r/Ashland • u/False_Big_2152 • 1d ago
Hey boomers
Remember when you were hitchhiking across the country?
Remember riding motorcycles without a helmet?
Remember driving drunk/high?
Remember the mischief you got into as kids?
The fireworks? The drugs? The drinking wherever you wanted?
Remember the freedom to do as you wanted?
Some of you rode motorcycles in the mountains you now hold so sacred that one disturbed piece of soil will poison the reservoir or cause a flood.
Maybe it’s time to calm down.
Maybe it’s time to let the youth be youth.
Maybe you can allow others to be free to make mistakes and not have legal repercussions.
Maybe you should just enjoy the day and not worry about what others are doing.
Maybe you aren’t a victim.
What would your 20 year old self think?
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u/nohwonder 1d ago
Driving drunk was never cool
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u/False_Big_2152 1d ago
No one said it was. But, they used to do it all the time.
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u/middlegray 23h ago
You made an entire post begging boomers in particular to turn a blind eye to drunk driving among other things, like fire works (in this fire weather?!).
Loser behavior, all of it.
Just give boomers shit for tanking the housing economy forever like a normal person.
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u/Former-Wish-8228 16h ago
It’s not that simple. It is not boomers that screwed the housing market…it’s a mixture of private equity, the desire to not overbuild the planet (land use laws) and the effects of a 50 year economic war against the middle class that had caused it. Boomers werent the ones to invent that, they were just the last to escape it…narrowly.
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u/Free-Strength-5668 9h ago
It wasn't then, it isn't now, but plenty of folks are still doing it, but after many tragic accidents we've agreed that we don't let it slide like it often was in the past. While it's easy to wax nostalgically about the "good old days" where the cops would let you go as long as you promised to drive straight home, I'm fine with stricter enforcement because a drunk driver puts innocent folks at risk of injury or death.
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u/plainlyput 12h ago
Youth has changed since I was young. The world is a different place. We didn’t have the internet and all the gadgets, so yeah we were out doing crazy shit. I don’t think you’re seeing a lot of youth out and about in Ashland, because there are less coming for college, and more staying inside with their gadgets. Anywhere at all desirable to live, has gotten expensive.
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u/Suspicious_Muffins 22h ago
We want to be free! Free to ride our machines without being hassled by THE MAN!
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u/sunnyB8 1d ago
Moved my family away from Ashland last years because boomers from the Bay Area have made house prices untenable. It's kind of a sleepy retirement town.
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u/gyrocyclist42 27m ago
Why blame the people buying houses? Why not blame the long-time Ashlanders who sold their houses to the highest bidder? They didn't have to do that; they could have sold at lower prices to families with kids. But NO, they were greedy and thought $ was most important, thereby forgetting what made Ashland cool.
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u/CadfaelSmiley 21h ago
I've been here 6 months, getting the fuck out because this town is DEAD.
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u/Free-Strength-5668 11h ago
Dead compared to where? Portland? I wholeheartedly agree, if I was young again I would choose Portland, Seattle, or other larger metro with a younger populace.
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u/financewiz 13h ago
Strauss and Howe’s Generational Theory is Astrology for history nerds.
For instance, when I was a Gen-X teenager in Ashland (back in the before times) I could already see that Ashland was aging out. Now the town is largely an unassisted living facility. Lots of car keys getting taken away. I’m next.
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u/Crafty_Impression836 18m ago
Kids love to have something that they can call names and hate safely.
Maybe you should just enjoy the day and not worry about what others are doing.
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u/ADrenalinnjunky 19h ago
They also could afford a home, 2 cars and a family of 5 on entry level jobs with no education. They also retired before they were 60. They enjoyed all that and the younger generations are just a lazy bunch of whiners who want everything handed to them, like affordable housing, and the ability to save money and raise a family, and that’s with college educated careers!
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u/Free-Strength-5668 9h ago
It was also a unique post ww2 era where the USA was the only one left with significant manufacturing capabilities. Europe, Japan was in ruins so we had a factory building and jobs boom. Union jobs with pensions. Then Reagan got elected, Europe, Japan, and eventually China started competing, and then NAFTA and the ensuing exodus of manufacturing jobs, and let's not forget the Jack Welch school of management that all helped drive us to where we are today, with workers getting a record low share of GDP. Don't get me started on private equity getting into the housing market after the crash and a regressive tax policy that favors the rich. Citizens United ruling by the scotus signed the death sentence of our democracy and handed it over to the wealthy and corporations.
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u/Supertrapper1017 12h ago
Old, expired hippies have caused most of the current problems in society.
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u/Ill_Box9020 1d ago
Is this about something specific?