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Discussion » Statements » Rosie's Corner » I guess Americans were a lot happier during WW2. Men went off to battle, die, become heroes. Women took over men's jobs at home. Remember?

I guess Americans were a lot happier during WW2. Men went off to battle, die, become heroes. Women took over men's jobs at home. Remember?

Sure we had rationing of things like butter and sugar. We used to have slogans like "butter for guns"! The thing is we were all in it TOGETHER. We all felt that we were participating in something greater than we were. The ENEMY was never one another each other at home. The enemy was always an identifiable foreigner and our movies reflected that by always having America victorious.  We couldn't afford to hate one another because we were too busy being proud of our country and proud of our guys "over there".

Posted - November 26, 2018

Responses


  • 46117
    No one was happier then.  No one is happier now.  No one is happier or not happier because of some time period they were born into.

    Your surroundings do not make you serene in the head.  Your intent and desire do.  If you spend the day in 1944, being ungrateful and wishing someone would make you happy, you are not going to be any less miserable than if you were born today with that same ingratitude.  

    Gratitude makes you happy.  

    Be thankful for everything.  I mean everything.  And then no one can hurt you even if you were incarcerated.  Even if you were in Nazi Germany.


    The Diary of Anne Frank was not a fairy tale.

      November 26, 2018 12:17 PM MST
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  • 113301
     Thank you for your reply and the graphic and Happy Tuesday.
      November 27, 2018 1:43 AM MST
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  • 6023
    I don't think the minorities were happier.
    Especially anyone of Japanese ancestry.
      November 26, 2018 1:33 PM MST
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  • 113301
    Touche Walt. That was a huge blooper faux pas on my part. Ya know why?  Because we have traveled by a former internment camp in California. Ever hear of MATAWAN? There is a posted  sign that memorializes its location. I get shivers when we pass by. A terrible time in our history. Taking AMERICAN CITIZENS out of their homes and placing them in Internment Camps as if they were prisoners. Well of course they were weren't they? Women and children and men. One of the most disgusting thing of which America was guilty. We invaded a country and murdered the owners of it (Native Americans). In years past we LYNCHED people because of the color of their skin. We still revere colorless people more than we do those who are people of color. Imagine when pasty white is preferred to a gorgeous brown NATURAL skin tone? SIGH. Thanks for the catch.. :( Wonder what awful things the john has up his sleeve? This post was edited by RosieG at November 27, 2018 7:05 AM MST
      November 26, 2018 4:52 PM MST
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  • 6023
    My ex-in-laws lived in Klamath Falls, OR ... and we went to see the former internment camp, every time we visited.

    We also would see the battlefields of the Modoc War ... and the area Louis L'Amour worked lumber mills.
      November 27, 2018 7:01 AM MST
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  • 113301
    Did you get shivers and "feel" odd in those places? Years ago my then-fiancee and I visited his home state of Pennsylvania and we visited Gettsyburg! I swear I could hear guns and shouts in the background out there somewhere. A "noisy" silence and stillness but still I "heard" sounds. It was more than 3 decades ago and at the time it was a VERY BEAUTIFUL historic place to visit. I expect it still is. That happened to me another time when I was a kid. We visited the "Southwest Museum" in Los Angeles which featured many Native American artifacts and clothing. I walked in and suddenly was overwhelmed by the "ambiance". In fact I had to go back out after a few minutes. Very active imagination I guess. It seemed overwhelmingly sad inside there and I found it hard to breathe! Weird kid! Weird adult! Go figger! Thank you for your Walt! :) This post was edited by RosieG at November 27, 2018 7:14 AM MST
      November 27, 2018 7:13 AM MST
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  • 6023
    I felt like someone was watching me, at the Cliff Dwellings.

    Gettysburg was "too quiet".  No birds or insects, even.

    Roanoke raised the hair on my neck, and I didn't even know about the "lost colony" at the time (very young).
      November 27, 2018 8:40 AM MST
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  • 53676
      You wrote in part: The ENEMY was never one another each other at home. The enemy was always an identifiable foreigner and our movies reflected that by always having America victorious. We couldn't afford to hate one another because we were too busy being proud of our country and proud of our guys "over there".

      Perhaps you're forgetting or ignoring that strife has existed among and between numerous groups of people in the United States of America since its earliest days of existence. Abject hatred of one ethnic group or another, one social group or another, one economic class or another, etc. Remember The Indian Wars? The IS Civil War? Jim Crow LAWS? The Klu Klux Klan? Lynchings?  Violent, bloody, deadly race riots?  Anti-Semitism?  Anti-Irish movements?  Anti-Communism in the US? Anti-union activism?  Anti-Mormon sentiments? Anti-Chinese?  The list goes on and on. The blissful utopia you claim existed is not in keeping with reality. 
      November 27, 2018 7:16 AM MST
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  • 6098
    I would question that. Of course I was not born until long after.  But I would point out that very few people who served in WW2 wanted to go to war or wanted to be "heroes",  And even fewer wanted to die. They served because they had to and many never came back. Many families were disrupted and many returned to find their wives and families gone and never were able at all to regain their youthful and hopeful approach to life.  And there was plenty of discrimination both in and out of the armed forces as well as racial incidents and even fighting.  You live in LA but have you not heard of the "zoot suit riots"? Many at military bases even in this country robbed the locals and took advantage of local girls.  Much of industry was disrupted as it was converted by government order to war work.  Labor unions took advantage of the labor shortages  to hold strikes for higher wages and greater recognition. Not everyone agreed with the war and some who did not were imprisoned or interred as some people were just because of their race. All giving rise to plenty of "hate".

    Surprising to read such war-mongering sentiments from you and especially nationalistic sentiments of the kind which time and again on here you have disassociated yourself from and criticized and ridiculed. 

    What were the people in this country fighting for back then?  To preserve our way of life against those who sought to destroy it. Specifically against fascism. totalitarianism,  and militarism and during the Korean conflict and later against communism.  Yet now, 75 years later, you are given not only to espousing communistic and totalitarian sentiments under the guise of "equality", "fairness", "truth",  and "progress" but also calling for war!

    It really does not bother me if you hate me for whatever reason - perhaps you resent my wealth, or question how I live my life, or believe I tell too many "lies" or whatever. But when you start, as the consequence of your hatred,  trying to take my property from me, to abridge my freedom, or dictate to me how to think and act, or falsely accuse me of thoughts or actions - then you can expect me to resist.  Because you seem to have forgotten just what it was we were fighting for back then - or otherwise why would you  in so much of what you post seek to destroy those same things we achieved and strengthened for ourselves in WW2?  There was infinitely more hate and discrimination in existence back then than there could ever be today!
      November 27, 2018 8:52 AM MST
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