The fifties in the Twin Cities of Minnesota  produced an imaginary world to a boy who would say goodbye to the decade at age ten. The little ones were constantly reminded that nuclear war was imminent, but somehow hidden away even with the propaganda films brought into the classroom.

I remember going downtown to the parade and we were standing right by the Farmers & Mechanics State Bank.  And there, etched into the stone was a mechanic with hammer and a farmer with a sickle. I was sure that communists were hidden inside of the building. One of my favorite shows was 'I Led Three Lives.' That was the show about a double or triple agent fighting communists.  And I recall that all communists were bald.  And it bothered me, really bothered me that my President was bald but Dad said he won WWII and not to worry about it.

Communist China was filled with hungry people living in a totalitarian country. The Communists turned all children into informers on their parents.

And over population in the world would kill us all.  There were nearly 3 billion people on the planet and soon there would be 9 or 12 billion people.  I was afraid that soon it would be difficult to find a place to stand, let alone lie down.

Divorce was a sin. And Hollywood people were sinners because they all got divorced and then spat in the face of God by getting remarried.

Birth control was a communist plot.  I did not even know what an abortion was until I was 15 or 16. But timing the wife's menstral cycle was ok which is how we got my youngest brother Emmett.

The sales tax was also a communist plot.  I was not sure what it was at the time but I was sure it was a communist plot.

But there were real issues that appeared in the newspapers all the time.  And when I say newspapers, there were a lot of them.  The Minneapolis Morning Tribune, delivered in the morning for pennies a day. The Minneapolis Star delivered in the late afternoon. There were other papers.  And of course there were paper drives and by  saving your papers and bundling them from time to time you would feed poor people or something like that.

But the front pages were filled with real issues.  Should they allow makers of margarine the opportunity to use yellow dye so that their product really looked like butter.  The dairy farmers were adamant in their veto of this evil product.

You could go to the local theater with one film playing all day and all week.  But you saw newsreels, and cartoons, and Disney shorts with real animals frolicking on the screen and then the big show.  Out side you would see pickets declaring that Pay TV would be the end of us all.

Dutch Elm Disease was the topic of the age.  Terrible beetles were infesting the most honored tree in the county and one day there would be no trees at all.

In the fall there was a smell that is long lost.  People burned their leaves on the street. Right in front of their homes.  Not in barrels, right on the street.  The daily papers told you which side of the street, odd or even, you could burn on that night.

Daylight Savings Time.  The big rift between the farmers and the mechanics.  The farmers were dead set against it.  It interfered with their work day.Yes, Daylight Savings Time was a very big issue of the day.

And Sunday closing laws.  Certainly no liquor or bars to open.  It was the day of rest as ordained in the Bible.  But no strip malls or stores were to be open on Sunday.  Forget a Muslim Friday.  That issue never came up.   But the talk was that it was a Jewish conspiracy to keep shops open on Sunday in order to put a curse on the Christians, which is odd since the Sabbath was kind of  an Old Testament concept.

Smoking tobacco was good for you and more doctors smoked Lucky Strikes. Dad thought Kools were the best cure for a cold.

Someone was discussing the difficulty in predicting the future.  I do feel that there is a good possibility that whatever we are worrying about now will differ from what we worry about twenty years from now.

THE END