Here We Are Again

Those post-war years (1945-1955) were heady times, indeed.

Gone was the need to donate glass and metal to the war effort; to save cooking fat to be used for bombs; to go without shoes, coffee, gas and rubber tires; to use every spare penny to purchase war bonds and stamps. The pendulum had swung quite a distance during the war and was swinging just as far the other way. Ours was suddenly a world of plenty, where houses were sprouting like so many mushrooms after a rain, cars were being purchased faster than they could roll off the assembly line, and a deprived people were buying washing machines, dryers, cooking ranges, ovens, refrigerators and more at a pace that has never been seen since.

America won a war, and technology seemed poised to take the entire world into a brighter and more prosperous era. Many of these technological developments came directly from war work, and the transition to peace time seemed simple.

One of the changes that greeted a war-weary populace was casual convenience. Suddenly there was so much of everything that you could buy new appliances every couple years. A two-year-old car? Get a new one. Tired of washing dishes? Use paper plates instead. It was a turn from conservative conservation of resources to a time when everything was virtually disposable.

A brief piece in Life magazine (01 Aug 1955) captured the spirit of these times remarkably well. Titled "Throwaway Living," the article extolled the virtue of disposable items and how they cut down on household chores. (The photograph above is the original that was trimmed and used in the magazine to accompany the article.)

"The objects flying through the air in this picture would take 40 hours to clean -- except that no housewife need bother. They are all meant to be thrown away after use. Many are new; others, such as paper plates and towels, have been around a long time but are now being made more attractive.

"At the bottom of the picture, to the left of a New York City Department of Sanitation trash can, are some throwaway vases and flowers, popcorn that pops in its own pan. Moving clockwise around the photograph come assorted frozen food containers, a checkered paper napkin, a disposable diaper (seriously suggested as one reason for a rise in the U.S. birth rate) and, behind it, a baby's bib. At top are throwaway water wings, foil pans, paper tablecloth, guest towels and a sectional plate. At right is an all-purpose bucket and, scattered throughout the picture, paper cups for beer and highballs. In the basket are throwaway draperies, ash trays, garbage bags, hot pads, mats and a feeding dish for dogs. At the base of the basket are two items for hunters to throw away: disposable geese and duck decoys."

It is amazing to realize that, scarcely two generations later, this type of photograph and article would never appear today. We have experienced wasteful extravagance and returned to thoughtful conservation of our resources. Once again, we are conserving glass, recycling paper and metals, and reusing whatever we can. This time, however, we are doing it not because there is a war on; rather, because it is (and always has been) the right thing to do.