Darren and Samantha Stevens were never like this!

I'm catching up on the series Mad Men, the AMC original series that has gotten so much attention lately. I was tardy to the party, so have had to rent Season 1 DVDs from Netflix before watching the current episodes accumulating on my DVR.

It's a really interesting series, mainly because of the "social archeaology" of 1960 and into that decade. The subtle contrasts between how things were then versus how they are now are as compelling (maybe more so) than the story lines themselves.

Part of that fascination surely is because of my age. I'm a Boomer, and I was a child in the time frame of the series. I find interests in the series that leave the Gens X/Y and the Millenials bored.

When Betty, the suburban housewife of the high achieving protagonist, sees her little girl with a dry cleaner bag over her head, she scolds the little girl--not because what she's doing is dangerous, but because of what she may have done with the clothes that were originally in the bag. And when Betty has a "spell" that ends with her driving up onto the lawn, her two kids are thrown onto the floor of the back seat--no injuries, but a reminder that seat belts and safety seats are of recent vintage.

Betty's pregnant neighbor girlfriend drinks and smokes along with everyone else. The newly divorced woman down the street (who wears slacks instead of dresses--gasp!) is looked upon with speculation by the men and jealous protectiveness by the women, who are as catty as any human females of any decade.

In the office, Don (our hero) is a chauvinist, though not a pig. He storms out of a client meeting (with a female client), saying, "I won't take this from a woman," or something like that. Secretaries are fair game to the horny guys roaming the aisleways.

Everyone smokes...everyone. The offices of the big guys are fitted out with full bars, and everyone drinks up at regular intervals.

Most of the women--the "respectable" ones--are sexually naive. Betty discovers the joys of an out of balance dryer when she leans up against it to push it back into place. Peggy, Don's secretary, is fascinated by the forbidden fruit offered by a vibrating weight loss belt that may not shed pounds but certainly stimulates in other ways.   

I could go on and on.

It is good to be reminded of how things were not so long ago. It allows me to appreciate the world today, where I have more freedom than my mother ever did--freedom in attitude, social convention--and a lot more choices than she or her mother or grandmother could ever imagine.

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