I won't pick a specific date....let's just say circa the late 1950s and early 60s. I have no idea what the rich areas of America looked like...and I didn't have a lot of experience with the poorest areas. It wasn't rural nor was it urban where we lived. It wasn't The Honeymooners....but there was some of Leave It To Beaver....and....Father Knows Best....and....Donna Reed....if we walked for about a mile....which my mother and I would do often....because we liked looking at the Cape Cods and the Dutch Colonials and the occasional two story brick homes.
These were the rich people to us....Ozzie And Harriet....but just like on television....they were not the obnoxious rich.....in fact they really were not rich....it's just that to us they were the people who had their own house.....with a yard....with a white picket fence around it....and at least one automobile. There was no jealousy on our part.....none! They were able to live in nice homes. We could watch the television and almost feel like we lived in those homes. Meet on the ball field or the bowling alley and everyone was the same.
The supermarkets were not fancy....everyone went to the same movie theaters.....usually drive-ins....and there were plenty of bowling alleys and roller rinks....and some golf courses for those with a little more money.
There were no rich and fancy schools that I remember....not in Buffalo where I lived until 12 years old....or in a Pittsburgh borough suburb where we moved to....and we all went to downtown Pittsburgh to do our Christmas shopping....at Kaufmann's or Gimbels or Hornes....it was great! For every single young boy that I had as a friend or was in school with....a new baseball glove....or a transistor radio....or may heaven forgive our extravagance....our very own phone in our bedroom.....(I never had one)....was as good as life gets for a young boy. How many times have you heard someone say this.....we didn't know that we were poor....by poor in my case I mean struggling to pay rent on occasion.
Yes there were the Kennedy's and the Rockefellers....and yes there was Appalachia and struggling farmers. There were ghettos and bowerys....but to us in middle America....blue collar America where the father was a union member and the mother cleaned house and cooked pies and kept the household together....which was anything but easy....and for the kids....a sport for every season....and a couple hours of Gunsmoke or Beaver.....and maybe a guitar lesson here or the Boy Scouts there....to us....we were happy to live in the best country in the world!
Where is that America today? I'm rich! By that I mean I have two automobiles....and can have them fixed whenever they break down....I can go on fancy vacations....and buy any new techie toy that I want. How on earth did I get where I am? Why did God bless me....and give all those real riches to others? At 74 years old....and being an observer rather than a participant....I can clearly see that once you get so much money....the money rules you! I thank God I never won any of those Lottos that I used to buy way back then! We gave our son a good home....and were able to buy him anything that he needed. How can it be any better than that?
I didn't just gaze up at the sky and pick something to post about....I just kept trying to find the middle class....where I was raised....and I couldn't find it! Today you are either filthy rich....or real rich with a summer home on the beach....or having a....what is a normal new home today.....built in a new development....that puts the Beaver's home to shame....or you live in a modest home where you cannot afford to have it painted....or you put all your money in a fancy car so that when you leave your house you are equal to anyone.
There was an old Elvis song from one of his movies.....I don't even have to look up the lyrics...a poor man wants to be a rich man....a rich man wants to be a king.....but the man who can sing....when he hasn't got a thing....he's the king....of the whole wide world!
Well here is my conclusion as to where the middle class is today. It comes from observation....but more so from God's Word. The real middle class is in the heart. You could have billions....and be middle class in that you think yourself no better than the man who guards your gated community at night....or you could clean floors at the elementary school at night....and be the most thankful person. Each of these type of persons have seventy or eighty years on average....and each will stand as equals before the Lord of Glory! Both of them know that the Son of God went to Calvary for them....and they know very well the horrors of what Calvary was!
No....the middle class in America is almost gone....if not already gone....displaced by distractions and temptations and fantasies....but if we look close enough....we can glean something from the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 and Luke 19....and it has nothing to do with money. God has given to all of us some kind of gifts. I remember a one block comic in maybe Christianity Today....this maybe thirty-five years ago....a man was praying by his bed....'Thank you God.....for not calling me to be a missionary.' I may be glad that I never won a Lotto....and it looks like God has not given me too many 'talents'....but I still want them. Hey....I may lose them....or I may invest them unwisely.....but they won't be sitting there gathering dust.
