Everyone who reads has a book to recommend. My current recommendation is "The Fifties," by one of my favorite authors, David Halberstam.
The popular image of the 50s is one of an age of innocence - hula-hoops, crew cuts, saddle shoes, poodle skirts, bobby sox, sexy cars - America as it should be.
There was indeed much that was right with America. A factory worker without a college education could buy a house, support his family, and send his kids to college. The ratio of the Fortune 500 CEOs pay to a factory worker's pay was about 40 to one, compared to today's ratio of 600-700 to one.
That same CEO paid a higher marginal tax rate compared to the lower tax rate of today's multi-million dollar CEO whose salary multiplied exponentially relative to that of the factory worker. And that relatively higher tax rate on the CEO of yore did not stifle productivity or investment. To the contrary, the more even distribution of after-tax income and the burgeoning middle class were in large measure responsible for the increasing general prosperity of the 50s.
And innocence, indeed. Coke was that fizzy stuff in 6-oz. bottles. The kid caught smoking was puffing on a Chesterfield or a Camel.
But lest we romanticize that era as everything hunky dory, peaches and cream, there were grim realities. Veterans of the Korean War, the "forgotten war," don't remember that era as one of peace. I doubt that more than a fraction of younger viewers of that long-running television series, M*A*S*H*, have a clue to which war was depicted in that series.
Halberstam's major theme is that contrary to the popular image of the 50s as one of tranquility and "non-events", it was a decade of profound change that laid the groundwork for the explosive 60s and would permanently change America's politics, foreign policy, commerce, and culture.
Many readers of this column, like yours truly, were in our teens during the 50s. We are younger than Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" that grew up during the Great Depression and reached military age just in time to fight WWII. And we are older than the "Baby Boom Generation," those 80 million or so who were born between 1946 and 1964, and dominated, shaped and changed society ever since.
Our "sandwich generation" born between the "Greatest Generation" and the "Baby Boomers" was generally ignored, probably to our advantage. We had things pretty good, and see ourselves as the last generation to follow the "old rules." That is, most of us, more or less, most of the time.
Though small in numbers some of that generation is still around, including members of my own class. It started in kindergarten at the old North School, prior to the first Japanese bombs on Pearl Harbor. These include Freddie Studer, Kenny Norder, Lowell Stuessy, Gordy Rutsch, Kenny Mayenschein, and "The Governor," Mr. Republican, Jimmy Goetz.
Add to those worthies at North, Henry Leuenberger, Dick Sarles, Mike Kubly (Pat's - of Swiss Colony fame - younger brother), and Hans Masshardt, until he defected to rival East. And we had everybody's favorite all-American girls, Joyce Babler and Sue Kingston.
But that's only the beginning. When 1950 rolled around, the kids from the farms rolled into high school. This cast of characters includes Joe Donny, Frank Dillon, Werner Vogel, Allen Schuetz, Dick Boelk, Roger Wyss, Bobby Brunkow, Bill Lenatsch, Royal Ritschard, Roger Gutzmer, Roger Matzke, and the late Tarz Flannery and Gordy Prien.
We had other familiar names that are still around here including Gary Kuebli, Gerald Schmoldt, Donny Brennan, Jack Hauser and until recently, the late Tommy Hartwig and Vic Ingwell. Surfacing occasionally are a couple of renegades from North's playground rival, the old East School, Wally Marty (grandson of Carl), and "The Dinger," Franklin Deininger. These two chaps arguably fall into the "less" in my "more or less" rules category.
"The Dinger" had so little regard for convention that he would become that rarest of species, a Democratic accountant. My readers know that I applaud this blatant disregard of conventional practice.
Some of our other lads adding color to this mix who still blow into town include "The General" Nate Lindsey, John Darling, Daryl Kleckner, Gary Hoesly, Charlie Bohren, Roger Martin, John Brunner, the Birshbach boys, Dick Schultz, and Allen Hixson.
Readers of this column who know many if not most of the above must admit that this is the most inimitable cast of characters that could possibly be assembled in one class, and that's only the male portion. For the female portion, stay tuned.
My larger point is that in our innocence, we could not have begun to grasp the significance of the extraordinary events of the 1950s unfolding before us. How would the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu contribute to the division of America in the 1960s? How would a Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education, permanently change the face of America?
My original intent was to write "a column" on the 50s. But because so many of my readers remember the 50s, and because the events of that misunderstood era laid the foundation for permanent change, I could not complete even the introduction in one column.
To be continued ...
Monroe resident John Waelti can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
The popular image of the 50s is one of an age of innocence - hula-hoops, crew cuts, saddle shoes, poodle skirts, bobby sox, sexy cars - America as it should be.
There was indeed much that was right with America. A factory worker without a college education could buy a house, support his family, and send his kids to college. The ratio of the Fortune 500 CEOs pay to a factory worker's pay was about 40 to one, compared to today's ratio of 600-700 to one.
That same CEO paid a higher marginal tax rate compared to the lower tax rate of today's multi-million dollar CEO whose salary multiplied exponentially relative to that of the factory worker. And that relatively higher tax rate on the CEO of yore did not stifle productivity or investment. To the contrary, the more even distribution of after-tax income and the burgeoning middle class were in large measure responsible for the increasing general prosperity of the 50s.
And innocence, indeed. Coke was that fizzy stuff in 6-oz. bottles. The kid caught smoking was puffing on a Chesterfield or a Camel.
But lest we romanticize that era as everything hunky dory, peaches and cream, there were grim realities. Veterans of the Korean War, the "forgotten war," don't remember that era as one of peace. I doubt that more than a fraction of younger viewers of that long-running television series, M*A*S*H*, have a clue to which war was depicted in that series.
Halberstam's major theme is that contrary to the popular image of the 50s as one of tranquility and "non-events", it was a decade of profound change that laid the groundwork for the explosive 60s and would permanently change America's politics, foreign policy, commerce, and culture.
Many readers of this column, like yours truly, were in our teens during the 50s. We are younger than Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" that grew up during the Great Depression and reached military age just in time to fight WWII. And we are older than the "Baby Boom Generation," those 80 million or so who were born between 1946 and 1964, and dominated, shaped and changed society ever since.
Our "sandwich generation" born between the "Greatest Generation" and the "Baby Boomers" was generally ignored, probably to our advantage. We had things pretty good, and see ourselves as the last generation to follow the "old rules." That is, most of us, more or less, most of the time.
Though small in numbers some of that generation is still around, including members of my own class. It started in kindergarten at the old North School, prior to the first Japanese bombs on Pearl Harbor. These include Freddie Studer, Kenny Norder, Lowell Stuessy, Gordy Rutsch, Kenny Mayenschein, and "The Governor," Mr. Republican, Jimmy Goetz.
Add to those worthies at North, Henry Leuenberger, Dick Sarles, Mike Kubly (Pat's - of Swiss Colony fame - younger brother), and Hans Masshardt, until he defected to rival East. And we had everybody's favorite all-American girls, Joyce Babler and Sue Kingston.
But that's only the beginning. When 1950 rolled around, the kids from the farms rolled into high school. This cast of characters includes Joe Donny, Frank Dillon, Werner Vogel, Allen Schuetz, Dick Boelk, Roger Wyss, Bobby Brunkow, Bill Lenatsch, Royal Ritschard, Roger Gutzmer, Roger Matzke, and the late Tarz Flannery and Gordy Prien.
We had other familiar names that are still around here including Gary Kuebli, Gerald Schmoldt, Donny Brennan, Jack Hauser and until recently, the late Tommy Hartwig and Vic Ingwell. Surfacing occasionally are a couple of renegades from North's playground rival, the old East School, Wally Marty (grandson of Carl), and "The Dinger," Franklin Deininger. These two chaps arguably fall into the "less" in my "more or less" rules category.
"The Dinger" had so little regard for convention that he would become that rarest of species, a Democratic accountant. My readers know that I applaud this blatant disregard of conventional practice.
Some of our other lads adding color to this mix who still blow into town include "The General" Nate Lindsey, John Darling, Daryl Kleckner, Gary Hoesly, Charlie Bohren, Roger Martin, John Brunner, the Birshbach boys, Dick Schultz, and Allen Hixson.
Readers of this column who know many if not most of the above must admit that this is the most inimitable cast of characters that could possibly be assembled in one class, and that's only the male portion. For the female portion, stay tuned.
My larger point is that in our innocence, we could not have begun to grasp the significance of the extraordinary events of the 1950s unfolding before us. How would the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu contribute to the division of America in the 1960s? How would a Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education, permanently change the face of America?
My original intent was to write "a column" on the 50s. But because so many of my readers remember the 50s, and because the events of that misunderstood era laid the foundation for permanent change, I could not complete even the introduction in one column.
To be continued ...
Monroe resident John Waelti can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
