13 Comments
Apr 3, 2021Liked by Michael Goldfarb

Growing up in South Africa in the 1950s this was exactly my view of America. My father was a surgeon, had served during the war and now left for work early, came home late, could be called out at any time, was involved on committees and lectured and examined at the University of the Witwatersrand. My mother never worked, my father believed it would signal that he couldn’t afford to support her (!). And my picture of America came from the magazines my mother subscribed to- Ladies Home Journal, McCalls and Good Housekeeping, and there were the housewives with their modern kitchen equipment and patterns for mother and daughter dresses. By the time I reached high school the Nelson Mandela trials were happening in SA and the Little Rock school segregation events had happened in the USA and reality forced its way in.

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Mar 25, 2021Liked by Michael Goldfarb

Thank you that was fascinating.

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Mar 22, 2021Liked by Michael Goldfarb

Brilliant, thank you! It would be interesting to compare experiences to those in the Soviet Union. Also V generation for my parents, strangely similar in some ways but also very different indeed.

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Brilliant piece Micahel. As a fellow 'child of victory' but in the UK, whose father went into business after the war and then married in 1947 (I turned up in 1950) it was much the same in the UK. My childhood was full of freedom and adventures with friends. Golden years indeed and especially compared with today's insecurity, when often even two wages are not enough to feed and clothe a family and benefits are so inadequate, to say the least.

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Mar 21, 2021Liked by Michael Goldfarb

Graphic writing. Netflix current French flick 'Inhuman Resources' emphasizes your quote "deaths of despair" in unresolved long-term unemployment. My father was employed 40 years in the same job and mother, with pregnancy and four children, stopped work for 25 years managing to get back to work where she had been - but those were the golden years you described so well. My children today, while employed, have no pensions or guarantees beyond their last day of work. Contract employment - a newer employment factor arising with the new realities of work today.

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Mar 21, 2021Liked by Michael Goldfarb

Another excellent piece. I have previously shared bits of my employment story. At least my job was eliminated because my bosses wanted to offer the the space of the archives and museums to the college administration in return for a different library position and a future favor neither of which happened. For many other after me there did seem to be a campus-wide effort to rid themselves of employees at all levels who had hit 50. In academe having hit 55 my full time prospects were over. I followed up on who got hired at every job I interviewed for and saw the the minimum required experience was almost always in play with the person hired around 27.

Your comment about your mother working hit home, too. My mother did, too. Many of the mothers of school chums did too. This was not really represented in the TV that I saw growing up. I have always had the opinion that those who talk about two kids, split level house in the burbs with a mother who did not work outside of the home are conflating Leave it to Beaver or Father Knows Best with the own childhood memories.

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