Old will never be new again

 

Rose tinted glasses, everything was much better back then, well at our last Gypsy Tour earlier this year we never had a Bathing Beauty Pageant seeing it was all blokes I”m happy about that, but it is food for thought maybe at our next one in 2016. The other picture of the model in practical riding gear of the 50’s is more risqué most ( should I say some) modern women wouldn’t be caught dead in that costume or on an old Indian, maybe a new Indian and completely naked but that’s all, so were things better back then? I lived from 1952 so I will comment from that time on Polio or T.B injections BEX & Vincent’s headache powders Dr Mackenzie Mentoid tablets for fat people, cigarettes everyone smoked even the cat, corrugated toilet paper, no air-con, Briquette heaters, sunburn rubbed with olive oil, valve radios and TVs, corner phone boxes, no seat belts or collapsible steering columns, the Vietnam War and National Service conscription, these are delightful things that were around. Cars were 6 cylinder and “three on the tree” (column shift) and no synchro on first, rusting from the day they left the factory and vacuum wipers, or worst still Pommie 4 cylinders with bad electrics and always boiling, motorcycles were equally dubious, kickstart, Lucas electrics, felt oil seals and tin chaincases, average brakes to make it better. Policeman were shocking & unforgiving and if you were a L or P plater even worse, my mate had his Learner Permit torn up like confetti and sprinkled on the ground and told to walk home, pushbike riders were fined as another friend who rode at 65 klm over a amphometer down a hill, he was flagged down had his tyre pump removed and his valves and told to walk to work. GST at 10% is tame next to 22% sales tax we had then and I wont mention the pill or anything else such as death sentences or 80% of people have a firearm in their house in this era, heart bypass surgery was not great earlier on with most not surviving or if they did only a few years. So some things were good then as well as now things have improved for the better overall, as have our favorite brand Indian I’m glad to have ordered a Scout and ride older Chiefs I know there limitations unfortunately many people don’t “Old will never be new again”