The Generation Before Me

Looking at my little 1944 Laundry Booklet gave me a glimpse into my Mom's life. And it made me think about the women who preceded me....and how different their lives were from mine.

Those women were children during the Great Depression and they understood the concept of "making do". Many families didn't own homes, and men were unemployed or barely employed. A little girl being raised in Iowa during that time was lucky to have one good dress (for church)...and she ands her fellow students would walk to school barefoot. There was no such thing as health insurance...very few families owned automobiles...and central air conditioning had not yet been invented.

As Mom was coming of age, along came World War II. 16 Million American men served in that all-consuming war. The fear must have been overwhelming. Families got the daily reports, gathered around radios, hearing about battles in France, or Germany or Guam...places they'd never even seen on a map. Every element of their life was rationed...sugar, flour, gas, groceries, tires, nylon stockings...

But they were all in it together...

By the time my little Laundry Booklet was published -- the war was over. And America was all about affluence...and opportunity.

Glenn and Joyce married in 1946. The world Dad came home to was a far cry from the one he left. America was geared up to MANUFACTURE. When those 16 million U.S. soldiers came home, many went to school on the GI Bill -- or they got jobs in those new factories.

It was a nearly perfect cycle of consumerism...and the next 20 years was all about building a "Middle Class".

All over America, factories were going at warp speed...General Electric, Dupont, John Deere, Ford, Boeing, General Motors, Alcoa, Caterpillar, etc. Workers were in demand, and men could get good-paying jobs.  In order to attract workers, employers had to offer "B.E.N.E.F.I.T.S".  Which was quite a new concept.

The workers were able to build new homes, buy cars, and provide a better life for their children than the one they had....

By the 60's, communities were building new schools and hospitals.  We improved our infrastructure, highways, bridges, the electrical grid covered every inch of the country.  Central air conditioning became part of the "new normal"...

Wow...that little 1944 Westinghouse Laundromat booklet really made me think...