The generation born after World War II was once called the "Golden Generation." Unlike their parents, who had lived through the Great Depression and World War II, America did not experience war on the same scale as Europe during the Golden Generation's time. With its vast gold reserves, the US dollar became the global currency. When veterans returned from Europe, they not only received respect but also real material benefits, thanks to the abundance of supplies.
At the time, America launched massive infrastructure projects to promote employment. Countless skyscrapers went up in the cities, while many small houses were built in the countryside and assigned to veterans. Those former soldiers married and had children in those homes, bringing about a baby boom.
The Marshall Plan sent America's prestige soaring. By all rights, the Golden Generation should have been the happiest generation. So how did they later become "hippies," the lost generation in their elders' eyes?
Imagine such a family, such a father and son. The father had been born during the Great Depression. They lived in a house the postwar government had arranged for veterans, and the Golden Generation son had come home for Thanksgiving.
The son, in the prime of life, wanted to talk with his seventy-year-old father, but he found his father's work papers still lying on the coffee table.
The television was on, broadcasting a football game, while his mother was busy in the kitchen.
That generation of parents desperately craved stability and permanence. Influenced by the Cold War, many families built basements to guard against air raids. Supermarkets also sold emergency kits containing enough water to last someone for months.
The children of the Golden Generation had practically grown up watching their parents live amid constant anxiety and work. Did they want that kind of life?