Culture is something that is always changing in the United States. The way life was in the 1940s and the 1950s is very different than the way life is now in 2015. It is fascinating to read about all of these changes as well, but reading about these changes is nowhere near as full filling as hearing about them from someone that was alive to experience all the changes first hand. This is why it was so amazing to hear my grandmother recount her life back to me. Kathy Hulsey Painter sat down with me and explained all of the social, political, and technological changes throughout her lifetime in her perspective. My grandmother, Kathy, has experienced some personal social changes throughout her lifetime. She was born in 1945 in Haleyville, Alabama
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She does not remember a lot of changes from her early childhood, however, because her family was really “anti-government.” She does know that Harry Truman was the president the year she was born. Then, she remember that it was a big deal when John F. Kennedy became president because he was the first Catholic president and the people in the south were not too fond of him because they did not agree with all of his goals. A law that she remembers well is when abortion became legal in the sixties. Then, the Vietnam War, which as she remembers was a war about communism, started in the seventies for the people of the United States. President Richard Nixon was the person that brought the United States into the war. This war particularly stuck in her mind because her husband at the time fought in it. Another political change that she remembers is how the South used to mostly favor the Democrat party. Then there was a gradual change in which the South became increasingly less in favor of the Democrat party and more in favor of the Republican party. My grandmother has also lived long enough to see the first African American president, Barrack Obama, take office in 2008. These are all of the political changes that Kathy could recall throughout her …show more content…
When she was a child, televisions were not very common in houses like hers because she was apart of a low income family. She notes that a lot of people did not have televisions at all in the fifties. My grandmother has been alive to see the evolution of the telephone. Before she was born, people used to use wiregrams to send messages to people. This continued after she born until around the fifties. After that, telegrams were used. When telephones were first used, a person could not just pick it up and call someone, either. They had to talk to an operator and if a lot of people were on the phone with them they could just listen in on the conversations. Then, in the eighties, a few very rich people started to procure cell phones. My grandmother, however, just got her first cell phone recently. My grandmother was also born early enough to witness the transition from hand tools to machinery tool. One of these tools would be a power saw. Before this invention, her father would have to use a hand saw. The power saw made cutting logs so much easier for him. Then, a notable invention from the sixties, too, is that of birth control. She says it changed the ways for a lot of women because they could then go out and enjoy themselves just like the men at the that time. These are just some of the inventions that my grandmother was alive to witness throughout her
She does not remember a lot of changes from her early childhood, however, because her family was really “anti-government.” She does know that Harry Truman was the president the year she was born. Then, she remember that it was a big deal when John F. Kennedy became president because he was the first Catholic president and the people in the south were not too fond of him because they did not agree with all of his goals. A law that she remembers well is when abortion became legal in the sixties. Then, the Vietnam War, which as she remembers was a war about communism, started in the seventies for the people of the United States. President Richard Nixon was the person that brought the United States into the war. This war particularly stuck in her mind because her husband at the time fought in it. Another political change that she remembers is how the South used to mostly favor the Democrat party. Then there was a gradual change in which the South became increasingly less in favor of the Democrat party and more in favor of the Republican party. My grandmother has also lived long enough to see the first African American president, Barrack Obama, take office in 2008. These are all of the political changes that Kathy could recall throughout her …show more content…
When she was a child, televisions were not very common in houses like hers because she was apart of a low income family. She notes that a lot of people did not have televisions at all in the fifties. My grandmother has been alive to see the evolution of the telephone. Before she was born, people used to use wiregrams to send messages to people. This continued after she born until around the fifties. After that, telegrams were used. When telephones were first used, a person could not just pick it up and call someone, either. They had to talk to an operator and if a lot of people were on the phone with them they could just listen in on the conversations. Then, in the eighties, a few very rich people started to procure cell phones. My grandmother, however, just got her first cell phone recently. My grandmother was also born early enough to witness the transition from hand tools to machinery tool. One of these tools would be a power saw. Before this invention, her father would have to use a hand saw. The power saw made cutting logs so much easier for him. Then, a notable invention from the sixties, too, is that of birth control. She says it changed the ways for a lot of women because they could then go out and enjoy themselves just like the men at the that time. These are just some of the inventions that my grandmother was alive to witness throughout her