People always remember and wax nostalgic over the "The Good Ole Days". I think they tend to remember what was good, and forget about the bad stuff.

My mother once said, "Things were better when I was growing up. I remember when it cost a nickel to take the trolley downtown, we could go to the movies for a quarter, and we could get an ice cream after for a dime. Those were great times."

I asked her, "Did the Good Ole Days coincide with your brother's Polio?"

I'm not smarter than my mother, she's not at all selfish, and I'm certainly not as close to her brother as she is, but she was being nostalgic and not really weighing out the pros and cons in an honest manner.

The next time someone tells you about how great things were back then, just think to yourself about how some of the problems of that time have been solved and how new problems have emerged. Smile to them then and say, "It must have been great." Then later you can secretly plan to test them for Alzheimer's because they're obviously starting to forget things. LOL

And if you want to know your neighbors, go meet your neighbors.