My Partner Quit

[JRutledge]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mark Padgett

Actually, Rut - Ozzie and Harriet were real and people really did live like that in the 50's. Their show was reflective of life in Eisenhower's America and the majority of teenagers had grades, dating, dancing and acne on the top of their list of worries.

Certainly, not everyone in America lived like that during those times, but there were huge numbers of families that did.

I know, because my family was one of them. Actually, we were more like the Cleavers.

Most of my friend's families were like that, also. Except, of course, the ones that were in the mob.

They were more like The Sopranos.

With all do respect Mark, most of the country did not live like that. Only those that were mostly white and mostly middle class lived like that and even they did not live like that. For the rest of the poor white and people of color, they did not have a house with a white picket fence, 2 children and dog.

This is no more a myth than thinking the 1950s was the golden age of sports either. There were more scandals with organized crime and sports, the athletes were not very different from today (at least the elite stars). Do we need to bring up the NY City College Basketball scandal? Was Joe Dimmagio really that different than Frank Thomas in their personal life? Was Micky Mantle a better father than Cal Ripken?

I guess for some we would like to believe that everything was that more special or holesome at that time. But their is much more evidence that it was not very different. We just were not as honest about it then.

But as I said, that is a discussion for another day.

Peace

We may want to believe that