I was born in 1954 at the height of nuclear testing, the cold war, civil rights reforms, McCarthyism and especially during the age of abundance and entitlement for the (artificial) middle class, I consider myself not just fortunate, but gifted too, born into a reasonably prosperous family. How much I wouldn't know otherwise, today, the history from the 50's, 60's and 70's... the collision that in my opinion has changed the world of several million years into something else, something many consider the "modern age of civilization".
So, 1954 is actually the age at which a middle class came to be. Prior to that, including during WWII, there was no middle class, only the wealthy, the "well to do" and the poor. There were distinct differences between them.
The wealthy were extraordinarily wealthy in general and quite distinct from the well to do. The wealthy generally had ancestry, wealthy ancestry with roots in big business. The well to do got lucky, cashing in on opportunities but without any family legacies. And the poor... not only were they numerous but they deserved to be where they were - poor. That is how it always was...
There was a great deal of "pride"... that to be "well to do" meant proof of living a life of virtue, better yet if one was wealthy. God rewarded the well to do and the wealthy... provided for them, this based on the perceived notion that they were devoutly worshiping God. God frowned upon the poor as there was a reason for it... they were undeserving. They were poor for good reason. To be something of a success meant being good in the eyes of God. Religion was everything, even into the 1960's.
I consider myself hugely grateful I was born in 1954. I almost consider it proof that things are not as they seem and there is a bizarre reason why I came to be in 1954. But let's ignore that for now.
After WWII and because of it, America became the world's Superpower. We had the modern factories, the experts, the motivations.The world was about to go through it's first massive reformation.
Two World Wars provided the incentive for extreme product development and experimentation. The United States with it relatively new infrastructure was ideally poised to accommodate extremes the world may encounter. WWI was only the beginning... a war we didn't want to involve ourselves in, but ultimately had to. WWII on the other hand, we initially saw ourselves as peace-makers, believed even as warplanes from Japan were approaching Pearl harbor, that we we in the business of world-peace.
After the horrors of WWI this was to be expected. The world had been brought order. Germany was punished. Never again would the world experience such an atrocity, such a devastating loss or life at the hands of a madman.
But such did happen, WWII happened. The United States was involved from the start and it produced extraordinary obligation, involvement, work and patriotism as to slap and nearly knock the US unconscious, only to have the US rally and crush the opposition, the enemy, the evil with countries it considered allies.
The result was the origin of the age of entitlement, the origin of suburbia and term Middle Class.... war hero's home to celebrate victory, to enjoy being the victors (unlike when soldiers returned from Viet Nam) amidst factories and businesses that evolved to confront the needs of a world war that was a direct threat to this country!
My parents went through the Great depression, food lines, desperation and fear of the future. Then came WWII. My dad was approximately 7 years old then. More rationing ensued... women went to work at factories and businesses. Ironically, they had no choice as all the eligible men were overseas and fighting Nazi's or Japs, and the women had to man the factories.
Women of course at the time were considered unable to do what they were doing, however such prejudice and misunderstanding was put aside... and how odd... women succeeded and some never left the workforce, but overall, many got swept up in the New Age of Suburbia...
Suburbia is a huge understatement. Or poorly defines the times.
Woman had, prior to WWII, achieved the right to vote, had made some gains into being on "equal terms" with male counterparts, to work otherwise male jobs, yet in general Victorian mores still ruled.
The New Suburbia provided the perfect balance between returning war vets and their factory forced women... technological improvements made suburban sprawls possible; social mores required Victorian rights of passage, where woman marries man and sells her soul in the process.
But all of this was great!! Really, really great. There seemed to be a limitless amount of resources and the expertise to put them in the American Suburban home. Not only to put them there but also the people to enjoy it all. This was the Middle-Class. Husbands by the millions got great jobs, often without having any college experience. These men had wives that produced 2.5 children per suburban household, sent those children to public schools, brought them in for regular checkups, had good food on the table, a future and essentially paved the way to America being Great.
Of course you had to tow the line, avoid being too smart, like reading "weird, anti-American" news or books, seeming to be open to liberal, socialistic, communistic views or simply being accused by your neighbor who really wants to seduce or rape your wife, that you are a communist, and as such, being simply strange or subversive meant you were going to jail or your life was in ruins.
But let's get back to the new Suburbia... "Leave it to Beaver", Dennis the Menace", "Lassie"... good "wholesome television.
What's really weird is that didn't come about until many year after I was born. There was no TV when I was born. There were electric refrigerators, but to my knowledge no such washer/dryers, dish washers, etc.
We got milk delivered to our milk-box outdoors, milk in bottles with cream on top, mail delivered twice a day including Saturdays. Life was viewed differently to, and again some of this I only came to understand when I was older... but i remember what I do. Electrocutions were for some odd reason a common reason for death. But we had Polio, smallpox, Scarlet fever, leprosy... i recall walking by houses with notices on the doors that the house was under quarantine.
Still, much of the environment was wonderful... lots of woods, and I lived in a city of 30,000, creeks, areas to bike, to hunt to explore. All gone now - developed.
I remember, my elementary school had a field - to the east I think, where first there was a baseball field, then a football field. A cross street divided the end of the football field from woods. The woods were thick with a creek passing through it. There were roads on each side but they were quite a ways apart. As a child until 10 at least I or some friends would explore these woods that led into a deeper woods.
The town razed the whole woods and creek across the street from the football field where I grew up. Left a huge grassy divider with no creek. To the south where there were thousands of acres of wooded hill, all the was razed and developed too.
The woods that began a half mile from my grandmother's house were razed, thousands of acres again.
The hard part to share is not just the environment, but what it was like to be born in the age when the "Great Age" began. The age referred to when politicians say "Let's make American Great Again".
As long as your family was middle class you basically had everything. You even got an allowance. You lived in a nice house and life was not only pretty simple, but especially "normal".
I could leave at 7 AM and come home before dark, alone. I wasn't always asked where was I going, and this was quite normal. I spent a lot of time exploring the woods, but also exploring town. There were no supermarkets, superstores, fast food restaurants then. It was a town, with hard earned and often inherited businesses.
I often took a bus... and lets say IMPORTANT NOTE: this is all from before I was 10, which would have been late 1964.
I loved the coin stores, which usually had gizmos like tiny cameras... I bought a couple with film a quarter inch wide but never used it. But I saw some great old coins for sale, especially gold coins often for $10 or so.
You could get a lot of candy for a dime.
Great times to live - if you've gotten this far with my dissertation. But in hindsight, deplorable years... except if you happen to be the kid, until you reach 18.
I turned 18 in 1972. The draft for the Vietnam war ended 3 days before my 18th birthday. Simple trivia. Although with a draft lottery in place and my number being sweet 16 I was sure to have been drafted to fight in Indonesia., as Vietnam had somewhat ended.
These are great times to be alive. Remember, I was born and there was no TV. Medicine was on the verge, but not quite there for some astounding developments. Civil Rights was big news, considering the rights of minorities and what it means to be a minority, to be Black, a negro back then. Magazine, newspaper subscriptions to "keep up with the news", which now I wish I never had.
I was bullied as a child... fuck that...I get bullied now and I stand up for myself. The difference is that as a kid you don't necessarily know that or how to do it. In fact, it's a life-long lesson. To me, that's a blow to reincarnation, getting it right the next time, as I doubt I will remember I need to be assertive and as much in their face as they are mine.
Such technology today, making it possible to play awesome, realistic computer games, watch awesome TV and movies. Have knowledge of the world at my finger tips when for most of my youth and older a library was where I had to go.
But still, how fortunate I've been to see myself go from milk at the door to milk through the internet.
None of the latter is why I just shared my story...
I'm retired, I like to write... soon I may be dead and the only thing left behind are these words... courtesy of technology in the 21st century.
What I really would like to address here is "cruelty to animals". That is, if I knew where to start. Perhaps the religious believe that humans, man, possess dominance over wild-life, not to mention, women, Blacks, and again, the poor.
Extinctions of wildlife. Extreme climate change.
Climate change which affects us all. Which seem to be shunned by the so called, intelligent people.
Cruelty to animals... decimating their natural environment. The Monarch butterfly, so pretty, is near extinction... did you know that? It migrates to the Amazon forests in South America, or at least it tries now - much of it's habitat has or is being destroyed.
We can put information at our fingertips, a man on the Moon and soon, Mars, yet we let our world be destroyed and die. We are... some have compared humans to parasites, and I believe in many ways that is true.
Which is odd as humans can pretty much become super-hero's if they really want to, starting with sane solutions to humanities future.
