Talk:Good old days

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Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 22:32, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Not specifically an American cliche
I don't think the Good Old Days is a specifically American cliche - in particular, I don't think it can be directly tied to a rural Old America: looking at works such as Arisophanes' 'The Frogs' (405 BC) will show that as a cliche for nostalgia, at least, it's an *extremely* universal phenomenon. So: is this phrase really geographically specific (c.f. Merrie England)? --Dom 23:37, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Agree. It isn't only an American cliche. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.52.32.158 (talk • contribs) 04:11, 11 June 2006

Philip Hone did not coin the expression
"In 1844, 63-year-old Philip Hone wrote: "Railroads, steamers, packets, race against time and beat it hollow....Oh, for the good old days of heavy post coaches and speed at the rate of six miles an hour!" According to Mr. Gordon, Hone's lament is the first recorded reference to those mythical and ever-advancing "good old days.""

- (The Biggest Rags to Riches Story Ever by John Steele Gordon (book review) by Brink Lindsey).

One thing that Google books is very useful for is debunking claims of first use. In this case a search on titles before Jan 1844 shows lots of other uses of this phrase before that date.

Putting in a search on 1800 shows it was in common coin by then. One early publication is ''THE POLITICAL STATE, OF Great Britain. VOLUME XXXII. CONTAINING The Months of July, Auguft, September, October, November and December, MDCCXXVI.'' by Mr. BOYER, p. 177 (MDCCXXVI is 1726) --PBS (talk) 09:58, 1 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I put in a similar link to yours -- which is a review of the original book, which I added. Plus a Daniel Defoe of the same vintage.
 * And added and then DELETED a spurious Bossu quote which was mis-indexed by Google books Alanf777 (talk) 20:49, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

I changed the quote from that in the Historical Register to that in the Liturgy itself, and removed some of my commentary. I find it interesting that Defoe echoed (Parodied) the good old days ... Forefathers phrase -- maybe implying that it was not yet a cliche? Alanf777 (talk) 20:22, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

This topic looks interesting cant wait to see more details on this Kotomi1996 (talk) 20:27, 11 April 2018 (UTC)