1957 vs 2017 Are things better?

Since I graduated in 1956 from high school, let me tell you this nails it well.

Comments are welcome. If you want questions about the era from 1938 to current era, check me out. I am quite easy going and eager to inform.

By today's standards none of us were
supposed to ever make it.

HIGH SCHOOL
1957 vs. 2017
Scenario 1:
Jack goes duck hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck's gun rack.
1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2014 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.


Scenario 2:
Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2014 - Police called and SWAT team arrives -- they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged with assault and both expelled - even though Johnny started it.


Scenario 3:
Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to the Principal's office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2014 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADD. The family gets extra money (SSI) from the government because Jeffrey has a disability.


Scenario 4:
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman.
2014 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse, Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy's sister that she remembers being spanked herself, and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has an affair with the psychologist.


Scenario 5:
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock.
2014 - The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons.


Scenario 6:
Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.
2014 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.


Scenario 7:
Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2014 - ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents - and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny's dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.


Scenario 8:
Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 – In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2014- Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

 

Having graduated in 1959, attending first a big city school then a tiny rural school- I have to say that, yes, that pretty well nails it.

What would we do, how would we get along without the ever increasing rules and regulations of government and do-gooders with a single issue brain? A lot better.

As the old comic strip character Pogo once said- "We have met the enemy, and his is US."

 

Bad chain email kicking around for years.

There seems to be a common theme of delight in beating children in some of those.

 

I was born in 1957.

I never had a gun or played with firecrackers.

But we had three channels on our black and white TV and my mom's station wagon had tailfins!

 

Scenario 0: Robert wants to complain about the state of the world and how things were so much better in the past.
1957 – Robert sits at the bar and moans to the barman, a couple of old lags and the cat; They all ignore him.
2014 – Robert moans on a series of internet message boards and forums, seen by 100s of people. Some respond, which at least gives him some sense of self-validation.

 

Ahhh the 50s...

Alcoholism was the norm
Wife beating was common
Child beating was expected
Racism was the norm
homophobia was more than the norm
People died in their early 60s
Almost everyone smoked...and cancer rates reflected that

Need I go on?

The "good old days" weren't all that good

 

I would hope that most people have other sources of "validation" in their life (beyond the the chirp of bored crickets on a message board).

 

It is a shame that your generation failed so miserably at leading that they let America fall into disrepair. It is your fault, not the fault of the 2014 high school class.

 

I'm a little later than you, and I agree with some of the assessments. However, I think this one goes a little overboard.

 

Do you feel validated now?

 

But they were in the rosy memories of yesteryear.

I remember watching the Vietnam was on TV and the parade of caskets coming home. I remember waiting for the Soviet nukes to strike at any moment. I remember a corrupt President being impeached... hey! At least that hasn't changed!!!

 

Scenario -1:
1957 - Willie Edwards, Jr. gets a job driving for Winn-Dixie. His boss calls him one night to come in because another worker called out sick. A small group of Klansmen kidnap him, beat him, then held him at gunpoint and force him to jump to his death off a bridge along the Alabama River. No one is charged.
1976 - The case is re-opened and four men are charged and for Edwards's murder. An Alabama judge dismisses the charges because forcing someone off a 125 foot bridge doesn't necessarily result in their death.
1997 - Case is re-opened at the request of Edwards's daughter. A Montgomery Grand Jury declines to indict anyone.
2014 - Willie Edwards, Jr. is still dead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Willie_Edwards

Those of you who want the 50s back can revisit them to your hearts' content through all the chain emails you like. Don't drag the rest of us back with you.

 

Despite the reappearance, yet again, of this particular bit of chain mail foolery things today are much better unless you happen to be an uneducated, unskilled, older white man. In which case, things haven't actually gotten worse, you just think they are worse.

The life expectancy is up 10years or more.
Quality of life for older people is much better
People in general are healthier, better educated, and much wealthier.
We truly are in a golden age of entertainment and as technology improves things will only get better.

Yes, Mr. Fifty plus year old white guy with little education and few skills or prospects, you're no longer running the world. Still, things have actually gotten better for you too.

 

There was also that whole Cold War with the Soviets thing going on, and being nuked to death was a possibility.

 

White male life expectancy has decreased in the past 8 years.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/life-expectancy-for-white-americans-declines-1461124861

mainly due to suicide and drug overdoses. Tell us some more about how things have gotten better for white men.

 

Damn Robert, I didn't know you were part of the "Luckiest Generation."

I always wished I was born 10 or 15 years earlier so I was part of the "Luckiest Generation" and not of the "Baby Boomer Generation."

But I digress:

Back around the same era the mid and late 1950's and early 60's during attending elementary school 1st grade to 6th grade in the class room there was a "show and tell" period every morning. You brought something to school and showed what you brought and told the story behind what you brought.

It was very common back in the day you brought the war souvenirs your father picked up on the battlefield while fighting Krauts in Europe or Japs in the Pacific.

Most popular souvenirs during show and tell were German Kar- 98 Mauser rifles, P-38 pistols, P-09 Luger pistols and Jap samurai swords.

Nobody raised an eyebrow including the teachers.

Captured red Nazi flags with the swastika were popular and occasionally someone would show up with a Confederate battle flag that great grand-pa captured on the battlefield during the American Civil War and no body was offended and broke out crying and searching for a "safe space."

When I was in jr. high school (6th & 7th grade) 62 - 65 it was the PE coach who administrated punishment in school. He had a big paddle with holes drilled into the paddle to cut down on the wind resistance when delivering the whacks to the buttocks.

But that was just the beginning, you knew when your dad got home from work that evening you were going to get another punishment when your dad removed his belt and punished you for being punished at school.

 

Some areas better, sadly some worse, & some the same.

 

1957...we had fuzz on our peaches and they smelled and tasted great!

2017...the peaches have no fuzz, no smell, no taste and rot before they ripen and a man with a penis is a woman.

...you tell me?

 

Your concern always seems to stop with white males.

Hmmmmm

 

Seems like you are fond of the memories of corporal punishment.

Research, however, shows that hitting children results in a much greater likelihood of the children resolving conflict by hitting as well, or hitting other they deem lower in the pecking order, such as little siblings, younger class mates, or animals.

I don't want to go back to those times, no matter how much they are glorified by the backward-thinking ones.

 

THAT'S what you miss? Kids walking around with guns in school?

Gym teachers beating kids?

Parents beating the crap out of their children?

Wow....

 

Actually, I get it now. He has been spanked a lot as a kid, that's why he feels the need, as an adult, to protect himself with a gun.

 

Life as a white male in the 1950's was probably idyllic if you were into corporal punishment, racism and oppression of everyone who wasn't a white straight male. For everyone else it was not even close to idyllic.Things back then were far from perfect but to deny that reality is what the extremist alt right is all about today. A fantasy of a past period when white males ruled the universe and the expectation that Herr Drumpf will bring back that "utopia" of white male dominated oppression once again.Unfortunately for the extremist alt right We the People won't roll over and allow them to take away the rights of women, blacks, gays, etc, etc.

 

Real research (been there...done that) shows that corporal punishment works.

I also was around when there were "Red Line Brigs" and the Army also had red line stockades and they worked. Today they just give you a "Bad Chicken Dinner" and send you on your way and your life is (*)(*)(*)(*)ed up for life.

"Red Line Brigs and Stockades" were declared to be politically incorrect during the 1970's by liberals.

This has become a national security issue.

Today 3/4 of all young adults who volunteer to join the military are rejected, mostly because they are cream puffs, Pillsbury Dough Boys.

But it was during the late 1990's when a red flag went up " Quantico we have a yuuge problem !!!"

To many maggots were standing on the yellow footprints at MCRDPI and MCRDSD who never been in a fist fight. They didn't know how to "fisticuffs."

This is a national security issue and the training schedule had to be changed where valuable training had to be ended to spend scores of hours teaching cream puffs how to fisticuffs, just not that they know how to fight in an interservice rivalry bar room fight but to stay alive on the battlefield defending yourself with your bare hands from the bad guy who's trying to kill you.

Why do todays younger generation resort to using guns when they have a beef with someone ? Because they don't know how to fisticuffs.

Why have blacks resorted to sucker punching someone on the streets today ? Because they don't know how to fight like a man so they resort to the sucker punch unless they have a gun.

 

If you were a cream puff you were screwed big time. There were no PC Safe Spaces back during the day.