It has often been said that baseball is America's favorite pastime, Doris Kearn's Wait Till Next Year, brings this idea into perspective. Baseball gives people something to look forward to and a team to cheer for. This seems to be a constant theme throughout your memoir. America's love of baseball is still a part of today's life but not in the same way that it seemed to be in the 5O's. People of my generation have read history books and known the stereotypes of this decade but sometimes it takes a personal account of these times, such as your book, to really bring it into perspective.
Because you are the author and main character of this story, I am going to refer to the main character of this story in third person as Doris.
I have often fantasized about what it would be like to live in the 1950's. It seemed like such a glorious age, just how they depicted it in the movies. Though the movies do tend to romanticize things, this account of the fifties was a lot like I would have thought it to be. It seems that things are so different yet, so much the same. I was expecting to hear of playing in the neighborhood and long summer days spent riding bikes with friends but, the baseball aspect was a surprise to me. I thought that, in such a conservative, oppressive era, little girls would be given Barbie dolls instead of scorebooks. As a reader, we know that there are exceptions to the stereotypes, but we rarely get to hear their stories. That is why I found this memoir to be fascinating and inspiring.
It seems that every little girl should have a special connection to her father, especially in a decade that is know for its focus on family and children. We are told that the fifties is all about materialism, and parents, especially fathers, who were at work all day, showed their children affection by showering them with luxuries. It was the mothers who showed their children emotional affection because they were at home with them all day. This memoir tells a different side of the story, that parent-child relationships were much more complex and couldn't be summarized so easily. We tend to hear of father-son relationships and mother-daughter relationships in the fifties. Examples of fathers throwing the football in the back yard while mothers prepare dinner along side their daughters are the norm.
Elaine Tyler May's Homeward Bound weaves two traditional narratives of the fifties -- suburban domesticity and rampant anticommunism -- into one compelling historical argument. Aiming to ascertain why, unlike both their parents and children, postwar Americans turned to marriage and parenthood with such enthusiasm and commitment, May discovers that cold war ideology and the domestic revival [were] two sides of the same coin: postwar Americans' intense need to feel liberated from the past and secure in the future. (May, p. 5-6, 10) According to May, "domestic containment" was an outgrowth of the fears and aspirations unleashed after the war -- Within the home, potentially dangerous social forces of the new age might be tamed, where they could contribute to the secure and fulfilling life to which postwar women and men aspired.(May, p. 14) Moreover, the therapeutic emphases of fifties psychologists and intellectuals offered private and personal solutions to social problems. The family was the arena in which that adaptation was expected to occur; the home was the environment in which people could feel good about themselves. In this way, domestic containment and its therapeutic corollary undermined the potential for political activism and reinforced the chilling effects of anticommunism and the cold war consensus.(May, p.14)
Coontz, Stephanie. “What We Missed About the 1950s.” Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. 9th ed. Eds. Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013. 27-43. Print.
During World War 1 half a million people died but millions of people became veterans. But one thing of American culture stayed the same; their love for baseball. On July 4th, 1918, America’s
At first glance, “A&P” written by John Updike, looks like a funny, slangy, youthful story about a young, nineteen year old boy, Sammy, who has the normal problems that come along with his age group; abhorrence for his job, talking despondently about the older generation, and dreaming about girls he sees in the store. However, when people look at the history of the 1960’s, they find it shows a change in American social values and morals. Furthermore, the revolution of multiple groups of minorities through the civil rights movement, such as women, gays, and African Americans just to name a few who were at the forefront of issues during the 1960’s. Also, there was a revolt caused from the distrust of politicians, and from the 1950’s “family values” of strict conservatism to a more liberal view associated with the “hippie movement.” All these culminations of hot button topics can be seen in different characters from John Updike’s short story “A&P”, whether intentional or not. Furthermore, they represent different aspects of what America was going through at that time.
From the outside, the 1950’s was a great time for America. Society revolved around the idea of America being a middle-class nation. Americans worshipped conformity, and materialism satisfied the need to conform. However, the prosperity of materialistic America hid the growing, numerous problems. Dissent in any way was not tolerated; all injustice was stifled by a fear of difference. In “Fifties Society,” Alan Brinkley discusses the truth of the era; that the fear of nonconformity was hidden by the seemingly prosperous middle-class nation. Brinkley argues the Beat movement and “feminine mystique” show that the people who did not fit in reveal the true colors of 1950’s society.
Baseball, America’s pastime, is embedded in the fabric of society. The players and teams have come and gone, but the thing that remains constant is baseball’s ability to unite people as well as families. My own personal experience of this came right after September 11th, 2001. Following the tragedy that was 9/11, the country needed something to help everyone return to normalcy. In our moment of weakness and uncertainty, baseball helped calm my nerves. Fifty three thousand three hundred and twelve brothers stood up in unison and took back their lives. The electricity of that game, the sense of regularity in my life, and the knowledge that millions of people were finding comfort together with me during such a hard time, helped me feel a sense of closure that the worst was behind us.
Stephanie Coontz's essay `What we really miss about the 1950's' is an essay that talks about a poll taken in 1996 by the Knight-Ridder news agency that more Americans preferred 1950's as the best decade for children to grow up. Coontz doesn't believe that it is a decade for people to remember fondly about, except for financial reasons and better communication within families. Coontz doesn't believe in it as the best decade because of the votes, the 50's only won by nine percent, and especially not by African Americans. Examples from family and financial issues in the 50's that makes it better than other decades from 20's to 80's. She doesn't believe that the 50's should be taken `literally' because from 50's there were changes in values that caused racism, sexism discrimination against women. Even though the 50's were good, it didn't lead to a better 60, 70, and 80.
In the early 20th century, baseball became the first professional sport to earn nationwide attention in America. Because it was our first national professional team sport, because of its immense popularity, and because of its reputation as being synonymous with America, baseball has been written about more than any other sport, in both fiction and non-fiction alike. As baseball grew popular so did some of the sportswriters who wrote about the game in the daily newspaper. Collectively, the sportswriters of the early 20th century launched a written history of baseball that transformed the game into a “national symbol” of American culture, a “guardian” of America’s traditional values, and as a “gateway” to an idealized past. (Skolnik 3) No American sport has a history as long—or as romanticized—as that of the game referred to as our “national pastime.”
The Sixties, by Terry H. Anderson, takes the reader on a journey through one of the most turbulent decades in American life. Beginning with the crew-cut conformity of 1950s Cold War culture and ending with the transition into the uneasy '70s, Anderson notes the rise of an idealistic generation of baby boomers, widespread social activism, and revolutionary counterculture. Anderson explores the rapidly shifting mood of the country with the optimism during the Kennedy years, the liberal advances of Johnson's "Great Society," and the growing conflict over Vietnam that nearly tore America apart. The book also navigates through different themes regarding the decade's different currents of social change; including the anti-war movement, the civil rights struggle, and the liberation movements. From the lunch counter sit-in of Greensboro, N.C. in 1960 and the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr. to the Black Power movement at the decade's end, Anderson illustrates the brutality involved in the reaction against civil rights, the radicalization of some of the movement's youth, and the eventual triumphs that would change America forever. He also discusses women's liberation and the feminist movement, as well as the students' rights, gay rights, and environmental movements.
As World War Two came to a close, a new American culture was developing all across the United States. Families were moving away from crowded cities into spacious suburban towns to help create a better life for them during and after the baby boom of the post-war era. Teenagers were starting to become independent by listing to their own music and not wearing the same style of clothing as their parents. Aside from the progress of society that was made during this time period, many people still did not discuss controversial issues such as divorce and sexual relations between young people. While many historians regard the 1950s as a time of true conservatism at its finest, it could really be considered a time of true progression in the American way of life.
Although single parenthood is on the rise in homes today, children still often have a father role in their life. It does not matter who the part is filled by: a father, uncle, older brother, grandfather, etc...; in almost all cases, those relationships between the father (figure) and child have lasting impacts on the youth the rest of their lives. In “I Wanted to Share My Father’s World,” Jimmy Carter tells the audience no matter the situation with a father, hold onto every moment.
For most sports fans there is nothing like opening day and a baseball field. In recent years I have over heard several people say Baseball is not the National Pastime or National Game any longer. When I query these people the typical response is Football is our new National pastime/game. Frank Deford (Nov 7, 2012) a writer for Sports Illustrated said, "Baseball is what we used to be. Football is what we have become." I refuse to believe this based on my knowledge of both games. In this paper we will exam the facts and I would submit to you that Baseball is still the National Pastime/Game and it cannot be disputed.
The 1950s was a time when American life seemed to be in an ideal model for what family should be. People were portrayed as being happy and content with their lives by the meadia. Women and children were seen as being kind and courteous to the other members of society while when the day ended they were all there to support the man of the house. All of this was just a mirage for what was happening under the surface in the minds of everyone during that time as seen through the women, children, and men of this time struggled to fit into the mold that society had made for them.
The Fifties were a good time to be a white middle class American These years brought an UN-thought of prosperity and confidence to Americans who barely remembered the Great Depression. Popular music of the early fifties mirrored the life of mainstream America: bland predictable and reassuring. Which didn't seem bad after the depre...
Tygiel, Jules. 2001; 2000. Past time: Baseball as history. Oxford England; New York: Oxford University Press.