I\u2019ve seen these \u201cnostalgia\u201d lists before and usually find them interesting. My neighbor sent me one a few days ago. It talked about people\u2019s lives and things they experienced if they were born in the time frame from 1930 to the mid 1940s. I fall into that category and I (and my associates) are members of \u201cthe smallest group of children born since the early 1900s.\u201d I didn\u2019t \u201cextensively research\u201d that, but I am ready to believe it.\u00a0
I won\u2019t bore you with the entire list, but there were a few things listed that I hadn\u2019t thought about for a while \u2014 here they are, along with my comments\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war which rattled the structure of our daily lives for years<\/em>.\u201d \u201cYou are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas to sugar to shoes to stoves.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYou are the last to see the gold stars in the front windows of our grieving neighbors whose sons died in the war<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYou are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead, we imagined what we heard on the radio. As you all like to brag, with no TV, you spent your childhood \u201cplaying outside.\u201d The lack of television in your early years meant, for most of you, that you had little real understanding of what the world was like<\/em>.\u201d \u201cTelephones were one to a house, often shared (party lines) and hung on the wall in the kitchen (no cares about privacy.)<\/em>\u201d \u201cComputers were called calculators, they were hand cranked; typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon. The \u2018INTERNET\u2019 and \u2018GOOGLE\u2019 were words that didn\u2019t exist<\/em>.\u201d Obviously, the Internet didn\u2019t exist \u2014 computers didn\u2019t exist. I never saw one of those hand cranked calculators. My dad had an adding machine in his store, but I don\u2019t think it did anything except add \u2014 it might have been able to \u201cmultiply,\u201d but that really just involved a lot of addition. Numbers were punched in on keys and then a handle was pulled\u2026 the keys that you had punched down, popped back up. I remember it being kind of noisy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNewspapers and magazines were written for adults and the news was broadcast on our radio in the evening by Paul Harvey and Gabriel Heater. As you grew up, the country was exploding with growth. The G.I. Bill gave returning veterans the means to get an education and spurred colleges to grow.<\/em>\u201d \u201cNew highways would bring jobs and mobility. New cars averaged $2,000 full price.<\/em>\u201d \u201cPolio was still a crippler<\/em>.\u201d \u201cYou are \u201cThe Last Ones.\u201d More than 99% of you are retired and we feel privileged to have \u201clived in the best of times!<\/em>\u201d So while this list was interesting to me and prompted this trip down \u201cmemory lane,\u201d similar lists could be put together about any generation \u2014 things are never like they \u201cused to be,\u201d and that\u2019s not a bad thing. Change is constant\u2026.none of us is the same person that we used to be \u2014 hopefully, we\u2019re better. I\u2019ve seen these \u201cnostalgia\u201d lists before and usually find them interesting. My neighbor sent me one a few days ago. It talked about people\u2019s lives and things they experienced if they were born in the time frame from 1930 to … Continue reading
I remember hearing the \u201cwar news\u201d every day on the radio \u2014 In fact, I remember near the end of the war, that it seemed like that was the only thing people talked about and even though I didn\u2019t grasp the real importance of it, I could sense that it was really big! I remember asking my parents if there would be \u201cnews\u201d when the war ended. That sounds like a funny question, but the war was so all-consuming that I never remember hearing any other \u201cnews\u201d that wasn\u2019t war-related. I don\u2019t remember the depression, and never realized how much effect the war had on our lives, I wasn\u2019t old enough to know about things older people \u201cmissed,\u201d and the sacrifices they made during those war years, but I remember the news \u2014 the never ending \u201cwar news.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I do remember ration books. In fact my parents kept some ration books for years and years after the end of the war. I don\u2019t know what ever happened to them \u2014 they probably got tossed out somewhere along the way. As I remember, they were little books that had pages of what looked like little \u201cstamps\u201d \u2014 much smaller than postage stamps and there were different colors for different rations\u2026 maybe blue for cotton products, yellow for sugar, white for gasoline, etc. I\u2019m not sure of the details as to how they were used, but I think each \u201cstamp\u201d allowed you to buy a certain quantity of the rationed item, and obviously you could only purchase so much of a rationed item per month, so they must\/may have had a date on them\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember these, too. Fortunately, Maysville was a small enough town that there weren\u2019t that many serving in combat. Also, Maysville was a farming community and many farmers were exempt from active duty, because their jobs were considered essential \u2014 growing food for the population, as well as the military. But I do remember the stars, although I obviously didn\u2019t understand the significance of them at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s a lot in this statement \u2014 it would be easy to write a lot about TV, radio, and \u201cplaying outside.\u201d So I\u2019ll just touch on a bit of it\u2026 Both faithful readers know that I was eight or nine years old before television even existed<\/em> in Oklahoma. The first television station west of the Mississippi was established in Oklahoma City and officially began broadcasting on June 6, 1949 \u2014 on channel 4. The station broadcasted from 7 pm until 9:30 pm Sunday through Friday. Saturday broadcasts were added four months later. The TV station\u2019s first \u201cstudio\u201d was in the \u2018Little Theater\u2019 of the Municipal Auditorium in downtown Oklahoma City. The TV picture that we saw was often less than perfect, to say the least. But if there was just a shadow there, people were pleased with it\u2026 they\u2019d never seen anything like it.\u00a0
No one, especially no kid<\/em>, had their own radio. Most people, who were lucky enough to have radios, had a \u201cfamily\u201d radio in their living room. It was often in a large cabinet that served as a nice piece of furniture. What I listened to on the radio was what the family listened to. There were a few \u201ckid\u201d programs on some afternoons and on Saturday mornings. Some of the kids programs I remember were Little Orphan Annie, The Lone Ranger, Buster Brown (\u201che lived in a shoe\u201d) and the Green Hornet. Some of the \u201cfamily\u201d programs I remember were Truth or Consequences, Mr. and Mrs. North, The Red Skelton Show, The Shadow, Mystery Theater, and my grandparents always faithfully listened to The Grand Ole Opry. I don\u2019t remember listening much to music on the radio, mostly it was just \u201cbig band\u201d music. As far as \u201cplaying outside,\u201d that\u2019s just what we did. We played outside \u2014 there was no little league, soccer was unheard of, and there wasn\u2019t any public playgrounds in Maysville\u2026 we just played in our \u201cyards\u201d and in the street.
As far as not having any real understanding of what the real world was like \u2014 we didn\u2019t. Just about only \u201cnews\u201d we were exposed to was via the radio and newspapers. There were no 24 news sources available. Most of us in Maysville had never traveled very far from home and were not concerned with what was happening in another country somewhere. When we went to the movies on Saturday afternoons, after the cartoon and before the (usually a western) feature there was a newsreel, but the \u201cnews\u201d was at least a week old and talked about events and places that, as a kid, we were\u2019t familiar with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We had a telephone, but it sat on a table in the hall. There was no dial on the phone \u2014 you picked up the handset and an operator asked, \u201cnumber, please.\u201d Except in Maysville, the operator just asked you who you wanted to talk to \u2014 “long distance\u201d (out of Maysville) calls were very<\/em> rare. My parents didn\u2019t get a wall phone in the kitchen (with a dial) until some years after I\u2019d left home.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was young, I don\u2019t remember reading newspapers and magazines much \u2014 I read the newspapers mostly when required by some school project. I mostly just looked at the pictures in magazines. I never heard of Gabriel Heater, but I do remember hearing Paul Harvey on the radio. I was aware of the G.I. Bill, but I never knew much about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember when the nation started building the Interstate Highway System \u2014 a lot of these \u201csuper highways” were referred to as \u201cfreeways.\u201d No Interstate Highway was built near Maysville before I left home. I remember the first new car my dad bought after WWII ended. Cars were in short supply and my dad was lucky to be able to get one \u2014 I think knowing someone in the car business helped. That car cost less than $1,000. The first new car I was able to by for myself cost less than $2,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Polio was considered an epidemic when I was young \u2014 it created a lot of fear and near-panic and I remember a lot of my activities being restricted, as well as those of my friends. I remember the announcement of the Polio Vaccine.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I guess I agree with this statement, but it could probably be made about every generation. When I think about the way the world changed during my dad\u2019s lifetime, the changes may have been just as radical (some, maybe more so) than the changes I\u2019ve experienced. Now think about the changes that David and Kelly can remember, and our grandkids are still young but the changes during those short years are staggering\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"