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Benedict Arnold

What recreations did you enjoy before the Internet?

Back in the days when the air was still clean and sex was still dirty, and when people robbed banks instead of banks being the bandits, how did you pass your leisure time? 

Have you dropped any recreations that you used to enjoy? What's the likelihood of taking them up again?

Posted - March 14, 2017
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Responses


  • Boys are like that. They're buddies one minute then they're off chasing girls. Happened to ours too, I'm happy to say.
      March 14, 2017 8:49 PM MDT
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  • 3375
    Reading books and magazines, gardening, household projects, cooking, watching TV, taking a walk...

    I am starting to get more involved with all the above again.  I hate losing my days to a laptop.
      March 14, 2017 8:53 PM MDT
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  • I know exactly what you mean. We can become too involved and there are other things out there too. Thanks Pea Pod.
      March 15, 2017 3:50 AM MDT
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  • 3375
    I am more conscious of my days slipping by too quick with age.  I really do enjoy my time on the Internet, but do my best to be involved with things outside it.
      March 15, 2017 11:46 AM MDT
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  • Very wise. :)
      March 15, 2017 11:57 AM MDT
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  • 2960
    Read music magazines over and over trying to find new music. Then get in the car with a few friends and drive maybe for up to an hour to find a record store and buy music without ever hearing it. Then go back and home and either be surprised or slightly disappointed.

    Now: Download for a few dollars and forget about it.
      March 14, 2017 8:56 PM MDT
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  • I take your point. Buying it on line takes away half the fun of buying it.  Still, it's very convenient.
      March 15, 2017 3:51 AM MDT
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  • 16835
    Reading. Still do, but it's mostly kindle these days.
    I'm also a musician, but hardly ever pick up a guitar anymore. I played "The Carnival Is Over" at my mother's funeral and I get too emotional whenever I hold the instrument now.
      March 14, 2017 10:04 PM MDT
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  • That's great, S. Sad, of course, but in that sadness there's fond memory. I'm sorry about your loss. I hope you get back to playing. 
      March 15, 2017 3:53 AM MDT
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  • House parties and wander the streets looking for house parties.   Bonfire parties.
      March 14, 2017 10:26 PM MDT
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  • Still plenty of parties around, Glis, and if you want your Internet there's always your smart phone. :)
      March 15, 2017 3:54 AM MDT
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  • If the Anglican catechism and Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question" had a baby it would probably be very similar to your answer. World without end!

    Would you believe that I sent my first email in 1952 and worked in internet-like environments from then till 1990 when computers arrived big time and stuffed my job?
      March 15, 2017 12:13 PM MDT
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  • Those were the days when we used Morse code instead of bits and bytes.
      March 15, 2017 12:47 PM MDT
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  • 7280
    Hey, Didge.

    The following in italics is from Wikipedia.  (The bold emphasis is added by me.)  

    While one perception is that leisure is just "spare time", time not consumed by the necessities of living, another holds that leisure is a force that allows individuals to consider and reflect on the values and realities that are missed in the activities of daily life, thus being an essential element of personal development and civilization.

    Leisure is considered a human right under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

    The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of what many people believe to be the rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled. The full text is available on the United Nations website.

    (And I must say, even when the air was clean, I never considered sex to be dirty---and I know what you intended by that comment.)

    Reading and thinking were my primary forms of recreation, with the occasional "face to face" discussion when available---the latter, surprisingly, found in a group that met at a bar every Friday night for years.  (We would work out the nth term of an equation or clarify our understanding of Aristotle occasionally or discuss Maslow's hierarchy of needs.  "We" were a physicist, an engineer, a lawyer, an installer of medical equipment, and an Irishman (yes, only Irishman conveys the reality).
     
    My first exposure to Q & A sites on the internet began with the Ask.com community.  Such forums are "manned" by all sorts of people with all sorts of backgrounds, insights, and opinions.

    It has been wonderful to have access to new ideas, a way to restate my beliefs so that I can easily vett and understand them better (and check for my possible errors).

    I still avail myself of both the "before" and the "after."
      March 15, 2017 12:24 PM MDT
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