I was born when Harry Truman was president. I don't remember him. But I do remember Ike and Elvis, and Ann Landers and and Billy Graham, and Bob Hope and Jimmy Stewart.
A lot has changed since those days of the 1950s and '60s. A lot has stayed the same.
For example, toilet paper today is no different from the toilet paper I grew up with. The house I live in is no different, either. My house was built in 1965, and despite some renovations through its various owners, it remains pretty much the same. My wife and I did redo the kitchen after we moved in. But we still have a refrigerator, a stove, a dishwasher and kitchen sink that aren't much different from what was here in 1965.
Of course, some things are very different. My phone, for example. My computer, which I have instead of . . . well, I still remember the Smith Corona electric typewriter I got when I was a junior in college. We used to get a daily newspaper delivered to our door. Now we get our news on cable or social media. The news is faster. But is it any better?
Other things are the same but different at the same time. For example, my car. It basically works the same way that our family Buick worked back in the 1960s. Except our car now has seatbelts and airbags and automatic headlights and a rear-view camera. It's also Japanese, not American. Our next car might be a hybrid, or fully electric.
I wonder how much people have changed. When I was growing up people respected their elders and had a good old-fashioned Puritan work ethic. Now people are quiet-quitting, taking time off for paternity leave, retiring early.
But maybe I'm just misremembering that old-fashioned work ethic. You know . . . how we walked to school waist-deep in snow, uphill, both ways?
Nevertheless, we did go to church on Sundays, we said the Pledge of Allegiance in school, and we had dinner as a family every night. And you could go all day without hearing a swear word. Today, perfectly respectable publications use the F-word, and you can hear it on TV as well -- not to mention the near ubiquitous use of lesser curse words that involve bodily functions and familial relationships. But one good thing. We do not hear the racial and religious epithets that were so casually thrown around when we were kids.
However, we do have more school shootings. Does that mean we have more guns, or more mental health problems? I don't know. But one thing that's about the same now as in the 1960s -- the murder rate. It averaged about 5 murders per 100,000 people in the 1960s. After going up in the 1970s and '80s, the rate is now back down to about 5 again. Would that be considered progress? Something else that hasn't changed: In the 1960s there was no constitutional right to an abortion. Laws were left to the states. Today, again, we're in the same situation.
We live longer than our parents and grandparents. Because we've given up smoking? But we're also more obese. Chalk up our longevity to advances in our much-maligned health care system.
We've certainly made advances in civil rights since the 1960s, for women, gays, people of color, people with disabilities. When James Meredith went to enroll in the University of Mississippi in 1962, only about 3% of African Americans went to college. Today it's 50%. Back in the early 1960s about 10% of women went to college compared to 20% for men. Today, more young women than men go to college -- 70% of women and 62% of men.
We now have many more material goods than our families did when we were kids. The 1965 house we currently live in has a one-car garage. Because people back then owned one car. But today a married couple typically drives two cars. Our neighbors across the street, with two grown children at home, owns four cars.
When I was growing up we had one TV. B and I still have one TV. But my friend Peter has four TVs, all of which get Netflix and various other streaming services. I'd venture to say that we all have more clothes, more books, more recreational equipment, more food, more kitchen gadgets, more knickknacks. (And also more debt?) We travel more than our parents and grandparents ever did. But here's the thing: Are we any happier?
18 comments:
Another big thing that has changed is the population. I was born in 1965 and the population was about 199 million in the U.S. Today it is about 326 million. That has driven the growth of our cities and the explosion of fast food restaurants and shopping locations. Looking back to when I was a child, I can certainly say that it is much busier these days!
I think many parts of our everyday life have changed, but mostly the essentials are the same. However, I can't imagine my daily life without my ubiquitous iPhone. And Google! What did I do before I had the wisdom of the world at my fingertips?
I was watching a documentary-of-sorts about UFOs a couple months ago, and this (paranoid) college professor was talking about change (on a global scale, not just an American one) and he said if you took a man from 3000 BC and plopped him down into 2000 BC, for the most part he'd be just fine. And if you took a man from the 12th century and plopped him down 150 years in the future, other than some nasty viruses, he'd be fine for the most part too. Then he said "But if you took a man from 1970, and dropped him in 2020, he'd have a nervous breakdown. In just 50 years, technology has gone much farther ahead than where we should be." (He blamed it on the government pilfering alien technology.) The thing is, he DID make some good points. I mean, when I was 18 I had the same record player, radio & tv with 3-4 channels my parents had when THEY were 18. I look at my niece now, who's 18--what a different future she grew up in. I'm just rambling here while my spaghetti is cooking!
Tom, I was born in 1945... Trumen and all the others you mentioned were part of my life in those first 20 years (especially Elvis). What I remember was an idealic family life (similar to the show "Father Knows Best"). We weren't rich, but life was good. Very little technology. We took rides out to the lakefront and listened to to stories on the car radio for entertainment. We did have a phone - a round little black iron thing that sat in the hall.
You ask with all the changes, are we happier? The way I look at it is like a trade-off, the changes have brought lots of wonderful things as well as lots of terrible things. Maybe the question should be "Are we better off? rather than are we happier?" And my answer would be... in some ways - yes and other ways - no.
This is a thought provoking post, Tom. I was born in 1948. I remember my parents getting our first television. I remember how important the evening news and the morning paper was for my parents. I think that they were far more impressed with technology expansion than I ever was and they did a great deal of travel. I have to say I think my life is far closer to theirs than it is to my children's -- certainly in terms of financial security. I am better off than my parents health wise -- at least for now.
It’s a good post that deserves a good comment, but you won’t get one from me as I have one eye on a hockey game as I try to catch. Up on blog reading. I got way behind. But no, I don’t think we are happier. But I am thankful that I have lived when I have.
Good point -- lots more people today. Also, lots more technology, most of it good. I just got off the computer where I was able to read a book with my granddaughter who lives 1000 miles away. Couldn't do that in the '60s, or even five years ago. But AC, I remember watching hockey on TV back when I was in high school (tho' I couldn't follow the puck then, and can't follow it now.)
I had this conversation with my mom about 15 years ago. We were talking about our military. When my dad was in Korea, you would wait patiently for letters that came weeks after they were written. Sometimes families would receive letters after a death notification. At that time a neighbor was stationed in the Middle East and could facetime or email his wife daily.
My first car didn't even have a radio. My new car has a rear window defroster and wiper, automatic windows and locks, heated seats, a camera to help me back up, a mapping app and can answer my phone. I am pretty excited about every upgrade and convenience.
There are both plus and minuses. I was born in the forties and without the improvements in medicine I might not still be here and am living healthily on my own (with a platoon of family near by). Long distance phone calls were for emergencies only and now with our smart phones I text or talk with my sisters and friends nearly daily. In general I don't think we are happier. You don't have to go far in a little town like mine or a big town to see more homeless people than I ever saw when I was younger. Everyone's news sees someone shot or hurt almost daily. I have moved a few times and shed more stuff each time and don't miss any of it. I'm still giving away stuff. At 80 I am no longer interested in spending any time dusting anything except for a still growing pile of books but that's me. Gone from a meticulous house keeper to a "meh" one. But when I migrate on my kids won't have much to clean up. Hee hee, I've passed it off to them or one of my grandkids.
Great post with comparisons of then and now. You end with a good question.
Left this out, I personally am happier/more peaceful than the first 60 years of my life by a mile,
That ubiquitous F-Bomb still startles me when I hear it. I'm sure my son uses or used it when in high school or college, but knew never to use it at home. I DO hear it in movies way too often.
I'm definitely hearing of more killings with guns now, BUT maybe it's because we didn't have minute by minute news on the cellphone back then.
I used to tell my kids that I went to school in the snow uphill both ways too. It made them laugh because they knew I grew up in Hawaii.
I can't believe the murder rate is still the same as in the 1960s. There are so many mass murders in this country. As for being happy, I am truly happier now than before. After all, I have a long lasting marriage, own a nice house, and have a successful family I am proud of.
Remember the Jetsons? Family of the future? Nowhere in that series was the internet. I think it came along by surprise, beyond prediction of the masses.
I'd say we live differently now, some ways much, much easier, and some ways discouragingly difficult. But, as a person born in 1948, I think I'm more at peace with myself and others - probably a normal part of aging.
The only things I have now that I didn't back then are DVD player (and dvds), smart phone (android not I-phone), laptop and air conditioner. Oh, and a clothes dryerEverything else is the same old fashioned stuff I'm comfortable with. I had a CD player until it burned out.
Many items of every day living have improved for some but the rate of homelessness has skyrocketed and also male partner violence (read femicide) against women in the US as increased by 9% while improving drastically in other countries (Canada not included either). Non-stop Wars seem to be part of life in countries where we have no business being (excluding Ukraine) and the threat of nuclear conflagration is now like the sixties again. Womens's rights are always on the table in the U.S. and women's autonomy sacrificed. ERA is still to be ratified (in 2022 - come on!) and climate change is a constant threat to humanity. Drug addiction is through the roof and affecting so many and mass murders in the states has the rest of the world in disbelief at the callousness of the gun laws.
So I maybe stand alone in my reality check here but I hold very little hope for the world as it is right now.
XO
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I think downsizing lifestyle will be a major movement in a few years, or should be!. Good for the environment and good for our pocketbooks. Materialism and consumerism have definitely gotten out of hand. Unfortunately too many people will never give up their numerous gadgets...
My wife and I were born in the 1957, retired at 61 almost 4 years ago. Remember our parents retiring on SS, pensions and savings and us on SS, pension, savings and investments. My dad had a wood rowboat, we had motorboats for fishing and vacation travel. Used to travel the US in the family station wagon mostly sleeping in the car, today we travel with a camper van with B&B, camping, hotel & rest stop options. Introduced my mother in law to a PC so she could type letters, research family tree, e-mail and search the Internet. My wife and I were both on computers since college and looked forward to a lesser computer retirement, hah!! Online banking, shopping, investing, communicating, blogs, etc.............and I spend the most computer time with investments and travel. We have plenty of time to compare how our parents enjoyed life vs. us and think we all have been happy, probably because life is still what you make of it.
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