Back then, people weren’t so very different at a heart level, but morals have changed a lot since Grandma’s day. The social issues came on the heels of winning the “war to end all wars” except it wasn’t. Of course, during the Twenties they didn’t know there would be another World War about twenty years later. Now wasn’t the time for thinking of the future. They were victors and they wanted to party and be morally risky in more ways than one. That era brought about discussions of birth control, and the Christian Women’s Temperance Union who wanted to stop all of the wild partying and drinking with Prohibition. Birth control discussions later gave birth to Planned Parenthood and Prohibition didn’t last very long.
But people just wanted to be free, after all. It was a new era. A new century and the youth of that day wanted to play and live without restraint. And maybe the social issues would have gained faster ground if not for that stock market crash that sent the nation reeling during the Great Depression.
Have you ever cleaned out a house of a person who lived through those years? I have. They saved everything. Down to every piece of tin foil, every napkin was reused. Recycling had nothing on them. The Depression-era survivors were the first environmentalists.
But the next war jolted everyone. Suddenly we were a nation that came together for a common cause and there was an enemy outside of any social issues that needed our attention. So men went to battle and grandpas and women went to work, and grandmas stayed home to care for the children. Social issues took a back seat then, but when the war was over, women had found they rather liked working outside the home and more change hung on the horizon.
Part Three tomorrow~
