Recently, I had the privilege to discuss the differences in life today with life in the 1940s and 1950s—with the bonuses of both completely different national and cultural perspective. A personal friend of mine, Tyler, and I had worked on a short research paper on life during the World War II era, and had made contact with a friend of his great-grandfather, Walter Wise, by the name of Gregory Andrews. Mr. Andrews was an early grade school child in 1942, while Mr. Wise was a Corporal (Cpl.) in the United States Army. Mr. Wise fought alongside Andrews’ father, a soldier in Australia’s army during two separate campaigns on the Pacific Front during the war– one in which Wise was a Corporal (1943), and the other in which he was a newly-promoted Staff Sergeant (1945). Although 1943 and 1945 are two years apart, the two kept in contact with each other over the time, and had met again during R&R (rest and recovery) at least once over the years.
Both Andrews’ father and Walter Wise have since passed, however, their memories, legacies, and family connection have remained through Greg Andrews and his family, as well as Tyler’s grandfather, father, and self. Because of this, Tyler and I had full access to speak with Andrews about life in the 1940s and '50s to gain perspective on what it truly was like, adversely to the present. This insight was particularly intriguing to the both of us, since he and I both romanticize to an extent, and are fascinated with what we know about life between the mid-1930s and early 1960s. With no further belaboring, the following is what I gathered from Mr. Andrews, myself, for this particular paper.
Children entered school at the age of 5, and from that point onward, every student walked to school. Andrews says that most of the girls wore shoes, yet few to none of the boys did. It is unclear to me whether this is because they could not afford them, or they found shoes to be unnecessary; that is, non-essential for life or remote comfort. I hadn’t asked for clarification, but I believe I could also reasonably speculate that shoes were, to some extent, rationed, as the Australian government did limit certain goods pertaining to clothing during the war. However, I have also been told by a friend of mine, who lives near Sydney, that the Aussies don’t always wear shoes even nowadays, and find it perfectly comfortable and normal to go barefoot practically anywhere, with exceptions being on hikes through the outback or “the bush,” as some would say; much like we in America more than likely would wear shoes to walk through the woods or go camping.
At any rate, many families in WWII Australia did not own a car, and if they did, they had to use gasoline (or, “petrol,” as the Aussies and Brits call it) very sparingly, most especially due to the fact that there were extreme rations on gas and oil during the war; similar rations and limitations were seen in the United States during the war. Few children had bikes as well, so most would hoof it to school and home, traveling in large groups. The boys also wore hats with distinctive hat bands indicative of which school they went to. In school, a teacher’s word was the law: whatever the teacher says, goes. After the morning bell had rung, they would rush to the hat rack and fill it with their hats and bags, and line up for “parade,” or, individually-grouped lines of students for procession to their respective classrooms. Before parading to their classrooms, the students would stand at attention toward the flag of Australia, and listen to a playing of the national anthem, “God Save the Queen.”
In school, teachers would write on green chalkboards, obviously with chalk, and typically shout during lectures to the students for their lessons. The students in first grade would write on slates with slate pencils, while those in following grades would write on smaller-sized slates, about the size of A4 paper. They would sharpen these pencils not with a crank sharpener or anything of the sort, but instead by scraping their pencils on cement walls or ground. To clean their slates, they would use a damp cloth or an old towel which they would carry around in a tin with a chemical called “Dettol,” which was used to kill germs, much like antibacterial sanitizers of today.
Back in those days, it was common for kids to spend a large portion of their time building, and subsequently playing in, their tree houses, which they called their “cubbies.” Some cubbies would be built with multiple floors further up in the tree. Andrews says he “feel[s] a bit sorry for kids that have nowhere to play outside and no games to play except computer games,” especially because when he was still a young boy, his mother would tell him to go outside and play; there was not only space to play, but other kids with whom to play. Today in Australia, much like the States, cities are growing and yards are shrinking, as is personal social interaction. Andrews goes on to infer that kids are more often busy communicating electronically, as opposed to physically being with each other, and that, he speculates, is one of the problems with society today, especially the youth.
Another thing to change over the years, is safety and security. Andrews makes a point to say that back in the '40s and '50s, nobody had ever even conceived the notion of “Stranger Danger.” But if you knew you weren’t supposed to interact with somebody, you wouldn’t; it was virtually common sense, knowing who and who not to talk to or be around. Back in those days, one could usually trust others within their neighborhood and community, but now, the guy two doors down who seems like a nice, normal man, could be the kidnapper of your child. Realistically, it’s been that way, for the most part, for a long time, but it hasn’t been as strongly noted or well-documented. Then, it had been believed that people who are clearly mentally deficient or, in layman’s terms, nuts, but in relatively recent times, we have come to realize that it could be just about anyone, and looks can be very deceiving.
As previously stated, not very many people owned a car, nor could they drive them very often due to petrol rationing and prices. Because of this, most folks pedaled bicycles to and from work or school. There were hardly any traffic jams at all. As a matter of fact, Andrews remembers that the typical car-owning family would only take the car when going on family drives on the weekends.
Customer service is another interesting change. In the '40s and '50s, there was a newspaper service, milk delivery, mail service, and house calls to the doctor, among other things. Those people who were part of a delivery service were typically very friendly and personable; they were people who were regular folks we would see on every occasion at which they’d make their rounds, and people who we would know on a first name basis. The same goes for people in the marketplace, at banks, the local grocer, the shoemaker, the corner store, butcher, ice man, and other tradesmen. Back then, most everything was more personal, folks were more personable, more caring, more neighborly. But today, we see the sacrificing of customer service for boosts in profit, more bang for the capitalist buck.
Andrews went on to describe times past as if it were a great lost art, a great treasure indeed. A time when a person would reach in a muddy gutter for a penny, whereas now we’d probably think about it if it was for a dollar; a time when the TV took a few minutes to warm up, only had a handful of channels, and was only on at certain times, no 24/7 broadcast, let alone hourly news; a time when gas station attendants would check your oil, clean your windshield and windows, checked your tires, and checked for any other obvious problems for free, all while filling your car with the gas you’re paying for; a time when you could leave your car unlocked, with its keys inside and your front door unlocked and even wide open during a nice day, without the fear of theft or intrusion; a simpler time with fewer worries.
Although today we’ve advanced, we’ve also regressed a bit. Something must be sacrificed for reward, but sometimes, as Andrews would agree, the sacrifice may be too great for the reward; and then, is it truly a reward? Perhaps not quite. The 1940s and 50s were a very different time. They were part of a different time, with different beliefs, different philosophies, and more room for innovation and invention. There are clear differences in society in comparison of the present and the 1940s and '50s, not only within the United States, but also between the States and Australia.
