The Seventies ended the draft, started my family and my career.
Our parents' dream was that we did better than they. We were educated, pumped with ethics and sent out to conquer the world.
It was a time when your parents' name was your credentials. Their name got your jobs, your home and your first line of credit.
The Seventies, when computers were still a wonder, veterans were coming home to hate instead of fanfare and pot was the entertainment choice.
Our heroes changed from Audy Murphy to Abbey Hoffman.
What had gone before us shaped our life as it had our parents.
From The Mills Brothers to the Bellamy Brothers to the Doobey Brothers, the music sang our differences.
Armed with the "wisdom" of youth, we proceeded to change our world.
We reared our children with loving guidance and not with an iron hand.
We conducted our business using vast lines of credit.
We demonstrated free speech and free countrydom while barring ourselves into defined consumer cages we could not escape.
We, like our parents, touted education and dreamed our children would do better than we.
Ahhh! The American Dream!
7 comments:
Hi again Gail, We have very similar upbringings it seems. (is that a word?) I was born in 1960 and had a WWII father (yes, I was a late-in-life child)(a welcomed mistake)and my parents experienced the great depression. Especially my dad whose mom died when he was 3 years old. He knew how to survive and eventually make-do. Sure isn't something many people today know how to do. I appreciate your thoughts very much - they make me think and remember. You seem to be the type of person who would challenge me to become a better person, have better ethics and such. Good for you!! Hey, what did you decide to do with the house situation?? You got lots of advice from your readers.
What great post's these are, Gail! They are really interesting to me, because we just covered all of the events that you have mentioned during one of my classes at school.
Sometimes you have to step back and ask just what happened to the American Dream. Was it our greedy natures that have destroyed (or are destroying) it?
Thanks for the advice about my kidlets! I may just try it! What do I/they have to lose???
Yes so true are your words.
I love reading your blog posts. They maek me think and ponder. But I also love litening to your music selections. I'm just sitting her bopping away to 'Thank God I'm a Country Boy" and "I'm in the Mood"
I love it!! Visiting her always is such a great experience, Gail :)
Oh, and I've got a little something for you, too: (I made it myself)
Paint Horse Approved for you!
Lisa
New Mexico
Hi Gail, So much of your youth sounds like mine. I don't know what happened to the dream. Mama and Daddy seemed to have the dream for me, until the divorce and then that just sort of faded away. If I'm not mistake, a lot of us from that generation had divorced parents, that could have played a role in destroying the work ethics, the goals, the American dream. . .just some thoughts :)
Love
Sharon
Loving this series of posts Gail. I haven't been able to comment for days! But I'm trying again! ;)
Very interesting post Gail. We all have our stories. Those of us born in the late 40s and 50s were brought up with a work ethic from the depression. Work hard and pay yourself first. If you were paid a dollar save as much as you could before spending... even tho I tried to teach that thought to my 3 .. things are so diff today.
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