What was it like in 1970's-1980's in the U.S. or also know as America's "Golden era"?

What was it like back then? My father said that it was America's golden era.

The 70s were no golden era. Energy shortages, panic, riots, Kent State, Nixon, Recession, Inflation, Stagflation... yikes.
Your dad is a cackamamey fool
It was a very good time in many ways. Guys wore real shorts, tighter jeans - sex available 24/7 in many cruising areas. You didn't have to schedule a damn appointment online with someone who may or may not be what you like. You could just go to the boy buffet.
Eldergays this thread is for you! Get ready to start posting!
born%20in%20the%2080s
Can we go even five minutes without another new eldergay thread?
Fuck you R2
OP
Sadly OP, r2 is correct, your daddy is a bit of a dolt. The golden era of the last century was 1946 to 1970. America's decline had its roots in the 70's and moved into high gear with the election of Ronald Reagan.
Then start the new younger gay threads, R5. Easiest thing to do is stay away from what you perceive as "eldergay only" threads. Go off and stop whining and start your own. If you don't have 18 bucks, then give us some ideas and we'll start them for you.
The Golden Age of America in the 20th Century ended on November 22, 1963.
Noisy, ugly, tacky, full of conflict, but also excitement.
The 70's were a wonderful decade. Great music, movies, culture. The 80's were mostly a coked-out wasteland.
It was not a golden era.
The sky was so blue that day, er..night..uh...time.
Sorry, OP, but I must join the throng. Your dad is sort of an idiot.
I've started many of my own, R8. The eldergays here have developed graphomania, though... We can do without the constant references to the 60's, 70's, and 80's.
R5
The 1980s were kind of campy. Lots of magenta and bright pink. Big hair. Horribly tacky clothing. Plastic music. Lots and lots of cheesy sitcoms. Weird foods, like Tang and Sanka.
For America as a whole, the golden age ended in 1970. The decade brought in chaos, petroleum shortages, ever increasing drug use,acceptance of sleazy sex which led to the AIDs crisis, energy shortages, Nixon/Watergate,stagflation. Note that our energy independence pretty much ended in 1970. Research Hubberts Peak and Peak Oil. The golden age ended in 1969. For Gay rights, however, the 1960s were not so good, to put it mildly.
My childhood overlapped the two decades. Although I was too young to understand the political and social issues of the time, even a kid as young as I was could detect the sea change in economic circumstances that happened after Reagan's election, around 1981-82. Once the 80s got going, everyone was all about the trappings of affluence. Everything was suddenly aspirational: fancy natural artisanal foods, quality designer clothes with natural fibers, expensive cars, and the latest electronic gadgets. The buying patterns we take for granted today were unheard of before 1980.
[quote]Everything was suddenly aspirational: fancy natural artisanal foods, quality designer clothes with natural fibers, expensive cars, and the latest electronic gadgets. Exactly. Such people were derided as "yuppies." Now the yuppie lifestyle is the default.
R17, most Americans who think that the Golden Age of America began with the victory in WWII, and ended by 1969, will cite "gay" rights, as well as the civil rights movement of the "blacks" as the two major barometers of decline which prove the demise of American civilization.
I wasn't alive in the 80s, but the 90s didn't seem bad at all. That being said I need my self driving car by 2023.
I think the older you are, the foggier the memory of the past becomes. The 50s were once called the "Golden Era" too - when there was segregation, enslavement of women and forget about being gay. No era is golden while it is going on; there will always be problems and injustices.
Anonymous
Although the democracy and economy were getting undermined in the 70s, socially, many more began to enjoy the freedoms won in the 60s. Then again, some of those enjoying themselves were criminal types taking advantage of these very freedoms...
r5 I'd settle for five minutes of not having to see the overused word "eldergay".
Anonymous
The Golden Era was a specific time, as others mentioned 40s 50s. Its not just what your father liked growing up. Maybe golden to him, but not by society.
I remember the sudden decline when Reagan was elected. It immediately got harder to get into school or job training programs. TV became a mass of commercials. Homeless appeared on the streets. The 80s may not have been the end of a "golden age." But it was the end of something.
Now here's the question: What is a Yuppie? Take the first three characters "Young Urban Professional".
LuciferTheLightBringer
Please, as an elder gay, there is no way that the 70's could be considered. while wild casual sex did exist in certain parts of NYC and the Castro, gays were still constantly beaten, jailed, made fun of by pretty much all the mass media, was medically defined as a mental disorder. even with the necessity protecting your health, this generation has it soooo much better. And I love you queens that always put the Reagan years as either the beginning of, or the end of, America's greatness. We had pretty much 8 years of peace and prosperity and ended the Cold War during those years. Of course he hasn't created the wonderfully economy that exists in the Obama years (who incidentally came out in favor of gay marriage when he realized he needed our vote in 2012, but then I'm just being silly, and factual.
R19 brought up a good point. It was the birth of the Yuppies (young upwardly mobile professional). But not really a good thing. Usually arrogant, money seeking, flashy "me" generation. Flaunted their wealth or success. The Cardassians would be a good example without the work part. Sort of like calling a straight guy a Metrosexual today. Most dont like the label even if that is what they are. Yuppies are all in control of the country now. Gay men fell into this trend as well. They were called Guppies.
R24 don't hate because you're old and wrinkley and nobody wants to hook up with you. Look on the bright side I hear Liza has a new CD coming out!
anonymous%20
Was there really prosperity during the 80s? We always heard there was, but it was not much apparent in real life.
[quote]Was there really prosperity during the 80s? We always heard there was, but it was not much apparent in real life. Yes, there was. And it was pretty apparent as well.
Who the fuck told you the 70s and 80s in the U.S. were a "golden era" needs to correct him or herself immediately.
Not really a fan of Yuppies, but comparing them to the "Cardassians" is pretty brainless. There was a very real phenomenon in the 1980s of college-educated professionals moving back into the cities, restoring property values, and rehabilitating neighborhoods. (In addition to all the snotty, arrogant, wealth-flaunting things they did.) And where did much of Yuppie culture originate? Why, with gay men, who never left the cities, and made an art form out of repurposing space and turning it into a fabulous place to live.
I was born in the mid-1980s but I find that I'm really drawn to these threads about topics of yesteryear. I guess I'm an eldergay at heart.
Wasn't "thirtysomething" about yuppies?
I%20must%20have%20wood%20floors
I remember people could smoke in public places and even offices.
You could drink at work in some places!
Don%20Draper
Your father was an idiot, OP.
so%20are%20you
You could smoke on fucking PLANES. Sealed in a tiny thin metal tube at 30,000 feet THEY LET YOU SMOKE. Jesus. I hated flying back then.
Your father is a dope, and again DL is referring to the 1980s.
r40 -- Some of the old engineers said the sticky nicotine helped seal the plane and after no smoking rules were instituted, they had minor problems with pressurization because they lost this final seal
[quote]We had pretty much 8 years of peace and prosperity and ended the Cold War during those years. Are you out of your frigging mind? Our economy tanked. We had people getting killed. AIDS. My god, the list is endless. Are you willfully being retarded?
Homelessness was rampant in the 1980s. Too bad Raygun wasn't executed for treason. That idiot ruined the fucking country. We are still paying for it today. You can thank him for the Neocons too. Our deficit was sky high. The man got into office by keeping hostages kidnapped, he armed the Taliban, and gave aid to the Iranians. They went into the South and got votes using the hatred of blacks in the region, the Civil Rights Act. Have we forgotten the crap spewed about welfare mothers?
[quote]We had pretty much 8 years of peace and prosperity and ended the Cold War during those years. We went openly to war with Grenada (which we invaded) and were running covert wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua. And the Cold War did not end until after Reagan was out of the White House.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was a time of Quualudes, hash oil, Thai sticks, LSD, LSD and more LSD. If I could remember more of it, I'll let you know.
R20, Our economy started to go to hell in 1970 because we were no longer self-sufficient in oil. In the 1980s, we had lots of cheap oil again, so more wealth. Oil in the 1980s was, what, at one point 10 dollars a barrel.
The '60s/'70s had hippies. The '80s/90s had yuppies. The '00s/'10s has hipsters.
OP a very valid reason people are calling your father moronic is that no one alive during that period would think both decades were golden, or even the transition between them. Even as a kid I remember the 70s as being about Watergate (interrupting cartoons), the end of Vietnam, inflation, the oil crisis, the hostage crisis, 3 mile island, and especially when Reagan took over, real fear of nuclear war. There's a reason nuclear disaster showed up in movies and even shows like Golden Girls -- kids were taught bomb shelters, fallout and those sirens and what they meant. I had nightmares about it. And of course since your father wasn't gay apparently he seens completely clueless about how he 80s quickly became the era of AIDS and was terrifying, if you were an adult or a kid like me growing up in the homophobic 80s where you were told if you were gay you were destined to die. Was your dad a child who has romanticized his Brady Bunch - Happy Days - Cosby Show universe in some sheltered American delusion?
Your perception of a "Golden Era" depends on you, not some external factors. As these replies have shown, there were some really great things happening, and some incredibly bad things at the same time, throughout our history. Personally, I feel that the '90s were the end of America's golden era. You could hop on a plane at a moment's notice and be across the country in 6 hours. Now, it's an all-day affair to take a commuter puddle jumper because you have to show up hours before your flight and disrobe for TSA agents. There was actual food on an airplane. Everybody had money, threw great parties, there were new Star Wars movies, and this thing called "The Internet" blew the doors off of everything. AIDS went from being a death sentence to a chronic but manageable disease. And then the Republicans impeached the president, wore down our collective will, and installed George Bush so he could flush the country's wealth down the toilet. And while we were busy arguing about Bubba getting a blowjob in the Oval Office, Osama bin Laden was busy planning to fly airplanes into our buildings. And Iraq happened. A decade lost to a recession of choice because the Republicans lost control of their insane asylum, as the crazy wing set out to do everything they could to stop the black guy from ascending to his rightful place in history, the worst downturn in economic history since the Great Depression be damned. But hey, at least we got a black guy in the White House. That's something, isn't it?
God%2C%20I%27m%20old
A golden era for some people will have been a time of great distress for other people. And every era that I have lived through has had good aspects and bad aspects just for me. But most people are going to consider the post WWII era, 1945 until after the moon landing, possibly all the way until after the fall of the Soviet Union, to be the heyday of America. During this time there were a lot of horrible things happening as well as a lot of good things. But the USA was recognized as one of the two opposing super-powers, the leader of the free world, and there was generally peace, as compared to WWII, and generally prosperity, as compared to the Great Depression. Peace and prosperity is always relative.
Your dad is a moron. So are you. The term is "Golden Age". America's span from WWII to Vietnam. The 70s were the time of malaise, Watergate and gas shortages, hardly a golden age.
Yuppies is a term of American origine and stand for, "Yawningly Uninterested People Paid Irritatingly Excessive Salaries!!!"
[quote]malaise, Watergate and gas shortages, hardly a golden age. The 70s might have felt relatively bad, but there was housing in which people could experience their malaise, jobs to pay for the high priced gas, and when the gig was up, Nixon resigned.
Those decades were the most fun of my life so far. We had our problems, but compared to today life in the 70's and 80's was incredibly innocent.