What were the skies like when you were younger?

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They went on forever and they, when I, we lived in Arizona and the skies always had little fluffy clouds in them and, er they were long and clear and there were lots of stars at night and, er, when it would rain it would all turn, it, they were beautiful, the most beautiful skies, as a matter of fact...

I was hoping this comment would be here. I feel seen.

This one caught me off guard – first time I wish we had awards here!

Just listened the other day for the first time in many many years. Still slaps.

I scrolled specifically looking for this.
It was important that this be posted here.
You've done a man's job, sir!
It's too bad she won't live... but then again, who does?

Over the past few years, to the traditional sounds of an English summer, the drone of lawnmowers, the smack of leather on willow, has been added a new noise...

Annnnd, now I'm going down that nostalgic track rabbit hole for the evening. 🤘🏼🥰

I know this isn’t the reference but this reminds me of that Reddit account something like commamassacre or commanightmare?

There were way, way, way more bugs. Yesterday I spent about 12 hours on the highway, and I didn't need to pull over to clean my windshield once. 20-30 years ago my windshield and headlights would be completely plastered after a few hours.

That's not because of the number of bugs, it's because your newer car has better aerodynamics than your 20/30 year old one.

my mom still drives the same car from the late 80s and the difference on it is drastic.

Me and my friends would go out at night and see how many lightning bugs we could catch. We would do this every summer night. My dad made us a couple of big containers with wire mesh lids so none ever got hurt.

We always had them filled and glowing like some crazy looking lantern out of a steampunk game. We would let them out to fly away when we were done but they would be everywhere as thick as you could see when the sun when down.

Now I think I have been lucky to catch one or two after dark.

Night sky had the Milky Way. Same place now, can probably only see a hundred stars total.

So much light pollution. I grew up without mountains and now live somewhere with mountains. Miss that wide open sky. Day and night.

High desert mountains are, or were, a great place to see the Milky Way. You had the mountains and the openness. It's been a few years or 20 for me, though. No idea if those places are still dark enough.

You might still see it in the desert.

The skies were full of birds. Like 50 times what we have today.

And bugs. And there were frogs and lizards everywhere (not in the skies though).

I remember stars covering the sky in a shower of light. Not just a few here and there, but the literal Milky Way band. Light pollution has grown at a concerning pace in my own lifetime and I wonder what it will look like when my children are grown.

Roughly the same. I remember more lightning bugs, though, if they count as "sky." Not sure if that was peculiar to where I was living at the time, outside Memphis, Tennessee.

Concord's roaring overhead. Miss those planes.

It’s an experience everyone should have I did NYC to London and flew back from Paris on Air France. I really hope they make a comeback.

Unlikely, the fuel consumption rates were a main reason for the end of the plane.

Given that consumers are more environmentally conscious now, were unlikely so send a Concord when we could send four to five 747s instead.

1% chance of a single cloud being in the sky

0.00005% chance of a thunderstorm

-50% chance of snow

The sky is completely white some days. Not clouds, but LITERAL SAND.

You can cook an egg using only the sun.

One more thing: when it rains, it's usually only for a few seconds. I repeat: seconds.

Ah, the old "contrails/chemtrails didn't exist when I was young" argument. Yes, they did; you didn't look up when you were a kid.

Nah, they existed. The sky today just reminded me of the song.

When Laurence Olivier was filming Henry V in 1944, he had to go to the north of Scotland because of all the contrails from military planes further south.

I always noticed them when I was younger, because I thought it was food for clouds so they could get bigger.

I didn't really understand the concept of planes when I was 5. Lol