THE HAPPY YEARS

Was the 1950s the Happiest Decade, during the past one hundred years, in the U.S.A.? Is growth in Gross Domestic Product, GDP, the biggest determinant of a nation’s happiness? Do people that live in rural America experience more happiness than people that live in urban areas? The lead story in Time, the Magazine, November 6, 1951, called the youth of the day, born between 1926 and 1946, currently five to twenty-five in age, the Silent Generation. The featured article in Time said the most startling fact about this generation was its Silence. The lead statement was, ” By comparison with the ‘Flaming Youth’ of their fathers and mothers, today’s younger generation is a still small flame.” It also said, “we did not protest or carry placards.” The article acknowledged that the Silent Generation began life in “most difficult conditions,” including The Great Depression, The Dust Bowl, Economic and Political Uncertainty, and World War II. These conditions, and others, were key factors in making us Thrifty, (fiscally conservative), Loyal to our country and friends, Respectful of authority and the chain of command, and Determined to have a better life than our parents. Early, in the decade of the 1950’s, we had our war, The Forgotten War, not by us, but overlooked by future generations. The televised Congressional Investigation into the alleged filtration of communist into key roles in the U.S. government, the charge led by Senator Joe McCarthy, created a polarization of views as to danger of Nuclear War and created a created a new phrase of a war of words, called the Cold War. Our generation also saw the beginnings and leadership of the Civil Rights Movement began in our generation with Martin Luther King, born in 1929, and a cadre of many others. However, by 1954, Time, retracted the support for naming us the Silent Generation, . The article recognized that while a small flame, the smallest of all generation’s in comparison to recent and the next one hundred years, we were actively engaged in bringing positive change to our country. Nevertheless, the moniker, Silent Generation had already been bestowed on our generation. However it was our parents who were silent. We discovered that they preferred not to talk about their life during the Great Depression and the War. Still, both our parents, and our generation, were and still are extremely patriotic and enthusiastic about our nation’s role as the Leader of the Free World. The author, of THE HAPPY YEARS, Larry Fullen, a retired businessman, decided that in retirement he would take on new challenges, activities beyond his expertise and comfort level. He chose to attempt to become a home gourmet cook and a non-fiction writer. In pursuing cooking, he had the benefit of the proven and personal enjoyment of the accomplishments culinary skills of his wife. Fullen enrolled in a creative non-fiction writing course at the University of South Florida, in Tampa, their current residence. Amazed and excited by what he enjoyed and learned, he participated in a follow up course, with the same instructor. His immediate writing goal was to author a book about the hometown, Ashville-Harrison High School basketball team of 1945. The team was coached by his father, “Pop.” the sixth-grade teacher, was promoted to high school coach because the current coach enlisted in the Army, and financial restrictions precluded hiring a person, whose primary responsibility was to coach. Pop Fullen had taught most of the players as their sixth-grade teacher and mentored them in basketball as fifth and six graders. Overcoming, being a small school with limited number of boys, losing three prominent players due to being drafted, injury in a farm accident, and relocation, and other adversities, the team earned its way to the state final four. The Broncos of 1945, was the first team in the history of the school and county to reach the final four in the State of Ohio. While his wife, Margie, preferred his cooking to his writing, Fullen persevered in writing short stories about his growing up years in Ashville, Ohio. Many of his stories were presented for critique by his peers in Memoir Writing Groups. Sharing stories with his “growing up” friends in Ashville, he was encouraged to continue his writing. His high school friends not only edited some of his writing, but they also clarified details , and provided suggestions for new stories. As the stories accumulated and wanting to acknowledge the happiness of those days of yester-year, he went forward with the idea to publish a book about those Happy Years, the decade of the 1950s. HAPPY YEARS contains over one hundred two-page or less stories about the author’s growing up years in the 1950s. There are also an additional twenty “abbreviated” stories in the Addendum, on topics younger generations may not know about such as G.I. Bill, Mickey Mantle, Fungo Bats, and the Whizzer Motor Bikes. Growing up in a rural community, even small-towns with a population of up to twenty-thousand population, is significantly different in many ways to growing up in a large urban, metropolitan environment. There are distinct small town family values that are being lost as our nation becomes more urbanized, and you can read about them in THE HAPPY YEARS. There are within the stories of THE HAPPY YEARS, experiences that could occur in other Midwestern small towns. There are probably “Dear Heart and Gentle People,” in other small towns. Yet, in the author’s view, some things could only have happened in Ashville. What other small town in the nation had a one-lens traffic light? Who else by Herbie could have conceived the concept of a Fantasy Baseball Game, with a rose-garden warning track? How many Macrosomia babies do you know? Have you ever played or watched a six-man football game? Have you ever Dosey-Doed? THE HAPPY YEARS may not make the New York Times or Amazon best-selling list, but it is guaranteed to be authentic!