Is This the Same Country That My Grandparents Knew?

If my late grandparents - all of whom would have been 110 and older if alive today - what would they say about the state of society and the country?  I think some good things and some very bad things but at the same time they would be appalled with what is considered 'normal' today versus the world they knew fifty or one hundred years ago.   Such convenience items as microwavable food they would consider amazing but they would probably frown upon the amount of artificial chemicals and preservatives contained in the food.  They would also be amazed to see 70 year old's looking and acting as if they were in their fifties but appalled to see so many young people overweight.   Another area of significance would be they way we dress today.  No longer men in suits and overcoats with fedora's on Sunday morning, they would be aghast as the slovenliness in men and the indecency of women's clothing.

It is a different world than the first half of the 20th century in almost every way.  I have faint memories of the 1950's myself and it was a different childhood than many experience today.  At Christmas we only received one or two toys and some clothes.  We made do with our imaginations using old mattresses in spare lots to practice high jumping and using sawed off broom handles to use as bats in parking lot stick ball.  At home we had a black and white television that only had four channels.    However, our families were close with grandparents and extended family close by and in family gatherings there were always a few relatives who could entertain with musical instruments and everyone danced.    

Everything changed in the 1960's.  Assassinations, race riots, drugs and the Vietnam war revolutionized society.  Young high school girls started to go on the birth control pill and the sexual revolution was in full swing.  Where religion once served as a bulwark of society, most protestant denominations went along with the zeitgeist and Vatican II in the Catholic Church completely upset the apple cart.  Gone was the permanence and unchangeable nature of the Roman Church - nuns deserted their orders and priests let their hair grow and were rarely seen in their roman collars.  It was as if the trap door was opened and the baby boom generation as well as some of the previous WWII generation fell through the cracks with long held assumptions about government, religion and morals completely abandoned.

What would my grandfather's think of a nation held hostage to several thousand terrorists around the world?  A generation that fought world wars would sneer at disgust at the martinets who wield power today - bombing innocent populations, preempt invasions of countries who disagree with the neo-con vision of the world and antagonizing and threatening Russia and China which could lead to another world war.  What would they think of the leadership of the baby boom political class in ruining the finances of the country by promising more than they could ever deliver and being corrupted by money and the pernicious influence of Wall Street?

I think - after a quick glimpse at the present  and going back to their eternal reward- that they would have glad to have been alive during their era and would bemoan the world of their grandchildren and great grandchildren.