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When the Cold War Ended – 3

At the height of the Cold War, teenagers were expected to contribute.  

They had chores, some part time ‘jobs’  because they had to contribute.

It may seem odd to the person born in the 1970s and onward that a fourteen year old could have been entrusted as a baby sitter, or allowed to manager a cash register,  but such was reality.

Statistically, during the Cold War few persons suffered the mental cracksy common today.   The word Autism was unknown, so were all those hyper-active ‘maladies’ which simply describes a healthy active energetic child.

In those days, people were not merely expected to survive trauma, they could not use it as crutch to explain their failings.

A girl of twelve could lose her mother.  This did not give her a ‘free pass’ to act out at school, or exempt her from  responsibility.

A boy of fourteen would, at the end of his  school day, go to his job packing shelves at the supermarket, then home to look after his siblings.  He did not whine nor have a ‘nervous breakdown’ for that was unacceptable.

This is in sharp contrast to  today.

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Written by jaylar

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