Can We Miss Somewhere We've Never Been?
Not having participated in the fifties myself, believe it or not, reading both "Looking For Work" and "What We Really Miss About the 1950s" was enlightening and engaging. From vivid skips down memory lane to intriguing and suprising data filled statistics, these articles were fascinating and well worth reading.
It wasn't until the tenth comment in the section"extending the critical context" that I even remembered the title of the first article was "Looking For Work". As the author, Gary Soto, spun his tale through the haze of days long ago spent in the warm sun of California, I found myself relaxing into the story, obsorbing the details and graphics he so skillfully illustrated. Gary shared his family and neighbors with us, and led us through his adventure of becoming just rich enough to enjoy the day. I personally found it interesting, having raised five children of my own, that it never occured to him to ask his mother for the money. In fact, I consider it relavent to the story. Once his wealth is gained, it is appreciated almost immediately. Gary is eager to share his new found fortune in order to more fully enjoy the fruits of his labors. While our stroll through a day in his life was not free from images less pleasurable and disturbing, it did create a sense of cheerful gratitude for lessons learned from these days spent growing up in the fifties.
In my opinion, Stephanie Coontz' details about the decades leading up to and subsequent to the fifties were stimulating and essential to her final supposition. It's much more understandable, now, why the fifties are revered as a time of abundance, growth, and progression. The statistics on such things as household occupants, teen and single mother pregnancies, parenthood, job market and economics of multiple periods of time put things into perspective not comprehended previously. It created greater cohesion of how each era related and contributed to the next and the next, etc.
Each author of these articles had a style which best suited their purpose. While one used story telling to create a sense of the time period stated, the other was an information based piece. Each article was informative and interesting within it's own element, and could be appreciated for it's contribution to the opinions considered about the era of the 1950s.
I enjoyed reading how you explained each of the two authors writings. I was having difficulty understanding Coontz. I agree that Coontz did explain and give a better understanding as to how each era related and contributed to the next era. She also explained why many people look back at the 1950's as one of the best times to raise a family, whether or not we agree.
ReplyDeleteI agree with aimee. I liked how you explained the authors writing very throughly. Also Cootntz did explain it better because she had a lot of facts to go with what she was saying. But all in all each author did very good in conveying what they wanted.
ReplyDeleteI never even thought about how the little boy never asked his mother for money. Now that you have pointed it out I just keep think about my childhood and how I would ask my mom how I could earn money which slowly turned into me just asking for money. I also think about my little sister and how she now expects my parents to pay for everything. It is funny to see how times have changed and how my family is so different than his.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you about how each era contributes to the next. A lot is learned and built upon. It was interesting that the boy didn't ask his mother for money. Maybe he figured he would have better luck just going door to door, i don't know. you could probably relate better than i could to the first story having kids and all. That is cool. I too agree that each author had a style that best suited their purpose
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about missing an era that we never lived in. I've never understood how people miss something they never had. You had a lot of differant perspevtives that I have never even thought about. I love reading these responses because it just gets my mind going even more.
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