The "Good Old Days?"

I get lots of e-mails asking about my egg cream article, which can be found various places around the web. Seems that lots of folks are nostaligic about the days of soda fountain drinks, and I hardy blame them - when it comes to the food.

Those of us in the "history business" often encounter folks who are nostalgic for the good old days of NYC. Well, I can understand longing for a good egg cream, but let us not forget that this town, like most of the world, was not as hospitable a place in years back. Crime was much more rampant, for example. Recently I was researching a murder case from 1940 and saw how routine both killings and executions were in the days of Murder, Inc. The NY TIMES would give about two inches of one column when three guys got the hot seat at Sing-Sing for robbing a man of $2. It was no big deal.

The subways were cleaner, I will agree. But they also didn't have air conditioning, and were noisy as hell! Remember those old BMT cars with the cealing fans- lit by incandescent bulbs?

As for public morality, Tammany Hall beat anything we see nowadays. There were also brothels everywhere.

Sometimes when I hear longing for the good old days of NYC I am reminded of Ronald Reagan's famous incident when he commented on how this country didn't even know it had a race problem.