Dear Sister,
Today is a great day, and I want to congratulate you on your successful graduation from the high school. It is the beginning of a new stage in your life, and it is a remarkable event for our family. Some days ago I found the essays written by Mary Paul in 1850 and by her grandchild in 1925.
They presented a retrospective on the history of our family, as well as many families in the USA during that period. These essays made me think of the peculiarities of our family’s development and the progress of the American society according to numerous changes in the urban life and technological sphere. I have analyzed the stories told by our grandfather and made some significant conclusions which I want to share with you.
Our grandfather was born during the period when the American society suffered from the Great Depression’s results. If in the 1920’s Americans had the opportunity to develop their capitals, the economic crisis of the 1930’s deprived them of the opportunity even to save their houses. However, after the election of Franklin Roosevelt the situation was changed. He proposed several social and economic programs.
Our great grandfather, who worked at the factory, got the opportunity to participate in the FHA and the HOLC. He was one of those who received long term loans in the HOLC and saved his house. Many Americans who lost their jobs and were at risk of losing their houses used these programs controlled by the Government. Nevertheless, many people lost their houses even participating in the program because they could not pay their credits.
The next dangerous challenge for our family was World War II. After returning from the war, our great grandfather decided to use the possibilities provided by the Government according to the G.I. Bill of 1944. The house in which his family lived was in a bad condition. That is why he bought a new house using the opportunities provided by this program.
However, this house was located in the suburbs. Moving to the suburbs was a tendency of that period. Today it is quite difficult for us to understand why people preferred leaving in large cities to moving to the suburbs.
Nevertheless, the economic situation in cities was not advantageous for the most of the population. First, it was rather difficult to find a job. Second, those people who suffered from unemployment and GIs began building their new lives in the suburbs. Many our great grandfather’s friends, after returning from the war, also used the opportunities to get the education according to the G.I. Bill of 1944.
Now, life in the suburbs required new approaches to the question of roads because it was possible to get to the suburbs only by car. Comfortable highways within the territory of such states as New York and interstate highways were required according to the needs not only of the suburban residents but also of all the population.
Today it is difficult to imagine the time when getting from Boston to New York could take you more than three days. However, it was a real situation of 1850 which was depicted in Mary Paul’s essays.
In the period between the 1940-1950’s, the situation with transport infrastructure also required some improvements. The year 1956 was quite remarkable for the history of the American civil engineering. The Government admitted the Interstate Highway Act which became one of the largest technological projects of that time.
The development of a 42,500 mile-long interstate highway system was planned. If today we consider only innovative railway systems or the invention of powerful aircrafts as real breakthroughs, the project of this interstate highway can be considered as a real technological achievement of 1950’s.
Living in the suburbs, our great grandfather and his son could appreciate the possibilities of a new transportation policy of the Government. However, all the intentions of our grandfather were directed on improvement of his new house in the suburbs. After the war, the task of the architects in cities was to rebuild municipal houses.
In the suburbs, people concentrated on building their own houses. In this period, all the technological achievements in house-building were connected to the name of Arthur Levitt whose company built the whole planned communities in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Today, they are known as Levittown. It is interesting that many our relatives used the loans given by the FHA which began its activity in the period of the Great Depression.
In 1960-1970’s our grandfather worked in the steel industry. The situation in the economy of the country was rather critical. The plants and factories of the industrial Midwest and Northeast of the USA did not receive enough financing.
Many plants were closed and a lot of people faced the problem of unemployment again. Thus, this region was known as the Rust Belt. A new economic situation in the country resulted in the decline of these industrial regions, but it gave the growth for the Southern and Western territories.
In the 1970’s, the industrial capitals were removed to the Sun Belt. Many friends of our grandfather had to move to the more successful territories in order to earn more money. They considered the problem of the movement from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt as the result of the lack of the necessary improvements in the industrial spheres. Today the situation with the technological development is not so crucial in many industries, and we can even observe a definite progress in it.
It is interesting that when I asked our father about his opinion on the problem of the opportunities of life in the suburbs, about his vision of the technological progress and its impact on our life, he stated that every period the history of our family was connected to some changes in the technological spheres. It is rather easy to understand the meaning of such usual objects and things as highways and private houses when you do not have them.
Father accentuated the fact that he was interested in the question of moving of a great number of people to the suburbs after the 1960’s. This phenomenon was connected to the economic issues in the country. Many people could easily find jobs in the suburbs, but not in the cities. However, the process of moving to the suburbs continues today.
This fact can depend on people’s interest in the principles of family life based on the traditions in the peaceful suburbs where you can find a lot of pleasant private houses. Our father also paid attention to the phenomenon of building of the gated communities. Today you know them as rather comfortable residential communities in large American cities, but some years ago people faced the problem of the insecurity of their communities and the high level of crimes. Today this problem is solved.
Thus, all the changes in the development of the technological possibilities in the USA contributed to the progress of the industries and country. They were successive and depended on the economic issues. Today our family prefers living in the suburbs. This fact is closely connected to the processes in the history of our country and can influence my decision to live in the suburbs too.