Sidney Lambe wrote:

>
> I look at the real world and I remember what it was like when I
> was a kid in the 1950's. Healthy old people all over the place
> who died comfortably in their sleep after playing with their
> great-grandchildren all day long.

I didn't know any of those. WHen I was a kid in the 50s not many
of my classmates had grandparents who were still alive.

> The average person capable of doing hard work all day long.

Wasn't the retirement age lowered to 62 in the 50s?


> Serious diseases so rare that they were the talk of the town
when they happened.

Because most people just died without a diagnosis. Lots of deaths
were blamed on things like "probably heart attack" or "shock" (AKA stroke).

> People who only went to the doctor once every 5 years and almost no one had
> health insurance.

The doctors didn't have sophisticated testing or medications to cure
many of the illnesses anyway, and w/o health insurance people didn't
think they'd get their $10-15 worth of care so why bother?

> Almost no "rest homes" (which was what they were called then).

There were quite a few reasons for that:

1. there weren't enough people to fill the beds or make it profitable
because people didn't live long enough to need nursing home care
2. people were very adamant about wanting to "die in my own bed"
3. relatives were harshly criticized for putting someone "in a home"
4. most "rest home" patients were severely handicapped rather than elderly
5. there were few medical or welfare programs to pay the cost.

We knew two "rest home" owners and were quite familiar with the
concept and the problems involved.

gloria p