ABSTRACT
With the war won and the boys coming home, people wanted to enjoy the peace. Prosperity seemed like the best reward possible, and by 1950 a brief postwar recession had been sorted out Suburban subdivisions sprouted, providing jobs for the builders, the bankers and lenders, the loggers felling the trees to tum into lumber delivered from forest to sawmill to subdivision by truckers on new interstate highways funded by the federal government After four years of government rationing, Americans bought big cars moved by high-compression engines, gulped Pepsi or Coke and munched popcorn at sprawling drive-ins featuring two or even three movie screens, purchased television sets at the rate of more than I million a year, and butter-knifed through the salty Salisbury steaks of a Swanson 1V dinner. Women hosted Tupperware parties. Dads came home from work to throw a ball with the kids and help with the homework. There was time to work and time to play.
