When the WWII generation let it all hang out

Helping usher in television

Ah, it's New Year's Eve Day. We have seen a change in how the New Year's is celebrated. I was young when the idea was to celebrate right at midnight. And this was done with a lot of foolishness going on. You know what I mean, with alcohol. 

Back in the days when we relied on "DVDs," I had one of a mid-1950s Jack Benny TV special. So I'd play it on the Eve, enjoy the singing of Dennis Day etc. Jack had his "troupe." Remember Don Wilson? No, not the baseball pitcher with the Houston Astros (1960s). 

In the TV special we saw the classic New Year's Eve celebration of the type enjoyed so robustly by my elders' generation, i.e. the WWII generation. They were very social and "joiners" by nature. So here's a nightclub of boisterous people crowded around tables. Midnight was nigh. It's understood the alcohol was flowing. There's live music. There's noisemakers, confetti and you get the idea. Men wore ties.

As the years passed through my midlife when I was with the Morris newspaper, I noticed changes. The bar scene was no longer such a magnet due to you-know-what: the DWI crackdown. People modified their habits. A big change was that it had become totally accepted to celebrate "New Year's Eve" earlier in the day. It even seemed to become the norm. 

So as a newspaper person I'd stop by a couple of the more high-profile gatherings like at the RFC. Most of us would be tucked into bed for when midnight arrived. Jack Benny was home at midnight due to a depressing aspect of his evening: a hoped-for date with a female that fell through. He was comforted at home by his valet "Rochester." 

Oh I don't need the DVD anymore because the episode is on YouTube. There's another Benny New Year's Eve special that has Jayne Mansfield as a guest but I don't think this one is quite as good. 

In my favorite episode which I think is for the 1957 New Year - TV really still in its infancy - Dennis Day does a bang-up job singing about "being an Irishman." He's accompanied by the other Benny troupe members including Wilson. Wilson plays tuba for a State Farm commercial!

As Benny winds down his evening, he takes a listen to the loud revelry from outside as midnight arrives. Yes, the idea was to celebrate with such unbridled enthusiasm right at 12:00. Today we wake up the next morning and we can acknowledge that indeed the New Year is reality, just as if we'd partied "the old way." 

The WWII generation I'm sure woke up hungover in many instances. The image of that was fodder for humor in the bygone time. We had to love the WWII generation even with some of the weaknesses and vices they exhibited. Such a gregarious lot. Perhaps the drinking helped obscure their thoughts about the adversity-filled times of their lives. The Great Depression and WWII. 

One of their faults was to cling to a belief that war was a largely virtuous way to keep the U.S. predominant in world affairs. So they weren't so wise in reacting to new U.S. military adventures. 

We had quite the WWII generation of folks here in Morris. Such stalwarts with their veterans service organizations and "ladies auxiliaries." Think Helen Kill, bless her memory. Darlene Olen too, and with the masculine sex how about Willie Martin? I suppose the memories of Willie fade just like they do for anyone. The Willie's grocery store bears his name. We're more likely to think of Paul today. I remember when Paul was just an up-and-comer. 

I vividly remember Willie. He always spoke at the cemetery portion of the Memorial Day observance. And after the doings of that day, well why not retreat to a place like the Legion Club where "refreshments" would flow? Cigarette smoke too? I seem to remember that. New generations came along that saw drawbacks with a lot of that behavior. Times surely change. 

Perhaps we can feel fondness for the WWII generation style with the expression "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." Our veterans had escaped death in WWII itself. That was no routine hurdle to get past. I wish they had joined their own children more to object to the Vietnam war, to just say "let's get our boys out of there." 

I have never really understood what the Korean war was all about. America's supposedly overwhelming military might could not prevent Korea from being divided in two. We fought in Vietnam when there were two halves with the "South" being the good guys or so we were told. We poured $ into that, much of it lost through getting absorbed in corruption. 

And somehow the American people had trouble seeing through the folly of it all. You had to really "stick your neck out" to come out and say "bring the boys home." Would get stigmatized. Remember the "Smothers Brothers" TV show? Its controversy? All because of a general sentiment of wanting the U,S. servicemen to come home. 

And then the young people of America became cynical not just about the war but about a lot of other things as well. You might call the latter category "collateral damage" of the tragedy. 

With time we stood up straight. Drinking in public became increasingly discouraged. Smoking really came under attack. New Year's Eve parties became gentle and restrained affairs held largely in late afternoon. 

Let's not forget when the idea was to crowd into some "night club" to sit shoulder-to-shoulder around tables, blow noisemakers and toss confetti. Because there was something to be said for that really, the harmony of people all together. 

But then, maybe a need for a hot water bottle on top of the head in the morning! That's old imagery from the days when excess drinking was rather the norm. We'd see the guy in "The Better Half" comic strip with a hot water bottle on his head. He'd be sitting there in his sleeveless white T-shirt looking miserable as a consequence of his activities the night before. His wife stood behind him. 

Bless the WWII generation but all phases do come to an end. So I'll say "Happy New Year" on the morning of New Year's Eve Day 2024. Bring on 2025 without alcohol of course.

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com