Browsing: Other Places Other Eras

Hola Readers — I’m just back from Spain, which seems a little more Free-Range than America. (And Canada. And especially…

Hi! The Deputy here! My dad recently told me about a friend of his–this would be the 1940’s–whose mother told…

Hi htifztdsty Readers — I got this note yesterday and so many points resonated for me, I thought I’d share…

Just purchased, for 35 cents, a slim German text book last checked out of New York’s DeWitt Clinton High School…

In the 1940s, women were working in factories, doing all the jobs men did — and earning their own keep. After the war, they were suddenly told: What on earth are you doing here? The outside world is too dangerous for you, you sweet, silly creatures! We’re only saying this for your own good. You can’t make it out here. Go home!

Which sounds remarkably like what we are telling kids today. Kids who, just a generation ago, were perfectly capable of making their way in the outside world — babysitting, playing in the park, walking to school — are now being told: What on earth are you doing our here? The world is too dangerous for you, you sweet, silly creatures! We’re only saying this for your own good. Go home! (Or, alternatively, “Go to soccer practice, which we will drive you to and pick you up from.”)