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If You Fell Asleep in 1961 and Woke Up Today
Townhall ^ | October 1, 2017 | Michael Brown

Posted on 10/01/2017 7:22:20 AM PDT by Mafe

It’s been a beautiful spring day in the suburbs of Pennsylvania on this Thursday, June 7th, 1961. You just got home from work and your wife is almost finished preparing one of her typically delicious dinners. Your kids, a boy and two girls, aged 15, 13, and 9, have been out all day riding their bikes around the neighborhood and playing with friends. Now everybody’s hungry and ready to sit down for the family meal.

Last night was game night, and you barely emerged with a victory in Monopoly. Your kids are getting good, and your wife, normally the more savvy player, had some bad luck. Tonight is TV night, and everyone is ready to enjoy Ozzie and Harriet and Leave It to Beaver. (The younger ones get to stay up a little later on TV night, and you know they’re not going to miss a minute of the shows.)

Of course a live, in-person show is incredible—who could forget your family outing two weeks ago when you all drove into Manhattan and saw My Fair Lady on Broadway? But TV has its own unique appeal, especially with shows like Lassie and Andy Griffith and Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color and Father Knows Best and The Flintstones. And they’re all on at night so the whole family can enjoy them together.

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; History; Miscellaneous; Society
KEYWORDS: culture; lgbt; morality; us
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To: MUDDOG

Just about any year in American history was calm compared to 1968...


41 posted on 10/01/2017 8:43:34 AM PDT by Snickering Hound
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To: Mears

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/21/newsid_4350000/4350591.stm


42 posted on 10/01/2017 8:47:36 AM PDT by TexasGator
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To: Tammy8

I just started watching it on some over the air channel (I cut out cable)with an antenna. Some episodes aren’t too bad but Mr. Ed is a lot worse.


43 posted on 10/01/2017 8:47:52 AM PDT by windcliff
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To: Snickering Hound

So what is your bottom line? 1961 wasn’t that great? You like today’s America better?


44 posted on 10/01/2017 8:47:55 AM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: TexasGator

You posted “Marshall”,who I assumed was a person.

I was well aware of the martial law incident.

.


45 posted on 10/01/2017 8:52:26 AM PDT by Mears
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To: MUDDOG
Post 15, you stated:

1961 was a little early for the race riots.

I pointed out there were the Freedom Riders and the riots associated with them and Americans were introduced to Bull Connor.

At that point you got huffy.

46 posted on 10/01/2017 8:52:34 AM PDT by Snickering Hound
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To: Our man in washington

Well, if you want to compare 1961 and 2017, it all depends on your criteria. As you mention healthcare, healthcare today is light years ahead of where it was then.

So for healthcare, we would not want to go back to the old days.

I’ve had similar discussions with people, who can’t believe that anyone has nostalgia for the ‘50s, for example. Their criteria were that gays were in the closet, blacks faced Jim Crow laws and segregation, and women were discriminated against.

So we can all point to things about today, which we prefer to the past. And talk about some nice things about the past which are not part of life today.


47 posted on 10/01/2017 8:54:40 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Dilbert San Diego

“and women were discriminated against.”

=

I WAS a woman in the 50s-———and loved it.

.


48 posted on 10/01/2017 8:57:25 AM PDT by Mears
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To: Snickering Hound

Huffy’s in the eye of the beholder. IMO I’ve been polite.


49 posted on 10/01/2017 8:58:23 AM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: Mafe

I would want to come back immediately! Having had a heart bypass. new hip and knee replaced, I’d be dead or a wheel chair bound cripple by now. Seriously the old days are memories but not a way to live when you have what we have today. Spent days researching for my thesis that today would take hours. Had to blow in the gas tank of my 53 ford that vapor locked when the temp. rose above 80 degrees. No thanks. ATMs, cell phones, internet, cars that run forever, plane fare that is cheaper than driving there. Food choices never dreamed of in 1961, in or eating out. I’ll stay here or move me ahead 20 years when they have my bald spot fixable.


50 posted on 10/01/2017 8:59:32 AM PDT by JeanLM (Obama proves melanin is just enough to win elections)
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To: Mafe

The Cubs were 64-90...


51 posted on 10/01/2017 9:06:37 AM PDT by stylin19a (Lynch & Clinton - Snakes on a Plane)
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To: moovova

Vent windows on my pickup.

Where are they now?


52 posted on 10/01/2017 9:09:20 AM PDT by Cvengr ( Adversity in life & death is inevitable; Stress is optional through faith in Christ.)
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To: JeanLM
Spent days researching for my thesis that today would take hours. Had to blow in the gas tank of my 53 ford that vapor locked when the temp. rose above 80 degrees. No thanks. ATMs, cell phones, internet, cars that run forever, plane fare that is cheaper than driving there. Food choices never dreamed of in 1961, in or eating out.

Encyclopedias that expired as soon as they delivered instead of Wikipedia.

You have a 14 year old truck today, it runs fine and is even air conditioned.

Much better food choices and obesity is a problem today in the ghettos instead of hunger.

53 posted on 10/01/2017 9:10:10 AM PDT by Snickering Hound
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To: Dilbert San Diego

The hitech in healthcare was ahead, but the professional care wasn’t.

When’s the last time your family doctor made a regular house call?


54 posted on 10/01/2017 9:12:39 AM PDT by Cvengr ( Adversity in life & death is inevitable; Stress is optional through faith in Christ.)
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To: erlayman

I don’t recall any little kids getting killed while doing their homework by drive bys. Little kids could ride their bikes all day and parents didn’t have to worry about them.

Sure, there have always been sicko pervs but we weren’t assaulted with porn on every tv channel and little Johnny next door wasn’t likely sending sex videos of your daughter to all their classmates.

It wasn’t common place for customers to get mowed down while stopping in for a cup of coffee or a burger. Customers were smart enough not to dump coffee over themselves and sue the café. And no one sued bakeries over same sex wedding cakes. Show me one sports team that took a knee.


55 posted on 10/01/2017 9:16:06 AM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
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To: Snickering Hound

Try 1861-1865


56 posted on 10/01/2017 9:17:40 AM PDT by Cvengr ( Adversity in life & death is inevitable; Stress is optional through faith in Christ.)
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To: Mears

57 posted on 10/01/2017 9:18:41 AM PDT by Alas Babylon! (Keep fighting the Left and their Fake News!)
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To: Cvengr

Yep, remember doctors making house calls?

But, it all depends what we want to talk about. Healthcare is light years ahead of where it was decades ago.

This can be a ongoing subject, talking about the old days vs. today.

In technology, healthcare, etc. there’s no comparison. How many of us would give up computers and cellular phones and the internet and Netflix and all the rest of it?

On the other hand, how many of us think that family life today, with so many out of wedlock births, rampant divorce, so many children raised without fathers, is better than the family life of the past?

How many think the whole hook up culture we have today, is better for young women growing up today?

it all depends on your criteria, to evaluate whether things are better today than yesteryear.


58 posted on 10/01/2017 9:20:32 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: MUDDOG

If I was white (and I am) I’d say I like 1961 better; however... If I was black, I’d say I traded one Hell (segregation) for another (Thug/ghetto/gemedat culture).


59 posted on 10/01/2017 9:21:38 AM PDT by Alas Babylon! (Keep fighting the Left and their Fake News!)
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To: Mafe
"Your kids, a boy and two girls, aged 15, 13, and 9, have been out all day riding their bikes around the neighborhood and playing with friends."

Wow.... Try that sort of thing today and they'll come home with numerous tats, nose rings and smelling like john street on a Saturday night....

60 posted on 10/01/2017 9:24:00 AM PDT by unread (Joe McCarthy was right.......)
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