FedoraFan112390
Practically Family
- Messages
- 646
- Location
- Brooklyn, NY
Anyone who has noticed my postings has noticed that I like to ask a lot of questions....My aim here has been to try to learn more about the past--particularly the period from the roaring 1920s to the mid (Pre-Beatles) 1960s or so---as I feel that period was one of the greatest periods in American history, and was one of the classiest times ever in terms of aesthetics, general decency and culture here; It was also a time of much more optimism despite hardship, faith in each other and in the government, and a general belief, especially during and post WWII, that America and Americans could do anything they set their minds to. It was the Golden Age of the Middle Class American. I'm trying to uncover and learn of exactly what living in that era would've been like--what the middle class, average people of those times liked, believed in, listened to, watched, wore, saw in the theater and on television, what they dreamed of and felt the future would be like. I kind of want to see the world through their eyes, odd as that sounds. In particular, I'd love through this forum to "learn" what my deceased relatives and ancestors who lived in and enjoyed those times might've been like, what they might've enjoyed or loved. I'm trying to understand people I'll never have the chance to meet by understanding and coming to know the times they lived in. I want to understand and know my grandpa, for example, that veteran of WWII who died a good 15 years before I was born--a hero of mine who I try to emulate in many ways.
I love the Golden Era--defined loosely by me as a period sometime between 1920 and 1966-For the reasons I stated. I think Americans during this period were more decent, had greater sense of morals, had a greater sense of civic duty, had much much better dress sense, had a sense of decency in the movies they made, the songs they played, and the books they wrote. Their dreams and their optimism of a 21st century where we'd live in a utopian sort of Science Fiction world of flying cars is endearing. The art, architecture (whether it be Decco or Googie), and films of those times is superior to the present. The cars--from the big, metal wonders of the 1930s, to the moving works of art of the late 50s, to the tail finned beauties of the early 1960s--are again superior to the plastic, shapeless globs of today.
Family, too, seemed a more well defined and functional unit then. Families lived together, sometimes multiple generations in one household--GGrandma and Grandpa having an active role in the raising of the children. In my family, my Italian immigrant great grandfather having his tomatoes and grapes in the backyard, teasing my aunts, in the 1950s. Even the more secure nuclear family of the 50s onward seems more sound than the family unit which tends to exist today--a much looser unit and more loosely defined.
Even in the way people dressed and wore their hair: Men dressed classier in their buttoned down shirts, slacks, and polished shoes (my mother recalls her father having his shoes polished often), with short yet nicely manicured hair, sometimes adorning themselves with small little moustaches ala Flynn or Gable. No long hair and bummish beards like the Hippies. Men were more masculine; women more feminine in general. The middle class, working, blue collar man thrived and wasn't considered a bum or economically marginal. Women were classy, dressed beautifully (I love for example the Poka-Dotted dresses of the '50s) and wore their hair in utterly beautiful ways from the 20s through the 60s. I consider jeans to be bum clothes, to be honest--clothes worn by coal miners for practically, adopted by Hippies due to the Frankfurt School. We dress today very slobbish--sometimes wearing our national uniform of jeans and a t-shirt (which in the Golden Era was thankfully just underwear or summer wear) even to weddings, untucked. Everything seemed more dignified, and more charming, then.
I think of the stories my mother and father tell me--Trips to Coney Island, having Chow Mein sandwiches--All of the fond memories I've heard of that era--and I feel that era as a whole just seems so charming. Of course, it had it's problems, that much is obvious, but I'm focusing on the positive.
I simply feel that America, aesthetically, morally, politically, socially and otherwise, was better off before the Hippies came on the scene. They didn't achieve their "Revolution" but they did change the dress, norms, morals and expressions of the country, in many cases for the worse. I was raised by flawed Baby Boomer parents, and I tend to loathe Baby Boomers for their anti-intellectualism, for their aesthetics, for the way they acted during the 60s and 70s, for their greediness and self absorbedness, for ther refusal to accept responsibility; I dislike Generation X due to their great deal of cynicism, skepticism, anti-religiosity, negativism, nihilism, and jadedness, so perhaps that's why I feel strongly about this--I put the generation of those who were either in power during the Depression, WWII, Korea, and until 1967, the generation that fought and served in WWII and Korea, etc--Basically those born between 1900-1930 or so, the Lost, GI and Silent Generations--on a pedestal, what they believed in, liked, wore, believed in, the cars they drove etc. The world they had.
I love the Golden Era--defined loosely by me as a period sometime between 1920 and 1966-For the reasons I stated. I think Americans during this period were more decent, had greater sense of morals, had a greater sense of civic duty, had much much better dress sense, had a sense of decency in the movies they made, the songs they played, and the books they wrote. Their dreams and their optimism of a 21st century where we'd live in a utopian sort of Science Fiction world of flying cars is endearing. The art, architecture (whether it be Decco or Googie), and films of those times is superior to the present. The cars--from the big, metal wonders of the 1930s, to the moving works of art of the late 50s, to the tail finned beauties of the early 1960s--are again superior to the plastic, shapeless globs of today.
Family, too, seemed a more well defined and functional unit then. Families lived together, sometimes multiple generations in one household--GGrandma and Grandpa having an active role in the raising of the children. In my family, my Italian immigrant great grandfather having his tomatoes and grapes in the backyard, teasing my aunts, in the 1950s. Even the more secure nuclear family of the 50s onward seems more sound than the family unit which tends to exist today--a much looser unit and more loosely defined.
Even in the way people dressed and wore their hair: Men dressed classier in their buttoned down shirts, slacks, and polished shoes (my mother recalls her father having his shoes polished often), with short yet nicely manicured hair, sometimes adorning themselves with small little moustaches ala Flynn or Gable. No long hair and bummish beards like the Hippies. Men were more masculine; women more feminine in general. The middle class, working, blue collar man thrived and wasn't considered a bum or economically marginal. Women were classy, dressed beautifully (I love for example the Poka-Dotted dresses of the '50s) and wore their hair in utterly beautiful ways from the 20s through the 60s. I consider jeans to be bum clothes, to be honest--clothes worn by coal miners for practically, adopted by Hippies due to the Frankfurt School. We dress today very slobbish--sometimes wearing our national uniform of jeans and a t-shirt (which in the Golden Era was thankfully just underwear or summer wear) even to weddings, untucked. Everything seemed more dignified, and more charming, then.
I think of the stories my mother and father tell me--Trips to Coney Island, having Chow Mein sandwiches--All of the fond memories I've heard of that era--and I feel that era as a whole just seems so charming. Of course, it had it's problems, that much is obvious, but I'm focusing on the positive.
I simply feel that America, aesthetically, morally, politically, socially and otherwise, was better off before the Hippies came on the scene. They didn't achieve their "Revolution" but they did change the dress, norms, morals and expressions of the country, in many cases for the worse. I was raised by flawed Baby Boomer parents, and I tend to loathe Baby Boomers for their anti-intellectualism, for their aesthetics, for the way they acted during the 60s and 70s, for their greediness and self absorbedness, for ther refusal to accept responsibility; I dislike Generation X due to their great deal of cynicism, skepticism, anti-religiosity, negativism, nihilism, and jadedness, so perhaps that's why I feel strongly about this--I put the generation of those who were either in power during the Depression, WWII, Korea, and until 1967, the generation that fought and served in WWII and Korea, etc--Basically those born between 1900-1930 or so, the Lost, GI and Silent Generations--on a pedestal, what they believed in, liked, wore, believed in, the cars they drove etc. The world they had.
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and you've probably pissed of quite a few people with your generalizations, but you're mostly right. 
