TC, growing up in Omaha was segregated mostly by region of origin and then by color. Not really so much by religion.
My parents were lower middle class and my mom always worked except for the few months she was home when each of us kids were born. My grandmother lived with us so my parents didn't have to pay child care except on rare occa…
TC, growing up in Omaha was segregated mostly by region of origin and then by color. Not really so much by religion.
My parents were lower middle class and my mom always worked except for the few months she was home when each of us kids were born. My grandmother lived with us so my parents didn't have to pay child care except on rare occasion. Once we reached 3 or 4 years old, we were only allowed inside when my parents were home and for lunch. By 8 am in the summer almost every kid in our neighborhood was outside playing. And there were literally thousands of kids in our 1 square mile neighborhood. Most of us only put on shoes in the summer to go to church on Sunday. The neighborhood pool was the afternoon entertainment and babysitter from Memorial Day until Labor Day.
There were two schools in the neighborhood, the K-6 public school and the K-8 Catholic school. The kids from each school rarely mixed. But this was post WWII Omaha.
The pre-WWII neighborhoods were Polish, Bohemian, Czech, Irish, Swedish, Danish, German, African American and Hispanic. A few times a year we would eat different ethnic foods but for us kids, it was too weird eating things like Goulash and Chow Mein. My dad would eat the leftovers for days.
I suppose most American cities and towns were the same, people taking care of their own and socializing with their own.
How have we stayed together as a country with such incredible diversity?
By a myth of togetherness. Now we face the dissolution of the myth or making it reality. No other country has the opportunity that we have. So much diversity is strength. No one group has a lock on anything. Unlock the talent and we could show the world what earthlings are capable of. Otherwise we show them the worst of mankind. I remember after the moon landing, it was for all mankind. Elon and Jeff polish their egos with penis-shaped rockets. How sad
That definitely sounds like Denver of my youth. I used to get up with the sun in the summer, make myself breakfast, hop on my bike and spend the day in Washington Park (a pretty big place) ending by swimming in the north lake in the afternoon, then home by dark. A kid on his own all through that, and nobody worried. You definitely could not do that today.
The diversity is the "secret sauce" of America, that and the renewal of the dream in each generation's immigrants.
TC, growing up in Omaha was segregated mostly by region of origin and then by color. Not really so much by religion.
My parents were lower middle class and my mom always worked except for the few months she was home when each of us kids were born. My grandmother lived with us so my parents didn't have to pay child care except on rare occasion. Once we reached 3 or 4 years old, we were only allowed inside when my parents were home and for lunch. By 8 am in the summer almost every kid in our neighborhood was outside playing. And there were literally thousands of kids in our 1 square mile neighborhood. Most of us only put on shoes in the summer to go to church on Sunday. The neighborhood pool was the afternoon entertainment and babysitter from Memorial Day until Labor Day.
There were two schools in the neighborhood, the K-6 public school and the K-8 Catholic school. The kids from each school rarely mixed. But this was post WWII Omaha.
The pre-WWII neighborhoods were Polish, Bohemian, Czech, Irish, Swedish, Danish, German, African American and Hispanic. A few times a year we would eat different ethnic foods but for us kids, it was too weird eating things like Goulash and Chow Mein. My dad would eat the leftovers for days.
I suppose most American cities and towns were the same, people taking care of their own and socializing with their own.
How have we stayed together as a country with such incredible diversity?
By a myth of togetherness. Now we face the dissolution of the myth or making it reality. No other country has the opportunity that we have. So much diversity is strength. No one group has a lock on anything. Unlock the talent and we could show the world what earthlings are capable of. Otherwise we show them the worst of mankind. I remember after the moon landing, it was for all mankind. Elon and Jeff polish their egos with penis-shaped rockets. How sad
That definitely sounds like Denver of my youth. I used to get up with the sun in the summer, make myself breakfast, hop on my bike and spend the day in Washington Park (a pretty big place) ending by swimming in the north lake in the afternoon, then home by dark. A kid on his own all through that, and nobody worried. You definitely could not do that today.
The diversity is the "secret sauce" of America, that and the renewal of the dream in each generation's immigrants.