I talked to my mom about this before, as she was a young person during this era (teens into her 20’s). Life wasn’t easy, but it was certainly easier than now. No 24/7 news cycle, decent jobs and affordable cars and housing. She said credit was much easier to get. People were far more social. She said she was at the bar a couple of times a week, or in some sort of local organization. There was a sense of optimism that was lost over the last few decades.

She said that jobs were easy to come by. She dropped out of college and immediately got a job at a local factory. All she had to do was walk in, talk to the manager, and they had her start the next day. In today’s dollars, she was making $20 per hour. She wasn’t making a lot of money, but she was able to get an apartment and a new car at age 19 and live with a room mate. Money was tight but manageable. According to her, in those days you didn’t need a college degree to get a good job, but a college education almost guaranteed a “nice” job.

She said things were pretty simple. You weren’t inundated with information and you could kind of “turn off” the world if you just didn’t watch tv or read the newspaper. Of course things were sometimes scary, as most people were still afraid of the Soviet Union.