Do you count 1945 through 1963 as part of the Golden Era?

[HudsonHawk]

"But you just admitted that you're not a real Southerner. It's no wonder you've never eaten a grit."
True... But I have been here since the fourth grade (a looong time ago) so I'm pretty close to being a real Southerner.

Being "Southern is less about geography and more about culture. You live in the South now, but your at-home cultural experiences, traditions, etc are likely more similar to that of your parents than of your neighbors. This is probably particularly pronounced in what you ate growing up, and consequently what you prefer to eat as an adult.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Yeah, I just saw it on the calendar. I probably won't get down there until next year, at least then I will most likely be in the process of taking pictures for the hat site and can take some hats down there to photograph in the Treme district and the French Quarter. Not even close to ready right now.

You're never "ready" for the Quarter. You just do what you gotta do.

 

[rjb1]

"Being "Southern is less about geography and more about culture. You live in the South now, but your at-home cultural experiences, traditions, etc are likely more similar to that of your parents than of your neighbors. This is probably particularly pronounced in what you ate growing up, and consequently what you prefer to eat as an adult."
True - but since my mother's side of the family was from Manchester, TN and my father's side was from Cullman, AL, I have a pretty good Southern pedigree. (However, we did spend several years in exile in Detroit.)
As you say, you tend to like and eat what your parents ate, but for whatever reason, neither of them ever ate any grits, so I never ate any, either. It could be that they had to eat them when they were growing up during the Depression and never wanted any more.

This leads to the original topic of defining the period of the Golden Era, and I tend to locate it in a bell-shaped curve centered on WWII and the lives of the Greatest Generation. My dad was a WWII combat vet, and both my parents lived through the Depression, and their values set the tone for what I think of as the attitudes and belief-system that makes the Golden Era golden (more so than hats, clothes, or cars).
Therefore to me the 1945 - 1963 would be the tail of the curve for the Golden Era. It would start in ~1920 when they were coming into the world, peak during WWII, and tail off as the first wave of Baby-Boomers born after the GI's got home got old enough to start thinking for themselves (for better or worse, mostly worse) during the early 1960's.

 

[jamespowers]

This leads to the original topic of defining the period of the Golden Era, and I tend to locate it in a bell-shaped curve centered on WWII and the lives of the Greatest Generation. My dad was a WWII combat vet, and both my parents lived through the Depression, and their values set the tone for what I think of as the attitudes and belief-system that makes the Golden Era golden (more so than hats, clothes, or cars).
Therefore to me the 1945 - 1963 would be the tail of the curve for the Golden Era. It would start in ~1920 when they were coming into the world, peak during WWII, and tail off as the first wave of Baby-Boomers born after the GI's got home got old enough to start thinking for themselves (for better or worse, mostly worse) during the early 1960's.

God points---especially the last one.

 

[vitanola]

This leads to the original topic of defining the period of the Golden Era, and I tend to locate it in a bell-shaped curve centered on WWII and the lives of the Greatest Generation. My dad was a WWII combat vet, and both my parents lived through the Depression, and their values set the tone for what I think of as the attitudes and belief-system that makes the Golden Era golden (more so than hats, clothes, or cars).
Therefore to me the 1945 - 1963 would be the tail of the curve for the Golden Era. It would start in ~1920 when they were coming into the world, peak during WWII, and tail off as the first wave of Baby-Boomers born after the GI's got home got old enough to start thinking for themselves (for better or worse, mostly worse) during the early 1960's.

I would think that the tail of the era , it's culmination perhaps, would be the Second World War, for the 1950's world was a different place indeed. The "Long Armistice" was the "High Middle Ages" of the Era.

 

[CONELRAD]

My definition of the Golden Era lasts through the end of the 1940s and continued to fade out until about 1952, since it took a couple years for the "forties" to end and the "fifties" to begin.

 

[2jakes]

 

[KayEn78]

I agree with your definition/explanation of The Golden Era as a bell-shaped curve, rjb1. That's how I view the entire "Golden Era" myself.

 

[Guttersnipe]

This leads to the original topic of defining the period of the Golden Era, and I tend to locate it in a bell-shaped curve centered on WWII and the lives of the Greatest Generation. My dad was a WWII combat vet, and both my parents lived through the Depression, and their values set the tone for what I think of as the attitudes and belief-system that makes the Golden Era golden (more so than hats, clothes, or cars).

Therefore to me the 1945 - 1963 would be the tail of the curve for the Golden Era. It would start in ~1920 when they were coming into the world, peak during WWII, and tail off as the first wave of Baby-Boomers born after the GI's got home got old enough to start thinking for themselves (for better or worse, mostly worse) during the early 1960's.

I really like this concept of a generational bell curve. But what I wonder about is how to describe or articulate the defining attitudes and belief-system(s) that characterized the WWII generation. Certainly, in the U.S., there is a marked difference between boomers and their parents, but America has never really been a homogeneous society.

Can we really say there was a defining, prevalent word view in The Golden Era?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the general attitudes of people who came of age in the twenties and were adults thruout the Depression were quite different from people who grew up during the Depression and came of age during the War. That's only about a ten or fifteen year difference for a lot of people, but the trail of experiences was very, very different. And the people who were adults at the end of WW1 would have had a very different frame of reference from people who were born just before or during that war.

But there were certain common threads in each of these generations -- a recognition that life, in general, was not an especially pleasant experience, and that suffering and deprivation were as likely as happiness and plenty. The younger end of that generation, those who came back from the war and dove headlong into the Postwar Dream were probably the first generation of Americans to assume they were going to have it any different from their parents. Previous generations may have hoped that this would be the case, but they had no *expectation* of it.

The Progressive generation, those who were adults around 1900-1915, believed the only way to improve the world was to *fight* for improvements -- and that ethos was passed down to their children, who came of age in the thirties and formed the backbone of the New Deal. The generation that fought the war, for the most part, was too tired to worry about reforming and changing the world -- that was for longhairs and eggheads.

You can't read the popular media of the thirties and the fifties without noticing this sharp difference in tone: to cite just one example, the Superman of 1938 was a roughnecked, Slavic-looking muscleman who beat the snot out of corrupt businessmen and slumlords. The Superman of 1958 was a clean-cut, square-jawed Establishment figure who looked like a bank manager in tights.

 

[Tomasso]

My Golden Era begins at the end of WWI and continues to the end of WWII. Though I would be willing to give WWII it's own 'era' status and end the Golden Era at the beginning of WWII. IMO post war was a much different era in so, so many ways.

 

[Mickey85]

I was just about to ask you if you preferred East Coast or West Coast rap. Tupac vs. Biggie Smalls. I was SURE you would be a rap connoisseur, LOL!

I can't really say that I'm more a fan of one over the other, but West Coast rap has more rappers that I tend to listen to (Snoop, Tupac, Dre, etc).

I find that I agree with Lizzie in that the era is a mindset - be part of the social team, have respect for yourself and others in your actions, speech and dress, etc.

To go back to the music argument (as I ran out of patience after about 7 pages), I do enjoy the Beatles, I enjoy "old-school" rap, and given the choice of one music style to listen to for the rest of my life, it would have to be either Sinatra-style crooners or blues (but only old, acoustic, Robert Johnson blues - though I do enjoy some SRV).

 

[rjb1]

"I really like this concept of a generational bell curve. But what I wonder about is how to describe or articulate the defining attitudes and belief-system(s) that characterized the WWII generation. Certainly, in the U.S., there is a marked difference between boomers and their parents, but America has never really been a homogeneous society. "
What follows is an example of one small action from just one person, but it has always stuck in my mind as a classic example of how a person who grew up in the Depression and then went through WWII would think (and act):
My mother, to the end of her life, would *never* waste anything. The specific action in question was that when a pencil got too short to conveniently write with she would tape it to another pencil stub and get a bit more use out of it. My parents were reasonably well off, so she didn't have to scrimp with pencils (and everything else), but she would have felt uncomfortable doing otherwise.
As Lizzie said above, they felt no guarantees that things would always be good, and they had to act and think in a "just in case" mode. Having lived through a Depression and a World War they knew how bad things could be.

Baby Boomers who grew up in a time of plenty don't think that way, and in that difference lies the transition - not cutoff - between the Golden-Era/Greatest-Generation and the ones to follow. Particularly for us leading-edge Boomers, our worries in our formative years were geopolitical and nuclear, not economic. Times were always good, but as kids we would debate among ourselves whether we would die in the initial nuclear explosion or from the fallout. We had to learn to "Duck and Cover" - since we could be bombed in school at an instant's notice. That sort of formative experience might lead to more of a "grasshopper" than an "ant" attitude, again distinguishing the Golden Era thought patterns and habits from our later ones.
As for the original question as to whether the Golden Era included 1945-1963, I would say definitely past 1945, but maybe not as late as 1963. Possibly 1962 would be better since that was the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis and after that there was some withdrawal from the possibility of mutual mass destruction. (However, you could perhaps better symbolize the generational change by pointing out that 1962 was the year the first of the Greatest Generation's kids (Baby Boomers born in 1946) starting getting their drivers licenses.)

 

[Stearmen]

I think the general attitudes of people who came of age in the twenties and were adults thruout the Depression were quite different from people who grew up during the Depression and came of age during the War. That's only about a ten or fifteen year difference for a lot of people, but the trail of experiences was very, very different. And the people who were adults at the end of WW1 would have had a very different frame of reference from people who were born just before or during that war.

But there were certain common threads in each of these generations -- a recognition that life, in general, was not an especially pleasant experience, and that suffering and deprivation were as likely as happiness and plenty. The younger end of that generation, those who came back from the war and dove headlong into the Postwar Dream were probably the first generation of Americans to assume they were going to have it any different from their parents. Previous generations may have hoped that this would be the case, but they had no *expectation* of it.

The Progressive generation, those who were adults around 1900-1915, believed the only way to improve the world was to *fight* for improvements -- and that ethos was passed down to their children, who came of age in the thirties and formed the backbone of the New Deal. The generation that fought the war, for the most part, was too tired to worry about reforming and changing the world -- that was for longhairs and eggheads.

You can't read the popular media of the thirties and the fifties without noticing this sharp difference in tone: to cite just one example, the Superman of 1938 was a roughnecked, Slavic-looking muscleman who beat the snot out of corrupt businessmen and slumlords. The Superman of 1958 was a clean-cut, square-jawed Establishment figure who looked like a bank manager in tights.

You do have a point there Lizzie! My father was born at the beginning of 1923 and my mother was born in the middle of 1927. They were very different in personalities. I think my father was around for the last of the Roaring Twenties, and he did have a pretty good life on the farm, money was comming in, his parents bought a farm with a nice house, so life was good for the first few years of his life. My mother, on the other hand, was born just in time for the Great Depression. Her father was a share cropper, times were very tough, you would never hear her call the 30s and 40s the Golden Era! She was very tight with money to her dieing days, while my father thought, money was for spending. I notice, a lot of people born at the end of WWI to the early 20s were like my father, where those born after were mostly like my mother.

 

[Stearmen]

"
Times were always good, but as kids we would debate among ourselves whether we would die in the initial nuclear explosion or from the fallout. We had to learn to "Duck and Cover" - since we could be bombed in school at an instant's notice. That sort of formative experience might lead to more of a "grasshopper" than an "ant" attitude, again distinguishing the Golden Era thought patterns and habits from our later ones.

Yes, I do remember that, I also remember in 6th grade, we came to the realization that living at the foot of NORAD, we would not survive a Thermo Nuclear attack, and it didn't mater where we hid we were dead! I imagine, looking back, that had to have some kind of lasting affect on us mentally. Maybe, that is part of the live today to the fullest, because tomorrow you may be dead attitude. I know a lot of my friends who are Baby Boomers, talk about doing things now, because you never know if your going to be here tomorrow. I use that excuse when I buy another motorcycle!

 

[Christopher Scoggins]

I, personally, don't think "The Golden Age" exists, nor will it ever exist. The entirety of human history has been different versions of suffering and oppression. Many of this forum's ideas of when the the "Golden Age" was, in fact wasn't so great if you weren't a white male. It was getting better, granted, but Women's rights and the civil rights for ethnic minorities are far more "equal" today then they were back then. Most of us would consider that a good thing about today's society. However, movies, music, fashion, and general popular culture was "better" back then. I quote better because it really is subjective. For example, I once tried to introduce a friend to the Benny Goodman Orchestra, and that person responded by calling it "The worst music ever." Do I feel that he/she is uncultured? Yes. Does that person think he/she is uncultured? No. Bottom line is, picking a favorite time period in human history is like picking a favorite shade of poop. It all stinks.

 

[GHT]

Bottom line is, picking a favorite time period in human history is like picking a favorite shade of poop. It all stinks.

:rofl:
I like your signature, but I don't think that even Winston Churchill would have dared to call the formidable Bessie Braddock, Miss.

Bessie Braddock: “Sir, you are drunk.”
Churchill: “Madam, you are ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober.”

Churchill was at the top of his game when it came to instant reposts.
None better than when Nancy Astor said she would like to have poisoned him.

Nancy Astor: “Sir, if you were my husband, I would give you poison.”
Churchill: “If I were your husband I would take it.”

Churchill Quotes.

 

[Tomasso]

I, personally, don't think "The Golden Age" exists, nor will it ever exist. The entirety of human history has been different versions of suffering and oppression. Many of this forum's ideas of when the the "Golden Age" was, in fact wasn't so great if you weren't a white male. It was getting better, granted, but Women's rights and the civil rights for ethnic minorities are far more "equal" today then they were back then. Most of us would consider that a good thing about today's society. However, movies, music, fashion, and general popular culture was "better" back then. I quote better because it really is subjective. For example, I once tried to introduce a friend to the Benny Goodman Orchestra, and that person responded by calling it "The worst music ever." Do I feel that he/she is uncultured? Yes. Does that person think he/she is uncultured? No. Bottom line is, picking a favorite time period in human history is like picking a favorite shade of poop. It all stinks.

There are threads here devoted to all the issues that you bring up. Nobody (well, very few at least) has their head in the sand around here.

 

[scrawlysteve]

:rofl:
I like your signature, but I don't think that even Winston Churchill would have dared to call the formidable Bessie Braddock, Miss.


Churchill was at the top of his game when it came to instant reposts.
None better than when Nancy Astor said she would like to have poisoned him.



Churchill Quotes.

Hmmm, point taken re. Bessie Braddock's formidability .... but the response was rather a case of pot, kettle and black. I don't think either of the Churchillian ripostes quoted are quite in the Groucho league, but then I like Groucho and I don't much care for Winston.
Churchill, in fact, rather illustrates Mr Scoggins' point re. the Golden Era since it was in 1937 (to the Peel Commission) that Winnie said something along the lines of, " I do not admit that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race, a more wordly-wise race has come in and taken their place."

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yes, I do remember that, I also remember in 6th grade, we came to the realization that living at the foot of NORAD, we would not survive a Thermo Nuclear attack, and it didn't mater where we hid we were dead! I imagine, looking back, that had to have some kind of lasting affect on us mentally. Maybe, that is part of the live today to the fullest, because tomorrow you may be dead attitude. I know a lot of my friends who are Baby Boomers, talk about doing things now, because you never know if your going to be here tomorrow. I use that excuse when I buy another motorcycle!

I grew up in a town that was home to the easternmost military fuel depot in the United States -- which provided fuel to Loring AFB, the largest base for the Strategic Air Command. We were flat-out told in school that if war came, we'd be among the first targets.