Obie...don't want to rain on your parade but I'm a youngie (youngish anyhow) bloke living for the present and the future and doing well too but the past was better. Pilots were largely in it for the joy of flying rather than the 'money'. The art of flying a challenging piece of equipment was a pleasure.
Now all I do is blindly follow a GPS re-enforced green line on an ND in Normal Law with lots of protections and no brainwork, with some blokes who don't know a DC9 from a Ford Falcon. Often they're grumpy because they've been an FO for 2 years and haven't got their commands yet.
So whilst I might concede that looking at the past with too rosy glasses is an error, I would have to say that flying in say the 60's or 70's truly was something to get a little sentimental over.
Cearly the overwhelming response to this thread is proof of that fact!