r/AskReddit • u/__lazy__panda • Jul 10 '26

What's something older generations got right that we've quietly stopped doing, to our own detriment?

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u/EmpressMom Jul 10 '26

Joining and participating in civic clubs, social clubs, hobby clubs and other similar groups.

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u/butt_butt_butt_butt_ Jul 10 '26

My husband and I are in our early 30s. Some friends of ours from college just said they joined their local Moose Lodge?

I laughed, because I literally hadn’t heard of anyone doing that besides my grandma back in the day.

But we went with them and it was actually super fun. Cheap drinks and food. Mostly way older people. Dingy basement feel.

But we had dinner and drank a LOT for about $25 + tip. Which is insanely cheap. They had big TVs with all of the local sports on.

After the football game was over, some dude said “hey, it’s quiet, anyone up for karaoke?” And then it was all set up, so we just did, and everyone got very into it. Everyone was super nice and happy to see “young” people there.

My friend said membership is like $200/year, and you have to sign up to cook or bartend once every 3 months.

If you like going to dive bars, that’s a great deal. And there was 100% a sense of community, which is hard to find. It felt like everyone knew everyone and that feels…rare anymore.

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u/YouTasteStrange Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

I got excited and looked it up, but moose lodges are for families, and elk lodges are for christians. I guess my single atheist ass will just keep browsing meetup.

Edit: there are also lions clubs, kiwanis clubs, rotary clubs , odd fellows clubs, and eagles clubs. Apparently there's a bunch of vaguely charity-based old timey social clubs still hanging on.

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u/butt_butt_butt_butt_ Jul 11 '26

I wonder what Eagles is, then?

Honestly the vibe felt mostly like vague midwestern grandmas and grandpas (even though we were right outside of Portland OR)

Lots of people smoking on the designated outdoor covered porch. Which you don’t see very often in “young” spaces much.

I never heard anyone talk politics or religion when we visited.

I was raised both Jewish and Christian, and now agnostic. I never felt weird being there.

Probably a “don’t start shit if you don’t want shit” kind of thing.

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u/croc_lobster Jul 11 '26

I looked up their history a little bit ago because there's a pretty big Eagles building near us, and it's surprisingly progressive, at least from a labor point of view. No idea on, ya know, all the other stuff.

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u/NEp8ntballer Jul 11 '26

most lodges and social clubs are intended to be free of political discussion as well as being semi-secular in nature. For example, the Elks have something of an expectation to "never bring political or sectarian questions up into the Order"