Anyone here alive in the 195o's?

Christ, you had to ask.

Gracie, love, I have a lot to say about all this. Not easy to configure into words for your class. I'll just watch for a while.

How about the 1940s?

I was born in late 1958 Gracie, so I was just a wee lass.

Yeah, duck and cover. That'll keep you safe from the Abomb

You really like history, don't you?

That really cool.

Aww! Come on! Why wait?

I started a thread about it once.... it didn't go very far but there are some interesting comments from a few folks.

http://able2know.org/topic/163995-1

1940's are fine too! But I really wanna hear about the Cold War since that's what we're gonna be learning about.

We've already talked about the 30's and 40's. I think the 20's and 30's were a really happy time for people, right? Its when the Charleston dance was popular. That dance has to be the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Haha!

the 30's were very hard and trying for a lot of folks, gracie.

a depression worse than this one. barely...

That's exactly what I said when I saw the video! It was really ridiculous and super funny. Most of the class just laughed through it. It had random people just dropping to the ground to 'duck and cover' at the randomest places.

Yea, I really really like history. At the beginning of the year I didnt but my teacher's really awesome and we watch videos about stuff and we do cool projects. And its just really interesting.

We watched the movie 'Ironed Jawed Angels' when we were talking about suffrage.
We watched another awesome movie called 'Life Is Beautiful' when we were learning about the Holocaust. It was the saddest movie ever.

And we played this game when we were learning about WWI and trench warfare, and no-man's land, where we were soldiers and one half of the class was on one side of the classroom hiding under desks and the other half was on the other side. And we made a bunch of paper balls and pretended that they were bullets and if you got hit with one you were out (dead). So, each side had a turn to try to get to the other soldier's side without getting hit. It was supppper fun and both sides lost. It was suppose to show us why trench warfare wasnt good. Plus, tanks were invented and they could drive through trenches and stuff.

But yeah, history is AWESOME!

Oh! Thanks JPB! I'll read it.

I thought we were in a recession not a depression. My teacher says that a recession is a normal part of government or economy.

I forgot. Right before the depression was a really happy time right? The 1920's? When everyone was doing the Charleston and women were starting to wear 'racy' (in old times) clothing. The depression started in the 1930's according to my textbook. 1920-1929 was a happy time. America was like, the wealthiest country.

You're thinking of the era known as the Roaring 20's.

Read Sebastian Faulks' Bird Song
http://www.amazon.com/Birdsong-Novel-Love-Sebastian-Faulks/dp/0679776818

if you want a clue of war.

Yeppers!! Thanks for the vids!

Well, I was born in 1951, so much that I know from the 1950s are from history books, just like you're learning now.

I do quite clearly remember the Cuban missile crisis from 1962. That was a real stressful time for all living in North America at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis

We weren't sure if there was going to be a war or not.

I recall when Sputnik was launched, in 1957, when I was fourteen. The whole nation got very nervous, because we had no satellite of our own and not much of a space program to speak of. We felt the Soviets maybe were going to dominate us and this was just a first step. That was the reason the government got behind the space program and decided to send people to the moon.

I recall having a conversation with a teacher about it. I was interested in the propaganda effect of Sputnik, more so than the satellite itself, because fear is such a powerful weapon. A few times, I worried the Soviets might conquer us, but only for short times. Their people were much poorer than the Americans and their products were the butt of jokes. I decided that we had the edge on them, even if they did have Sputnik.

I was seven when they launched Sputnik. I think it was in late September cause we had meatloaf that night .

Also - In 1950, I first became aware of politics, after my mother informed me that we were at war in Korea. I heard it said that if we lost the war, the communist forces would come here and kill many and enslave the rest. I hoped very hard that we would win.