EVALUATING THE FIFTIES

I recently ordered two books from Amazon that came as a package deal. The titles were Ninety Minutes in Heaven and Twenty-Three Minutes in Hell. And no, they were not by the same author. I decided to read the “heaven” one first and it was very interesting. One thing that struck me as I read it has made me take a look back at the fifties and perhaps re-evaluate my opinions about the era.

What the author said was that when people look back at “the good old days,” they tend to forget the bad things about the times and just remember the good. I had already suspected that I was guilty of this very thing, so I began trying to think of what might have been bad about the era.

First, I do recall that I thought people were not as sincere as they should be; there seemed to be a false veneer behind which we hid. In doing so, we were always trying to conform to others’ opinions of us rather than being true to ourselves. It was very important to us to be one of the crowd and we were brought up to the old adage of “What will people think?”

Also, there was definitely a double standard between boys and girls. It was okay for boys to wear jeans to school, but the girls couldn’t. Men could smoke; women were “common” if they did. (Of course, that didn’t stop us from doing it.) Many times the girls were at the top of the class, but usually the only jobs open to women were teaching, secretarial, and nursing.

In the area of churches, it seemed to me that people were not really very spiritual; it was more a works-oriented type of religion that was prevalent. Oh, I’m sure there were some people who were deeply committed Christians who were acting out their faith, but there also seemed to be many who just went to church because it was expected and their “piety” didn’t extend past Sunday at noon. (And I suppose you could say the same about today’s Christians.)

In addition to the above examples, I could add that there were subjects that were strictly taboo to discuss. I learned about the “birds and bees” from my sisters and friends and I can tell you that there was a lot of information missing. I remember that the lack of being open about that subject frustrated me at the time, but talking about it just wasn’t done.

Of course, all that changed with the sixties. All the views and beliefs we had held sacred went up in marijuana smoke. In an effort to change the world, we went way overboard and now, looking back at the fifties, they seem heavenly compared to what came afterwards.

In an effort not to seem too pessimistic, I can name many things I like about today’s world that we didn’t have back then: computers, cell phones, washers and driers, dishwashers, AC, GPS, and on and on.

I suppose what’s really important is that we try to appreciate what we have today and do our best to continue to grow spiritually in this crazy mixed up world. According to Don Piper, the “heaven” author, we have a beautiful experience ahead of us.

Now I’ll see what the “Hell” book is all about.