I grew up that way. But we were always well informed because my mother made sure we had intelligent discussions at the dinner table before one of us six kids did the dishes and another walked out to the nearby farm to get eggs for 25 cents after carrying a load of rags to the gas station to sell for said 25 cents, as my mother did a load of laundry with a hand wringer and no dryer before going to work the next day scrubbing floors for the neighbors. All my clothes came from church sales or the SA. We couldn’t afford TV until later on so we listened to the radio but I knew about HUAC, I knew about racism in our small town, I knew we dropped an atomic bomb on Japan, etc. I don’t lack empathy for that state but I don’t excuse them either. Get over yourself.
A kindred soul! Thank you for this story. I sometimes get on such a jihad against the Yuppie generation that I forget that there are still a lot of anti-corporate smart people still kicking against the Wall. To me, I think the main difference is that my generation had values—social justice, anti military, civil rights, and a kind of crazy, woo woo spirituality that looked for a new ethos in a savage nation. The yuppies hated all that, and got their Nikes and their email and their designer coffee, expensive wine and cocaine and ran off to climb the corporate ladder and invest in Mall Street. They hated unions, they thought civil rights was Micheal Jordan, thought the military was to be thanked for its “service” and that the only voting they should do was voting people off the island. We arrived at where we are fair and square by our own hand and own choices. And it’s typical of a dying empire.
It does seem better in hindsight, but I remember seeing the napalmed children of Vietnam and feeling the same horror for my country as I feel now. And the cops letting white southern mobs kill blacks and jewish civil rights workers, and shooting down college kids for protesting. And drag queens in NYC having to riot to stop New York’s Finest from raping them, and no woman being able to buy a house without her husband’s fucking signature. Today I live in a nice little neighborhood with 2 queers, one born-again Trumpy bunch, several single women, one biker family, 1 Asian family, 3 unmarried couples, 3 married couples, and a lot of weed stores up on the main drag. It’s a great place. But I don’t have to go far to see horrible homeless camps, Mexican and Black poverty and cops flipping off Free Palestine demonstrators 2 blocks over. I think the US has changed for the better but we have a loooonnnnggg ass way to go. 😁
I grew up that way. But we were always well informed because my mother made sure we had intelligent discussions at the dinner table before one of us six kids did the dishes and another walked out to the nearby farm to get eggs for 25 cents after carrying a load of rags to the gas station to sell for said 25 cents, as my mother did a load of laundry with a hand wringer and no dryer before going to work the next day scrubbing floors for the neighbors. All my clothes came from church sales or the SA. We couldn’t afford TV until later on so we listened to the radio but I knew about HUAC, I knew about racism in our small town, I knew we dropped an atomic bomb on Japan, etc. I don’t lack empathy for that state but I don’t excuse them either. Get over yourself.
I got to turn the crank on the clothes wringer when I was a kid.
One of many great memories of me and my mom.
We weren’t dirt poor when I was growing up.
But, as I remember it, almost everybody was poor, living paycheck to paycheck.
It seems like neighbors were more neighborly, and less adversarial than nowadays.
Poor people working together, to make life a little better.
I don’t see that as much in this current era.
It’s a mixed bag though.
I remember struggling families, who received government assistance, being shamed and ostracized, in terribly cruel and humiliating ways.
But, then again, look at how horribly some homeless, impoverished individuals and families are treated today.
We had a 1960s screen in our house.
It certainly did a fine job of propagandizing my parents.
No books, except the Bible, around the house.
Until a salesman and I cajoled mom and dad into a set of “World Books”.
But, that Zenith, or was it a Magnavox, did introduce me to Vietnam and Palestine.
Changed the trajectory of my life.
I was supposed to follow in dad’s footsteps, and be a military man.
That would have been a catastrophe, for all parties involved.
Betcha Aaron Bushnell would have received more attention on the tube back then.
But, then again, there wouldn’t have been any smartphone video.
I guess it’s up to some of us to make it more difficult to be woefully uninformed.
Free Palestine
A kindred soul! Thank you for this story. I sometimes get on such a jihad against the Yuppie generation that I forget that there are still a lot of anti-corporate smart people still kicking against the Wall. To me, I think the main difference is that my generation had values—social justice, anti military, civil rights, and a kind of crazy, woo woo spirituality that looked for a new ethos in a savage nation. The yuppies hated all that, and got their Nikes and their email and their designer coffee, expensive wine and cocaine and ran off to climb the corporate ladder and invest in Mall Street. They hated unions, they thought civil rights was Micheal Jordan, thought the military was to be thanked for its “service” and that the only voting they should do was voting people off the island. We arrived at where we are fair and square by our own hand and own choices. And it’s typical of a dying empire.
Kindred soul.
Old soul.
Old School.
OG.
This is a union town.
Solidarity Forever.
Nostalgic for a simpler, slower time.
It does seem better in hindsight, but I remember seeing the napalmed children of Vietnam and feeling the same horror for my country as I feel now. And the cops letting white southern mobs kill blacks and jewish civil rights workers, and shooting down college kids for protesting. And drag queens in NYC having to riot to stop New York’s Finest from raping them, and no woman being able to buy a house without her husband’s fucking signature. Today I live in a nice little neighborhood with 2 queers, one born-again Trumpy bunch, several single women, one biker family, 1 Asian family, 3 unmarried couples, 3 married couples, and a lot of weed stores up on the main drag. It’s a great place. But I don’t have to go far to see horrible homeless camps, Mexican and Black poverty and cops flipping off Free Palestine demonstrators 2 blocks over. I think the US has changed for the better but we have a loooonnnnggg ass way to go. 😁
Yeah.
I’m a kindred spirit with the red people of North America.
Was that way since I was a yout.
So this place has always been a shit hole country, as far as I’m concerned.
Different, but not different, from Israel.
A crime called a country.
Just like Israel.
Wow. A crime called a country. Love it.
So are you a yout from Dulut? I grew up in minnesloppy.