Society needs to bring back...

OK, maybe I watch a lot of 1950's-era television programming. Or programming that is set in even earlier decades, such as The Waltons or Little House on the Prairie. Even so, I think it would be nice if some of the things done back then were still done today. Ditch the racism, sexism, and homophobia of those times, but bring back:

*Addressing strangers, casual acquaintances, and elders as Mr./Mrs./Miss, rather than their first names. Also using "sir" and "ma'am" for all adults, including one's own parents.
*Bartering. (Doing services in exchange for another service, rather than cash.)
*Business attire at work. If you want to be treated like a professional, dress like one.
*Avoiding slang and informal speech such as "yeah," when dealing with customers in the workplace. Professionalism, again.
*Requiring correct spelling and grammar in school. (Nowadays some schools aren't even teaching cursive.)

What are some bygone customs you want to see revived?

i want cartoon violence to return, all these wishy washy shows are rotting the creativity out of a child by being so watered down and too focused on education
i also want the original power rangers to come back, before they turned completely idiotic the power rangers used to be cool when i was a little girl watching them kick butt

Civility in public and on the job. (Everything is too cutthroat today.)
Correcting people who use foul language. (Cursing is much, much too prevalent.)
Correcting people who want everything NOW. (Wait your turn; don't cut lines.)

I couldn't agree more with all three of the posts thus far. Civility, at least in the States, seems to have completely gone by the wayside, for the most part.

When my daughters were in 3rd grade and we were living in Nevada, I enrolled them in a "Perfect Manners" summer course through the local Parks & Rec facility, and the instructor told the class it was proper (not only OK, but proper) to address an adult by his or her first name! Arrrgggh.

Also, I was shocked when I reviewed one of my daughter's school papers the other day (she's in 8th grade now, and we're in a new state) and noted that she had mixed up several instances of their/they're/there (one of my biggest pet peeves), and the teacher hadn't even marked it! I went through and marked all the mistakes myself (my daughter was thrilled, as you can imagine, LOL).

I watch a lot of the older programming of the sort you mentioned, Lovebirdsflying (I love Little House on the Prairie), including the good old "violent" Looney Tunes cartoons you mentioned, Purple Mist.

I just think it would be nice for kids to play the imaginative and inventive games that didn't require television, playstation, PSP, cell phones and the like. Not that I am against this technology, I am not. But I sometimes feel kids don't know how to play without these tools.

LOL...I hope this is Socratic irony
Maybe society needs to bring back an appreciation of irony

Interesting list

The fascinating thing about the past is how much it tends to get romantized, with the media depicting bygone eras with a sort of blurry lens. Culture by nature simply changes and history is a linear progression so to speak, or as NC author Thomas Wolfe said, "you can't go home again".

Bartering-Between neighbors perhaps, or family, but it would not be possible to operate a modern economy based on the practice. Money is a medium of universal exchange that is vital in an industrial/post industrial economy in order for that economy to function.

Formal speech-we are not removed far enough from it yet but at some point in the future the use of "sir or "madam" will seem as quaint as using "Thee" and "Thou". That does not mean we cannot be polite to people, as a matter of pubic discourse we should be courteous to others but formality is coming off as more and more stuffy as time passes. When people address me as Mr. J..., it does not really make me feel more inportant, after all, LOL, I work for a living, so I usually tell people that you can call me Tim, my dad is Mr. J...

Do people really need to dress like the cast of "Mad Men" to run the counter at McDonalds?

As for cursive writing, it is a skill with less and less practical use as tablets, smart phones, pcs, laptops etc become our medium of communication, in a generation cursive wrting will be looked at like caligraphy, a nice art that no longer is of practical use.

The point I am making is that things simply change and always will. The past will always be colored by perception. Shakespeare is a good example here. We revere the English poet and playwright as one of the time great masters of classic literature. In his own day though most of his plays were considered vulgar entertainment for the lower classes. The productions were staged in a way that involved the audience, who were often very rowdy, loudly cheering or booing characters they liked or disliked when they appeared on stage. Come to think of it, TV wrestling is the closest thing in our modern world to a Shakespeare play.

Again, it is all based on perception.

Having workedin retail and restaurant for 30 years, I would like to see the ability to say "NO," to the customer, come back. Customers are being classically conditioned to react in a protest type manner. If a customer is irate, the management gives the customer what they want. In many situations, the cusstomer is in the right. However, there are times when the customer is wrong and they ahve to re-learn that if they are wrong, accept it. When management teaches customers that by raising a stink about something gets them what they want...they become rude, aggressive, and argumentative because we have taught them that such a behaviour will get them results they want. The customer is NOT ALWAYS RIGHT! READ SIGNS!! If a sale ended yesterday, it ended yesterday. If you bought a product before it was on sale, too bad. If the sign says a specific brand, then it is a specific brand. Etc, etc.

I agree with the part about being called Mr. J, Tim. I've been called Ms. London alot, it doesn't make me feel any more special than just calling me Deborah. It almost makes me feel really old for some reason, don't know why. Is it a Southern thing? Ever since I've moved to NC I get that alot. I wish people could call me just Deborah though.

Kids should be encouraged to play outside (in groups, like they used to.). Kids need fresh air & exercise.

Courses in manners and etiquette would be helpful. Not to stifle people---just so that society is a more pleasant place to be.

ALL women, regardless of age or status, should be referred to these days as "Miss" or "Ms", until the individual corrects you gently and respectfully. "Miss" is better from an etiquette viewpoint, and flatters most everyone without being oily about it. This goes for ALL women. No Ma'ams (which make me cringe), & no madams.

Comfort yourselves, moms who raised children to be respectful and polite---they might encounter more than their share of hair-raising barbarians in their lives, but rest easy knowing they will probably also be more successful than the barbarians will.

I would encourage school sysytems to reintroduce ethics, logic, and grammar courses to curriculums.

All people, everywhere, would do well to think about other people's feelings before opening their mouths. That would solve a lot w/o having to go back to another "time".

i agree with the bartering, but "proper" manners are bollocks. it's just a fashionable system of behavior that changes over time. people should talk how they want, brother. i do believe that people should be nicer and less rude but that does not mean limiting fashion or speech.

i wish people were more trusting like in old movies. i wish i could just tell someone i want a job or a flat without filling out forms and getting background checks. bureaucratic bollocks slows my roll

I think we need more community emphasis. If a government is not providing properly for a group of people in need, we need to be their activists for them. More group participation instead of invididual wants only. I saw it coming in the 80s...everything was Me, Me, Me. While it was intended to promote self esteem, instead it promoted self interest and self-centredness.

The question though is the pursuit of self interest in and of itself bad?

Think about this, buisnesses sell products and services not to make you or me happy, but to make money, and to make money a business must work hard to make its customers happy. In a correctly running economy (Which this was is not at the moment due to factors which would require me to write a whole book) then, my happiness translates to your profit so to speak.

Bill Gates created Mircosoft out of self interest, yet thanks to the mulitplier effect millions of people have benifited from its existance.

So I ask then what is the greater good, a person toiling away 70 hours of thier own time a week to build a corporation that provides products, services and actually employs people, or the politician that has never produced anything of value in their lives calling for us to sacrifice our standard of living ostensibly to help the poor, while distributing the vast majority of those proceeds to army of paper pushers, trickling only a fraction to receipients and not really improving their lives not one iota?

Watch The Rifleman on AMC Saturday mornings 6-9am, or on ME-TV, 6-7pm daily. It teaches you how to be more open and take chances and feel safe in therapy - honest, pa! Also manners and preparing for adulthood - the Rifleman was the ideal parent - whoda thunk it?!

Speaking of bygone eras and the ideal parent, as a child I always wanted to be part of the Brady Bunch. Well, later in life, as the mother of three daughters, I actually married a man whose name just happens to be Mike Brady. Of course I had wanted to be Marcia, but I don't mind at all that I ended up being Carol. I got my wish.

I don' t want to be naive, but wasn't there actually a time when people could step out into their front yard and not worry about being killed in a drive-by shooting? And kids did actually respect adults? And folks didn't use so much bad language, especially in front of children? And people were generally nicer to each other and not so rude?

If not, then I still would like to believe so--and I want that time back!

I most certainly agree that we need kids to be taught proper English again. Even some of today's teachers don't know the differences among "their," "they're," and "there." And then "it's" and "its." Even newspaper writers make that error now. Cringe....

I am talking about leaving the governments and corporations behind. I am talking about basic humn good. Not sacrificing everything of our own but giving what we can. The majority of volunteers are people who have very little themselves or have been in the position of need before and understand. Even a common politeness or a good deed now and then. Politicians and corporations will always bee their for self promotion and flow of money. We should try to think beyond that again.

Bring back the people's movement of the 70s, a time we thought we could change things and we did! Now it is everyone for themselves, activism and solidarity has become dirty words. We're supposed to smile as the world dehumanizes people and when people suffer and die we should no longer react.

Uhh, jimrat, I think the decade you're referring to is the 1960's . . .

I recall that in the 50's and 60's that people did not lock their doors at night and car owners frequently left their keys in the ignition. You could park a convertible in a public lot and not put the top up and everything would be there when you returned - even if you left it overnight and there was no security.

That was also a time when so many materialistic things also did not exist. There was very little designer clothing. Illegal drug use was not the norm. People actually went to church and practiced goodwill towards others. Preachers did not preach that god wanted everyone to be wealthy. More people had jobs and mothers stayed home and took care of the kids. People did without rather than each parent working a full-time job so the family could have everything. Families sat around the dinner table at night. After washing clothes, they were probably hung out on a line to dry. People dressed up a lot more. Most homes had one telephone and one television; there are only a handful of TV stations and, in some places, there was no TV broadcast overnight at all. Republicans and Democrats compromised!!! It was a different world.

I think what we're missing is that era was also the era where black people were tied up to the backs of trucks and drug for miles. Violence, racism etcetera has always been there, it's just been different. And, when looking back for nostalgic purposes one rarely remembers the bad.

The government is not responsible for providing for everybody's needs and being an activist to make something happen for that sake is wasting tax payers money in my opinion. If the government would stay out of individual rights, and tax less, I may have the money I want to do activities that are worthwhile. Think about this, health care where I live is available through the government free of charge if and only if you have a child. And people wonder why welfare is so sought after. Why not pop out a kid in America? get free health insurance for it and yourself, food stamps, welfare, wic? Seems like a good deal to me?

You hit the nail on the head here. I work in customer service and listening to all the bratty adults complain about insignificant bs just to save a buck is ridiculous. To those customers that do this every time I would tell them exactly what i told the last guy. "Sir, we strive to make your time with us as pleasant as possible, but it seems that every time you stay here there is something wrong and you do not enjoy yourself. Since we have tried our best on multiple occasions to satisfy you and we appear to be unable to, I would recommend that next time you come to town you stay elsewhere." He never came back and GOOD. No business should want that kind of customer. You know the kind that will find fault with something just to get a discount.

OMG you are hilarious! The 60's not being a time of rampant drug use? really? Tell that to the hippy movement! Thanks for the laugh, I so needed that today.

You don't live in my country. I wasn't even born in the 60s so I'm sure I'm not confusing the decades.

Thanx for that political rant.

NOT.