WTF was wrong with Archie and Edith?
Were they masochists with a poverty fetish? What the hell happened that made them nostalgic for the good ole days of the Great Depression????
shareYounger?
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MovieChat Forums > All in the Family (1971) Discussion > WTF was wrong with Archie and Edith?
Glenn Miller
songs from the hit parade
old LaSalle ran great
you knew where you where then
gals were gals and men were men
Herbert Hoover
everyone pulled their weight
WTF, didn't you pay attention? ;-)
Archie was my paternal grandfather---as a WASP. (I AM polish LOL). He was frustrated the world was changing and was trying to figure it out.
Watching all in the family is spooky btw. They look and sound (like I said) exactly like my dad's parents. Eeerie. The twilight zone does not scare me but this does.
People are nostalgic for their youth. They tend to forget the bad stuff and remember the good. I had a relative that grew up during the depression who vehemently insisted it was the best time time to be a kid.
shareI feel this happening to me right now, in fact, in my late 60s. Intellectually I know what was bad in the world of my youth; but emotionally, I remember the good aspects much more strongly, with an added luster to it over each passing year. Sometimes I have to pause, look back with clearer eyes, and remind myself of the entire range of what was going on decades ago, not just the good stuff.
shareNailed it. Their lives were carefree, their bodies young and strong, society treated them as if they had potential. When you get old that all goes away and people are pining away for their youth. Does make you wonder though, what if they're right ... what if it was better being an average kid? Think about it, life was simpler, no cameras and phones everywhere you go, less media induced hysteria.
shareMany in my family grew up during that time and considered it "The Good Old Days".
I was repeatedly told that I didn't know what I was missing when I was growing up.
People looked out for each other and stood together in bad times. Food wasn't chemicals, people were happier and families were closer. There were problems like alcoholism and depression, but people didn't talk about them.
Really, I prefer to have chemicals in my food over almost starving.
Because yes, that is what it was like for some people during the Depression era.
Nah, it's about producing cheaper food in order for rich CEOs to pocket more money.
I was also told that food tasted much better. I didn't understand until I went to another country and was floored by how flavorful everything was. Not only the chemicals, but farming methods changed.
You'll enjoy Breyer's "ice cream" which can be left on a table at room temperature for 74 hours, yet doesn't melt. Yum!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6aUOJIfazI
You're right about food tasting better. Even in my lifetime I've noticed a degradation in this.
An example I often cite is Subway. When Subway first moved into my area (sometime during the 80s) they had some of the best sandwiches in town. As the company grew and more locations opened, the quality of both the food and service gradually deteriorated. One of the first things they did away with was bonus stamp program, the one where you would fill a card with these stamps and get a free six-inch sandwich. It later became obvious that the "freshly baked in store" sandwich buns were not what they claimed to be. This degradation was done in increments so it went practically unnoticed by the unsuspecting customer. Yet the prices continued to rise.
My final Subway sandwich consisted of a dried-up bun crammed full of lettuce, leaving little room remaining for the four paper-thin slices of lunch meat, the kind available at any supermarket. I haven't done business with Subway for over ten years now. I can only imagine how much further they've deteriorated since.
I must have started going to Subway after the food went downhill because I couldn't figure out their popularity since my sandwiches were barely edible.
shareSubway has gone way downhill. I would say the decline began maybe around the mid 90s.
The sad thing about this is there are family-owned restaurants and delis that have far superior sandwiches for the same price. Or sometimes for less if you keep an eye out for coupons or daily specials. These places get run into the ground by these giant corporate garbage chains that can afford to saturate TV broadcasts with their slick deceptive advertising. And the general public (many of whom cannot think for themselves) are easily influenced by these commercials. Subway was able to achieve name recognition ("oh, look... there's a Subway...") and then stopped caring.
If people would think and stop being so lazy they would search and see that the family-run stores still exist. These are the places they should be patronizing. Support your small businesses and local economy. This would keep the garbage places out of the area. But no... we demand instant gratification with minimal effort. Subway has a silly "phone app" while the local deli with better food doesn't. So guess who gets more business? It's a losing situation.
I live in an area with such a large Italian-American population that there's a real pizzeria about every few blocks, serving wonderful food. And yet awful chain pizzerias do a thriving business here, while the family-owned places go under.
shareOld people have always said that food tasted better when they were young, like millions of years ago primitive humanoids who were getting older used to whinge that raw squirrels tasted much better when they were young. It's because taste buds lose sensitivity as we age, so even if the old folks were served the exact same foods that they loved when they were younger, the taste experience wouldn't be the same.
As for Archie and Edith, well, most older people are nostalgic for their youth (I'm not). Yes, the Depression sucked, but a lot of people who were kids then said that life was fun and simple, they were allowed to run wild and play while their parents sheltered them from certain grim realities. And life would have gotten better and better when they were young adults, say, in the 1940s, the economy rose and unions raised wages for the working class to an all-time high, they fell in love and had a beautiful child and bought a house of their very own. Life would have seemed pretty nice, when they were young.
No, the food tastes better because it was made from food, was fresher and farming techniques were different.
For instance, my favorite former candy and cookies began to feel waxy and taste bizarre. The chocolate was replaced with PGPR, preservatives and other crap it didn't have when I was a kid. The label says "chocolotey" instead of "chocolate".
Food from a small local farm is different from a supermarket. It's fresher and more flavorful. Large corporate farms replaced a lot of smaller family-owned farms which existed during the "Good Old Days".
Some of it is about being a young child, but there were other positives. Simple things like a family sitting together for dinner and listening to the radio as a family. Or children being respectful toward their elders. Or playing ball with the neighborhood kids. My family was dirt poor, but happy during the Great Depression.
I'm observing how things are becoming worse in society during my life. People used to be friendlier and helped each other a lot more. People don't talk to strangers while waiting for a bus or in the elevator anymore. It's never dark at night - I can barely see stars (too many street lights). No laughter from kids playing outside by themselves. No more lightning bugs. No cheap newspapers, magazines and comic books sold everywhere. Less shared experiences as a nation - too much divisiveness. Food sux. Unaffordable housing. Pollution. No doctor home visits. No milk deliveries in glass bottles (tastes better in glass). Better music, movies and TV shows. Double features in movie palaces.
We're both right, but you're failed to grasp my point, while I've grasped yours, so I win. Yes, food has largely been adulterated and filled with chemicals, but if you fed a typical 80 year old a meal that was absolutely identical down to the last molecule to the meal that was their favorite as a child... they would say that it doesn't taste the same or as good, because their sense of taste has changed.
Anyway, old folks have also always said that society is going to hell and everything they value is being lost, I mean there are poems from the Greek and Roman empire decrying the lose morals and poor manners of the young that sound just like any grandpa grumbling about how everything's worse these days. So now that I'm getting old myself I feel the same way, so I'm trying to sort out how much of it is a problem with the world and how much is my own inability to accept change. Because the only constant IS change.
I did grasp your point, but you missed that I had addressed it in an earlier post:
"I was also told that food tasted much better. I didn't understand until I went to another country and was floored by how flavorful everything was."
I experienced the difference in food quality several times. Visiting a foreign country, making my own ice cream from scratch (class) and tasting the difference when it's fresh (1-minute old) and in the freezer for three days, and tasting fresh bakery cake instead of store bought.
I didn't lose my taste buds. U.S. store bought food does taste bland.
I discussed food with a foreign friend where small family farms are common and well-respected. He grows a lot of his own food and he agreed about how cooking with higher quality food from the farm changes the taste for the better. He has fresh eggs from his chickens each morning, grows his own honey has fruit and nut trees, and goes foraging, etc. He says the taste is completely different from store bought. Personally, I can only drink fresh milk from a local farm. The store bought stuff makes me ill if I smell it.
I don't agree that's what old folks say or at least I don't know any who do. My family was very aware of all the bad things too. But, there were some really nice things that don't exist anymore. I used to talk at length to my family members about what things were like in those days.
Men walk around with their pants down and their underwear showing and women walk around half-naked. People carried themselves with more dignity back then too.
Wow, I can't believe that you just said that the smell of all store bought milk makes you ill!
I'm sorry, but it sounds like your problem with food is psychological and lies within you personally.
Men walk around with their pants down and their underwear showing and women walk around half-naked. People carried themselves with more dignity back then too.
And back in the 1920s, people were disgusted by how girls bobbed their hair and wore a new revealing fashion.
Jazz music and jazz clubs were seen as dangerous to the moral of the youth.
Things have not changed as much as you might like to believe.
So I really have to agree with Otter on this one.
The cycle of life is that people will talk about how great their youth culture was and how bad kids are today. share
You're rather arrogant.
First, you're going to dictate how The Greatest Generation should feel about their own lives in the 1930s and what offends them. And then you're going to dictate that I should enjoy 9-day old sour milk over fresh hour-long milk.
FYI, sour milk complaints skyrocketed in my area when the law re: the sale date was extended from 3 to 9-days.
You don't sound like you ever talked to anyone born in the 20s or 30s about their lives or you'd know they don't find your walking around with your dirty undershorts showing or your butt cheeks hanging out to be fashionable.
You're rather arrogant.
Oh, hardly.
First, you're going to dictate how The Greatest Generation should feel about their own lives in the 1930s and what offends them.
No, I never did that.
I said every generation will look back in their own youth with fondness and complain about "kids today".
And then you're going to dictate that I should enjoy 9-day old sour milk over fresh hour-long milk.
FYI, sour milk complaints skyrocketed in my area when the law re: the sale date was extended from 3 to 9-days.
But you left out the important detail that the stores sold old and sour milk.
You made it sound like you became ill from store bought milk in general for some reason.
What I don't get is why they would want to sell bad milk in the first place.
Did they not get that people would notice the low quality and complain?
But that is where I misunderstood you, and I can only apologize.
You don't sound like you ever talked to anyone born in the 20s or 30s about their lives or you'd know they don't find your walking around with your dirty undershorts showing or your butt cheeks hanging out to be fashionable.
I planned to get an interview with my last living great-aunt (born in 1922).
But by then, she was in her 90s and lived at a home and I didn't want to bother her.
However, I now regret that I didn't even ask before she passed away.
She might only have been glad to get a visit from me!
But it's not like I didn't talk to anybody from that generation.
I just never had an opportunity to interview them about their youth like I maybe should have.
That said, I can promise that I've never showed off my dirty underwear or my butt cheeks either.
How is that supposed to be fashionable?
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I grew up with relatives in my household and nearby as well as worked with people born in the early 20s. We chatted about that era all the time. Not just general things, but specifics like my area was once a rural area with family farms everywhere.
They cleaned their teeth with salt, not toothpaste. Once a week each family member bathed in a small tub after water was heated. I was instructed on how to use a 1920 phone. An truck delivered ice for their icebox in order for food to be kept cold. I heard tons of stories and asked many questions.
They never complained about kids today. They just said that kids don't know what fun they were missing. Another thing is there was more modesty. All mass media was wholesome - no rating system yet. Most women I know were virgins when they married and dresses were worn below the knee. Hats were worn by men until the 60s.
Their major complaints were sex being talked about so openly and frequently and people dressed with little modesty. The 60s micro-mini was a shocker for them.
Specifically whole milk. When I was around 6, there was a controversy when milk was allowed to to be sold longer - from 3 to 7 days at that time. People complained that the milk was sour at times and I stopped drinking it because the smell and taste became disgusting. When I went to sleep-away camp, I was able to briefly drink it again because the farmers delivered it fresh each morning. Now, the law is 9-days. They only care about profit - not the consumer.
I have one more relative who is a little younger, but tells me stories about my family in those days when I visit her. I recently watched an old movie and I couldn't run to anyone to ask a question about that era. Very depressing.
I accept your apology and I take back my negative comment about you since only someone who is not arrogant would be big enough to apologize - especially on this site.
I still see this in my area:
https://s.hdnux.com/photos/23/27/75/5078884/7/rawImage.jpg
Everything is "chemicals". Don't drink the hydrogen oxide! The left is anti-science.
shareUnless your youth was during the 80s/90s, then the good times were real.
shareThere's another angle that's not been mentioned. In their view, with some justification, during those bad old days of the Great Depression and, later, World War II, the USA was more unified in how they perceived themselves in the world. In WWII they had a common desire to defeat the Nazis, etc. When the 60s rolled around, suddenly the country was split into those who were patriotic (justified or not) and those who held America's feet to the fire for its past as well as existing problems. For commoners like the Bunkers, being able to hold onto the mythology of the USA being a "great country" and the sense that most everyone else felt that way was an important psychological restorative that helped them deal with day to day problems and tedium. Meatheads like Rob Reiner made it very plain that they thought their patriotism was pathetic.
shareThe USA being a great country (no quote marks) is not mythology. With all its imperfections, no country has done more good in the world. If the USA is not and never has been great, then no country is or has ever been great and we are doomed to nihilism, which is just plain stupid. Reiner's character on "All in the Family" truly was a meathead. He would fit in perfectly with woke lunacy today, just as Reiner himself does.
shareI don't disagree, but there is definitely some mythology involved in every country's history. I'd venture even to say that some positive mythology is essential to a country's health, and obviously far superior to what I see now as an incessant drive to expose every wart and ignore everything that's positive. I had sympathy for both Archie and Meathead's point of view, which is a testament to the great writing. I speak disparagingly of Meathead these days because I despise Rob Reiner and his public persona.
shareHey, Mr. Perceptive, it's all in the song. ;-)
shareJudging by the way I see modern films portraying the 1980s and 1970s so negatively now, I am beginning to suspect that people in entertainment have been unjustly maligning the past to make the present seem better for a very long time. I would trust people who lived through an era more than that of younger movie and TV producers.
shareNo gangsta rap
Cars ran forever
No 57 genders
No one was entitled
Yes they were the good old days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaDbnllknWI
Here's an interview with legendary producer Don Hewitt, who created/produced 60 Minutes. He talks about how the depression affected him, starting at 2:13:
"I look back at a very happy childhood"
"I liked my mother/father, I liked my school, I had no problem with adolescence"
"It was a nicer time, it was a quieter time, it was more gentile, not much hate/anger"
I can kinda understand. Stuff I used to run around in is either torn down/remodeled. Or you find out it wasn't that safe after all even though it made you happy at the time. Time marches on though. If you want to stand still, you're dead.
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