On Sun, 08 Aug 2004 08:55:34 -0600, Newps wrote:



Peter Gottlieb wrote:

"Newps" wrote in message
...

Terrorists won this battle. American lifestyle now sucks.

Maybe yours does, mine gets better every year.



Is that because as you get older you get more blind and deaf?

Nope, it's because my lifestyle gets better and better.

Wellll... Let's see. I do have more money now than I had 45 years
ago. *Maybe* more spendable even being retired.

But:

45 years ago I didn't have any concern about government regulations
altering my life style, or at least very few.

I didn't have politicians screwing with my retirement.

American products were considered high quality, planned obsolescence
not withstanding.

Most of the world considered us the good guys.
My folks taught me to judge people on what they did, not who they were
or what they looked like and to always give the benefit of the doubt
even if it cost me a bit.

I didn't have any concerns about regulations limiting where I could
go. I could walk out to transient parking at Detroit Metro without an
escort. I just opened a door and walked out. Now I need an escort to
get back to my own plane at class C and D airports.

I didn't have to worry about someone trying to take my guns away and I
could purchase *almost* anything I could afford. I could even
purchase a fully functional Thompson, although the license was too
steep for me. "Guns & Ammo" even had an article where they purchased
a 20mm cannon, converted it to a bolt action and went "plinking" with
HE ammo.

I didn't have to be concerned about Broad Band over Power lines (BPL)
trashing the frequencies on which I operate my ham station.
Admittedly my Receiver weighed 75#, My transmitter 95# and the power
amp was 113# while today I have a 100 Watt transceiver that has a
spectrum display built in and it only weighs about 15# and there are
units small enough to backpack.

I didn't have to worry about dependence on foreign oil even if the
three carbs on my Pontiac sounded like they were trying to suck the
hood through them, or driving a Chevy convertible with dual 4s where
the speedometer and gas gage raced to see which got to the peg first.
Actually the Pontiac got around 18 MPG if you didn't open the front
and back carbs. OTOH my cousin's Chevy convertible (the one above) got
about 8 MPH on a good day... a very good day, going down hill with a
very strong tail wind.

I smoked two packs a day, didn't know they were bad for me, and felt
great. I could eat a stack of pancakes coated with real butter and
*soaked* in real maple syrup ( I used the pancakes to hold the butter
and syrup together) , 4 eggs, 4 slices of toast, and two cups of
coffee for breakfast, eat a big lunch, and have a dinner/supper big
enough to sink a small boat and never put on a pound. I had good
blood pressure and didn't know what cholesterol was. Now I exercise,
eat right, live a healthy life style, and I have to watch my
cholesterol and blood pressure.

When I was 16 I could walk into the hardware store to purchase a case
of dynamite, caps, and fuse (and did quite often). I did the
dynamiting for the neighboring farmers. Can you imagine a 16 year old
kid pulling up on a Hog, filling the saddle bags with dynamite and
taking off today?

I had a full driver's license at age 14, not a farm permit. I had my
own car at 16 even if it was 12 years old. Of course a car with
50,000 to 60,000 miles was pretty well "run out" back then.

Dawn Patrols and "The Flying Farmers" fly-ins would cover the airports
with small planes. Now a good fly-in breakfast is a 100 to 200
airplanes. Actually 200 is a rarity around here.

They were building *more* airports.

At just under $3 per hour I made more than almost any of the guys I
went to high school with.

I had a full head of bright red hair. Now I have a fringe around the
edges and have more hair growing out of my ears than on my head.

Back then I had 20/10 vision in both eyes. Now I wear bi-focals.

Now days a cheap, economy car will cost about twice what my first home
cost and it was a nice home. (I'm not counting the divorce - I came
out ahead)

My second marriage has lasted far longer than the first (20 years next
month) Course the first one seemed a lot longer and this one has
seemed like only a few years. As the old saying goes; Time goes faster
when you're having fun:-))

So, yes, in some ways my lifestyle gets better and better. I'm lazy,
retired, and don't have to work, But in many areas I have far more
restrictions, and have lost precious freedoms. Many countries and
groups are jealous of the freedoms we still have, let alone what we
had and they work actively to reduce our freedoms to their levels
under many guises.

Yes, there are many things I can no longer do and it's not due to my
age, but there is one thing they can never take away. As he was
leaving this world my dad told me he was proud of me.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com