Once Upon a Culture     
    
   We were too young to know about the upheaval of American life during World War II. When peace arrived and we trudged off to elementary school, uniformity had set in. 

   Dads worked, and most moms raised the kids and established the rules. Teachers taught and kids behaved, or got the paddle. Lunch was at noon and dinner at 5. Sunday mornings were for church, and summers for playtime. 

   Important civil rights took the stage in the 60's. But who would have guessed that the values GI's fought for would elude a new generation with a mind - probably inebriated - of its own? 

   Maybe a different war - very questionable - caused some young people to question normalcy itself. 

   The Woodstock rock event seeded new rules which continue to sprout and grow 50 years later. In WORLD magazine, Arsenio Orteza explains:

Exhibit A: Profanity in society and song. Vulgarity is in.

Exhibit B: No walls. Woodstock organizers expected 200,000 attendees. More than twice that number arrived, most without tickets. They trampled fences, defied security ... and were welcomed. 

Exhibit C: Free everything. Most food, medical care and recreational drugs were provided. Why not free everything in life? 

Exhibit D: George Orwell described the Woodstock crowd to a T. It's a crowd known nowadays as special-interest groups. 

   "They wag the dog. Woodstock won," Orteza says.

       Jimmy