We all have visions of that memory lane--but realistically, hardly anyone I know really walked that path. I grew up with plenty of disfunction and unhappiness wrapped in a lovely home and trimmings. It didn't make us happy. My parents played a game of who could out-cheat who. My mother was a beauty--only 18 years old when she married. My father was the kind of psychological misery, driving her away to find an easing of her pain elsewhere. I remember ''Leave It To Beaver'' and ''Father Knows Best.'' But that wasn't happening in my home. I suspect it wasn't happening with a lot of people. Those were fantasies at their best. And finally, by the 1960's that bubble burst and reality set in. People stopped pretending they were happy when they weren't.
So don't feel too bad--your misery--although horrible--wasn't the only misery around. People hid it better, there was no mass communication like today, people wouldn't dare talk about it on national television--cheating, beating, etc. Today we all know what misery is about--and that it's not an isolated situation.
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