[Nfbmo] Fw: A little long, but a good thing to read.
DanFlasar at aol.com
DanFlasar at aol.com
Wed May 23 15:03:59 UTC 2012
Susan,
Of course you're right - some rural areas didn't get electricity and
indoor plumbing until the 60s. But the intent of the original post, though
quaint and nostalgic, was inaccurate for most people. The post WWII era
was a real boom-time as the returning servicemen and women came back,
married, began to build homes,, buy all the new gadgets and in genreal, set the
tone for our then-emerging consumer culture.
For a more extended depiction of accelerated technological change,
if you like long books, try Thomas Man's "The Magic Mountain", available
fromo Wolfner. It's set in the years just prior to WWI. It describes the
effects the new technologies of electricity, flight, sound recording and
playback, x-rays, and all the other amazing developments that were changing the
world, and war at the time.
But it's not a nostalgic look.
Dan
In a message dated 5/23/2012 8:25:32 A.M. Central Daylight Time,
johnsusanford at earthlink.net writes:
Dan:
I found both your comments and the original nostalgic and enjoyable. I
hate
to say it, but some of this depends on where you lived. I was born in
1945
and I remember iceboxes. Ice was delivered to your house or you picked it
up at the icehouse in town. We never had a clothes dryer until after I
graduated from high school, which was in 1963. Anyone who takes their
clothes to a laundromat does some clothes-hanging to this day. It is
cheaper and easier than carrying it all home. Perhaps it is important to
make young people understand what things used to be like, but Jim's story,
though interesting did not tell the whole story.
Susan
----- Original Message -----
From: <DanFlasar at aol.com>
To: <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 10:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Nfbmo] Fw: A little long, but a good thing to read.
> This post claims that the grandmother was born in 1952 and then goes
> through a list of things she didn't grow up with. It's just not true.
> I've seen this go around so many times that I can't really let it go
> another time without clarifying it:
>
>
> television television was invented in 1938 and made significant
> inroads
> into homes in the early 1950s.
> penicillin 'discovered' in 1928, it was purified and released in 1940 -
> in
> common use in WWII
> polio shots Bogus - the early 50s were when polio shots were
> introduced.
> frozen foods mostly true
> Xerox True, though the electorstatic process was known much earlier,
> but not in general use
> contact lenses There were glass contacts available but they were
> expensive and painful - true
> Frisbees ... ever heard of a discus?
> the pill True, not till the 60s though there were trials in the
> 50s
>
> credit cards Diner's Card was introduced in the mid-50s, as were
> department store cards
> laser beams or ... true - lasers were discovered in the early 60s
> ball-point pens Wrong - they were in use by the RAF in 1941 and
> went
> on sale in 1945/ O ised the,om the 50s - they were given out as
> advetising gimmicks
> Man had not yet invented:
> pantyhose likely true
> air conditioners wrong - invented much earlier but not in common use
> till the 50s in stores and homes much later
> dishwashers wrong again they were available in modern kitchens in the
> 50s
> clothes dryers wrong again - they were available in the 50s
> and the clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air and - some
still
> do
> man hadn't yet walked on the moon. true first moonwalk in 1969/
>
> Your Grandfather and I got married first, and then lived together.
> undoubtedely true
> Every family had a father and a mother. except for those whose father
> died in the war or the divorcees
> We were before gay-rights, Yes - it was perfectly okay to beat
> homosexuals up for any reason
> computer-dating, True
> dual careers, ... uh... ask Rosie the Riveter - a lot of women never
> went back to the home after WWII
> daycare centers, true
> and group therapy. No idea
> Our lives were governed by the Ten Commandments, - as long as you were a
> Christian and/or believed in God. Plenty of atheists, agnostics as
well
> as
> Buddhist, Taoists, Confusionists, Shintoists, Hindus and Muslims, not to
> mention Mormons. But no Scientologists!
>
> good judgment, ... hopefully
> and common sense. ... as long as you agreed with the conventional
> wisdom.
>
> We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong ... as
> people still are
>
> and to stand up and take responsibility for our actions ... except for
> owning up to lynching,m segregation, spousal abuse and smearing the
> reputations of trade unionists during the anti-American hearings.
>
>
> Serving your country was a privilege; living in this country was a bigger
> privilege. True then, true now
>
> Draft dodgers were those who closed front doors as the evening breeze
> started. - completely untrue - term had been in use since the civil
> war. And
> there indeed were conscientious objectors on religious and moral
grounds
> throughout WWI and WWII - Quakers and 7th Day Adventists as well as
> pacifists.
>
> condominiums. Probably right - the idea still sounds bizarre
>
> We never heard of FM radios, tape decks, CD's, true
> electric typewriters ... nope, they began to emerge in the later 50s
> yogurt, ... unless you went to those strange and rare 'health food'
> stores
> or guys wearing earrings. - just pirates
> We listened to Big Bands, Jack Benny ... sorry this whole thing is
about
> 10 years out of date. Jack Benny left the radio in the late 40s,
though
> Big Bands are still around.
>
> and the President's speeches on our radios... These began to be carried
> on TV in the early 50s - they are still carried on radio
> And I don't ever remember any kid blowing his brains out listening to
> Tommy Dorsey...
> Lawrence Welk or Mantovani, perhaps....
> If you saw anything with 'Made in Japan' on it, it was junk. True till
> the 70s - at least for cars
> The term 'making out' referred to how you did on your school exam. -
> nope it's an old term traceable to the 20s
> Pizza Hut, ... true
> McDonald's, First McDonald's were in CA in the mid=50s. They were
> common by 1958
> and instant coffee were unheard of. Nope - instant coffee was a WWII
> spin-off
> We had 5 &10-cent stores where you could actually buy things for 5 and
10
> cents - true, and I miss them!
> nickel Ice-cream cones, True
> nickel phone calls, True, but not for long
> rides on a streetcar, Streetcars had disappeared from most cities by
> 1958 - buses took over at the same time as the rise of car ownership in
> the
> early 50s
> and a Pepsi were all a nickel. true
> And if you didn't want to splurge, you could spend your nickel on enough
> stamps to mail 1 letter and 2 postcards. - true, but email was *really*
> expensive!
> You could buy a new Ford Coupe for $600, but who could afford one?
> Okay,
> this is something out of the 40s! Very out of date for the 50s
> Too bad, because gas was 11 cents a gallon. - Actually, I saw it cheaper
> in the 60s but true
> In my day:
> "grass" was mowed, - still is
> "coke" was a cold drink, - still is
> "pot" was something your mother cooked in and - still is
> "rock music" was your grandmother's lullaby. - Nope. Rock music
> originated from the blues and moved into white popular music in the
early
> 50s -
> see Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley
> "Aids" were helpers in the Principal's office, - Yep - AIDS didn't show
> up
> until the mid '80s
> "chip" meant a piece of wood or ice that the ice man brought, l-
Pleas!!
> Icemen had disappeared in the30s!
>
> "hardware" was found in a hardware store and. - still is
> "software" wasn't even a word. true
> And we were the last generation to actually believe that a lady needed a
> husband to have a baby...
> um...... she didn't actually need to have a *husband* then either..
>
>
> How old do you think she is? Given the numerous anachronisms in this
> post, she would have to have been born in the late 30s. This whole
> thing is
> about 15 years out of date. And I think I read it 20 years ago and the
> lady was born in 1935
>
>
> I bet you have this old lady in mind. You are in for a shock! Nope
> to see -- pretty scary if you think about it and pretty sad at the same
> time.
> Scary no, sad, depends on how you remember the 50s.
>
>
> This woman would be only 59 years old, Born in 1952.
>
>
> THE YOUNG ONES WON'T BELIEVE IT - I'm 62 and I don't buy it either.
>
>
>
> I get that this is intended to exhibit how the culture has changed, for
> the better and the worse in so many ways, but it doesn't ring true for
a
> lot
> of people.. Human nature hasn't changed at all.
> And, aside from the anachronisms in the above list, it may very well
> be true that this sweet young lady (I'm still older, damn it!) did see
> the
> world that way, then she was blessed. And I guess I saw the world that
> way
> too. Things change - but as always we depended on each other then and
we
> still do.
>
> And someday, our grandkids will send telepathic iMails about how
> they grew up before you could get 3D TV in the home, that you could get
> music
> from something called the web, there were only two policial parties in
> the
> US and there used to be something called winter, and people only had one
> flying car per home.
>
> Dan
> Dan
>
>
>
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