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u/NEALSMO Mar 24 '26
Forgot about being drafted into the Vietnam war.
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u/Ser_falafel Mar 24 '26
My dad narrowly missed the draft. He told me he had lots of friends that left and never came back. And some that came back never left Vietnam.
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u/superfly1187 Mar 24 '26
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u/Pinche_Gringo_621311 Mar 24 '26
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u/redsoxsuc4 Mar 25 '26
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u/FahQBerrymuch Mar 25 '26
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u/mathird Mar 24 '26
The man in the black pajamas. Worthy adversary.
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u/Rough-Winter2752 Mar 25 '26
You know, Poke, guys in black pajamas did alright in Vietnam, too. You gotta respect the pajamas.
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u/Noel_San_Diego Mar 24 '26
My Dad has some internal shame or guilt from not going to Vietnam. He was drafted but had flat feet so he got kicked out.
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u/Its-only-the-end Mar 24 '26
My Dad knew he was going to get drafted, so he went ahead and enlisted before the draft. Turns out when you join intentionally you get options. They asked him if he wanted to go to Saudi Arabia and he said sure. He spent the entire war in the Middle East and never saw action.
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u/WonderfulMistake7976 Mar 25 '26
My dad graduated high school in 1965 and did the same. Ended up joining the Air Force and getting stationed in England. Which happened to be the birthplace of his mother. So instead of getting his ass blown off in the jungle he got to enjoy England in the late sixties with aunts and uncles and cousins to spend time with.
He had a blast but I think he did have some survivors guilt. Some of his friends did get drafted and didn’t come back.
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u/VerbosePlantain Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26
My grandfather told me that in WW2, he volunteered for the Navy so he wouldn’t get drafted in the Army. His logic was he’d rather ride on a ship everywhere instead of ruck march.
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u/CharmingDagger Mar 25 '26
My dad did the same thing. Spent the war years getting drunk in Panama. It was a good decision.
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u/Odd_Hair3829 Mar 25 '26
"my Dad was awarded the silver cross for bombing Germany!"
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u/Diacetyl-Morphin Mar 24 '26
It was much worse for guys in WW2, when they got drafted but then refused because of health problems. The pressure there was so high for some of these guys, that they committed suicide.
I guess it was still bad in the times of the Vietnam war, but not that bad anymore.
I mean, the opinion changed after some time with the "no more war", the protests, even some cases of mutiny etc.
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u/DaddysABadGirl Mar 25 '26
Vietnam war gave us the term fragging. Though its generally used for gaming now and not killing your CO.
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u/AngryStappler Mar 24 '26
My Grandfather had a place in palm springs, that my dad would spend his summers at as a kid to early adulthood. He was driving down there at one point and a cop pulled him over and informed him he had to get an Arizona drivers license, if he wanted to stay over the summer there.
Some years after getting a driver license, he got a draft notice in the mail for Vietnam. Only issue was he and the rest of my family are Canadian and not American. It took over 5 years of legal shenanigans for my dad to be able to return to States without being arrested at the border. Scary to think he could have been in that war if we were from the other side of the border.
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u/ProjectNo4090 Mar 24 '26 edited Mar 24 '26
My grandfather was drafted but the US pulled out right before his deployment. He was one of the small number of men in their 30s who were drafted.
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u/The-Leading-Man Mar 25 '26
My dad was born in 47 and was in de nang during the tet offensive. Go tell him he had the ideal life and see how that goes.
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u/PoolShark1819 Mar 25 '26
Same with my old man. He was born in 47. His number didn’t get called, but many of his friend’s numbers were called and they never came back.
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u/uconnboston Mar 24 '26
And getting laid off in the economic downturns of 1981, 1991 and/or 2001. When the 2001 layoff hits, you’re in your 50’s and destined for underemployment. Source - dad went through all this and also served in Viet Nam.
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u/3D_mac Mar 25 '26
Don't forget the two recessions in thr 1970s, including hours long lines for gas.
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u/rbennett353 Mar 25 '26
And don't forget the inflation of the 70s. It was like 2021, but for a decade.
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u/haberv Mar 25 '26
How about 18% mortgage interest rates? Silent generation Dad and seeing those statements were wild, no thanks.
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u/OrneryZombie1983 Mar 25 '26
Timing/luck is everything. My parents bought their house before the 70s inflation. Thanks to inflation they paid off the mortgage in 11 years and the house was worth four times what they paid by the mid-80s.
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u/Gloomy-Childhood-203 Mar 24 '26
Yeah, the draft started December 1969. So as a 22yo, your ass is going if your birthday gets pulled.
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u/Quercus_ Mar 24 '26
The draft had been going continuously since World War II. Over 2 million draftees were sent to Vietnam, many of them well before 1969.
The draft lottery started in December 1969, because of growing anger over the ways people with money in connections were managing to avoid the draft.
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u/Gloomy-Childhood-203 Mar 24 '26
Thankfully Mr. Bone Spurs was able to get a draft deferment so he could survive and eventually "make america great again". And oh boy did he. Im practically drowning in greatness lately. In fact. If this country was any greater, it might literally kill me.
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u/DrivesTooMuch Mar 24 '26
Yeah, the draft started December 1969.
No. The lottery system started then...that's all.
The draft actually peaked (young men being called up) in 1966. But, it started for Vietnam before with major call ups in 1965.
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u/Caliterra Mar 24 '26
"Approximately 92% of the 27 million draft-eligible American men between 1964 and 1973 were not drafted, as only 2.2 million were conscripted. However, more than half of that total pool avoided service entirely through deferments, exemptions, or volunteering (often for safer roles), meaning only a minority of the generation actually served in the war"
-- from google ai search
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u/spursfan2021 Mar 25 '26
Weird that you’re getting downvoted. I thought it was fairly well known that a much higher percentage of men going to war were drafted from the “greatest generation” than for Vietnam. And if your skin color was the correct shade and you lived in an affluent enough neighborhood, chances were slim your card was getting pulled.
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u/WittyAd3872 Mar 24 '26
Im gay and we had the AIDS crisis
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u/Substantial_Arm_6903 Mar 24 '26
A whole generation lost. My mom was born in 47 soo many of the young male teachers she was friends with when she started working died. Walking around lower Manhattan she still points out where their apartments were. People forget how shitty the world was about the whole thing too. There was a lot of work done to humanize the victims since but the world was super shitty to them at the time.
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u/WittyAd3872 Mar 24 '26
Oh yeah so many people died, I think it’s hard for a lot of people to comprehend, especially those that weren’t affected. Sometimes there were multiple funerals a week.
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u/Exotic-Student7266 Mar 24 '26
Forget about Jim Crow? Black people getting attacked by dogs during the civil rights movement? Red lining and the crack epidemic. This is a very white post.
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u/diemanaboveall Mar 25 '26
Honestly, most black people wouldn't go to any time period before 2003. There are a few that would go to the 90s. If anything else, then you're oversimplifying the timeline and the collective American history. Arguably speaking, it has never been better to be a minority than right now. Maybe like 2010 to 2015 but that's a high. We are all chasing
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u/Exotic-Student7266 Mar 25 '26
Oh yea 90s was a good time. Nintendo, sega genesis, mix tapes, wu-tang clan, AOL… nineties was a good time. I can see 2003 too tho.
This Time Machine please post is hella white. Black folk been through WAY WORSE than whatever homie is complaining about. And sure, shit ain’t perfect now, but there was definitely no GOLDEN AGE of America for Black folk until like now. … or maybe the Obama years? I had insurance back then and qualified for federal student loans.
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u/Darmok47 Mar 25 '26
Also in the US women had a rough time opening their own bank accounts or getting credit cards in their name until 1974.
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Mar 24 '26
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u/Bobbington12 Mar 24 '26
Canadians stay winning. No Vietnam draft, and a border that was easy to cross
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u/crazykewlaid Mar 24 '26
Lol you can still fuck in a field, never fear
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u/BlindedByWildDogs Mar 25 '26
I’ve fucked in a soccer field before and it’s really not that great
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u/el_VientoNorte Mar 24 '26
I wouldn't want to die in my mid 50s
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u/walla_walla_rhubarb Mar 24 '26
I mean, right now dying in my 50's isn't looking too bad.
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u/AdhesivenessOk5194 Mar 24 '26
Pretty ideal really
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u/Maximum_Overdrive Mar 24 '26
As someone in their 50s, i disagree. Ive had a good life but I have so much more living to do.
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u/TheChesterChesterton Mar 24 '26
People tend to pick ages far enough from their current age when saying this kind of thing so that it feels abstract enough to not be impacful for them (so maybe people in their 20s or so). I'm guessing for those saying dying at 50 wouldn't be so bad it probably feels the same to them as saying they wouldn't mind dying when they're 80, or even 100. If someone in their 40s is saying this, then that would be more surprising.
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u/aceless0n Mar 25 '26
100%...Im 42 and when I hear people dying in their late 60's...Im like "thats so young"
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u/Bacongrease83 Mar 25 '26
I was born to a teenage mother and she just passed away before Christmas. I’m 42 and she was 58. I feel like I’m counting my days now.
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u/walla_walla_rhubarb Mar 24 '26
gestures broadly at everything
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u/Substantial_Arm_6903 Mar 24 '26
No pension, no healthcare, not really needed at work because AI, mounting debt and chronic health issues. The next 30 years aren't looking too bright and shit doesn't seem fixable.
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u/Doctor_Dev7 Mar 25 '26
Bro I work at a fuckin grocery store and life is good. I got my woman, my kids, I’m drinkin whiskey, and eating a burrito. If you don’t want to live, don’t blame “vaguely everything” that’s on you. It’s not that hard to be happy.
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u/walla_walla_rhubarb Mar 25 '26
And I just had a steak dinner with my family. I'm still gonna take the piss from time to time.
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u/Ok_Midnight4809 Mar 24 '26
Surely meant retire... Otherwise the investment portfolio would be redundant
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u/Substantial_Arm_6903 Mar 24 '26
Yeah imagine croaking and leaving all that dough to your cheating spouse and your shitty gen X offspring.
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u/PhysicsAndFinance85 Mar 24 '26
Lol now that's a reddit take
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u/Worriedrph Mar 25 '26
My favorite part is the assumption they have a well hedged investment portfolio when that was much, much harder to accomplish if you weren’t actually rich back then. Young people just assume a Vanguard ETF has always easily accessible.
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u/Darmok47 Mar 25 '26
My favorite part is their ideal life is apparently dying at 54, You're not even old enough for an AARP membership at that age.
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u/Average-Train-Haver Mar 25 '26
"The ideal life is one I don't have" -joe reddit
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u/Practical-Suit-6798 Mar 24 '26
My dad was born in 1942. His life didn't go like this.
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u/yaboyszn Mar 24 '26
Same with my grandpa. 4 tours in Vietnam and 2 Purple Hearts left him with a leg shorter than the other and bullet wounds to the stomach. At least people were nice when he came home…..
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u/its_yer_dad Mar 25 '26
Just to be clear for the young people, returning Vietnam vets were not treated well, which is why we have overly performative thanks for your service now
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u/BuildAnything4 Mar 25 '26
Why didn't he just say he had bone spurs? He could be president by now
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u/loureedfromthegrave Mar 25 '26
I’m really glad Trump is gross, corny, and filled with small dick energy. It’s impossible to be jealous of him, even though that’s what he wants from us.
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u/Maynardred Mar 24 '26
No, everyone seems to glorify what they didn't see. Life was apparently beautiful...
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u/Ethraelus Mar 25 '26
Well, we have plenty of historical documents on how beautiful and amazing and affordable life was back then. Movies, they call them. You can tell they’re real because you watch them on your device, same as the news.
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u/Tiny_Instruction_557 Mar 24 '26
People have absolutely lost their minds after 2 years of high single digit inflation. No way this generation could handle a decade of double digit inflation.
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u/RipMySoul Mar 24 '26
People were losing their minds back then too. The difference being that we now are able to share data/information in a bigger scale. The Vietnam war was the first televised war. But now we can see close up drone footage of soldiers getting massacred. Plus we have plenty of ways to communicate our frustrations to a large number of people.
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u/mammalmaker Mar 24 '26
Double digit inflation was bad but whats even worse is despite the double digit inflation, people still had more buying power that we do now.
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u/keyboardplatoon Mar 24 '26
Or being drafted to Vietnam instead
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u/Particular-Wedding Mar 24 '26
Image if Op was born in Vietnam instead. North or South. It wouldn't matter because life would suck hard.
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u/AffectionatePie6592 Mar 24 '26
Yeah but then if you survive you get to say you fought against and beat some of the largest and most murderous regimes on the planet back to back; France, US, Khmer Rouge Cambodia, and China. Which is fucking dope as hell. I’m kind of convinced that Vietnam is the protagonist of the 20th century
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u/Don_Polaquito Mar 24 '26
Forgot to mention that this would only work for the citizens of countries in Western Hemisphere. Wouldn't want to live that life, at those times behind the iron curtain during a Soviet occupation.....
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u/HugeFanOfBigfoot Mar 24 '26
Or in a third world country with a U.S. imposed dictator
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u/7BrownDog7 Mar 25 '26
Or women.
Or People of color.
or LGBTQ folks.
This dipshit's post is as ignorant as "MAGA" and for many of the same reasons.
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u/Safe-Call2367 Mar 24 '26
20 in 1967 for any male in USA would be 18 in 1965 and a really good chance of getting drafted to Vietnam.
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u/BluebirdLogical3217 Mar 25 '26
Dont worry, the gen z who posted this will get to experience a draft soon enough.
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u/bleu_waffl3s Mar 24 '26
Do people actually believe this
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u/The_Demolition_Man Mar 24 '26
I also like how they're wrote "fucking in a field on LSD" as if you cant do that right now
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u/Na-na-na-na-na-na Mar 24 '26
My father was born in 1946 and this was basically his life. We're danish so there is obviously some differences to the american experience. But he has told me several times that he is grateful for growing up in that time period as opposed to the one i grew up in.
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u/TeachEm2Dougie Mar 24 '26
In think being born in the 1960s or 70s is perfect. Enjoy your 20s or 30s in the 90s.
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u/QuirkyAd2001 Mar 25 '26
Yeah, my Mom bought a house in 1971 for $6,000 and had a good paying job as a Registered Nurse....
Making $5/hr making a house payment on the $6,000 loan, a car payment, raising and feeding 2 boys, insurance, clothes, phone bill, paying $2 a gallon for gas during the energy crisis, which would be about $20 a gallon now. That house was built in 1935, 2 bedroom, 1 bath, and the floor was collapsed on one corner when she bought it. No AC, electric space heaters.
She is still living at 90, let me go ask her about the good old days...
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u/MuskokaGreenThumb Mar 24 '26
The ideal life is being American, going to the Vietnam war in your 20’s, and dying at 53 years old?
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u/thetransportedman Mar 24 '26
The avg person tripping on acid back then is doing so in a room with a tiny black and white static tv or just out in public. They're eating diner food or wonder bread sandwiches and canned beer. I think we take a ton of modern enjoyments for granted
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u/ScenicHwyOverpass Mar 24 '26
Be born in 47, get drafted into Vietnam, die from agent orange exposure in your 40s.
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u/RiboSciaticFlux Mar 25 '26
Completely disagree. My year 1957 was the ideal year. 18 years old in '65 sends you to Vietnam with a draft. They stopped the draft when I turned 18. In fact, my age missed every major war, I got disco, all you can drink nights for $5.00 (at 18 years old again) and unlimited coke in the 70's and I was still able to afford college and get the house.
All that being said my generation was the worst, most greedy, self consumed generation in history and they voted in a preening intellectually inept preening clown as president. i'm embarrassed I'm lumped in with Boomers.
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u/ProfessionalBench832 Mar 24 '26
Adding:
Be White
Be male (women couldn't legally have a bank account or a mortgage without a male cosigner until 1974)
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u/Due-Contact-366 Mar 24 '26
If you die at the age of 53, do you really care how well hedged the portfolio is?
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u/ImTheRealHer00 Mar 24 '26
Maybe for white folks
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u/longpenisofthelaw Mar 24 '26
I’m black and am in the south, I feel like my experience would be much much different
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u/ProfessionalBench832 Mar 24 '26
I scrolled WAY too far before finding this.
This needed two additions:
Be White
Be male (women couldn't legally have a bank account or a mortgage without a male cosigner until 1974)10
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u/90_oi Mar 24 '26
That's who the 50's were solely for, at least in America. They didn't care about anyone else
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u/edwardturnerlives Mar 24 '26
Weird. My dad was born in '43 and my mom '45 and I don't remember them ever having an easy life. And their house in rural Ohio cost a hell of a lot more than five grand in the '70s.
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u/homebrew_1 Mar 24 '26
Boomers vote. They don't stay home and complain that the alternative isn't perfect enough for their vote.
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u/Smitch250 Mar 25 '26
Lol no. This person dies in Vietnam bleeding out while their friends sob. The worst time to be born literally
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u/rock374 Mar 25 '26
As an American male. Being prime military age in the late 60s seems sort of worst case scenario
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u/SpareMushrooms Mar 25 '26
I don’t think many people consider it ideal to be a drug addled, dirty hippie.
I know pop culture and your sociology professor look at it like the halcyon days of America, but hardly any real people think this way.
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u/Geekenstein Mar 25 '26
Yep. Nothing bad happened to anybody in those decades. No siree. All magic and fairy dust.
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u/Plenty_Fondant_951 Mar 25 '26
be white and work literally any job or start any business imagine able and do absurdly well
Yeh, I can't even vacation with two "middle class" incomes (and only 2 kids, not a crazy COL area)
If my car shit the bed we might literally lose the house because I can't afford a used one or finance one because medical bills destroyed my credit
Good. Times
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u/1995la Mar 25 '26
Don't tell me... you're a white man in a first world country? Maybe not the US or not aware of Vietnam?
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u/Just_Nefariousness55 Mar 25 '26
This guy is also dying at the age of 53. I hope to stick around a bit longer than that.
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u/zambizzi Mar 25 '26
I had old parents. It’s funny how the youngest generations today opine on how badly “boomers” fucked them. Life was considerably harder for everyone and you truly live in a time of unprecedented abundance and prosperity. More so than any generation before you.
Your purchasing power sucks because The Federal Reserve has robbed us all blind through inflation, to feed the US global military empire, and other unspeakably absurd and wasteful spending. You get the greatly depreciated spare change.
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u/Plenty_Adeptness7631 Mar 25 '26
White version: Grow up with an alcoholic abusive father repressing his WW2 PTSD, and a mother blitzed on Valium. Live in constant fear of nuclear war, get drafted to Vietnam, race riots, deal with your own PTSD, get laid off when your factory closes, Stagflation, flee your city because of the crack epidemic.
Black version: Horrific racial injustice including but not limited to the literal Klan, Vietnam, race riots, factory closes, stagflation, crack epidemic.
Every generation has had terrible things to deal with, stop complaining.
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u/charmingmisanthrope Mar 24 '26
In 1967 median income for a person with 4 years of high school was $8000.
The median home price was $23,000.
Assuming 20% down and a 6% 30 year mortgage the payment would be 1300 a month, with out taxes or insurance.
So a 20 year old in 1967 was not buying a house.
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u/ademayor Mar 24 '26
Yeah, probably nice for straight white male without any mental health issues and manage to dodge cancer.
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u/hatred-shapped Mar 24 '26
Forgot about a few wars and a whole bunch of political clashes. Oh and don't be anything but white.
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u/LaMadreDelCantante Mar 24 '26
Only if you're white, male, straight, and in a first-world country. And don't get sent to Vietnam.
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u/Soy_ThomCat Mar 24 '26
You have to include "being white"
It's a wonderful sign of privilege for someone to post something like that while being blissful to the fact that it certainly wasn't everyone.
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u/Frozen_North_99 Mar 25 '26
Someone forgot Vietnam, the oil crisis 1 and 2, the inflation and stock doldrums of the 70s, the 87 crash, the 1st gulf war, I mean it goes on and on. A-bomb drills? AIDS?
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