Post War Assumptions

Post War Assumptions

            When I think of the postwar era I think of the baby boomers and great numbers of G.I.’s returning home to start families and celebrate the new found opportunities afforded by American enterprise and a new ethos that sought to put depression apathy and pessimism to rest. If the collective American society could come together to successfully fight a two-theater war then they felt as though they could accomplish anything. The postwar era brings to mind images of school children diving under wooden desks practicing for what many thought of as an inevitable nuclear apocalypse. The road was open for those with wanderlust or newfound disposable incomes and gasoline under 25 cents a gallon. The family looked quite different. Picture Leave it to Beaver, where many mothers relinquished their “Rosy the Riveter” head-scarves in favor of June Cleaver aprons. The suburbs were born and tract homes and cul-de-sacs invited droves of newly formed families from urban areas and farmsteads. Technology provided an increased hopefulness that our lives would be made gloriously easier by performing the tasks we dread like pushing hand-lawnmowers, washing dishes, and cooking. We craned our necks to the night sky and wondered if the ideas found in our sci-fi mags might, in fact, be possible. What of space? What of exploring the last great frontier? Some, (as is often the case) thought of weaponizing this platform while the rest of us were content with buying cars, and other consumer items with styling to imitate the fins, antennae, and sleek shapes of rockets, satellites, and moon men. Things got bigger. The cars became behemoths of chrome, steel, and glass. The interstate highway system paved the way (literally) for the new economy; the likes of which we had not known since the roaring 20’s. We saw Hollywood grow into a great reflection of our newfound economic status, but more important, our new romanticized self-image of purpose, opportunity, and enterprise. Some never adjusted to the mainstream ideals and gravitated towards rebellious motorcycle clubs or alternative artistic enclaves filled with beatniks, pre-hippy types and all who never aligned with the status quo. We bought things…..lots of things. We carried huge t.v. cabinets into our living rooms and gathered around the relatively small screens in the center at prescribed times to watch this new medium. We listened to Rock-and-Roll, well at least the youth did. We saw advances in medicine that promised cures for things that worried us like polio. We wondered if communism might cover the map we just fought hard to make safe. We began to at least talk about the racial disparities that divided us. We made the world smaller by entering the age of jet travel. We made it larger by attempting to manipulate the global hierarchies according to American ideologies of capitalism, democracy, and perpetual consumerism.