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But look at you. You assimilated.

Sorta. I was painfully shy and went through many high school days without any conversation with other students. I have not had contact with anyone I went to school with since I graduated. I've discovered many who socialize online now have some of the same bashfulness in our background ;)

I came from some abuse and like many young gals jumped from the frying pan into the fire of a physically abusive marriage. My 188 watt lightbulb went off when I was 30. Three life changes happened in a short time. 1) The abusive husband left me for greener pastures. 2) I accepted Christ (thanks to this aunt I am caring for this week) and 3) I bought myself a Harley. I had ridden since I was 14 and crappy husband had taken my paychecks for years to buy his own bikes and race cars but I had never thought myself worthy of a fun, non-essential, expensive item.

I completely agree with the points you made about EVERYBODY feeling like a misfit through those formative teen years AND your points about the Soviets redefining "normalcy." I think when you mention family structure and divorce rates it scratches the surface of the issue. What's different about our culture, and MUST be practiced is our Judeo-Christian roots. My personal experience with accepting Christ as an adult was wholly, completely life changing. When I accepted Christ I also accepted myself.

There's a lot of "shrinky" stuff that I'm sure some lefty psycho or sociology major would go gaga over. But, after accepting Christ myself, I went on to study as a lay minister. I spent years in lay ministry to ladies in biker clubs, to women in prison and became a divorce recovery minister at my church. Through that I saw salvation work the same changes in others as it's done in me. My generation used to talk about "finding themselves." I never understood what they were talkin' about. Sounded dumb. But, now that I've settled down, in my 60's, not on the road with so many hours in ministry anymore, I've had time to think about it. When I found Christ I found acceptance and peace. When I bought that first Harley, I found me and was able to come outta the shell I'd lived in. Sheesh, I hate saying that, it makes me sound like a stinkin lib.

So basically, I think my opinion mirrors yours, just spoken differently. I think our Founding Fathers knew exactly what would make this Republic work. They founded us on prayer, the Bible, firm nuclear families and trust in God. The enemy has thrown many things at this nation to try and break us including socialism. They were slow and patient in attempts to break this country but the breaking of family structure and removing God from the forefront of our society in the 60's-70's was a big blow. Sounds like I lept off-topic but I'm not. Talking to my aunt here about this too. She's 15 years older than me. Before the breaking of family structure/removing Judeo-Christian lifestyle as norm, I'm being told teens were more comfortable with "who they were born to be." We're having too big a conversation to cover in this post but the jist is, kids knew more of their roles in life. Rich kids might follow in parents footsteps but knew they'd depend on poorer farm kids or laborers for needs. Poor kids knew if they wanted to work hard and apply themselves they might go to college or start their dream business. But, the value of each future was recognized and mostly respected. This as opposed to now with the push for college and technical or labor futures not being taught as having value. Value under a primarily Christian society was intrinsic to the person whereas now value is based on the push to assimilate.

wow. Sometimes my crazy aunt comes up with some deep stuff. and, she points out, there was a raggedy man & familly who moved to the hometown in the 40's. He went to work for grand dad's construction company. She doesn't know what religion they were for sure but he and his family "lived right." "They prayed to whoever their God was and were good people like the rest of us."