Three types

In the ’50s Manhattan had three types of work. K-State, local businesses, and Fort Riley. (The enlisted men lived on base, so the Manhattan residents were mostly officers.)

The offspring of those three groups were distinctly different.

Business sons were ADULT. They acted like grownups, and knew how the world worked.

Prof sons were not adult in the same way. We knew lots of facts and logic but we didn’t know how people worked.

Army brats were more like prof kids except that they knew facts about other countries from being stationed in Germany and Japan and Okinawa.

Why were business sons solid and adult? Because they were WORKING in the store, cleaning the floors and helping the repairmen and salesmen. They were actively contributing to the family’s success.

The college and the army didn’t have opportunities for kids to help. All positions were filled by paid staff. Occasionally my dad gave me a chance to grade papers, and I absolutely LOVED it. I did those tasks eagerly and carefully.

Big corporations would have been the same as K-State or the army, but we didn’t have any corporate headquarters or auto plants.

People were designed to work together, and families were designed to be businesses. The Endarkenment and the Industrial Revolution broke the purpose of the family. Isolated islands of the old way remain, especially in immigrant communities who have managed to skirt the edges of the laws and regulations against working together.