The More Things Change . . .

I love antiques and anything "vintage".  In fact, I sometimes think I was born thirty years too late.  I should have been a 1950's housewife.  In lieu of time travel, I purchased a stack of Saturday Evening Post and Life magazines from the 1950's and 60's.  Browsing through them brings back childhood memories, but just as often, I learn something about the world during that time that a child would not remember.  As I read my way through the stack, I'll post from time to time about the things I learn and remember.


Saturday Evening Post, December 7, 1963.

Although the cover date is a week after President Kennedy was assassinated, the magazine had obviously already been printed because there are several references to the President and his administration.

Obviously, lots of things have changed since 1963 - such as:

• How we get our music.  Oh, the hours I spent lying on the floor in front of a stereo like this - listening to the soundtrack from Elvis Presley's movie "Spinout" or Lionell Barrymore reading Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol."  (I still have that album, but no way to play it.)    Now I listen to music via satellite (a relatively new thing in 1963) or stored in some mysterious digital form.
• Polaroid intruduced the Colorpack - the first color "instant" camera - the perfect Christmas gift for only $99.

• As was the newest aid to housewives - the self-cleaning oven.

• Boys (and boys only) were recruited to deliver the Saturday Evening Post and earn prizes.

But some things haven't changed as much as I thought.  An article titled "The Failure of Congress" states:

"More than ever before, the public attitude toward Congress is a mixture of indifference, amusement and contempt. . . When the citizens of a democracy begin to hold their legislature in contempt, democracy is itself in danger."

The more things change...