1950's again for the first time

It was 1956, and the large homes across the street from our one family row houses on Denniston Avenue, were beginning to be converted into apartments and the owners were either moving out themselves or they were remolding the homes to use as rentals. We lived in Squirrel Hill a predominately Jewish neighborhood and it was a no brainer to think that anyone but more Jewish families would want to move into these apartments. But somehow even within the middle class Jewish families living on our street, my family included, there seemed to be a bit of fear that moving into these newly built apartments would be a bunch of Refugees. Refugees from some Eastern European country who truth be told (at least truth from the neighbors already living on Denniston), that these Refugees would suddenly turn our street into a shtettle (a Jewish ghetto) where laundry would be hanging from their windows, goats would roam in the back yards, and no one would speak English. And the odor wafting from their open windows would smell like a combination of body odor fried turnips and cooked fish, with the head and bones of the fish being thrown on the grassy green front yards.

Even before the first for rent sign went up, before the camels or the donkeys paraded the future residents to the front steps of the homes on Denniston, the fear mongers of Denniston fanned by the fear fantasies of relatives and friends of the Denniston gang shouted loud and clear, these Refugees were not one of us based on nothing but fiction, fable and fear.

When a white man and black woman or black man and white woman strolled into a restaurant in Pittsburgh in the 1950's a place (where almost everyone was seated and almost everyone was white), watching the entrance any hubbub or hooting or hollering seemed to cease and wild whispers of look at that, who do they think they are, imagine the gall enveloped the room. And that night in many of the homes of the fair minded folk wild fables based on fear overtook the conversation and prophecies of since the kids would be two colors he/she would live a miserable life, if God wanted a mixed race he would have created it, and better watch your kid because the blacks were only interested in whites and will take what they want.

No one seemed to ever know the integrated couples brave enough to enter the restaurant but everyone was eager to state the selfishness, self-serving, and silliness of their actions. Most to many could not fathom why or how this could happen, but based on nothing but fiction, fable and fear they tried to repress any more of it taking place.

In the 50's a woman's place was in the home, cleaning, cooking, and certainly not working. She was the foundation of the family and for her to want more than babies every other year, dishes and diapers to be cleaned, flowers on Mother's Day would be heresy and she would be considered a heretic. There were words for unmarried women, like spinsters, matrons, or prostitutes and all were said with shame and sinister rumblings. Little girls were trained to be Mommy's and little boys were taught they could be anything they wished as long as it was not a sissy, queer or feminine. If girls demonstrated a penchant to sports, other then cheer leading, or boys would rather have cooked or bird watched, there was great fear that the gender bending would happen and not only would there be a less strong America, God would come back to earth earlier than expected and civilization as we knew it would end.

Based on religious leaders, fearful of the power of choice, based on the philosophy that everything is black and white stay within the lines theory of the 50's, the telling of tales that if a man is not a man and a woman is not a woman playing by the rules set by stoic older white males, your family will become an extension of Hell, and based on nothing but fiction, fable and fear, staying in the closet, self loathing, and never coming out reigned supreme.

Once this nation stood up to the Communist under every bed, are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party, and embraced the 60's many an intuitive, intelligent and educated American stopped buying the bogus and the boogie man and thought change is good. Change based on truth makes sense and frees us to move forward and not backwards.

And bravely, boldly America fought fear, faced the future on truth and began to ask for fact ignoring fiction. Then 2010 happened and fact no longer prevailed, honest was pushed aside for lies, and FEAR made a triumphant return in the guise of the Tea Bag/Republican Party. For some deranged reason, it no longer mattered on real, just the perception of reality. And the reality was fabricated and fomented from hate, distrust and FEAR.

For every step forward, we as Americans have made in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, suddenly in 2010, all bets were called off and we have returned to the smothering blanket of the 1950's. Suddenly we care less about freedoms and more about scaring the shit out any person willing to let others think for them.

I don't want to try the 1950's over again for the first time...EVER!