may have been nothing to celebrate - but for those that choose to, doesn't mean it's rose-tinted, euphemistic sentimentality because others have now formed disparaging opinions on their early mountain bikes (whether deserved or just for appearances sake).
Denouncing nostalgia because past times were truly crap, with no merit, seems fair call. Doing so because elitism has conditioned some that what they were happy with and enjoyed, BITD, now should be denied and disavowed - that's the crock.
unkleGsif":2eo5poyk said:
Another point is, that if you ask a generation above us, then their nostalgia will atke them back to the 50's and 60's, "when everything was so much better.... the music was so much better.... cars were so much better..... fashion.... 2 channels of TV" etc etc etc
Its all completely subjective, and ultimately irrelevant
Of course it's all subjective.
What I don't buy is that it's all irrelevant.
The things that we look back on, now, and say were crap, boring, uninspiring, fostered a different environment where kids growing up didn't have as much choice, or things to occupy them on a plate - and as such that molded us growing up.
Maybe those things don't really matter, but for me, opened my eyes to (a) world(s) outside of what I'd normally be interested in / gravitate to - which I think is something that kids in modern times don't have to consider, so become more insular in things that directly appeal, and have no real incentive (except for perhaps peer pressure, and relationships) to have to look beyond that, really.
