Posted on 06/26/2021 8:14:03 AM PDT by HypatiaTaught
My parents are both passed. They were born in the 1920’s, Dad served in WW2 and Mom worked at Bell Telephone. She also had 13 kids and became an RN, but that is another story. Both would often tell me of the extremely tough times during the Great Depression. Mom said she remembers as a little girl with nothing to eat, she would sometimes chew the edge of a pencil just to satisfy the need to chew. Dad also experienced the lack of food and till his last day, never let any food go to waste. Found out after his passing from his friend at Dad’s funeral, he told me of the horrific days in Guadalcanal. My dad lost his buddy right before his own eyes, from a grenade blast. My Dad when asked, never ever shared his experience, only saying you don’t need to know.
In America, (not Europe) with all the terrible circumstances and events in the 1930’s and 1940s, they still had something that we no longer have. They had America. They had true family values. There was no social justice hijacking of businesses or the individual. There was no platform to allow or perpetuate the psychosis of one gender to say they are the opposite gender. There was no “Defund the Police”. There was no demonization of our Flag. There was no cancel culture. There was no one party rule. There was no enforcement of a fake vaccine that causes countless deaths and disabilities.
So my question to you, if you could go back to the 1930s or 1940s in exchange with our current times, would you?
Yes. I am old enough to have known people who were alive then: my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents. I miss the people of those generations.
Something no one seems to have touched on is the actual racism of the 1930s.
I know we are all sick of being told about racism today. It’s crap. Certainly some individuals are racists. But it’s not institutionalized! It’s not encoded in law.
Back then though American citizens of perfectly good character were being frequently and consistently treated as second class or worse. It was a real thing. Can’t use a swimming pool? Can’t buy a house over there? Can’t get hired here? Can’t go to college there? Not allowed to shop here? Literally at the back of a bus? Not cool. Not cool at all.
Of course not all Americans were ok with it. But it was the basic law. Imagine broken down by the side of the road and a hotel would literally not rent you a room to stay the night.
So that’s another reason things weren’t idyllic. Spousal abuse way more tolerated. Child abuse, too. Try being a kid and telling on someone molesting you. It just was barely done.
In many ways I’d prefer it during those times. But in many ways I would not.
I'd like to go two years into the future, buy a copy of the Wall Street Journal, then return.
- penicilin not invented yet
- Everydangbody smoked
-Be just in time for Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Omaha Beach, Hurtgen Forest, Aachen, Iwo Jima and Okinawa - or maybe just a fun-filled bombing run over Germany.
- The cars looked good, but crappy steering and brakes
- No TV, internet, fast travel, or today's grocery stores.
No way, buddy - besides, Trump'll be back and all will be well again.
“However, I would absolutely trade these conveniences to old time American Values.”
Today, there is a HypatiaTaught shaped space where you fit. The things creating that space are your family, friends, and associates. Drop you back in, say, Chicago, which would have been a much nicer place then. Let’s give you decent clothes, a fedora and $25. (A princely sum.) Unless you are an exceptional extravert, there is no similar place for you to “fit.” If you’re 25, probably no problem. But if you’re over, say 50, it becomes more problematic. As much as you might admire The Greatest Generation, you’re going to be an odd duck in so many ways, you’d have a very hard time. Remember, everyone you meet is surrounded by a space full of people where they “fit.” There typically isn’t a lot of room for new friends. And, do you have any skills that are useful in, say, 1940? Even if you’re an auto mechanic, or a carpenter, the skills needed and tools used are substantially different. Not saying you couldn’t adjust, but it will take a while. I had a couple of my mother’s cookbooks from the period. I couldn’t make single recipe. They called for things you can’t buy anymore, like a “block of yeast.” I think you’d end up depressed as the thing you are looking for was the camaraderie of shared trials and fortunes. No matter how you try, you’d find it difficult to “fit.”
Where you end up might make a difference. If you were in Germany, the Soviet Union, or Africa you likely wouldn’t live too long. However, if you are with God at the end of it all, what difference does it make?
I wouldn’t go back because there really is nothing new under the sun. There were corrupts leaders in the past and their will be in the future. People did wicked things in the past. Which is worse, slavery or child abuse? We are an evil lot.
To add to what you said, just Google (or your favorite search engine) lynchings in the 1930s. The idea that people were so righteous then in this country, not to mention what was happening in Europe and Asia, is nonsense.
“Take me back to common sense.”
This!
” USS Scorpion caused the Navy to reevaluate EVERYTHING. “
It was the loss of the Thresher that led to major mods and operating procedure changes.
**I’d take any 1950’s and early 1960’s before the British Invasion and the Hippie movement started.**
My wife’s dad could have passed for a younger brother of John Wayne: About an inch shorter, same eyes, frame, even a similar voice (especially if he raised it). That is why she was never impressed with city guys. And the log haired rockers?.... forget it. She never was (and still isn’t) shallow minded.
Yep..... and become Nicolai Tesla’s right hand man.
I would go back to 1946 and head to California.
I don’t want to live through a depression or war. Start me in 1946, please. That would make me 18 in 1964 which doesn’t sound bad at all.
Do I get to take what I know with me?
Let’s say you had a time machine that would take you back to right here and now. What would you do?
I also grew up in SoCal in the fifties and sixties, but I hated just about everything about the sixties--smog, urban sprawl, ugly architecture, ugly cars, the Kennedys, the counterculture, the "sex revolution," liberal trends in Christianity, long hair on men, and the music. As a teenager, I wished that we were living in the 1930's.
“I asked my grandmother, who was raised on a farm, about the Great Depression. She said that crops were good and animals were healthy.”
My dad was born 1931 and his dad owned a farm. They ate good during the 30’s and always had a market for their milk and crops.
I’ll do better than that: I’d like to make a phone call to myself in 2010, and tell myself to buy as much Bitcoin as I can get...
“Back then though American citizens of perfectly good character were being frequently and consistently treated as second class or worse. It was a real thing.”
Well, today things are reversed. It is the white who is treated as the leper, and more so every day, as they ramp up the indoctrination of critical Race Theory.
We are genetically and unredeemebly the closest thing to the devil incarnate. Soon we’ll be like the whites in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The sooner we realize and accept that this dysfunctional and abusive marriage between the races ain’t never going to work, the better for all concerned.
Separation into separate countries is the only long term answer. Tough as that seems to get it done, the first step is to realize that it NEEDS to get done.
Where there’s a will there is a way.
OK, deal. I’m 27, and going to go all over Europe in 1930—before the reign of Hitler. I want to visit all the old places I used to live in Europe, and see Eastern Europe and the large Jewish communities and warn them to get the Hell out.
I’d remind the British and French younger, future powerful that appeasement didn’t bring peace but just ensured war. When the Germans march into the Rhineland, France has an obligation to stop them, and any war will be less dangerous for them then than the one in 10 years.
Then I’d jump back to Washington DC in 1926, and speak to the Imperial Navy Attache at the Japanese embassy there—his name was Isoroku Yamamoto—and tell him not to even think about it. I’d also visit some young US Naval officers and let them know about how we slept on Dec 7th.
I’d also try to talk to J Edgar Hoover about the NKVD (precursor to the KGB) infiltration of academia.
Finally, jump back to 1930 and tell Chief of Staff of the US Army Douglas MacArthur of his failure on December 8, 1941. He needs to launch ALL aircraft at Japanese forces BEFORE they hit Clark Field!
If I change history, will I even be born?
My father was a very young medic on his to way to join up with a new unit slated to land on mainland Japan when the atomic bombings happened.
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