The line: ' It was the best of time, it was the worse of time' comes to mind.

So many of the 'good times' have been spun an sold into out collective memories. The 40s and WW2 were so good. Not necesarily so.

Look up the "Zoot suit riots in LA" or the "West coast longshoreman's strike" that happened during the war. Or the murder of black servicemen during the war in Louisiana and Mississippi. Or how the merchant marine was treated. They took some of the worse casualties by percentage and conditions but, until very recently, were denied benefits.

Bike gangs had their origin in servicemen coming home from the war and finding that what they were fighting for failed to live up to our ideals. The USA has never quite lived up to its ideals in freedom, equality of opportunity, race relations or classlessness.

We were an industrial powerhouse after WW2. But it wasn't so much because we were necessarily better at it. It had a lot to do with all the other industrialist nations having been crippled by the war. We rode this economic advantage and momentum through the 60s and squandered the last of it in the 70s.

"Father Knows Best" and other media creations project a false calm and certainty onto what were uncertain and conflicted time. People who think all was right and good at some time prior have chosen to overlook the larger picture.

IMO the only consistent thing you can say about the past was that it was a little slower and far more local. Things and people and situations all moved more slowly. A commute of twenty miles to a job was considered 'long' and it was relatively rare. People often worked one job their entire working life. The majority of people were born, grew up, lived and died in one spot.

After WWI the saying was: 'Once they have seen Paris, how do you keep them down on the farm?'. It wasn't that hard. Economics and lack of transportation kept most on the farm well enough. After WW2 the improved economic situation and cheap transportation were no longer an obstacle. The interstate highways were built in the 50s and early 60s made us a nation of travelers.

They made suburbs and long commutes possible. They also made loneliness in a crowd and isolation in a community a way of life.