I agree completely. I think the zenith of our country was between 1958 and 1964. Before then, we helped people who helped themselves, mostly. After that, we began to let strangers prey on our nation’s bounty and good will.
I realize America wasn’t a perfect world back then - we had horrible, embarrassing, disgraceful Jim Crow. But for a little, middle-class white girl in the late 1950s? Heavenly.