What were the best years of your life, and why?

[Joe Fields]

I'm just curious.

For me, and I suspect for a great many of you, they were when I was a child. I was born in the mid 1950's, and as I look back, I think my most favorite years were the early 1960's, 1962, 63, 64, and 65. Although I grew up in the suburbs, there were woods that I got to spend a great deal of time playing in, just beyond my back yard. I, and my friends built tree houses and forts. There were a couple dozen kids on my block who were my age, and we used to play "army", tag, tire tag, cigarette tag, hide and seek and all sorts of other outdoor games.

I didn't have to worry about a job, or paying bills.

I had a transistor radio, and was turned on to some of the most spectacular music ever made.

I was, during those years, transfixed by our space program. I remember, as a first grader, watching, along with my classmates on a small black and white T.V. John Glenn making his historic space flight. From there on I was hooked.

Those years, more than any others, were the most fun, and were the beginning of "my age of discovery" that has lasted to this present day.

I suspect that some of you will tell me that your best years are yet to come, and I sincerely hope that's true. But for those of you who know better, please share your experiences.

Peace out


Joe

[femmocrat]

1. I had a similar childhood. Those were lovely, carefree days.

I also loved high school and college. And being a young stay-at-home mom.

I really can't pick a "best" time of life though. I've been blessed with a very good life. :hug:

[Curmudgeoness]

2. I thought I knew my answer until I read your post. Sigh.

I grew up at the same time as you, and you are right, it was so much fun to be a kid then. No worries about someone grabbing you so you played outside until the streetlights came on. We didn't have to have all those organized sports and running here and there for practice of some sort. We rode our bikes everywhere. Lots of fun.

But back to my original thought. I loved my 30's best. I still felt young, looked good, but I also was so much more self-confident and self-reliant than I had been in earlier years. I felt like I was really in my prime.

[Tom_Foolery]

3. 1994-2000...

I was in my 30s and at the top of my game at a Top 40 radio station. Everything has gone to hell since then.

[JTG of the PRB]

4. College, far and away. Particularly August 2003 through August 2006.

Those were the three best years of my life, far and away, hands down, no contest.

I miss those days so much sometimes.

[frogmarch]

5. In the 1980s

When I did this:




I loved my work, had loads of fun, and I met lots and lots of interesting people.

[tigereye]

9. fascinating! Dinosaur bones?

[frogmarch]

13. 26,000 year old mammoth bones.

Not nearly as old as dino bones would be.

[pink-o]

6. I was born in December, 1954

and yes, I also had a bucolic childhood. But truly, the best decade of my life was the 90s when Clinton was president. At that point in your personal chronology, you've emotionally matured enough to lose the self-consciousness, yet you're still physically fit enough to take it somewhat for granted. Also, the social atmosphere of America was one of hope and a forward-seeking agenda into the new millennium ('course we had no idea it would so quickly turn to shit).

And as for music, I know it's not really my era, but I LOVED post-grunge alt-rock. Loved it! Still sigh in nostalgia when I hear old stuff from Live or NIN or Stone Temple or Oasis. Just cuz I grew up with the Rolling Stones doesn't invalidate the music that came after them.

And maybe it's our age, but I gotta say all things considered I'm pretty happy now. I'm very lucky in my health, no chronic ailments or pains, still athletic and able to run 25 miles a week....so although childhood was nice, I'd never wanna go back there. No do-overs here!

[rrneck]

7. 1994 - 1996

Graduate school. No boundaries, no limits, non stop research.

[applegrove]

8. My childhood between the ages of zero to 9. My young adulthood from 25 to 30. The best years have

yet to come I know.

[tigereye]

10. hmm, college years mid, late 70s and early 80s were fun- lots of great

music, punk years, little or no responsibility, playing music, traveling more, tons of concerts to see.


Then when my son was young in the mid-90s- a bit more stressful, but so much fun to see him grow. Nice to be settled and enjoy having a house and raising a little one.

[Kaleva]

11. I feel that my best years are ahead of me.

My body is falling apart but I'm enjoying life more then when I was younger.

[InvisibleTouch]

12. They haven't happened yet.

Sure, we look back on the eras of our past and remember the good times with some nostalgia, but if we look more closely, we might remember the parts we didn't like, too. Childhood holds lots of good memories for me, but I also remember the powerlessness, the being-at-the-whim of the entire world when I really wanted to pursue my own dreams and passions, the inability to make choices and decisions in the face of adult control and lack of understanding. I had some good times as a teenager as I was exploring my creativity and being inspired by the very best of the 80's (music, movies, cartoons, etc.), but being in school was hell, and I would never want to go back to that time. Life is so much better today. I have my struggles now too, of course (most of them are mundane and financial), but I also have the freedom to make my own choices, my success or failure depends on my own actions and not the capricious whims of others, and I don't have to interact with people that I can't stand. I'm pursuing an even better future ahead.

[Joe Fields]

14. I'm sorry that's what you felt. I experienced none of that myself.

I loved my childhood, and my parents were the absolute best. I had rules I had to follow and chores that I had to do, and there were, of course consequences for my sometimes bad behavior, but I was allowed to be a child and to grow up free from worry.

[InvisibleTouch]

16. Oh, no need to be sorry. It was simply the way of things.

As a child one is powerless by definition - unable to make significant changes in the world and decisions about one's life, simply by virtue of being physically and socially unable to yet. Maybe it didn't bother some, but it bothered me. It turned out to be a good thing, because it gave me the impetus to pursue my dreams and make them reality once I actually *was* old enough and capable enough to do so. Right now, in almost every aspect, life is damn good for me. :)

[Joe Fields]

17. A child doesn't need, or shouldn't have power.

A child needs guidance, nurturing and parents who instill discipline and a sense of wonder that creates a yearning for learning. If your parents gave you the power that you wanted as a child, you would be either in prison, or dead by now.

[InvisibleTouch]

20. Oh, certainly, agreed.

But that doesn't mean that I didn't *want* the autonomy that would have been, from an adult perspective, inadvisable. The sense of wonder and desire to learn were there from the start ... and also the yearning to break free. :)

[DFW]

15. Each year has had its triumphs and crises

As long as the former outweighs the latter, it's always good year.

[LibDemAlways]

18. In the 1980s I worked for a few years as a

travel agent. My husband and I took many trips and saw a great many places for very little money. This was before the airlines eliminated travel agency commissions and well before people began booking trips on the internet. Today the brick and mortar agencies that remain are mostly struggling. I've gone back to my original career as a substitute teacher, travel little, and like most everyone else, pay full fare.

[raccoon]

19. (1)My undergraduate college years, and (2) Now, my 50’s.

I’m just a few years older than you, and the times you mention were good times in some ways—ITA about the music, I think our generation had the best music there ever was—or will be. :-)

Mine was not a happy childhood. But when I went off to college, I felt like I’d died and gone to heaven. I was away from her control. That was such a great time of learning for me, and I actually found some people at college who had interests like me—and were liberal.

Now is a great time for me too because many things that used to bother me don’t bother me anymore. When I was young, I thought life was supposed to be so exciting, and of course in RL it usually isn’t. Now I appreciate little things, a cool breeze, the fence lizard I see outside the building at work, the gaggle of Canadian geese I saw last winter and saw again this morning.

I’m much happier as an ahem, active adult than I was as a teenager or young adult. :-)

[jobycom]

21. I'm going to Disney World in two weeks, so these years are pretty good.

I'd love to have more money, but I've enjoyed the choices that have kept me from becoming as wealthy as my friends from high school, so it's a passing fancy.

My childhood years weren't horrible, but I grew up in rural Mississippi with a sociopathic brother who liked to torture us (and I don't mean the playful sibling rivalry stuff, I mean the criminal stuff), and my other brother got hooked on pot, had a nervous breakdown, and has been schizophrenic since then. I had a lot of fun as a kid, but the memories that dominate are being afraid of one brother and afraid for the other. Oh yeah, and my best friend was killed when I was eleven. I could filter out bad memories of being afraid my brother was dead when he ran away, or bitter that my parents believed the sociopath over me, or the fact that some of my closest friends were afraid to come to my house, or of dozens of other bad memories, and then I could make my childhood seem pretty glowing. But the only way that era was more simple for me is if I pretend I didn't know what all was going on around me.

Most eras of my life have been like that. I've had great times, but they've always had shadows lingering around them. I had a bad marriage for 20 years, found out that some of the times I thought we were happiest she was sleeping around on me and lying about everything that defined us. I had great times in grad school, even though I had to work my way through school.

Every era has been good and bad. I'm too much of a history major to look back with filtered nostalgia. I guess the things that have made me happiest in life were grad school, because it was something I achieved without having to rely on others, and my kids. One of my kids is 11 and the other 17, and we're going to Disney World in two weeks for probably the last time before my oldest graduates, and I can't think of a better era of my life. :)

[PJPhreak]

22. 1978-1995

I had been out of school for a couple of years,working a fairly dead end job with little pay just to keep a roof over my head when it struck me...Why? I was bored to death,hated working like a slave to get nowhere,and could not take any more of suburban NY (Long Island).

So packed all my stuff into a backpack,threw it into my car,and decided to go for a weekend drive...To Colorado. Have never regretted it.

In the insuing years I traveled all the Lower 48,Canada,Mexico,Bermuda Bahamas,St Thomas,Coastal Maine,The Florida Keys,The Cascades,The Rockies,The Appalachians,The Everglades,The PeeDee,The Flint Hills,The Black Hills,The Sonoran Desert,Death Valley,Yellowstone,the Grand Canyon,Old Man of the Mountians (Before it fell in 2003) The Blue Ridge Mountians,The Smokies,Blue Ridge Parkway,Skyline Drive,Big Sur,The Redwoods.

I have climbed Mt.Hood,Mt Ranier,Longs Peak,Mt Adams,Mt Washington,Flagstaff Mt,walked extensive sections of The Appalachian Trail,The Pacific Crest Trail,Bicycled from Boulder To Austin,Boston Ma.To Naples Fla.and from Boston To Wichita,Have Ridden The Erie Canal Trail,The Little Mimai River Trail,The Katy Trail,The East Coast Greenway,The Trans-Am and The Great Allengany Passage.

I have Sailed in Ponombscot Bay,Long Island Sound,Puget Sound,around the Keys and the Bermuda Triangle.

I spent 18 months Touring the US on a Kawasaki 550 Ltd,Have Hitchiked across the US at least 15 times.

I have lived in abandoned Silver Mines (Really!) old VW Vans,Had an converted RV/School Bus for a while,Tents,Houses,Cabins,Tree Forts, Old Barns,on Boats,In Major Citys and as far into the Wilderness as One can get in North America,Watched Sunsets from the West Coast Cliffs and seen the Sunrise over The Alantic.

Never had much money...never wanted to be part of that rat race,I mean look where "Chasing the Almighty Buck" got a lot of folk...They have everything they could want and are just Miserible! That just was not for me.

I'll stop now...I could go on for another hour.

[triguy46]

23. It's been a good run...

I've ended up much more successful than I ever dreamed, have so many things to be thankful for, great kids, great wife, marriage of 33 years. That said, I can't seem to get the summer of 1967 off my mind. It would make a good Disney teen movie. I began my first romance at age 14 on June 1, knowing that my family was going to move hundreds of miles away in mid august. It sounds sappy, but it was a great first romance, first kiss, hand holding. She was the best girl swimmer on our team, I was the best boy swimmer. Workouts, chlorine, hanging out at the pool, walking home together. It was sweet and innocent and I'll never forget it. Awfully sad on August 15 when we moved from KC. So best years? In so many ways yes, if for no other reasons than I was young, carefree and in love.

What is ironic is that in all likelihood my memory of that time is just mine, she prob never thinks of it in the same way if at all. Such is life. We don't know how we affect others, and other don't always know how they affect us.

[Taverner]

24. 3100 and beyond

Wait! We are talking all possibilities in a quantum world, right?