The more things change part two

[nachoman]

I found this letter to the editor in a July 1958 issue of model railroader and got a chuckle:

To the Editor:

Three cheers for Ed Clarke's letter in the May issue of your decadent Model Railroader. You really had a magazine in 1935 and 1936 when I first subscribed to it. Now it is not a craftsman's magazine, but for boys only. I dare you to print this letter.

I have told you before your magazine stinks. Yes, stinks. I can't in a dozen issues find as much information as I did in one issue in 1936 - no Thornburgh stories, just toys and HO gauge kits at 1.29. What a hobby! Not even a snappy story once in a while.

G. E. Grove
(back in those days they would publish someone's address!!!)

Sorry, i don't have the May 1958 issue to read Clarke's letter that Mr Grove references, but gee does this not sound exactly like current complaints?

So, has the hobby been in a gradual decline since 1936, or is there some other phenomenon related to reminiscence of "good old days" The irony is, I was having a conversation with my dad the other day about how people remember "good old days" as always being better than today, and I ran into this letter while reading in the jon.