Tangle in Message 3690 writes:
What I do remember are children in my class with calipers on their legs caused by polio. Those were the ones that survived it. I remember much talk amongst adults of children in 'iron lungs' until they died. A close friend died of measles and the girl across the street that I'd promised to marry died in an epileptic fit. Most adults seemed to have false teeth. Teachers could abuse kids with impunity - belting them with whatever implement came to hand from wooden blackboard dusters to purpose made canes.
Although I didn't know it - being a child - food was poor post-war and some families in my street had no men.
We were free to roam and we went everywhere on our bikes, but the roads had far less traffic then, not everyone had a car.
Doors where quite definately locked, burgalry wasn't invented in the 21st century. It was the age of consumer goods and electronics, stuff in house was worth stealing.
I'm amazed how close your memories are to mine.
I can remember that there was a secret economy among the boys in my school in WWII medals and ribbons that were secretly removed from our dad's uniforms hanging in closets. And it turned out that most dads didn't care at all, they didn't want to talk about the war and seemed to mostly want to forget.
Like you, we went everywhere on our bikes and there were rules where we could go and how we conducted ourselves, but once we were out of eyesight, we had our own rules, and no parental warning could compete with dares from our mates. We did a lot of dangerous stuff, but most of our badness was endangering ourselves rather than breaking laws. Two of the boys in my gang were the sons of the police chief, so we understood there were real consequences if we broke some rules.
Polio was a huge fear for our parents and we all knew kids that couldn't come to school anymore. When I was in 9th grade a high school girl was found murdered in the park and the case was never solved. Around that same time a man shot his whole family including a boy a year behind me in school, he was the only survivor.
The good old days weren't always so good, but I had a happy childhood and was incredibly lucky to have had parents who encouraged all my weird interests. My dad was completely deaf in one ear from a mortar exploding close to him in the war and lost most of the hearing in his other ear from spending his life working in a sawmill. I remember lots of kids with dads who suffered from the war. I finally got him to talk about the war when he was in his 80s and then understood why he tried so hard to keep me out of Viet Nam.
I remember that girls HAD to wear dresses in school, everyone had to walk to school and during the years in primary school there was a lot of snow in the winter and the girls all wore pants that they had to change out of once they got to school. I don't know why I remember that so vividly, but I can remember thinking how unfair it was right from the 1st grade on. I remember wondering why my home state of Oregon was the only one to elect a woman for the U.S. Congress, Edith Green, and why there were whole segments of the job market that were completely off limits to women.
Tangle writes:
Society has always changed, some things have improved beyond recognition, some things feel like they're not as good, but when looked at objectively there's been a steady rise in living standards and a steady fall in crime for centuries. Those improvement are because of our secular institutions - religious belief is a drag on progress.
My dad was an atheist and my mom was a christian and I was forced to attend church and as far as I was concerned it completely ruined every Sunday. When I was a kid I made up my mind I would not do that to my kids. I taught my daughter about the bible and christianity, but also cautioned her to be a skeptic and NEVER trust anyone who says they know anything about god or Jesus, because they could not possibly know anymore than she did, which was nothing, and to always demand evidence. And she taught my grandkids the same thing.
ABE: well I just looked up Edith Green and I was mistaken about her being the only woman in Congress.
Wikipedia:
A Democrat, Green first ran for political office in 1952 as the Democratic candidate for Oregon Secretary of State. She was defeated in a close race by incumbent Earl T. Newbry.[5] In 1954, she was elected as the representative for Oregon's 3rd congressional district, defeating Republican nominee (and future Oregon governor) Tom McCall. Green was the second woman (after Nan Wood Honeyman) to be elected to the House from Oregon, and one of only 17 women in the House at the time of her election.[3]
Edited by Tanypteryx, .
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