Reply #21: I would start 30 years earlier with the advent of the 40 hours work [View All]

[Felix Mala]

week, end of child labor and birth of radio. Lots of radio programs hooked kids and got them to buy stuff. Remember: "Don't forget to drink your Ovaltine?" That wasn't an exaggeration. With more free time and more money, parents were free to lavish all kinds of material crap on their kiddies. This included the college education where you could extend childhood for another 4 to 7 years.

A lot of working young people really resented their college-bound peers in the 20's through the 40's... After WWII, just about everyone could go to college is they wanted to.

Of course, most of my family back then was farming and the whole thing was completely different. Kids were expected to start working as soon as they knew enough to stay out of the way of trucks and tractors. My dad was weeding hundred acre bean fields when he was 5.