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I haven't read it so what do you guys think you got more of, a look at human nature or something more in what a crisis looks like?
See book by Rebecca Solnit. A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster.

Much solid info about many disasters in various lands. Summary: Generally all sorts of people step up and do what is needed. Much leadership and courage exercised by relative nobodies. After ordinary people get the worst taken care of, government entities arrive, destroy the spontaneous accomplishments and mechanisms of citizens so as to restablish their power and recreate the pattern of a citizenry dependent upon government. They also rewrite the narrative, downplaying or eliminating all accomplishments before their arrival and reestablish ment of "order" meaning actually their own power.
 
naw. We got a black and white tv in our home about 1942 when I was 6. Don't remember how many channels, but three or less. The plot was always the same. the brave smart heroic man, usually a cowboy, rescues and wins the stupid incompetent cowardly but beautiful female. After a few months I rejected tv completely and didn't watch any again until 1958, when the family lived in Japan. It was the same old American cowboy movies with the heroic men and useless women, but the voices were dubbed in Japanese, which made it all hilarious.
Hello lady,

I don't think that my parents had a boob tube in Maryland until the early or middle 50's. They never had one in NY.

I think that we had 3 stations in MD. We could pick up D.C. if the antenna was moved a certain way but I think that it was only 1 station. My parents never had cable or any of that stuff whether it was available or not.

They listened to the radio and to their own records. Both of my parents loved to read too. All of us loved to read! We had a large library, we used the public libraries a lot and we supported them with donations too.

We played OUTSIDE a lot! Plus we were involved in many other things. Swimming - year round, my brother was in the Boy Scouts in NY and in MD, my sister was a GS, I was a Brownie, we had some music lessons, we had Church/Sunday School and other related activities, tons of other stuff including going to museums, some art shows, plays, etc.

I will ADMIT that I have a weakness for some OLD westerns, only a few newer ones, some mystery shows (British, American, etc.) and for a few current PBS-British mystery shows.

I LOVED to watch RAWHIDE, Wagon Train - WT had 2 train masters when I saw it and Gunsmoke. Corn ball plots? Some of them were for sure! LOL

Those were my TOP favorite westerns although I have seen some others on and off.
I do not think that I saw every SINGLE show from all of those series when I was a KID though. They have some of these OLD shows on OTA- free GRIT tv and some on OTA-free ME tv here in town.

I have a RAWHIDE complete dvd set that my husband gave me as a gift too. But it does not have CC or subtitles on it unfortunately.

I love SOME old western movies even if some of them are silly!

John Wayne - My husband has several but NOT all of his movies. I love JW movies - westerns, war movies and other ones.

CLINT EASTWOOD - BE STILL MY HEART! LOL I have had a crush on him since I was a kid! THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES and the ORIGINAL DIRTY HARRY movies are my top 2 favorites for him. The other ones got donated to the library. I enjoyed them but after so many times of seeing them - my husband and I wanted to pass them on.

I like many other well known actors/actresses but most of them are LONG GONE aka dead!

My parents limited our boob tube time too. My Mom did not want one in the home and my Dad finally convinced her to get one.

A LOT of my Mom's friends including her best friend from school, our family lawyer when I was younger and my mentor, 'Aunt Catherine', not a blood relative, NEVER had a boob tube in her home until she helped care for her cousin, Peggy, in her later life. Peggy brought it with her to MD.

Programming? They do not call it that for NO reason. That is true whether it is the so called NEWS or many other shows. OTA or paid tv = the same deal in many shows when it comes to programming - brainwashing.

Most likely I forgot to mention something else here too!

Take care.

Cate
Added more.
 
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Point being is folks used to get out and socialize face to face so the culture wasn't so harsh. Now days with the net its far worse than TV was on the culture in my honest opinion. At my old age I don't want to debate the differences as young folks can never understand the world of those days and old folks loved the world or hated the world and changed it.:s0093:
 
If one will pardon the tangent, another book written by Pat Frank was Forbidden Area (1956). It is Cold War thriller written around the time of Alas, Babylon.

It was adapted to film by Rod Serling and was the first episode of Playhouse 90. The television film stars Charlton Heston, Tab Hunter, and Vincent Price and is hosted by Jack Palance. For your viewing enjoyment:

 
... didn't watch any again until 1958, when the family lived in Japan. It was the same old American cowboy movies with the heroic men and useless women, but the voices were dubbed in Japanese, which made it all hilarious.
I didn't get to watch much TV in Japan [1958-1963] but was mildly amused to watch shows like Combat! in which the American dialogue was in Japanese and the Germans remained German. Actually preferred the Japanese samurai movies the most.
 
One other book that may be of interest is a nonfiction text by the same author entitled How to Survive the H-Bomb and Why (1962). Though some of it covers public policy ideas, it also covers individual and group survival in the event of nuclear exchange. The book is long out of print and difficult to find, but still worth reading. I gave up trying to find a copy to buy and instead borrowed a copy through the interlibrary loan system. Anyway, just thought I'd pass it along. :)
 
As long as we are recomending books about apocalypse events, I recomend Lights Out by David Crawford.

America's lights go out and the struggle to survive, comeplete with heros and villains with women in a more modern role. :s0093: Story moves pretty fast with more of a local focus than world focus.
 

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