Unlike the non 1%'er skeptics on here, I remember all these things. And they are not made up. My older brother was born in 1930, my younger brother in 1946 and I in the middle. We are all still alive and living independently. Especially the boys enjoy good health.
I remember ration books, especially for sugar. My dad owned and ran a small refinery during the war and I remember gas rationing. I remember blackouts when we closed the drapes and turned out the lights. My mother saved every bit of meat fat and poured it into a wide metal aluminum can with a strainer built in. We had a ten-party phone line and you could listen in to everyone's conversation. My mother said there were three things a woman should know before going out into the world and she made sure I learned all of them: how to type (I went to summer school to learn that before sixth grade), how to drive a car, and how to operate a sewing machine.
I was in high school when television became really popular and, of course, by then I was preoccupied with other things. Radio was, however, my entertainment throughout the early years and I still remember the Alden radio I received in response to my Christmas wish when I was an adolescent. Loved the detective shows, like "The Shadow,", "The Thin Man," etc., and went to sleep listening to a soap opera.
Polio was a huge threat and we avoided swimming pools. I did know a couple of kids my age got it. One spent time in an iron lung. It was such a relief years later when the vaccine came out.
All things considered, my brothers and I think we were fortunate to live in the best of times.
|