Easy Come

Some young people I have over-heard, and yes, I do this a lot since I sit alone in places like Starbucks and their ilk, make talk that older people perhaps those who grew up in the fifties, had it easy. What?
No, kids, it wasn't at all easy although we are positive thinkers for the most part, and tell about the good times. Sure we could trust a hand shake then and most of us had families, not "extended" ones or ones with single parents who struggle. Yes, most of uslived in houses, not high rises. And it is true that you could walk in the woods or forest without fear of running across a displaced creature as it is now largely. The water that came from the tap wasn't full of chlorine and we could all walk the streets at night without worrying. Easy though? Not in terms of today's kids. We were largely ignored when adults were around and told to say hello and then disappear. We were swatted when it was needed and at school there was the seldom used but greatly respected, Strap. We didn't have cars unless we were boys who had good after-school jobs that girls didn't.  Girls babysat any night and on weekends for a pittance and often nothing if the parents couldn't make the coins. And that was what we got, coins. We saved those coins because most of our families didn't have money to go out and buy us expensive shoes or holidays at the beach. They had just come out of a World War and few common people had bundles of money holidays. A car was a luxury and it was pampered. Credit cards did not exist. There were labels of course, but when there is no money you make do. No other choice. If other kids made fun of us, we lived with it. There was no one to go to but perhaps a school counsellor who was untrained and wanted to get out of the classroom. Their advice was pretty much ignored because it was based on very little research material and we knew that what really counted, was what we were determined to do regardless. And we did it.  Until Doctor Spock came along, kids were things that naturally happened and while our parents loved us, we were mostly "surprises" when we came along. The Pill had not been invented. It was an unregulated world where areas of grey were present and no one sued anyone. For recreation, we went to each other's homes and made taffy or traded and listened to records, the black big kind we put on turntables. We had school dances where the boys lined up on one side and the girls on the other. Tremulous treks were made across the floor to ask a girl to dance,  Nice girls never phoned boys or asked them out or to dance. The lines were there and if you crossed them you got a reputation. The Good Night Kiss was as far as it went. None of us wanted to "get into trouble".  Kids were not allowed to loll about lockers and use bad language. You could be kicked out of school for sassing the teacher mildly or slamming a door or wearing rude clothing. There were no children's rights but it all seemed to work out well and no one complained about it. Games were after school and they were events we all attended to cheer for our teams. There was the hang-out café where you put a coin in the little table juke box. School supplies were supplied as was transportation by the School District. Fees for this and that were unheard of. There were no such things as Teacher Aids or Parent Conference Nights. We put on concerts or plays during the year of programs planned by adults. There was little if any parental involvement in schools. There were PTAs that raised money for things we didn't know or worry about. There was no door to door fund raising. Sure there were bullies but everyone just avoided them and ignored them away. Status was there of course. You knew your place and lived with it. You were not a crybaby.  It got you nowhere. You studied at home or at the library and you passed or failed. It was left up to you. If you could afford it, you went to university and if you couldn't, you did something else. Simple. All the complications facing students today have little to do with improvement over what was. But it wasn't easy, we had to make it on our own - or not.