Toward the end of 2007 we ran into a boomerang with the onset of a “Great Recession.”

From which we continued to recover when Donald J. Trump became president. It became fashionable to throw out the words, “Make America Great Again.” Words I distinctly remember from the late 1930’s in Germany. But we were America at its strongest now. Nothing like that could ever happen here. No way.

It seemed like a businessman in the White House was just the right thing. I also have not so fond memories of Herbert Hoover with “Prosperity is just around the corner.” What was just around the corner was the greatest Depression this country ever had.

We are now in the 21st century with the stock market reaching the clouds, but wait, let’s fill in the blank spaces.

We were retroing back to FDR and his “Happy Days Are Here Again,” or were they?

Socializing and popular fads

It seems we just can’t escape the British influence when it comes to togs, music and almost anything else having to do with British Royalty, Prince Harry (sort of the renegade Prince of the 21st century, married an American Actress setting of canons of explosive tabloid frenzies. It soon became obvious that this young couple didn’t show any interest in stodgy old English customs. Harry and his lovely Meghan Markle accepted their role as Duke and Duchess of Sussex. But it was only a formality. You knew immediately he was different when he said, “Just call me Harry.” They lived a life more like American rich kids, not seeming to find the kind of work set out for them to their liking. Young American teens, especially took to Meghan’s casual style of dress (some parents were already wondering whatever on earth would they take off or put on next).

Harry and Meghan conducted themselves like American High School brats with more money than they might know what to do with. Not just teenagers but adults with more common sense (we would hope), became somewhat hysterical with joy that the couple would choose to move to North America. The excitement isn’t over and you can bet we’re in for a resurgence of British styles and fashions for some time to come.

The Bigger We Are, The Harder Will Fall

And fall we have. At the turn of the century, we were so busy worrying about clothes, music and do-dads that most of us failed to notice that the Stock Market started to wobble between 2000 and 2002. During that time, one of the prime market sections, the S&P 500 suffered a 49% wipeout and three years later dipped another 56%. Overall that diminished American wealth some 20-trillion dollars, which ain’t five and dime money.

Get a Bucket, Bail the Boat – We’re Sinking

Break the law, got to Jail. “Hey dad, come bail me out of this stinking joint.”

In the early 21st century, when the automobile makers, banks, housing industry and mortgage companies crashed, they asked for another relative. “Call my Uncle Sam and tell him to come down here and bail us out.” Uncle Sam, i.e., the American taxpayers. It may not have happened in your community, but it did happen, and you paid part of the bill to bail them out. That’s just the way it is done and most poor suckers have no idea what happened to them, only that the government took another healthy slice of their hard-earned wages. Before it was all over, Uncle Sap (us) bore the brunt of close to $100 trillion dollars. Talk about grandchildren paying, how about triple grandchildren, after while stuff like that becomes real money.

Why are we so Afraid

Whether we like or admit it, we have grown into a country afraid of our own shadows. Fearful of the dark like the rat is scared of daylight. Afraid of Russia, Afraid of Chinas afraid of nature, afraid of the monsters we drive every day on super concrete highways. Afraid to let our children walk to school. Beware the guy behind the bushes. Just plain old unadulterated fear itself. Are those things what we are really afraid of, or are we simply afraid of ourselves? That’s become a working model for most of us in the 21st century. Maybe FDR was right when he made his famous speech of being afraid of fear in his first inaugural address in 1933.

Abraham Lincoln made us aware in a long-forgotten speech of 1838 when he sagely advised, that no foreign country across any ocean would destroy us. He said, in part, that the greatest danger “must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be the author and finisher. As a free people, “We must live through all time, or die by suicide.” Fear of one thing or another is the cause of most suicides. So will we stop fearing everything and face the future undaunted by such childishness and emerge again as the greatest nation on earth. We do not stand alone today. Our changing lifestyles has failed to recognize just how many competitors we have today, always willing to steal away our dignity and strength, lest we first give it up without standing up.

Why are Our Parents Copying our Styles

Back to a less somber lifestyle. Have you noticed how much you try to look more like your teenager than yourself? Remember when you told the kids to “act your age.” Isn’t it getting time to look in the mirror and ask yourself, “Why am I trying to look like a teenager?” Never noticed, huh? When a teenager applies acne medication to his or her face, you notice how well it is working. “Well,” you say, “I’ll bet it will help me get rid of that zit next to my nose.” Or, “Bet that stuff they advertise for bags under the eyes and that flab under the chin would make me look years younger. It has become fashionable to look younger and younger even when you’re approaching seventy and eighty and god know how much older. It puts us in the dream world when we ogle at a lovely lady or handsome young athlete. Oh, how we dream, and now we will climb mounts of creams, etc., etc., to go back to those days when we were one of those young people even though it ends up being nothing more than kemtone and putty. We are not only afraid but we all too often fall into some kind of dreamland. No doubt those applications will help some, but you are still who you are so get used to it. It sounds like a bitter pill, but we’ve tried every pill in the drugstore, so why not an unwanted bitter one telling the truth about us. As I heard one dowager say, “But it is so trendy.”

Teenagers have such Bad Habits

Whoa there. A recent article in Best Life delineated 20 teenage bad habits that many adults have picked up or never let go of.

1. Munching on food all day and at dinner, you will say, “I simply don’t eat so much these days.

2. Biting your nails. We all do it so some degree, especially when we are nervous, but we alibi our way out when confronted. “Oh, I snagged them somewhere.”

3. Not flossing. Remember how you practically screamed at your kids for not flossing? Now, they’re doing just fine because you were on them about it. You don’t floss anymore. Too busy looking for uppers and lowers that don’t give you blisters.

4. Procrastinating. Remember when you were all over the kids to do their homework? Now many of your put off until next week that contract you need to sign or that appointment you should have kept. Excuse: “I simply had to much to do “or “I don’t like to be pressured.” Yeah.

5. Washing Dry-Clean Only clothes. “Son, I’ve told you a million times not to put that cashmere sweater in the dirty wash. It must be washed by hand,” so you say, “Oh, I’m sure this will wash,” as you stuff something into the washer that “feels washable,” but isn’t. Another one of your teenaged habits you still up to at 40.

6. Packing a lunch. You told your kid, “I don’t care if you rather eat fast food at lunch. My lunches are more nutritious.” Mother knows best? Maybe, but why do you feel embarrassed to take a nutritious lunch in a paper bag to the office every day? Oh, you’d instead grab a burger at the diner. So, instead of carrying a nutritious lunch in a bag, you’d rather carry it around the waist you try to hide with a double-breasted suit of caftan. Yeah.

7. “My goodness, will those girls ever stop gossiping on the phone all day?” What” How do you square that when you spend most of your afternoon about the girl who got pregnant and isn’t married. Probably doesn’t even know who the father is?” That little dinging you call a cell phone stays busy and very little of it is business as you leisure about in an air-conditioned home gabbing with Maisie down the street. Some change in styles or is it?

8. “You’ve got to learn how to save money or you will never grow up to amount to much.” So you dictate, but are you aware that the average American cannot come up with $400 cash in an emergency? There have been several recent studies on that. So don’t be surprised when your admonishes to your “spendthrift” teenagers fall on deaf ears.

9. TV binging. “Don’t you kids do anything but watch TV. It must get so boring.” So you can’t wait to get home from work to binge on Netflix and Prime. You think the kids are addicted to the Tube. While you sit, munch and binge, you are wasting a lot of time. Also, you may wonder, “Why am I getting so much flab?” It doesn’t take a Mensa to figure that one out.

10. Dirty dishes in the sink. “Oh, those lazy kids. I’ve told them a thousand times to clean up their dirty dishes. Was it the kids who brought cockroaches into the sink? Or was it the dinner dishes that, “I’ll wash them in the morning. I’m tired tonight.” You are not alone. You have a lot of company that aren’t anywhere near being the teenager you criticize.

The list goes on and on, but you get the gist. These things are part of our changing lifestyles, but we simply don’t catch on until we are so far down the road, and into some other gimmicky lifestyle.

Whatever Happened to the Grand Ole Opry?

Oh, it didn’t go away. As a matter of music ratings, it has once again become the rage, brought into the limelight by The American Music Awards. Grammy’s are as popular with 21st Century folks as the Oscars were in the 40’s and 50’s. Believe it or not, but it is so true. People who can’t remember a movie star’s name or what pictures they starred in can tell you all the details from the song-writer to the producer and performer in country music. It is very big in our current lifestyles because so many of us like to reminisce about the good old days down on the farm listening to WSM. Trust me folks, I grew up in a hollow and the days were not that “good ole.’ Outside wells, outhouses, wood stoves, oil lamps, Sears Roebuck Catalogs. No. But country music is back and it sounds almost like rock most of the time. Lifestyles are so retro these days.

What the Hell Happened

You’ve been waiting for it and now you’re gonna get it. The politicians have taken to hating each other for no good reason. Compromise is something you do with your kids when they tell you what their rights are. That is a never-ending negotiation and it seems that for the most part, the kids win because we are afraid of accusations (however untrue) from them that might stigmatize us for life. I had an elderly attorney tell me recently, “Rusty, I won’t even be in a room with my granddaughter unless another adult is present. Sad. School teachers are fearful of putting an arm around the shoulder of a distraught kindergartner. You think I’m joking? Fear. We are fearful of what someone might say and once it is said, right or wrong, there are those who will say, “Well, if there’s smoke there must be some kind of fire.” Changing lifestyles.

There are re-new laws that go into effect on January 1st of every year. Telling us what to do, when to do it and how to do it and they delineate the punishments in fines and incarcerations if we don’t comply. Pot is legal, but our prisons and jails are filled to the gills with addicts while the dealers and cartels go along their merry way sucking in more young and old into the dens and drugs inequity. They have expensive lawyers and they fight the system, doing whatever it takes to sustain their business, more or less telling the authorities to mind their own business. Every day you read about an elected official being charged with taking a bribe.

Our modern lifestyle hawks equality, but minorities and the poor know they are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to any equality. Modern lifestyles. Some things are as modern at high buttoned shoes and carriages. We put on a show and everyone loves a show, so we ignore the inequities.

What Goes Around Comes Around

While we bicker over minuscule changes, we fail to see what is actually happening in the world, including the United States of America. Mother nature has a way of leveling the field when she feels she’s been mistreated too much. When she strikes back, and she always does, it is with the vengeance and anger of a riled King Cobra. Dust storms, cyclones, tornados, earthquakes and erupting volcanos. If it didn’t happen to us, so what? However, the time comes when we say, “Why us?” The scientists know why.

Case in point. In 1917-18 the Spanish flu (a product of nature) took us down a stroke and with it, some 25 to 50 million people died.

Sometime late last year and little virus crept out of somewhere (blame who you want but nobody guided it; it laid out its own road map and what a map it was). Remember back in January and February of this year? “Oh, it is just a few and will go away like magic.” Like magic, it traveled like Ali Baba on a cushion. Some say the jet stream carried it. Seems logical since it first appeared from East to West. After a short period, a few grew into a hundred and then a thousand and hundreds of thousands and we were simply caught with our masks and guards down. Remember the old butter slogan ‘” Don’t fool with mother nature?” We did, and our new lifestyle takes place not only in the hospitals, funeral homes and cemeteries but in every nook and cranny of our world. There is no escaping. Everybody is looking for a treatment or vaccine. Gotta save lives. And the powers that be continue on their way without even thinking that the real culprit is nature. That kind but wicked when it has to be, nature who has finally said enough. Face masks are in style of all colors, sizes and designs as are limited assembly and six-foot spaces between us. Maybe this is a lifestyle that will change us for the better. In that venue, I’m from Missouri. Show me. Wishing everybody the freedom that has been whisked away from us and hoping we really do change our way of living this time.

Just sayin’ rustystrait@gmail.com

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The post Ten Years in and Hell and then All Hell Broke our Hearts appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The nineties came in like a lamb and went out like a windstorm. Everything in our society seemed topsy-turvy. It was the decade of credit card mania, bigger homes, more expensive cars and extravagant spending. It was as though we were granted the right to “just charge it,” without any thought of how to pay for it. Bankruptcies increased as did divorce, child and spousal support. Step-fathers became more important than biological ones to children abandoned by fathers who married too young and couldn’t or didn’t want to deal with the responsibilities of family life.

The Unhealthy Practice of “Getting Even”

Leading into the nineties, television and movies became more realistically violent, as did a lot of popular music. Because of that, kids especially began to become desensitized to blood and gore. When disputes erupted, instead of a fistfight to settle the argument and making up the next day, more and more guns began to be employed by teenagers, especially young men, to settle arguments. Almost daily, newspapers and television headlined a new killing involving youth. It was the dawn of mass killings that permeate the media today and there seemed to be little to deter the trend. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 was neutered as some 30 states enacted right-to-carry gun laws. More guns in the home, meant better access to angry young men. Most folks shrugged their shoulders and saw it as a sign of the times. That is, until one of their own became perpetrators or victims.

A Cultural Divide

As the crusade for gay rights progressed, so did the right to traditional masculinity. Gymnasiums had a sudden increase in membership. Machismo prevailed as some men took to the woods to chant and beat on drums like wild men. However, the Christian right considered homosexuality a curse and abomination. Nonetheless, in a survey taken in 1998, the majority of Americans found same-sex relations acceptable. Bigotry and prejudice continued as violence and legal actions continued into the 21st century against gays.

A Religious Split

The Gen-exers had a different review of religion that had nothing to do with gender. Spiritualism in what became “New Age” became a mantra for many, unhappy with the strictness of orthodoxy. Individuality prevailed over longtime traditions. Belief in Biblical heaven and hell was questionable. It was a different form of Creation vs. Evolution. White Anglo-Saxons did not stand alone in what appeared to become a social revolution. Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, organized a Million Man March, in some ways mimicking Reverend Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington when close to a million African American men marched onto the Mall in D. C. to listen to speeches and sermons lauding the virtues of family and community responsibility. It was the largest assemblage of African Americans ever held.

Loosen up, Be Yourself

The age of self-realization in dress codes fell upon us. Men began trading ties and suits in the workplace as women took to slacks and denims in favor of dresses. Sneakers were popular over dress shoes and high heels. Work comfortably became code words for casual dress attire. Dress down Friday’s led to casual dress codes throughout offices across the country. Grunge music influenced young people to wear loose-fitting jeans, flannel shirts and T-shirts with designs that seemed alien to their parents. It was the advent of thrift stores and ragged jeans with holes and rips that often exposed nearly as much flesh than they covered. It was a special style designed to be non-conforming as they conformed to be non-conforming. The 21st-century hip-hop made its entry into the youth fashion world.

Some of these clothing fads became a tradition and added to the mix of non-conformity came along Ralph Lauren, Stone Island, Harrington jackets, Tommy Hilfiger sweaters, Guess, Hush Puppies shoes, Doc Martens boots and Aviator sunglasses.

By the late nineties, a Southeast Asian and Indian fashion became influential, not only in the United States but around the world. Some blamed it on the sixties and seventies’ influence of the Beatles and their mentor Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an Indian guru who first met the Fab Four in 1967. He introduced them to Transcendental Meditation, which became part of the self-realization movement in the nineties.

Financial Spin and Whirl

Your 1990 hundred dollar bill would be worth $163.26 today. In 1990 an average house came at $123,000. By 1999 it would appreciated to $150,000 plus. The average income for a family of four in 1990 was $28,970. At the end of the decade, it was $40,819. A new car cost approximately $16,000. In 1999 that same vehicle would have cost $21,000. However, a gallon of gasoline was $1.34 in 1990 but down to $1.22 at the beginning of the 21st century.

Political Upheavals

The United States’ political situation was still traditionally a two-party system. George H. W. Bush was President, having succeeded Ronald Reagan in 1988. Such peaceful politics did not exist around the world. Boris Yeltsin became the first President of Russia and served as such until 2000. The current President, Vladimir Putin succeed him in 2000.

As the Soviet Union collapsed, East and West Germany were reunited. Operation Desert Storm pushed Iraqi Armed Forces out of Kuwait.

After 12 years of Republican control of the White House, in 1992, Bill Clinton, a Democrat, was elected President. Former branches of the Soviet Union declared their independence, including Bosnia, Herzegovina and Czechoslovakia became Czech Republic and Slovakia. Freedom from terror and tyranny were becoming a part of the revised history of Europe.

Kofi Annan became Secretary-General of the United Nations and Bill Clinton (after being impeached and acquitted) was re-elected President for a second term. Under Clinton, Madeline Albright became the first female Secretary of State.

Economic sanctions against South Africa placed by the United States and the European Economic Council forced the country to amend its constitution to eliminate White rule and accept a new multiracial constitution. As a result, all Black Political Leaders, including Nelson Mandela, were released from jail. In 1994 Mandela would become the first Black President of a Democratic South Africa.

The World of Music, Movies, Television and Cosmetics

American popular music took a sharp turn in the nineties. We were inundated with Grunge, Hip-Hop, Britpop, Psychobilly, Punk, Skater, Goth and Preppy. While their parents were still hung up on Elvis and the Beatles, their offspring were going off in every direction when it came to musical tastes. The most popular singers of the nineties were 4 to 1 in favor of the ladies. Mariah Carey was number one, followed by Janet Jackson, Madonna and Whitney Houston. Boys II to Men came in fifth.

Boys’ bands were generally popular. N’SYNC, New Kids on the Block, and All 4 One are examples. As to girl bands, Spice Girls, TLC and En Vogue were big. The Capris was the only Doo-Wops with a hit. Eminem’s “My Name Is” topped the Rap/Hip Hop Charts. “Murder She Wrote” by Chaka Demus & Pliers was the big Raggae hit. Vanilla Ice’s Ice Baby topped the one-hit wonders list. Achy Breaky Heart was the fad song of the decade. Billy Ray Cyrus soared like a spike in blood pressure, then dissolved into the dust of forgotten melodies. His daughter did better. This could go on and on, but I’m sure you get the gist.

The top ten male movie stars were: Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, Johnny Depp, Matt Damon, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Carrey and Sylvester Stallone.

Top ten female movie stars were: Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Aniston, Meg Ryan, Demi Moore, Winona Ryder, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angelina Jolie.

The top ten movies: Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, Schindler’s List, The Silence of the Lambs, Titanic, Jurassic Park, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Toy Story.

Do you remember the top ten television shows? If not, here they are: Seinfeld, Friends, The X-Files, The Simpsons, Law and Order, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ER, Saved By the Bell, Roseanne and Ellen.

Perhaps these would not have been your choices nor mine, but that’s what makes for so many differences in our personal selections.

Sports in the Nineties

For the second or third time, Baseball players went on a strike. As a result, when they came back to play, ball attendance dropped more than 20%. Fans were frustrated and angry. Somehow we always feel that they make enough money and are not grateful to their endearing public. Maybe. But the market dictates attendance. The players have families and as sports heroes they have their own tastes and desires as befits their status in the entertainment world. Never forget that sports entertain. Basketball players also decided to strike. To get even, the owners locked the players out in 1998, deciding that what’s good for the grunts is good for the elite.

It was mostly routine for football, hockey and tennis. The United States launched Major League Soccer which has thrived, as had soccer which is still moving toward competing with the NFL for their place in the sun.

They Go Hand in Hand

Medical science and technology made great strides in the nineties both individually and as partners. Thanks to computers both prospered. We saw the growth of the World Wide Web and Personal Computer PC. In 1991 WWW first made the web available for public consumption. Early users grew at the rate of 3500 a year. By the end of the decade, more than 295 million users were on the internet. Communication was becoming revolutionary.

Consequently, Medical Science turned to the internet to solve medical problems. Two advances have helped doctors take giant leaps into the future of medicine. Cloning gave us the ability to clone one animal from the cell of another. The first cloning produced Dolly from an ewe. In 1998 stem cells from human embryos created a storm of controversy. Although fundamentalists decried it as interfering in God’s work, it nevertheless found approval with the medical community as it became more evident how much it would assist in the cure and prevention of diseases that previously were killing us by the millions. Morality and social traditions were a bar in some social areas. But medical innovations were not to be denied in the search for a healthier nation. Genetic engineering was first tried on foods, helping them to resist herbicides and insecticides. By the end of the decade, some 100,000 acres were planted with soybean, Maize, Cotton and other vegetation. Because of that, more than 60% of food products on the grocery shelves included GM ingredients – and most folks never knew the difference.

In technology, Microsoft conquered the world with computers and computer programs. It has become as common to say Microsoft as it is motor vehicle. All of this technology brought mobile phones and the cell phones we use today, which not only provide communication but ready access to the world’s compiled knowledge we take for granted today.

The world waited and hoped. Waited for the last bell of the clock that introduced 01/01/2000. Happy 21st century. The hopes and dreams of a tired and war-torn world sought peace and prosperity, but mostly peace. Funny how the past has a way of turning out better in the future than it was at the time. There is an old saying that belongs to the military – or at least it used to. Perhaps it also belongs to all of us. It goes like this: “The only places that are good are those where we have been and where we are going. But this place sucks!” Just sayin… rustystrait@gmail.com

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The post STRAIT ON – AMERICA’S CHANGING LIFESTYLES – PART VIII – CHAOS appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

STRAIT ON – AMERICA’S CHANGING LIFESTYLES

Hollywood Gives us a President

The 1980 presidential race, even with three major candidates, was a cakewalk for the former actor and Governor of California. Ronald Reagan was swept into the White House (garnering 489 electoral votes), with his “kitchen cabinet” in tow. He would undoubtedly be the most important Republican Administration since General Eisenhower. When Reagan took office for his first term, the country was in a quagmire of inflation and out of control interest rates. He hardly had a chance to get his feet on the ground when he was shot in the side, inches from his heart, in an attempted assassination.

Let’s Roll Up Our Sleeves and Get to Work

Not since Roosevelt’s New Deal had a president signed so many bills in the early months of his presidency, stimulating economic growth, curbing inflation, increasing employment and strengthening national defense. He overhauled the income tax code and inaugurated the Reagan Doctrine which gave aid and assistance to Communist insurgencies around the world. In one year, unemployment decreased and would continue to do so. Digging out of inflation was costly in the interim but profitable in the long run. Wages rose by 10% in 1980. The president was off to a good start.

What Happened to the Middle Class

There is much talk today about the declining middle class as though it is just suddenly became an issue. Not true. The so-called “Middle Class” had been declining for years. Post World War II through the Vietnam War era, we had the largest Middle Class in the history of the country. It has been decreasing ever since. The global competition had been eating away at American business profits. Business began in the seventies to shift to speculation, investing offshore and outsourcing labor and manufacturing where labor and production costs were less. So much for corporate patriotism.

Although Reagan had been a union leader throughout his film career, as president he continued to weaken the labor pool and began the spiral that has almost destroyed labor unions. His administration began the “union bashing” that continues today. He also froze the minimum wage level for a nine-year period, essentially cutting pay each year while inflation bit into lower-wage earners, while the salaries of corporate electives skyrocketed. Corporate Presidents were earning 30 times the salaries of their factory workers during his early years and by the time he left office, they were earning almost 130 times more as the big cats took larger slices of the profits. Employment in the manufacturing area fell twelve percent through the eighties.

How Does Our Garden Grow

One thing did grow. People. When Reagan became president our population was 226.5 million. The year he left office, it had grown to 248.7 million, many of whom lost their jobs to outsourcing and mechanization. Nevertheless, In 1980 4,400 taxpayers reported income more than $1,000,000. By 1987 35,000 Americans were earning more than a million dollars. When Reagan was elected, 13% of Americans were living below the poverty line. By 1988 it was still 13 percent.

Play it Again, Sam

Coming into the eighties, Americans had been besieged with unpleasant events: The Vietnam War, counterculture movements, Watergate and frustration with the condition of the country. Dreams were destroyed by inflation, high-interest rates and corruption in government. Crime was up. Youth were still seeking their own place in the American dream, which seemed to be dipping down into nightmarish expectations. Education was more important because the increase in technology required College Degrees, whereas a high school diploma had previously sufficed. Education was becoming more expensive to ordinary folks. Recreational money became tighter. Bars, films, designer apparel, records, fancy cars and other pleasure pursuits were sharply curtailed due to a lack of funds to indulge in such forms of entertainment. Pop culture took a dramatic turn. Madonna and Cyndi Lauper loomed high in teenage idols, especially among young girls. Bangles baubles and beads were in style, as were bright colors, spandex, hoop earrings, teased hair. Loud makeup and neon clothing became fashionable for both young girls and older women. Guys were into sweatpants, sweatshirts, denim jeans and jackets, wild colored thick, itchy sweaters and athletic shoes.

The Movie and Television Resurgence

The eighties was the decade of blockbuster films, with such epic productions as The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, all of which grossed millions of dollars at the box office. Sequels were quick to follow and just as box-office successes. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Revenge of the Nerds satisfied the middle teen set. The big three in television, CBS, ABC and NBC began to lose their grip on audiences as new innovations came into existence; MTV, ESPN, HBO, CNN & Nickelodeon were grabbing off large shares of the viewing audience. By 1990 what we used to get for free on television had a price and it has continued to grow; until today, it was not uncommon to pay $200 a month for TV, router and any number of extra charges to be entertained. Sadly, a pop icon’s death on December 8, 1980, left not only the country, but the world grieving. John Lennon exiting the Dakota Apartments in New York, was shot and killed by a disillusioned fan, Mark Chapman. The 1980’s brought us more heavy metal, new wave, hip-hop, rap, hair metal and other genres of music. Because of economics, musical stars contributed to lowering the cost for popular entertainment by participating in charity concerts; Band-Aid, We Are the World, Live Aid and Farm Aid concerts. Many pop stars peaked in the ’80s. Million seller albums, included: Michael Jackson presented “Beat it,” “Billie Jean,” and “Thriller.’ Madonna brought us “Like a Virgin,” “Material Girl,” and “Crazy For You.” Prince gave us “Little Red Corvette,” “Delirious,” and the eternal “Purple Rain.” Then came Bono with “U Got the Look, “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man,” and dozens of other hits. He also became a great humanitarian, which gave him an adult audience. Bruce Springsteen, Phil Collins, Dire Straits, Queen, The Police, Rolling Stones (their popularity carried over from the sixties) and Whitney Houston.

Renewed careers: Paul McCartney, Cher, Diana Ross and Lionel Richie. Compact discs (invented in the 1960’s) became commercially popular in the ’80s as did audio-cassettes, and Walkman – (the I-Pod of the eighties.) Yuppies replaced hippies.

The Bad Seeds

There were also some very stinky weeds growing in his administration, which sprung up due to his policies and those he allowed to ill-advise him. Mental Health deteriorated under Reagan as he slashed funding by 30%, which should not have come as a surprise since, as Governor of California, he closed the mental hospitals. He supported Islamic terrorists, gave them almost $5 billion dollars in taxpayer money and even invited them to the White House as “freedom fighters.” His deregulation of the banking industry brought about the failure of 747 financial institutions, including the Keating loan scandal, which involved five sitting senators. Using taxpayer money to finance elections. Over 20 high ranking EPA employees were removed from their positions, and some were imprisoned. A scheme to fix elections with taxpayer money became known as “Sewergate.” Reagan’s people and the CIA conspired with the Contra’s, during the Iran-Contra scandal to smuggle cocaine from South America into the United States, shielding drug smugglers from investigations. Top officials at the White House, including Oliver North, began to nurture the cocaine smuggling, funneling the proceeds to the Contra Army in Nicaragua. As part of the Iran-Contra scandal, the administration sold weapons to Iran to fund Contra terrorists in Nicaragua. As a result of our support of Contra terrorists, the Contras kidnaped and tortured civilians, raping women and executing civilians, including children. By the time it all ended 50,000 people died in the Contra killing spree.

Tell Me Something Good

To Reagan’s credit and our benefit, he never let up trying to end the Cold War that began when Harry S. Truman was president. Reagan’s legacy of finally shutting down the Cold War will always outshine his darker days. Prior to Gorbachev’s becoming the Soviet Premier, Reagan denounced the Soviet Union as an “evil empire.” Gorbachev came to power during the early stages of Reagan’s second term. Thanks to the business of diplomacy with “Gorby,” Reagan managed what his six predecessors in the White House had attempted, but failed to do, establish a friendly relationship with a Soviet Dictator.

Nikita Kruschev’s “peaceful coexistence,” known as detente, was not Reagan’s idea of world peace. Much of what happened was initiated by Gorbachev who was determined to take his country into a radically different direction. Reagan understood the Soviet leader’s intentions and encouraged them because American interests would profit from such a change. Prior to their first meeting in Geneva, Reagan set up a plan to entice Gorbachev. He would look for areas of common interest to support Gorbachev’s reforms without being overbearing or insulting. He warned his party to “not rub Gorbachev’s nose” in any concessions he might make to us. Reagan was successful in convincing Gorbachev that the United States did not pose any threat to the Soviets. It was during that period when Reagan spoke those famous words to Gorbachev, “Trust but verify.”

In spite of advisors’ warning that there was “no potential benefit in negotiating anything with the Soviets,” Reagan took his own path. All of his meetings and communications were brought to fruition when Reagan addressed the Soviet leader head-on with, “Mr. Gorbachev tear down that wall.” That set the stage for the Berlin Wall to come crashing down and a new American-Soviet era of diplomacy was set in motion and we stopped worrying about a war between Russia and the United States. The 80’s ended on a good note. Things were looking up. We were at peace with the world. How long would it last? Only the Future could know that. I’ll bet that many of you who survived those times have forgotten how close we came to nuclear conflict and how smoothly two world leaders made peace for their families and their countries.

The world slept better as George H. W. Bush took the oath of office in January 1989 as our 41st president.

Just sayin’ rustystrait@gmail.com

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AMERICA’S CHANGING LIFE STYLES

A General’s legacy

General Eisenhower brought us victory over the Nazis in Europe. He ended the Korean War and most believe that his Administration was a peaceful one. Also, you may have thought that our war with Vietnam was the only one. But wait a minute. A conflict was raging between the French and North Vietnam since 1946, known as the Indochina War, their defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 brought about peace talks at Geneva, Switzerland, resulting in the Geneva Accords. The country was divided. The north led by Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese Communist Party. Hanoi became its capital.

President Eisenhower did not agree with the Geneva Accords. Unwittingly set up the situation that plunged us into America’s disastrous venture into Vietnam that resulted in the escape with our tail feathers on fire from the roof of the American Embassy in Hanoi. The French transferred their interest and control to the State of Vietnam, which had its capital at Saigon, nominally under Emperor Bao Dai. A demilitarized zone was to be created by mutual consent of the north and south.

Not another war, please The United States supported South Vietnam with advisors who trained their troops and overtly was also said to send military assistance. The war endured, in part, including Eisenhower’s participation, through the administrations of 5 presidents. It split America apart at the seams and contributed highly to American social views today.

With American assisting Vietnam, it soon became a full-fledged war; trouble was brewing off our Florida shores on the Island of Cuba. In 1959 Fidel Castro came to power, pretty much with a wink and a nod from the United States. Earl E. T. Smith was appointed Ambassador to Cuba by President Eisenhower in 1957. He resigned after the fall of Fulgencio Batista’s government.

Ambassador Smith was on record warning against Castro as Batista’s successor. He said, “I believe that Mr. Castro could not have come to power without the aid of the United States, and I so warned the President.” John F. Kennedy inherited these situations when he was inaugurated on January 20, 1961, as the 35th President of the United States. Not long after he became Chief of State, he discovered a relationship between Castro and Nikita Kruschev, Premier of the Soviet Union.

The Central Intelligence Agency was already planning an invasion against Cuba. In March 1960, Eisenhower approved a program that permitted the CIA to set up training camps in Guatemala. By November, a small army for an assault landing was ready to go ashore. As secret as our plans were, Cuban evacuees in the Miami area became aware of it and, it wasn’t long before President Castro became aware of the planned attack.

Anchors Away In February 1961, shortly after he had taken the oath of office, the newly elected President Kennedy authorized the invasion to begin on the southern coast of Cuba, where a night landing force went wrong. The idea was for a 1400 man invasion to disembark under cover of darkness and launch a sunrise attack. The first negative happened on April 15, 1961. Eight bombers disguised as Cuban air force planes began to bomb Cuban airports. They missed most of their targets. Two days later, Cuban exile invaders landed at beaches along the Bay of Pigs. Castro’s forces were ready and waiting. Their air support was late and when the disguised B-26’s arrived, they were in disarray and shot down by Castro’s forces. The invasion was over by the afternoon, crushed by Castro’s 20,000 troops. Prisoners were incarcerated for 20 months until Castro finally released them in exchange for 53 million dollars worth of food and medical supplies. Kennedy stung but not maimed, had a plan for revenge. The Bay of Pigs fiasco did not just die away.

The President planned to get even. Operation Mongoose, a plan to sabotage and destabilize the Cuban government and economy with the possibility of assassinating Castro was set afoot. It was never completed due to more critical issues with the island nation. Camelot is here Our new President was a handsome man with a gorgeous wife and a beautiful family. We were in love with the idea of an almost royal family. Whatever Jackie wore was duplicated and sold in Sears and J. C. Penny’s. If she came up with a bouffant hairdo, every teenage girl in America copied it. The Kennedys were not only our royalty; they were our rock stars. We thought we were on a roll. The Kennedy era introduced an American social revolution that brought back memories of the roaring twenties. We had our first president born in the 20th century. A young man in the prime of his life gave hope and promise for our future. A man on the moon by the end of the decade.

The peace corps. A romance bloomed between citizens and their government; even if only for a short spell, we enjoyed it to the utmost. Goodbye to Paradise – Hello to Hell and Damnation As a country, we seemed to be happily sailing along on moonlight bay. The cold war so far away from our everyday lives. We partied. Drugs were seeping into the lives of young people and sex was becoming as casual as a toke or drink. The country had been through so much during the past thirty years it deserved a vacation. Alas, there is always rain in a dark cloud. Nikita Kruschev was making war signs towards the United States, but most folks thought he was just another loud-mouthed dictator. We were the United States of America. We were solid as a rock. That being said, on October 15, 1962, one of our U-2 spy planes took photographs that indicated medium-range missiles had been placed in Cuba. The following day The National Security Council advised the President.

On October 17 more photos were taken and presented to EXCOM. The following day President Kennedy met with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko to confront him with our evidence. The next day EXCOM suggested we quarantine Cuba. On October 20, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the President’s brother, submitted all findings and suggestions to the President. The President went on television and radio on October 22 to advise the American public on what was going on. Still Soviet ships with missiles aboard were 750 miles away from Havana. They were stopped by an American blockade. However, Soviet Premier Kruschev refused to remove the missiles already planted on Cuban soil. Pope John XXIII tried to intervene to prevent conflict. The President increased oversight flights across Cuba from two a day to two every hour, patrolling the Cuban air space. By October 26 the President started drawing up plans to remove the warheads from Cuba. Pope John’s letter to the world was published in every American newspaper. Kennedy did not back off. The Soviet Union and the United States of America were only seconds away from a nuclear conflict. Across the nation citizens were alerted and warned to stock up on food, especially liquids and canned goods.

The supermarket shelves were emptied. By October 27 America waited for missiles from Cuba to be responded to with a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union’s major cities and industry. We were frightened. Not knowing what else to do we binged on 24 hour television. Over a two day period, October 27-28, Kennedy and Kruschev negotiated. The President agreed not to invade Cuba in exchange for the Soviets removing the missiles. And just as simple as that, a nuclear holocaust was prevented. However, we were all in a state of fear and panic for 13 days. They called it the Cuban Missile Crisis. I remember those days and I understand how the Hawaiians felt when there was a false alarm. Folks, it sounds easy, but it ain’t. In seconds we could become ashes as would anyone who attempted an attack on us. It is seriously nothing to joke about. Some Things are Just too Good to Last Getting ready to start campaigning for a second term, President Kennedy and his advisors decided it might be a good idea to get out of Washington into the country and do some hand-shaking. He started out on the west coast, where his receptions pretty much guaranteed him that he would easily be nominated again and probably re-elected.

He had been advised and was aware that Texas party leaders were feuding and hoped to pour some old-fashioned political oil on the troubled democratic waters. He was assured by one and all that he would receive a warm welcome in Texas. So on November 21, 1963, with his wife, he flew into San Antonio to begin a five-city tour of Texas. He received a warm welcome led by Vice President Johnson, Governor Connally and Senator Yarborough. The party moved on to Brooks Air Force Base for the dedication of the Aerospace Medical Health Center. Later in the day, he addressed a Latin American organization, ending the day in Fort Worth to attend a dinner for Congressman Albert Thomas. He and Mrs. Kennedy spent the night there. He had a heavy schedule in Dallas on the 22nd. The presidential party departed Carswell Air Force Base, for a thirteen-minute flight to Dallas. It was a bright sunny day when they arrived at Love Field. An enormous crowd of well-wishers crowded against the fence.

The President and first lady walked along the fence for a spell shaking hands and thanking folks for coming out. Jackie received a bouquet of red roses, which she had on her lap in the limousine that would take them on their route through downtown Dallas. Both were excited. Accompanying them was Texas Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie. The bubble top had been removed because of such good weather. Vice President Johnson and Lady Bird were in a car behind that in which the President was riding. They were heading for the Trade Mart where the President was scheduled to speak at a luncheon. The ten mile route winding through downtown Dallas was packed with cheering crowds on both sides of the streets. The President and his wife enjoyed the throngs and were smiling and waving. Someone said, “You see Mr. President, they love you in Texas.

The car turned off Main Street at Dealey Plaza about 12:30 noontime. As it passed the Texas School Book Depository, gunfire echoed throughout the plaza. Bullets struck the President in the back of the head and he slumped over. Governor Connally was hit in the chest. Both were rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital. Governor Connally would recover. A Catholic Priest administered the last rights and at 1:00 PM President John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead. At 2:37 PM aboard Air Force One, with the President’s widow attending, District Court Sarah Hughes administered the oath of office to Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th President of the United States. President Kennedy’s casket accompanied them back to Washington. In an hour or so Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee at the Texas School Book Depository was arrested for the unholy deed. I well recall where I was when the news broke over the radio. I was coming out of anesthesia from a pulled tooth. Things like that you never forget where you were.

Just sayin’ rustystrait@gmail.com

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AMERICA’S CHANGING LIFESTYLES

Harry Truman was beginning his second year as president in his own right as January 1, 1950, dawned clear and cold. The Korean War was still raging. American hopes were that it would not spread further because of China’s involvement. A somewhat insignificant Senator from Wisconsin gained more power than he deserved as chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations.

During the first four years of the fifties, McArthyism was coined and brought fear into the hearts and lives of anyone who even thought “liberal.” Anyone who didn’t agree with him was a pinko, leftist or traitor. He saw communism in every corner of the country and destroyed the lives and careers of decent Americans who dared speak for peace. He wanted war and raged his kind of war in the papers, on radio, television and every form of communication known to mankind. He was destroyed by his own colleagues when the U. S. Senate formerly censored him on two counts:

1. Contempt and abuse of a Senate committee that looked into his financial affairs in 1952.

2. Insulting members of this committee on national television, thereby bringing the Senate into dishonor and disrepute and obstructing the constitutional process. McCarthy soon sank into the morass of his own self-aggrandizement.

ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

Harry Truman and his family moved into Blair House while a White House in disrepair was being renovated. On November 1, 1950, two Puerto Rican activists, Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola stormed Blair House in an attempt to assassinate President Truman. Torresola mortally wounded White House Police officer Leslie Coffelt, who killed him return fire. Secret Service agents wounded Collazo. President Truman, upstairs in the residence, was unaware and unharmed.

BLACK AND WHITE – A REDUX

During the fifties, there was an unusual amount of Black people from countries across the globe, coming here for a better chance at life, unlike the first influx when they were brought to this country in shackles and chains as slaves. However, some things seemed never to change. Jobs were controlled by Whites, many of whom would not hire Blacks, despite their abilities or training. This was primarily in the southeast part of the country, but do not be deluded. It occurred in every city or community across the fruited plains. The problem was, as it often is today, racism is just below the skin.

THE ORDINARY COST OF LIVING

During the early fifties, a house could be had for $8450. Wages averaged $3200 a year. Most of us would look at that as more a monthly income today. $3.50 would fill the tank of even a Cadillac at 18 cents a gallon. Five dollars would feed the family for a week. Except for veterans taking advantage of the G.I. Bill of Rights, higher education still escaped many who would have wanted to get an education. Professors and Regents have always been outspoken activists against free education.

A GENERAL TAKES COMMAND OF THE COUNTRY

“I like Ike” was the mantle for Eisenhower’s charge toward the Presidency in 1952 and 1956. His opponent, Adlai Stevenson, whose grandfather had been Vice-president, was swept aside in both elections in which he opposed the popular general who had conquered Europe. The most memorable thing about Stevenson was a lapel button crafted from a hole in the sole of one of his shoes. For the eight years of Eisenhower’s term in office, we were officially at peace with the world. However, at home, our social habits were changing at a rapid pace. We were introduced to the slogan, “Do Your Own Thing,” and the invention of T.V. Dinners. Everybody had a social agenda that did not include sitting down to family dinners. It was too easy to slip a packaged meal into the over and voila, dinner, and “Sorry, I’ve got to run. I have an important event this evening.” And so it went.

TEENAGE REVOLUTION

Teenagers had always, from childhood up, been told to speak when spoken to, and not to interrupt an adult or have an opinion of their own. All of that was about to change. Black musicians were mostly limited to Black radio stations. The idea of a Black entertainer being accepted by White Americans was something only jazz enthusiasts entertained, despite the Duke Ellington’s and Cab Calloways. All of that changed when a young black man, adopted by a white family after being tossed out on his ear by his father because of his homosexuality, hit the airways with a song called “Tutti Fruitti.” It skyrocketed in the charts and suddenly a new medium called rock and roll became of American culture, although several years earlier a White group, Bill Haley and the Comets performed “Rock around the Clock” in a film, “Blackboard Jungle which integrated White, Hispanic and Black into what would become the basis for the fifties teenage revolution that rocked this country like nothing since the Boston Tea Party.

Then came Jerry Lee Louis, Elvis Presley and a melange of copy cats that had the big band parents shaking their heads. Popular music would never be the same.

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Part III – The King is Dead, Long Live the King

The sudden death of President Roosevelt hit the country like a strike of lightening, although it was obvious he had been ill for quite some time. It was as if the country’s family patriarch had passed during the night. We were a nation suddenly confronted with two hot wars on two fronts, like a ship in a typhoon without a rudder And a cold war that would continue far beyond his presidency.

Harry Truman was a vice-president without the faintest idea of what was going on. When he took over the presidency, he was so much in the dark that he had no idea we had an atom bomb almost ready to drop. But Truman was made of stern mid-western stuff; a man who knew how to make decisions. While the nation prayed for him, he acted.

Truman became president on April 12, 1945. Berlin was under siege. Rather than face the consequences of his madness, Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945.

Conversion from war to peace begins

While the hostilities in Europe were all but declared over, the sports world welcomed the first black to a major league baseball team when Jackie Robinson was brought up from Montreal to the Brooklyn Dodgers two days before Truman became president.

Victory in Europe, forever known as V-E Day in the U.S. and VE Day in the UK, occurred on May 8, 1945, when citizens from both the U.S. and Great Britain crowded into the streets to celebrate the unconditional surrender of Germany to the Allied Forces. 

Hitler’s concentration camps, where 6 million Jews were exterminated by gas and other means, were being shut down as tens of thousands of men, women and children, with skin barely clinging to bones, were freed. Most would require months to years of medical treatments. Many would die shortly after being freed from the Nazi horror camps.

General Dwight Eisenhower, to his later regret, allowed the Russian Army to enter Berlin and that action would ultimately create the separation of Germany into East and West. In 1946, Prime Minister Winston Churchill would declare that “An ‘iron curtain’ has descended across the continent [Europe],” in a speech he gave at Westminister College in Fulton, Missouri.

Okinawa, the Marianas and Hiroshima

As troops began to return from Europe, Americans were trying to return to a peaceful country. The only thing left before we could begin our recovery from the bloodshed was the stubborn Japanese. In June of 1945, with a tremendous loss of life on both sides, American forces took control of Okinawa. Meanwhile, the U.S.S. Indianapolis was en-route from the States to Tinian Island to deliver two precious babies, “Fat Man” and “Little Boy.” Sadly, on its return trip to the U.S., the Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine on July 29, killing 883 sailors -many of whom were eaten alive by sharks.

Your reporter was stationed at North Field Tinian with the 313th Bomb Wing of the 20th Air Corps. Also situated on the two mile by four mile island was the 509th Composite Group where the “babies” would be brought to live. Captain Paul Tebbets, who would soon take charge of “Little Boy” and deliver him to Hiroshima to introduce a new weapon of war, was often seen out on the flight line with his crew playing pinochle.

All of that would end on the morning of August 6, 1945, when the first atomic bomb to be dropped on a civilian population would be placed aboard the Enola Gay, a B-29, for its flight to Hiroshima. In one horrendous mushroom cloud the rules of combat would change forever. Within days “Fat Man,” found its way to Nagasaki, ending our conflict with Japan. On August 14, 1945 (V-J Day), Truman announced victory over Japan. The most famous marker of that date was a photograph of a young sailor grabbing a nurse and planting a big kiss on her willing lips while celebrating in Times Square. 

Back home again in Indiana, and other places

Post war America was drunk on peace. The party began before the formal declaration of surrender by Japan.

On September 2, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur conducted Japan’s unconditional surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay.

American forces had paid a steep price for our victories with the loss of life and major injuries to the young men and women who went off in all directions to protect our way of life. We were a united nation. The dissent was meager compared to what it would be in twenty years.

Teenagers who grew into adulthood during the war were subject to limited freedom. They were either being drafted at 18, starting a family or taking the place of those who went into military service. College education did not exist for most of the population. High school was akin to college. The depression had stifled education, just as it did starting a family or aspiring to better styles of living.

Fashions had been muted during wartime. Mustn’t be too ostentatious when so many of their peers were dying on the battlefields. However, there were no great revolts among teenagers. They obeyed their parents and generally stayed out of trouble for the duration.

However, when the troops started coming back from places they’d never even heard of prior to the war, all hell was about to break loose.

Consumers at large

With the end of rationing the country went on a spending spree unheard of in prior years. Shoes, nylon stockings, fur coats and automobiles were high on shopping lists. Musical tastes were changing. Although there were perhaps 50 big bands, some much more musically talented that Glenn Miller, his demise was the death knell for many of those name bands. Former swing band singers were cutting out to go solo. The Hit Parade, which began its popularity during the war, would go on into the fifties, but never regained the popularity of the late thirties and early forties. Some attribute it to the fact that so many young people were either in the service or so dedicated to the end of hostilities that they simply didn’t have time for such activities. Movies continued to be the main source of entertainment. Drive-in theaters were popping up across the landscape. Radio began to give way to television towards the end of the war, a medium President Truman used to announce the end of the war with Japan.

Casual dress began to replace shirts, ties, suits and hats. Take a look at old news reels of sports events; rarely was a man or woman seen in a ball park without a hat. Same with race tracks and other outdoor sporting events. We were suddenly becoming more “Californish,” some would say.

Blackouts were passe. Broadway once again lit up the theater district. The American Airlines stories-high sign at the top of Times Square filled the sky like a million spotlights, just as it had before the war.

Sports shirts, slacks and loafers were large with young men. Girls skirts were shorter; the prudish and religious conservatives condemned them as salacious and vulgar. Girls who slashed their tresses during the war due to working with machines in defense plants did not return to their thirties styles.

Rekindling friendships and the building boom

Under the auspices of General George Marshall the U.S. initiated the Marshall Plan, a program designed to rebuild a destroyed Europe. The economy shot up due to the surge of jobs in the construction industry. The boom increased, thanks to the G.I. Bill of Rights wherein all who served in WW II were guaranteed a college education. Kids who wore a uniform could exchange it for four years of learning, something that millions of young men and women could not afford prior to the war. Veterans of World War II became the most educated generation in the history of the world..

Through the Marshall Plan we not only rebuilt countries, but rekindled friendships in the process. Germany and Japan became two of our strongest allies and that friendship is stronger than ever today. America is a forgiving nation, the envy of other governments. Powerful entities start wars – ordinary citizens fight them.

Hit the road, Mac

By the end of January 1942, all civilian auto production ceased and would not restart until the fall of 1945. During the war auto mechanics had more work than they could handle and the 1942 vehicles remained the latest models until 1946. When new cars became available, most of them weren’t much more than 1942 models with new grills and designs. It took time to retool from wartime production..

Vacations that had been delayed for more than five years suddenly became number one items on folks’ “What to do” lists. Summer resorts, winter sports and coastal beaches became the places to play-and the highways were crammed with people “getting away” from wartime restrictions.

Let’s dance

Although some of the big bands, like Duke Ellington, were still doing cross country tours, many were anchoring at hotels in heavily populated, urban communities. Small groups like Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five were popping up in small clubs as costs of operating a big band were becoming prohibitive. But with the decline of large venues, local clubs featuring small dance groups became more popular for a population anxious to kick up their heels and shed the shackles of war.

It was the beginning of “America on Wheels.” Never had the country taken so much to wheels. They gave up walking to the grocery two blocks away. It was easier to drive. However, there was a downside. As we stopped walking and sat on wheels, we began to pick up “inner tubes,” that flab around our middles. Today it might be reasonably assumed that there is more lard on the streets in America than all the hog farms in Iowa. Blame it on the automobile and our desire to ride instead of walk.

Friend or foe

When Eisenhower let the Russians enter Berlin ahead of us, there were consequences later on. At the end of the war Berlin was divided into four zones for rebuilding purposes. American, British, French and Soviet. It was, from the beginning, a contentious division of governing and led to President Truman’s political enemies accusing him of being soft on Communism. Taking advantage of the president’s unpopularity in that area, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin began what has become known as the “McCarthy witch-hunts,” slinging mud and making false accusations toward whomever he didn’t like, accusing them of being communists.

In 1947, Great Britain and the United States merged their two Berlin zones and called them Bizonia. France soon joined them and it became Trizonia. In an effort to drive the Western Allies out of Berlin, the Soviets set up a blockade along their border with Trizonia and thus established what Churchill referred to a year earlier, the Iron Curtain. All auto and rail traffic across the Soviet Zone was halted. The Berlin Airlift was formed by the Trizonians to feed and heat the millions of Berliners until the Soviets lifted the blockade on May 12, 1949. Two million tons of supplies in 270,000 flights kept Berlin alive for almost two years.

More war and radical changes in lifestyles

Happy Americans were enjoying a good economy, happy homes and social lives with World War II vets graduating from colleges in numbers unheard of in the past. We were on our way to the land of milk and honey. Then, without warning-again, the milk soured and the honey became rancid.

On June 25, 1950, while Harry Truman was in the second year of his own elected presidency, it all fell apart. More than 75,000 troops from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel which separated the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north, backed by the Soviets, from the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south, committing the first military action of the Cold War.

The United Nations, from its beginnings in San Francisco at the end of WWII, was designed to settle arguments and disagreements among its members. Both North and South Korea became members of the U.N. in 1991; South Korea has twice held seats on the Security Council; North Korea never has. During the Korean war, the Chinese Government supported the North Koreans and dedicated over three million military personnel to the war.

The 1940s brought us many improvements and inventions, giving us modern kitchens, mass television access and faster transportation on the ground and in the air. Thanks to necessity during World War II, the development of new medicines had growth like never before. Music was headed in a direction that only the kids understood and the film industry worried that television would destroy its popularity. Penicillin became the cure-all and a little man from Missouri had ordered the use of a bomb that should have ended all wars.

We were involved in two wars – one down, one to go and another not too far down the road. Would it ever end? Just sayin’

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