Well, I was thinking about my Dad tonight. And some of the things from his life that he told me about. I asked him what things changed the most in his lifetime. This might be a bit jumbled, and not in any particular order, but here as some of the things he told me about:
Cars and Highways. He said it could take a week to get from his farm in Kokomo Indiana to a "big city" like Louisville, or Cleveland. And when everybody got cars...because of the Model T...well Highways weren't far behind. Paved roads were rare when he was a kid.
And cities. He thought that was a big change. Before the War he said almost everyone lived in the Country, in towns and villages. Most business were locally owned. then the cities started to grow. And City Limits were just that back then. No sprawl. One side was city, the other was all country.
Then World War II, happened and my Dad thought that was when we actually started to become a Melting Pot. He said before that War...well, Irish stayed in Irish Neighborhoods, Italians in Italians, and so on. And Blacks moved up from the South, and Puerto Ricans came to work in the Tank and Shipping plants, and those folks pretty much stayed in their own parts of town too. But after the War, he said fighting side by side, or serving with folks from different background really opened the floodgates. And for the first time in his life, Catholics and Protestants started to intermarry.
The next big change he noticed was after the War. And he thought it was the advent of Public Health. Clean Water, sewage treatment plants, penicillin and sulfa drugs. And Vaccines. My Mom had TB. So did some of Dad's siblings. And Polio destroyed almost every Family in some way. So he thought getting rid of Polio, TB, Smallpox, Measles and Mumps, well that just made it better. He said his parent's generation didn't expect a baby to live to five years old. And when him and Mom started having kids, you kinda geared your mind to think you might lose a few children. His grandparents called every child "Baby" until their first birthdays...then they called them by name. I guess that was to try and ease the pain somewhat.
And then after the troops all got back around 1948 or so, my Dad said things sped up. You got suburbs! Towns got annexed, cities got bigger. The Turnpike was opened. And a Middle Class was building. My Dad said for the first forty years of his life, you either had money...or you didn't. There was a middle class, but it was tiny. You got by...or you had it all.
And the telephone. He had one, but we had a "Party Line" until the late fifties. And when every house had a phone and a TV, he thought we were living in the Future! Heck, color TV wasn't a necessity until the early seventies. Even though Bonanza was in color ...most folks were content with Black and White.
And at the end of his life, he thought it was amazing how many young people there were...and how many were also growing old. Most men his age were dead in their late forties or early fifties. So living into your sixties and seventies...he thought that was because of the advances in Public Health and Medicine.
He died before the Computer era took off. And the personal computer wasn't a thing. No smartphones. No Social Media. No internet. I don't think he would have been a fan of any of those things.
And I know he would have hated Talking Heads and 24 Hour News. He preferred to read his news from respected journalists that could think, explain, and ponder.
He didn't like loud people, or name calling. And he would be abhorred that people swear at each other now...like it doesn't mean anything. He taught us that once someone starts cursing, that we should leave. As he said:
"When they start to swear, it means they have run out of words. They can't express their feelings, emotions or thoughts. So the next step is violence. And it isn't worth getting hurt over the fact that someone couldn't express their emotions."
Yeah, he would have hated that. He respected everyone. And people he didn't agree with, he still respected them. And if they had a point, that he found logical and reasonable...he would acknowledge that. Not change his mind, but agree that you had a valid argument. As soon as you tried to label my Dad, or call him a name, or tell him he was stupid. He would smile and walk away. He knew you were already out of words.
My Dad did not talk much. He always thought your actions spoke the loudest about who you are ...so he listened, but gave more weight to what you did, rather than what you said.
He was a good Dad. And he grew up in a different era. But he saw lots of change in his life...maybe not as fast, but just as profound. When he got city electricity instead of using a Delco batter bank in the basement ...well he was over the moon. Progress!