Did lack of material possessions by contemporary standards mean we were unhappy? Rather the reverse. The attempt to rewrite the past in order to serve current political agendas is always a red flag for those who knew the past personally.
Burn of the Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
didn’t have an x-box or PlayStation but i had a hockey stick for street hockey, a basketball, a chess board and a ten-speed bike -what more could a young man want-
we’re so impoverished today. you can drive through entire neighborhoods and see no children outside.
One of my first bosses told me when I was asking for a raise, “You don’t own things; they own you.” At the time I thought he was just trying to avoid giving me a raise which he actually did give, but the older I’ve gotten and the more things I have, the more I think that’s true. There’s a peaceful simplicity about not owning things. Matt 6:33.
back during the depression 1930’s our family used to eat out once a week even though money was hard to come by…that was before fast food.
Not sure with whom you’re arguing.
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There’s a paleo-right strand who fancy that national income accounting is some sort of scam and that standards of living were at their peak around 1975. The leftoid equivalent contend that all the gains in production and consumption have been enjoyed only by those living above the median. That would entail income distribution figures rather different than those we actually have.
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The decay you see over time is social, psychological, aesthetic, and moral. The improvements are technological. I’m favorable to a couple which have arisen in the last fifty years: (1) automobiles are a great deal more reliable and durable and (2) cancer treatments are notably more effective. I’m also pleased police forces have technological tools which have appeared in recent decades as well, though some of them are creepy.
My family ca. 1970 ate out sparingly, less due to cost and more due to it being a habit my mother never acquired in her youth. She did not acquire it in part due to the general standard of living of the era (manifested before and after the Depression), in part due to the Depression, in part due to wartime rationing, and in part because her mother actually enjoyed cooking. Living alone in her 60s, she could have afforded to eat out, but ate at home; companionship was to be had by inviting some of her gal pals over for dinner.
“No one EVER went out to eat in the past.”
Bill Knapp’s ~ A&W Rootbeer ~ International House of Pancakes ~ Elias Brothers Big Boy.
What are you saying?
Did these businesses just spring up like weeds and became self supporting without selling one piece of pie?
My parents raised five boys.
A huge treat was a coneydog and a mug of root beer at A&W. Gee. Others were there too, enjoying their night out.