The "Good Old Days?" Well, not so much, really. [View all]
Sometimes, when an old-timer like me posts something about something from the 1950s and 60s, as a contrast to something from right now, the old-timer gets accused of gloating about better times from the past. That's not it, though. Times weren't better. They were just different. in many ways, they were worse. Much worse. Let's take a look:
Social Justice
Open racism and legal discrimination against anyone who wasn't white.
Women treated as chattel. I remember women not being able to open a checking account or get any sort of loan. "Where is your husband."
Readily available contraception and abortion were illegal. Illegal!
Health Care
No available treatment other than surgery for cancer.
Widespread overuse of the few antibiotics that were available.
Mental health care consisted of terrible state hospitals in most places. You would not want to be in any of them.
Most people did not have health insurance. If you couldn't pay, you didn't get.
Economic Issues
Yeah, houses were cheap compared to today, but the minimum wage was $1.25 when I was sixteen in 1962. That same year, my parents bought a three-bedroom house for $14,500. It was a struggle, since my father, an auto mechanic, earned only just over $3/hr. He worked a lot of overtime.
College students didn't need student loans. That's true, but there weren't any student loans available in 1963 when I attended a state college that had $0.00 tuition. I had to drop out in early 1965, due to lack of funds, though. I enlisted in the USAF to avoid getting drafted in 1965. After four years, I went back to college on the GI Bill. There were still no student loans available, but I had the GI Bill. I like to think I earned it.
In 1974, my new wife and I bought a house. It cost only $20,000, but needed lots of work. We couldn't get a mortgage, but her father loaned us the money on a 10-year basis, and we paid it off in 5 years. That was helpful. We paid it off by scrimping on everything and driving $100 cars. Many of them. I fixed them up, drove them, and then sold them to someone else just getting by.
Politics
Goldwater and JFK. The right wing was up to the same garbage it's up to now. JFK was shot dead in 1963. I campaigned for him in 1960, while still in high school. Then, there was Nixon and Reagan. Yeah...things were tons better then...right...
In 1965, I drove across the country from California. Got to listen to Martin Luther King give his "How Long?" speech in Alabama. There were still "Whites Only" signs in many places. A terrible time for people of color. Things have improved, but not enough. Not nearly enough.
Conclusions
See, I don't think we had it so good when I was younger. In fact, I know we didn't. I hid under desks in school for A-Bomb drills. I remember that shit. Things are better now in many, many ways. Why? Well, in part because people like me worked hard to make them better. Now I'm old. I don't long for the "Good Old Days." They weren't. They still aren't, but they're better in some ways. Now, I just have a few more years, at best. Work for what you want. If you work hard, you might just get it.
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