Lately I’ve been
reading again the novels from mom’s teenage years. I first read them all back when I was a teen,
and reading them now, I can remember some of the storylines, but not all.
Novels with titles
such as “Trudy Phillips, New Girl,” “Polly French of Whitford High,” “Ginny
Gordon and the Disappearing Candlesticks,” “Donna Parker at Cherrydale,” “Jean
Craig, Graduate Nurse,” and more.
I haven’t even read
my way through half of them yet so have a lot more enjoyable summer reading
ahead of me.
While, I realize
that as fiction, they are written with a certain idealize view of life - as is
most fiction - there is no denying that life today is sure different from life
back in the 1950s! You can see the same
thing watching the old 1950s TV shows too.
And, it more than just the clothing styles that has changed. Though I wouldn’t mind if some of those
styles came back into fashion, and I really like the music from the 50’s.
Home life is
different. Meals are different - more
elaborate back in the day? Children are
raised differently - we think there is more freedom nowadays, but in a way,
children today are more restricted.
While there were
hardships back in the 1950s, as there are in any decade or period of time,
there was a much stronger sense of community than we find today. People banned together, not just in a crisis
or tragedy as they still do today, but all throughout the year.
Would I want to go
back in time and live in the 1950s? Not
necessarily. There are advantages to
living in the time we do now. Advantages
that my mom could never have imaged back when she was a teenager.
That said, it would be nice to have a renewed sense of community from that time in our lives today. And the underlying sense of certainty that came with it, that no matter what happened in your life, you were not alone and there would always be a helping hand or a strong shoulder to help share the load, and someone to celebrate with too.
Beth
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