As I expected, I got a bit of flak for my last article from people who do not want to believe that American life in the 1950s was far more vibrantly social than it is now, and that the basis of that sociality was the strength of the family. I was not saying that the 1950s were ideal—no time is. I was not saying that there were no fissures showing up in the walls. There were, and I said as much. And people always want to believe well about themselves, so you cannot trust them entirely when they look in the mirror and like what they see. That goes for us, too.
Nevertheless, you can tell a lot about a people by looking at what they take for granted—things that are “by the way”—their pastimes, their folkways, their songs, their humor, where they go when they have nothing to do, how they greet their neighbors, and so forth. If you really want to get to know a person, these are the kinds of things you will attend to. As with persons, so with a people.
-WiscoDave
They all figure that they got a trophy for vibrancy somewhere along the way, and that makes their childhood better than yours.
ReplyDeleteOK, Millie.
DeleteHey kid, can you say you and your friends could be gone all day without any adult knowing were you are but just as long as you're back by supper you're okay? Or walking 5 miles to and from school all by your lonesome and no one bats an eye? Or walking through town with a rifle and no one looks twice?
DeleteTrophies were for sanctioned competitions. Otherwise, no one cared a wit. The rivalry started and was left at the field of competition. There were no winners or losers, just friends. Well, except for the sissies. Even then, no hate.
Those of us who remember the 50's know the truth. I'd say we lost it in the 70's with everyone following jobs in big business. we no longer have the little companies that produced the little stuff we all use here at home like toasters and wooden toys and hand tools. Those little businesses and mills and shops made small town America a very special place
ReplyDeletein 1950, you knew what was happening in your neighborhood/ city but the rest of the world was by newspaper (sports page and funnies) or radio maybe TV. Entertain was bs'ing with your neighbors or on Friday going downtown. So if 119 people got shot in Chicago, you didn't care because you didn't hear about it. Today no one talks and every fucking thing that happens in the world is pounded into your all day. That is why everyone where ear buds just for peace and quiet.
ReplyDeleteYep. How many times have you seen a story covered on 24/7 news and said to yourself, or out loud, "Local story, not national." Traveling through Kansas and Missouri, my wife and I were pleased with the number of small towns, vibrant, downtown buildings full, and houses that look like Bedford Falls. Those are communities.
DeleteI had this same realization decades ago while listening to some gentlemen talk about an earthquake in Peru (or similar). We never used to hear about many tragic things (which the news pushes) until days or weeks later and there was nothing we could do except feel empathy for the victims and maybe contribute to some organization.
DeleteNow it is in front of us right here and now, 24 hrs a day until the next big news item and we get more emotionally involved since it is not 'history'.
Unfortunately I missed living in the 50s but still admire that decade. I own a product of 50s craftmanship that leaves modern work in the dust. I love the old film noir movies of the 30s, 40s and 50s. I think the 50s produced the best westerns and epics. What makes me the happiest is that my wife is a product of the 50s. Wonderful wife and a wonderful life.
ReplyDeleteI watch Westerns a lot. The 40s and 50s produced the best. I would include the 20s and 30s except celluloid technology was still piss poor. Other than that, I'd include those earlier decades. Even the TV series of the late 50s/early 60s were better than most anything since.
DeleteI recently watched Lee Marvin as Monte Walsh. That made me quite sad.
But I've been fortunate(!?) to know a few real cow punchers. That line from the song is absolutely true:
"Them that don't know 'em won't like 'em and them that do sometimes don't know how to take it; he ain't wrong, he's just different but his pride won't him do things to make you think he's right."
I barely remember the 60's but what I do remember is not bad stuff. I remember going to Dad's Root Beer for a cold drink or maybe a float. I remember the grocery store where the manager called out my mother's and my names when we went in (A big store, too. A&P) I remember going to one or another aunts or uncle's house and playing jarts in the lawn with my cousins while the grown ups played pitch or pinochle. Good times, good memories and if you heard any music coming from a car or house while you were in the front yard it was music that didn't have parents scrambling to cover the ears of their children. I miss the way people used to spend time with one another.
ReplyDeleteI was talking to my wife last night about this same thing. We had an old Norge refrigerator, that was sort of small, but it lasted at least 30 years, with my parents getting it second hand from someone else. Now refrigerators last 5-6 years, but thanks to government regulations, only use half the amount of energy that they used to.
ReplyDeleteIt happened to us, I had to replace a refrigerator after 5 plus years, due to the compressor just running out of oomph!. The tech. told me that they could not even order one anymore, they were considered a throw away item. A $700 throw away item?
It is the same with any new electronic item today. When is the last time you got a television set fixed? Exactly. You don't get them fixed. you throw them out, and buy a new one, for around the same price, with more features.
How about your toaster? Ever take one in to the repair shop, to have it fixed? Of course not, we just through them away and buy a new one. Ask a Vietnam war vet about how the Vietnamese handled their garbage. Things like beer cans that were flattened and made into walls to rebuild huts. You know you have heard the stories just as often as I have. People without anything AT ALL look at people like us, who throw things away, and to them, we are rich.
There is a name for this, used by manufactures. Planned obsolescence. Just like the corona virus vaccine that isn't. But keep taking it. I have been sicker than a dog, for just about a week with the Covid 19 symptoms. I tested at home with the free government tests, negative. Went to the medicenter a couple of days later. They tested me. Still negative. In the meantime, I am getting more ill, and wishing that I had made my wife learn how to shoot one of my guns, so I could make her shoot me.
But she would not do it, she wants me to drive her places. I know she is the wicked witch of the north.
Since I know that Biden is going to tell us just how great things are going in America, and that the Russian issue with the Ukraine is all Trumps fault, and we need to remember that, I won't bother tuning in to listen to President Biden, lowering the pressure on him, and instead will be in bed sleeping. Actually, if they put a brain monitor on both of us, Biden and myself, I am willing to bet mine would be more active asleep than his while he is awake, giving his speech.
Yeah, I know what you mean.
DeleteI had one of those flat-screen TV's go out on me recently. What happened is that it developed a 2 inch vertical stripe down one side. Understand, that I made my living as an electronics technician and started out servicing TV's back in the day, so I know what I'm doing. I figured it would be no sweat finding that fault and ordering the replacement part. I opened it up and there were only three parts total in the thing - a motherboard with about 4 LSI chips on it, a power supply, which checked good, and the led screen itself. Well, after a little troubleshooting, I found the bad part. I looked it up at several on-line suppliers. The part was going to cost almost as much as a brand new TV.
I pitched it and bought a new one.
Pigpen, you better hold on. You got a whole world in front of you. A lot of folk will miss you, I know I would. Can that rubbish talk.
DeleteBut yeah, you are right anout the other stuff. Companies moved their plants to 3rd world shitholes (in response to increased govt regulation). They also figured there is more money in making things not to last. Piss on brand loyalty. Except they all do that now.
I just rewired my simple do nothing but make coffee coffee maker. Cost nothing but my time. Before that was my stupidly cheap (cheap is not a syonym of inexpensive) toaster. It was a very easy job to fix.
The young peckerhead at the auto shop said alternator cannot be rebuilt. No surprise I now have a rebuilt alternator.
In a word, childhood is the realm of naivete. Before I had the most wonderful chilhood my mother was helping to establish the first Headstart program in the nation.
ReplyDeleteI spent more time outdoors in the forest and the hills and the beaches than inside the house. No lie.
Ungrateful negroes were the object of mom's official efforts. But it got so rough her boss had an FBI agent accompany her as she went through the neighborhoods telling people about the new govt program. Mom being white put her at risk. The day she got shot at several times is the day she quit.
But me or my friends knew nothing of that. Our world was small and well defined.
One can pick any time in the history of this great nation to say that was the best time. And they would be right. But others might say that was an awful time. And they might he right. It all comes down to one's environment. Yet there ain't no good reason a person cannot high tail it out of there if it be unbecoming to them.
That's what the America I knew allowed. Noawadays it seems people just want to sit and stew, complain and blame someone else. Meanwhile wait for the government to do something for them. That there is what is killing Anerica. There ain't no freedom in that.
I lived in the late 50s, and know, it was not ideal. For most of the country the 60s, the country was still a good place to be. But, the 50s were as close to ideal as this country has, or will ever, see. they were that way because of the family and government pretty much stayed out of our lives. As government has increasingly intruded, the family has gotten weaker, and many destroyed. Most of the problem of the big Dimocrat cities is fatherlessness, combined with perverted morals and mass stupidity. Until the country gets back to the society gets back to what it was in the 50s, nothing will change,
ReplyDeleteIn short, we are doomed.
I agree with your assessment. I was born in 1950 and have seen (from my own perspective, of course) the decay of our great society (before LBJ) into the immoral cesspool we now call the USA. Sure, we had morality issues back then, but we did not flaunt our sinful nature and hold it out for the world to see, as if we were proud of it. Yes, we are doomed.
DeleteFrom Happy Hectares on twit:
ReplyDeleteUnpopular opinion: Rock music is 3 minute jingles. It’s ephemeral. It’s not serious music. It will be mercifully forgotten.
Addendum: also it coarsened society
Amen.