The Best Decade to be Born In?

[Gladys]

Prompted by all the 'If you remember eating coal and being beaten to within an inch of your life' type posts on FB, I wonder which decade you think was the best to be born in?

 

Naturally, being a 1960 child, I think that was a great decade to be born In. We had the strange mix of new wealth following the postwar privations, the huge technological leaps and the sexual revolution.

 

In the last category, I think children of the'60s enjoyed the most sexually free time in the 70s and early 80s when contraception was reliable, women were recognised as having a choice but before the AIDS thing really hit.

 

We also felt able to freely, but respectfully, speak our minds without the fear of PC. We weren't bullied because there was a resilience grown out of self-determination and a sense of responsibility.

 

There was a joy of new stuff, that you actually expected would fulfill you for many years, not until the next version would be launched in the following year.

 

Sure, there is much to criticise, but it really made a more rounded society without expectation of what you were entitled to, more what you would earn and deserve.

 

But there again, I am shuffling towards old fartdom.

[BossHogg]

Generation X is officially 1966-1976 so I reckon probably that's the tail end of all the post war goodness. Starting out with music like the Doors, and ending in the punk explosion and the kick back of the establishment. Then on into the Thatcher years, the free market, the poll tax riots, and then moving on to full on wealth creation, coke, social mobility, a so called meritocracy, and then freedom of personal choice. With the edge coming off by producing boring socially conformist kids who live on Facebook.

Edited October 7, 2016 by BossHogg

[Declan]

I think perhaps decades are not especially representative of eras or groupings.

 

For example, "I think children of the'60s enjoyed the most sexually free time in the 70s and early 80s " might be true for people born in 1960 but not for people born in 1968 or 1969.

 

I must admit, being a late 60's kid, that my childhood and teen hood was more like kids from the 70's or even the early 80's than those from the early 60's. For example we had home computers, our music was indie and dance rather than prog and disco.

 

I think everyone thinks their era is the best, they're probably right for them.

 

The only bit I'm envious of really is people who were teens in the 60's have experienced all the great music of the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and onwards fresh as it happened. Now I'll get a few decades on at the end but I doubt the 2030's will be as exciting as the 1960's.

 

Also I think it would be good to have experienced the improved standard of education of the 90's or 00's over the third rate one that existed in the 80's.

[Declan]

Generation X is officially 1966-1976 so I reckon probably that's the tail end of all the post war goodness. Starting out with music like the Doors, and ending in the punk explosion and the kick back of the establishment. Then on into the Thatcher years, the free market, the poll tax riots, and then moving on to full on wealth creation, coke, social mobility, a so called meritocracy, and then freedom of personal choice. With the edge coming off by producing boring socially conformist kids who live on Facebook.

That's bollocks people born 66 - 76 were New Romantics, indie kids and ravers not hippies and punks (well a few born in 66 may have been tiny punks).

[BossHogg]

The education system wasn't that bad in the 80s. The problem is now you have to go on the dark web to experience interaction with a paedophile. In the 1980s education system if you didn't experience one in geography class, you only had to wait until you went to scouts on a Thursday. The education wasn't bad but the people giving it was the problem.

Edited October 8, 2016 by BossHogg

[BossHogg]

 

Generation X is officially 1966-1976 so I reckon probably that's the tail end of all the post war goodness. Starting out with music like the Doors, and ending in the punk explosion and the kick back of the establishment. Then on into the Thatcher years, the free market, the poll tax riots, and then moving on to full on wealth creation, coke, social mobility, a so called meritocracy, and then freedom of personal choice. With the edge coming off by producing boring socially conformist kids who live on Facebook.

That's bollocks people born 66 - 76 were New Romantics, indie kids and ravers not hippies and punks (well a few born in 66 may have been tiny punks).

But it's the memories they carry.

Edited October 8, 2016 by BossHogg

[Tarne]

Young millennials like myself aren't having the best time with regards to life - housing is way out of range, job prospects aren't great, and most of us finished university and had half a decade or more of shit when the recession hit.

[Gladys]

To be fair Tarne, I can remember three recessions, mid 70s, late 80s and early 90s. That is just an approximate dateline, but the baby boomers did experience some very difficult economic times, many times.

 

I agree though, the biggest hurdle for people now is housing and the costs or ability of getting on the property ladder or even getting reasonable quality rented accommodation at an acceptable cost. It is dire.

 

There again, I also remember that the standard of housing was woeful when I was in my twenties, but the expectation wasn't that great.

[Declan]

 

 

Generation X is officially 1966-1976 so I reckon probably that's the tail end of all the post war goodness. Starting out with music like the Doors, and ending in the punk explosion and the kick back of the establishment. Then on into the Thatcher years, the free market, the poll tax riots, and then moving on to full on wealth creation, coke, social mobility, a so called meritocracy, and then freedom of personal choice. With the edge coming off by producing boring socially conformist kids who live on Facebook.

That's bollocks people born 66 - 76 were New Romantics, indie kids and ravers not hippies and punks (well a few born in 66 may have been tiny punks).

But it's the memories they carry. Yes, most ended up as blitz kids and New Romantics. I still have early Duran Duran on the car CD. But the punk explosion left its mark to prove that anything was possible and that the establishment was only holding people in their place. And also if you're wearing a frilly shirt and big hair if someone calls you a puff, you don't resort to social media to insult them, you punch their lights out.

I don't deny that Punk had a big impact on the music that group ended up listening to but you seemed to be implying someone born in 66 emerged from the womb singing "this is the end, my only friend the end"

[BossHogg]

 

 

 

Generation X is officially 1966-1976 so I reckon probably that's the tail end of all the post war goodness. Starting out with music like the Doors, and ending in the punk explosion and the kick back of the establishment. Then on into the Thatcher years, the free market, the poll tax riots, and then moving on to full on wealth creation, coke, social mobility, a so called meritocracy, and then freedom of personal choice. With the edge coming off by producing boring socially conformist kids who live on Facebook.

That's bollocks people born 66 - 76 were New Romantics, indie kids and ravers not hippies and punks (well a few born in 66 may have been tiny punks).

But it's the memories they carry. Yes, most ended up as blitz kids and New Romantics. I still have early Duran Duran on the car CD. But the punk explosion left its mark to prove that anything was possible and that the establishment was only holding people in their place. And also if you're wearing a frilly shirt and big hair if someone calls you a puff, you don't resort to social media to insult them, you punch their lights out.

I don't deny that Punk had a big impact on the music that group ended up listening to but you seemed to be implying someone born in 66 emerged from the womb singing "this is the end, my only friend the end"

Not at all but it's in your immediate living memory so it becomes part of the soundtrack of your life. That generation started to a sound track of the Doors, and ended with the Sex Pistols and the Clash then moved on to the New Romantics and Thatchers free market.

[the stinking enigma]

i was born in the seventies but cant remember much about it, birth or decade. the 90's was a belting decade, with true freedom and the stupidity to make the most of it.

[Shake me up Judy]

Early fifties would've been ideal for me so that I could've caught the music of the late sixties and early seventies in my late teens. I've always reckoned that I was born five years too late.

[Declan]

Young millennials like myself aren't having the best time with regards to life - housing is way out of range, job prospects aren't great, and most of us finished university and had half a decade or more of shit when the recession hit.

I think you've had a bit of bad luck really and there's a danger the ripples of that impact throughout your career.

 

They say those who left school during Thatcher's recession still earn less on average than people who left school five years later.

 

That said, those born in the 80's earn more than those born in the 40's, 50's, 60's did at a similar age, but less the the 70's kids.

[Declan]

i was born in the seventies but cant remember much about it, birth or decade. the 90's was a belting decade, with true freedom and the stupidity to make the most of it.

Yeah I reckon the 90's was the best time to be young or youngish.

[mojomonkey]

 

i was born in the seventies but cant remember much about it, birth or decade. the 90's was a belting decade, with true freedom and the stupidity to make the most of it.

Yeah I reckon the 90's was the best time to be young or youngish.

I became a teenager in 1990. No real complaints but it did mean owning and wearing a shellsuit was pretty inevitable.