Post: #1

I stumbled upon this video earlier today, and it was like looking into an altered reality. It almost seemed too fake to be real. Everyone was friendly, sociable, and polite, even though they were amongst strangers.

People didn't have their noses buried in their phones, nobody was awkward, people weren't afraid of eye contact, cursing was kept to a bare minimum, nobody told the camera man to get that fucking camera out of my face, the manager was actually smoking inside the store, and most importantly, nobody was fat, even though they were congregating inside a 7-11. The camera man's ramble was pretty damn good too.

I was born too late into the 80's to know any of this, so was it really like this back then? Nowadays, people seem so cold and distant and suspicious, keeping to themselves, plugging their ears with headphones, burying their faces in the warm glow of their $500 iPhone. I walk into a convenient store today, and I won't see what I saw in that video. I blame social media, the advent of smartphones, and the Internet for this. If someone told me that I'd have to give up all that to get the world back to how it was in that video, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Post: #2

I graduated HS in 87. Looks about right to me.

Post: #3

White people working at 7-11?

Post: #4

(06-23-2013 06:55 PM)MVolt Wrote:  If someone told me that I'd have to give up all that to get the world back to how it was in that video, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Fuck no! Are you crazy? I'm with you on cell phones and social media but not the internet. That shit is too damn valuable man. You want to go back in time go to a country where that stuff is close to non existent, like Cuba. Well worth the trip.

Post: #5

Where do you live where people are afraid of making eye contact?

Post: #6

Strange to think that if you filmed people in a shop today. In 25 years time it would feel like the above video.

The past is a different country. They do things differently there...

Post: #7

The guy filming that video has excellent patter. Most people struggle at that goofy small talk.

Post: #8

(06-23-2013 07:23 PM)cardguy Wrote:  Strange to think that if you filmed people in a shop today. In 25 years time it would feel like the above video.

In 25 years, people will have to go into the store one or two at a time because they will be too fat to all go in at once.

Post: #9

French chick



And what was up with that Spanish dude? He looked like MiXX. Too cool for school.

Post: #10

The smaller parts of a Canada are still like this on a weekend when people have some liquids in them. Even during the day a head nod and a convo with a random in a park is common. Its getting worse but Canada is probably like 1995 America right now.

Yeah I laughed at the fact you had white folks working at 7-11 but my question is what jobs are those lower class whites working now? That slurpee lady was prego and maybe a HS dropout, what work would she be doing nowadays?

Post: #11

I saw this video a few weeks ago. I was so moved by it I almost cried. Its weird to get nolstalgic about minutiae, but life in the vid seems so carefree. There is definitely an underlying tenision in 2013 America, maybe because you cant smoke inside a 7-11 anymore. Also funny how the slurpee machine was behind the cash register but the cigarettes were sold in an aisle.

Post: #12

(06-23-2013 08:26 PM)kosko Wrote:  The smaller parts of a Canada are still like this on a weekend when people have some liquids in them. Even during the day a head nod and a convo with a random in a park is common. Its getting worse but Canada is probably like 1995 America right now.

Yeah I laughed at the fact you had white folks working at 7-11 but my question is what jobs are those lower class whites working now? That slurpee lady was prego and maybe a HS dropout, what work would she be doing nowadays?

Her job now a days is milking the government dole.

Post: #13

Sexual harassment prevention coordinator?
Sociology student
PR intern

Post: #14

I love videos like this. It is a pop cultural archaeological artifact.

Anyway - just want to pass this along. It was doing the rounds a few months ago. It is an art project made from the music and commercials of the 1980's. It is strange, moving and fucked up. In equal measures.

Post: #15

I liked the hairstyles back then.

Post: #16

(06-23-2013 07:23 PM)cardguy Wrote:  Strange to think that if you filmed people in a shop today. In 25 years time it would feel like the above video.

This. Which is why I think people should focus on enjoying the present rather than romanticizing the past. Because people 25 years from now will be talking about how awesome the 2010s were. Just like people in that 1986 video were talking about how awesome the 60s were, and the people in the 50s were talking about how great the roaring 20s were, etc etc. Just enjoy what there is to enjoy in the world at present because one day you'll be nostalgic for it.

Post: #17

You put into words something I have always felt.

Thanks.

Post: #18

Watch Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
That pretty much sums up that era.

Post: #19

(06-23-2013 09:32 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  

(06-23-2013 07:23 PM)cardguy Wrote:  Strange to think that if you filmed people in a shop today. In 25 years time it would feel like the above video.

This. Which is why I think people should focus on enjoying the present rather than romanticizing the past. Because people 25 years from now will be talking about how awesome the 2010s were. Just like people in that 1986 video were talking about how awesome the 60s were, and the people in the 50s were talking about how great the roaring 20s were, etc etc. Just enjoy what there is to enjoy in the world at present because one day you'll be nostalgic for it.

But I noticed a few things in this video that people 25 years from now will not be saying about times today. They are as follows:

1). The women were thin
2). The women were not obese
3). The women were not lardasses
4). Did I mention the women in this video were thin?
5). If we went into 7-Eleven now, 1 out of every 50 women would look like these two.

So while times change and we wax nostalgic, sometimes there is a reason for the nostalgia. I'm old enough to remember this era. Classrooms filled with women with small bodies and big hair. Now we have women with big bodies and small minds.

"People often change, but memories of people can remain." -- Ray Davies, 1969

Post: #20

"Oh, strawberries don't taste as they used to and the thighs of women have lost their clutch."

Post: #21

@Days of broken arrows

Post: #22

Indeed, what a great video! How refreshing it is to see people behave as friendly human beings as opposed to the closed, cold if not out right aggressive people you see today in the major cities in NA. But I do agree that in the smaller city, you still get a glimpse of that golden era as shown on that video.

Post: #23

(06-23-2013 07:07 PM)Roosh Wrote:  White people working at 7-11?

No, not in DC proper but a forty minute ride to West Virginia, yes.

Post: #24

Well this was at 7-11 close to Disney world in FL right?

Inner city 7-11s in 1987 probably weren't the greatest then either.

RIP inside smoking though.

Post: #25

The irony is that although you can see how less guarded and friendly people back in the 80's were to strangers, things were actually much more dangerous. People had more reason to be cautious and anti-social, yet today, when things are comparatively much safer overall, with homicide and violent crime rates way down, people are withdrawn, autistic, socially awkward, and suspicious of strangers.

This applies to both men and women, young and old, but for our purposes it means girls were more open to being approached back then, even though they were more likely to be mugged, raped, or murdered than today by far.

The current generation in America outside of the ghetto is safe and secure, blanketed by police protection and federal regulation, secured against drunk drivers, trans-fats, and realistic toy guns. But the corollary is that young people today are socially stunted and undeniably boring compared to their parents generation.