A terrific magazine, America In WWII, reminds me of my youth, my country pre-Obama and the good feeling of being among people you love at a time of cruelty and brutality in the world. It was a different time certainly but I continue to wonder whether we’ve progressed since where we were 65 years ago.

There was a national quest for more education spawned by the war and the return of millions of GIs. The country was generous to men and women who had voluntarily, in most cases, sacrificed everything including their lives to uphold democracy and a way of life. The 1944 GI Bill of Rights was the most sweeping education act of its kind at the time. Education benefits were offered to every veteran, honorably discharged, for his service. This included tuition, books and living expenses to pursue any known occupation in public or private school.

It was the right thing to do and benefited so many men I came to know later in life. By 1955, 5.7 million men and women had received college degrees or some form of technical education to work in civilian America. Typical of government programs, higher education wasn’t really ready for the invasion of its campuses. The term “quonset hut” was what I lived with when I went to a state university in Ohio to begin my education six years later. A number of my peers lived in Quonsets, most of us had classes in Quonset huts and the sturdy but “temporary” buildings continued through the 1960s when I began teaching on campuses in Ohio, West Virginia and later New York. For all I know, a number of these “temporary” buildings still dot campuses throughout the country.

But the massive aid program worked. Ask any number of veterans still with us today. They got the help they needed to fit back into a society that wanted them but knew they needed help to catch up.

Look, also, at the explosion of technology fueled by wartime needs. Leading the list was television. Actually, it began before America’s entrance in World War II when at the 1939 World’s Fair 200 local TV receivers saw the grainy but distinct pictures of Franklin D. Roosevelt opening the proceedings in New York.

But no question the wartime need for military tools accelerated advancement. After the war the demand propelled huge growth in production and sales of the tube. Said TV/media critic Jeff Greenfield: “You have a country that is desperate, hungry for privacy, for an end to enforced congregations. Television, then, becomes absolutely a perfect part of this, a perfect , perfect device for the times.”

Absolutely!

In the beginning most of us remember test patterns, Captain Kangaroo and assorted kiddy programs, wrestling ad nauseum and later news. It took networks and independents time to sort out how deliver us what “we wanted.”

Frankly, in my opinion, they never did. And today? They still don’t have a clue about the audience they claim to represent. At a nursing facility where I volunteer, the residents at my table tell me daily they don’t like most television and, as a result, I’ve been collecting used New York Times Best Seller books to help entertain and educate them. Reading, in other words, is back even though everybody has access to a television set. Real irony but only part of the difficulty younger people in authority have is deciding how to deal with “our needs.”

Think of the progress women made because of the war. The role of women was clearly what my mom wanted to be: a “mom.” That’s what my sister and I wanted her to be. That’s what my dad wanted her to be. She had no interest in volunteering for civil defense warden. Others in our town did. She had no interest in working in a defense plant. Other women did. Was she unpatriotic? Hardly! She raised two children, she tended to a “Victory” garden and she supported her husband who worked at a local defense plant for the duration of the war. But other women put themselves in the vortex. They took on men’s work in a big way and the effort opened new career paths for many by the late 1940s, ‘50s and beyond. Looking back, my life was made better by the women in my family and outside in the workplace who offered me the balance that I think men needed and desperately need today.

What did we lose? Clearly we lost some of America’s most precious assets; the music of the big band era.

Tragically, it died as television quickly impacted American homes and communities. Celebrated big touring bands left the road to settle down, ballrooms and nightclubs shutdown and Ozzie & Harriet became nighttime pleasure . . . not dancing. It was, consequently, a time of tremendous growth coupled with a time of shifting attitudes and tastes. I’m still not sold on the trade off.

What do you think? Write me at jbehrens@roadrunner.com.