For our younger members

The cars. They were more powerful, and fairly easy to tweak for performance if you knew a thing or two about carburetors.My all-time favorite cars were two that I owned during the 70s: a 1966 Beetle that I enventually converted to a Baja Bug with those old wide-ass rear tires and a 1976 Buick Skyhawk 5-speed V-6. That was one cool car; very sporty with its moon roof, bevelled hood, Crager wheels and 100-watt stereo (rather powerful in its day). Once I had that car tweaked and running at its absolute best, I could beat an Olds 440 in a short dash.During the early 80s I had a 1978 Camaro that was fun, but I never fell in love with it the way I did that Skyhawk, probably because the price of gas had gone up quite a bit during the interim and the muscle-car bug was already out of my system.

---

Keep America Safe AND Free!

This could be true, but I've seen enough educated louts, including older educated louts hanging about acting shocked at everything in the red light district (and people say Americans are loud and obnoxious, sheesh). And every English person I have known, including those that came to live here (and again, educated) would go on and on about the conservatism in England, then stammer and spit on the liberalism here. Of course where did they go to have a good time? Well... As was pointed out in the second article the above statistic says nothing about who is having more sex, just who is having more unprotected sex. It also does not tell us (more on topic) if it is more or less than in the past. Or is it an indication of too much imagination? The study was a self-reporting survey (notoriously bad method). It is unlikely this resulted in accurate results, especially given the current climate of talking big about sex and actually doing nothing.In any case, let's assume this is true, it does not reveal what it was like in the past, which may have been more randy than now.In the end this does spotlight the problems of this "new dark age" in sexuality. Everyone has to treat sex as a problem rather than as something fun and healthy if done right. And everyone has to care about everyone else's personal sexual habits, with an eye in how to improve them. Are they doing it? Are they doing it? Are they doing it the way I think they should be doing it?

---

holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

All I can say is you must move in different circles of English people than I do. Although I agree what other method is there short of spying on people ? I would actually be interested in finding out how this sort of information can be obtained with any sort of accuracy. Do you know of any ? Personally I don't care what other people get up to as long as it doesn't affect me. As we in Britain still have a welfare state and a National Health Service both funded out of general taxation (i.e. people like me) the increase in teenage pregnancies and STDs does affect me even if only through my wallet.Getting somewhat back to the topic I think the problems of teenage pregnancies and spread of sexual diseases is just a facet of a wider malaise that Britain has been suffering from for a while. The urban conurbations of Britain have become blighted wastelands of people with no hopes, expectations, education, concern or respect for other people or property, ability to control their consumption of alcohol and/or drugs. So basically I'd have to say at least in terms of the "social fabric" the 70s (when I was growing up) were a better time.One example I always like to quote was that through my teens and early twenties in the towns and cities I lived in there were no bouncers (or doormen as they like to be called nowadays) in pubs and bars. This was a reflection of the fact that there were virtually never fights in the vast majority of pubs. Everyone knew where the pubs were where trouble happened and could avoid them if they wanted to. By the end of the 80s or early 90s the situation had changed to the extent there was a risk of violence pretty much anywhere - you could no longer be sure where it would or wouldn't develop. Correspondingly pretty much every pub now has bouncers on Friday and Saturday nights.Added by Edit :
I tend to think that we're probably not having more sex now than before. My niece has been researching her family tree and one of the things she found was that all four sets of her great grandparents got pregnant before they were married. Back at the time (late 19th. and early 20th. Century) this was a big deal - so much so two of the pairs were effectively exiled from the towns where the family lived.This message has been edited by MangyTiger, 12-19-2004 10:26 AM

---

Confused ? You will be...

quote:

---

One example I always like to quote was that through my teens and early twenties in the towns and cities I lived in there were no bouncers (or doormen as they like to be called nowadays) in pubs and bars. This was a reflection of the fact that there were virtually never fights in the vast majority of pubs. Everyone knew where the pubs were where trouble happened and could avoid them if they wanted to. By the end of the 80s or early 90s the situation had changed to the extent there was a risk of violence pretty much anywhere - you could no longer be sure where it would or wouldn't develop. Correspondingly pretty much every pub now has bouncers on Friday and Saturday nights.

---

Sounds about right to me - Town centres are scary places on a sat night if you are sober.

I haven't talked much about my experiences in the 60's but this seems an appropriate place to insert a few.During the 60's and 70's I was very much into cars and even racing (sport cars, SCCA, Rally, Slalom). Even though it was just me and my wife, it was not unusual for us to have as many as five cars at one time. They varied greatly and often came and went pretty quickly. They ranged from a Mini Cooper S to a Ferrari 330, but through it all, the Alfas dominated my attention.There were a few American cars in the bunch, a 62 Goat and a 67 Camaro 327. They were fast and exciting but frankly, handling sucked and their brakes were close to non-existent. In addition the seats in the American cars were uncomfortable and gave no support at all.The strangest I owned were a Humber Super Snipe with lap rug and vases for flowers in the rear, and a DKW Junior.

---

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

This is undoubtably true. The english people I know are limited to the ones that have left england on holiday or as a permanent move. Other than on this website, I have not talked to anyone actually living in England and staying there.I guess it is an easy sociological point that the ones I would be meeting are the ones that have some issue with england and so have a reason to get away from it. On the topic of sexual habits, there really isn't much better than self-reporting. That just goes to show how weak any info we have on that subject will be. However there are ways of making it stronger. One of the first is not to ask kids. They are more likely to alter their answers for all sorts of reasons. Yeah, but then they get to foot the bill for your habits, no? If socialized medicine becomes an excuse to moralize (in practice) based on outcomes, then I say good riddance to socialized medicine.

---

holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

at 20, i have seen a few things...underline few,but my only comment about the availability of sex (comparing the present to the 60's/70's)
is that there is just as much quantity but it has shifted from something that was fairly taboo(among the average person)and never talked about, to something that everyone talks about.it has taken on the shame/excitement factor of telling your buddies you scored a playboy in the tree-house when you were eleven, or the first time you ever got drunk and had to hide it from your parents. there is also a shocking amount of misinformation about sex out there.(granted there was a lack of info in the 60's but today some of the info is deliberately wrong)I would also say that today's taboo/un-taboo sexual information has led to a fundamental warping of what you geezers *poking fun* took for granted, that you could have sex with a person and it was just sex, no pressure either way. now I would say it is used as just another gauntlet to pass on your way to adulthood, it is more chore than fun, it is a status symbol"oh-my-god!! jenny just hooked up with matt" etc. etc.and it is actually a really sad kind of thing now.as i said above, just a youngster's view.

---

when knowledge is outlawed...only outlaws will have knowledge

Don't most people think that the time they were teenagers the best time to be alive. Not because it has anything to do with the time period but because of their youth. Youth is good not the time period.This message has been edited by Kevin, 12-30-2004 21:24 AM