When Donald Trump branded his campaign, “Make America great Again” opponents quickly derided the line with when was America so great?.
So I am old enough to remember and i thought i would share what a great America looked like.
- Solid wood furniture built in the Carolinas that was passed on generation to generation. Truly built to last. Not particle board with contact paper applied.
- College tuition at a state university was $100 a quarter. you could easily work part time to pay it..UC BERKELEY 1967
- You could fix your own car, and take pride in rebuilding it.
- Black families in the post WWII era enjoyed unprecedented prosperity. yes it was slow coming to the south, but they raised solid families, went to church and were part of the community. Until Johnson’s war on poverty paid men to leave and hit the streets. We had almost achieved equality, they were my friends. (hunters point). P.S. if you never visited a truly BLACK BBQ with black sauce you never lived.
- Local schools taught vocations as well as colleges. Many preferred to build what was needed locally. School was locally managed not one size fits all. There were extracurricular activities for all those that wanted it.
- Kids played outside unsupervised. no fear. Bicycles let us roam the country side and explore. Everyday was a true adventure, we got strong and fit.
- A burger or pizza was a treat not a staple.
- Everyone could do a little mechanic, plumber , and carpentry work. remember when you used an old dime to gap the points?
- Working for the government was called community service, it paid 30% less.
- Hispanics tolerated being called wetbacks as we all knew they worked hard than all of us. We all shut up when they brought a huge tray of corn tamales and pork burritos, and promptly kissed their ass.! yum.
We invented truly great shit. A combination of chemical engineering, material sciences and the like were needed. Now high tech is coming up with a new advertising or consumer tracking scheme to sell you something that was made overseas by under $1 hour labor. ..Shit we can barely build a weapon anymore.
Does anyone even have a vision of what great would be today?