The Fifties

With nostalgia Mom looks back to the year A little girl walking to Riverside Park, without fear Except for the bowery, no homeless on the street Kids played outside, lots of friends to meet. A chocolate bar was 5 cents, a penny was copper through You could buy a gun downtown, no-one would take it from you. It was a period that didn’t excuse arson and looting There were no alienated teens who dreamed of school-shooting. Most kids had Mom and Pop, and extended family too Op-eds groused that the president golfed, and nothing was new I'd say that's better than the current polarization Half of us can’t stand the rest of the nation. Our money devalues, and the government has to borrow But then a dollar today was still a dollar tomorrow You didn’t get years of debt for college admission A job in the summer could pay most of your tuition. I've seen movies of the time, like North by Northwest Mom liked Shane and Rashomon, and the Searcher's Quest Movies and TV generally met a wholesome test Though kids might dispute shows like “Father Know’s best” In some ways it was worse, I don't want to pretend Before her father's friends reached 70, they met their end If you flew in an airplane there was more chance it fell down. And police told blacks to stay away from NY’s downtown . You might think we were so much less tolerant then But for current tolerance, I’d give one out of ten A third of college kids would report their professor For deviations from some template of victim or oppressor Teachers can't discipline, and there’s a cost For a teacher, any respect is lost Teachers don’t like being kicked, punched, and reviled Half a million vacancies now because the kids go wild. Now we have freedom to take drugs, and choose our pronoun But we have trillions of debts, and more want the system down We didn’t know what we had, we risked all on the dice The pendulum swung and did not usher paradise.