'Longing for the Good Old Days (that never were)'

[Number23]

An oldie, but all too relevant. Especially lately.

'Longing for the Good Old Days (that never were)'
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/01/05/287575/-Longing-for-the-Good-Old-Days-that-never-were#

About once a month, I get some e-mail chain letter that carries on about how great Americans and America was in the 1950, and how, in comparison, we're all crap now. Mostly, they're the whining of conservatives about how the world isn't the way they imagined it was when they were kids. I delight in replying and proving the lie to the e-mail, point by point. Today, I turned the fun up another notch and made a preemptive strike. What follows is a fictional conversation with my grandparents that tries to set the record straight. The Good Old Days never were....

Grandpa and Grandma sat on the front porch swing, sipping lemonade. I sat on the steps, leaned against the porch rail, and looked up at the stars in the summer sky. "Tell me," I said softly, sweetly, "about the good old days."

There was a moment of silence when Grandma and Grandpa looked at each other and smiled -- then the moment was shattered by his guffaws and her roar of laughter. They held their sides and laughed until tears ran down their cheeks and they gasped for air.

..."Things weren't so hot if you weren't white, either." Grandpa's expression turned sad. He gazed into the night a while, shook his head, and continued: "In the 1950s, racism was deeply institutionalized. Half our black families lived below the poverty line; migrant workers suffered appalling working and living conditions; people of color were not permitted to take part in the American dream. In lots of places, there were public schools, public libraries, churches, public beaches, public parks and pools, clubs, business organizations, diners, toilets, drinking fountains -- you name it -- that simply were off-limits to anyone who wasn't white.

"There were whole communities that were off limits. I remember that, in 1957, there were 10,000 Blacks working at the Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan, but not one could live in Dearborn itself.

Even now in 2013, things STILL ain't that hot for black people. Our wages still trail EVERYBODY else's, prison sentencing discrepancies still exist, we were the victims of the sub-prime mortgage fiasco more than any others, we are the victims of hate crimes more than any other group, and we have a Supreme Court that seems to be all too interested in rolling back some desperately hard fought battles.

But as bad as things are now, I'll be DAMNED if I will join in the loud pining for the 1950's, 60's or any period before now. We've all gritted our teeth and tried to smile at the small group of people of a certain age that pine loudly and openly of the "Good Old Days" of a bygone era. But lately, the pining has gotten even louder, more shrill, and more willfully, BLINDLY ignorant of the history of so many of this country's citizens. And it has worked my last nerve.

[brush]

1. AMEN! AMEN! nt

[bravenak]

2. I agree. The old days sucked.

My grandfather had to pretend to be white to get a job, and never was able to let his coworkers meet his family, then they'd know he was passin.

[Warpy]

3. He was joshing about smallpox, the vaccine had been around

for a very long time (Jenner, 1798) by the 50s and public health laws were passed that every child had to show an innoculation scar before being admitted to school. However, we did have the waves of polio epidemics. I got it when I was 2 1/2 and had to learn how to walk all over again.

The big difference in this scenario is that I never saw Grandma is a porch swing or sitting down anywhere, to tell the truth. She worked like a rented mule every single day of her life until my grandfather died. Maybe in her last few years she got to sit in that swing. I sincerely hope so. The dishwasher, washing machine and other gadgets did relieve present grandmas of some of their burdens and they can now sit in the swing next to grandpa, although they still come out after he does since there were after dinner chores to be done.

Those of us who lived through the 50s with the strict regimentation and conformity never want to go back to it. People who idealize the era never seem to think about the New Deal that had made the one income family possible, they long for the regimentation that would leave them with few life choices because they think it was easier.

[Number23]

4. I have a friend from Zimbabwe that still walks with a limp from polio she got as a child

And she's in her late 50s now.

Those of us who lived through the 50s with the strict regimentation and conformity never want to go back to it.

I DIDN'T live through the 1950's and I STILL don't want to go back. That's my mother's generation. And she would look at some of the pining and longing for that era that's been going on around here lately and think the folks doing it must be stupid, crazy or both.

[jaysunb]

5. The 50's were pretty good for me...

my family left Mississippi and went to Ohio.

[Number23]

6. Ha! I'm a Southerner through and through

plus I've dated a couple of Ohioans in my day.

You couldn't pay me to live in Ohio!

[jaysunb]

8. That's why I live in California !

My late grand dad always referred to Ohio as "up south."

[Number23]

9. That's perfect!!

I am DYING!! And that's mainly because the Ohioans I've known and dated have been even countrier than the folks I knew growing up in Georgia!

[kwassa]

13. now, now. Just to speak up for Ohio ...

location of the first college in the country to admit both blacks and women, my home town of Oberlin, home of Oberlin College ... in the 1830s .... and with a long tradition of African-American graduates.

and big station on the Underground Railroad. One early black graduate was with John Brown at Harper's Ferry.

Ohio is a purple state, with some islands of liberalism like Oberlin and Yellow Springs, where Antioch College was.

though you couldn't pay me enough to live anywhere in the Midwest, or between the two coasts, actually.

[JustAnotherGen]

7. I'd rather

anally rend and torture myself than to have live in the 1950's. I'm so lucky to have been born when I was, to the people I was, and to have grown up where I grew up.

And yep - that's an oldie. But it's a goodie worth being posted from time to time just to remind people of how much better are lives are in the present day.

[Number23]

10. Word. Girl, the stories my mother tells make me so damn glad that I wasn't around then

And her stories pale in comparison to what I've heard from my grandparents.

But I consider it the height of white privilege and ignorance that there are loud groups of people who sit around longing for the Good Old Days when black folks and Hispanics and Asians and women weren't even given a seat at the table therefore allowing them to have their pick of the economic and employment opportunities. And they then wonder why when they pine for those very same Good Old Days, that people of color and smart, sensitive, informed white people do the face.

[Raine1967]

11. Ahh... the good old days...

That never were.

You know, I am a woman, I am white. I grew up in the state of NY.

My family was also poor as hell. We were poor because my father decided (read: had the choice) to try to live off the grid and off the land. I wish I was joking here, but I'm not. My dad, always a republican, realized that his union work as a construction worker wasn't going to pay the bills.

So in 1978-9 he found a job with the NYS DOC. (also known as the prison system) -- We moved to upstate NY. For some reason, my father looked at this as an opportunity to start to live off the 'land'. (I was about 9-10 at the time, the oldest of the three of us) Me and my two sisters would soon find out that we would be the ones that would be dad's farms hands.

it wasn't a farm. It was a 1/4 acre garden and I helped Dad build a small barn so we could raise pigs. Our jobs were this:

After school, feed compost to the pigs, and then an hour of picking rocks no smaller than a 50 cent piece.

I could go on. I'm not looking for sympathy, what I am saying is that when some people long for the good old days, it's not a good thing. My dad wanted to recreate the good old days, to this day he doesn't understand why I think they were shitty.

I know this is probably way different from the OP, but I'm telling you, as the oldest of three girls -- and having learned an awful lot from living up and down the east coast -- the good old days aint all that.

There is a certain privilege that people don't realize that they are projecting. It could be honestly that White men are feeling the heat suddenly. I think that is part of the problem -- and I say that not excusing white women, to be honest.

What makes me more upset is that lack of acknowledgement that this op is something that is happening now -- still, 6 years after it was written.

[Number23]

12. AMAZING post. And your experiences aren't all that different from what alot of people of color

have experienced.

I always take a look at the folks pining for the "Good Old Days" and it's usually people like your father that benefited in some way from the limited choices of others. In this case, it was you and your sisters whose choices were limited (for a while, at least, until you grew up) and your dad I'm sure loved having all of that free labor around. It's really easy to be happy and love life when you know you get the pick of the options while others get crumbs.

For the most part, I don't think that people that do this are bad people. I think they just have a very limited view of how things are. My biggest concern is the conservatives and unfortunately, loud and large numbers of people on the "left" as well that seem to be blissfully unaware that going back to the 1950s would be sheer, unmitigated hell for a lot of Americans and that we have absolutely no desire to do so at all. Like I said in the OP, for all the shit we have to deal with now, it is still MILES beyond going back to the days of not being able to vote, not being able to enter the front door of establishments, separate water fountains and schools etc. etc. etc. It is a rare person of color or woman that has even the slightest desire to return to the Good Old Days because really they weren't any damn good to that many people.

I see on DU so many posters that whine about how Bill Clinton was a Republican and I just simply don't know any black person that feels that way about the man. I remember black folks LOVING him and one of the reasons was because for just about the first time in American history, a lot of black people felt that we could actually enter the American economy and make our own paths. Something I have not really heard with any other president -- not Carter and sure as hell not the ever so worshiped FDR.

[kwassa]

14. The Good Ol' Days folks are the constituency of the Tea Party.

America is turning brown all around them and they can't handle it. Women are speaking up too much. The old order is falling. This is why they want to turn back the clock.

[Number23]

15. Well a post on DU in the last week with over 300 recs shows that it's not just the Tea Party that

long for the good old days of white ascension and success at the expense of everyone else. In fact, that OP is what caused me to go and find this.

It's times like this that explain why historically, alot of black folks don't really differentiate between white conservatives and white liberals. Both sides seem all too at ease with women and people of color being relegated to the sidelines if we can return the country to the "glory" of the Good Old Days.

[treestar]

16. OH yeah, I hate those

Especially the ones going on about how we survived our mothers smoking and drinking while they were pregnant. Well some didn't, that's how they realized it was unhealthy. It's just plain stupid, and you're right, completely overlooks the experience of nonwhite people in that time period.