Baltimore Retrospective is an update of the earlier sub-title, Fifty Years Before Crack. It is a look in the rear view mirror at a city now in the grips of stagnation. Much like other Rust Belt communities, it is a condition resulting from the drug culture becoming the principal industry in a community where manufacuturing once supported a prospering working class. The Sunpaper reviewer judged it … best old-Baltimore recall of my acquaintance after reading recollections of a boy’s life during the Great Depression, World War II, and postwar era. A definite counterpoint to recent stories of Baltimore, by portraying a city where fathers had jobs paying enough to support their families, mothers worked at home, and kids played in the streets. A less complex economic time: when meeting the basic needs was paramount, when few owned their home or had a savings account, much less a book of checks. It was a much simpler time before TV, Internet, and X-box occupied the youth. Television series such as Homicide, and The Wire, show the city’s crime scene; and the Simon and Burns book The Corner describes a neighborhood overwhelmed by the drug culture. This book observes the same area of Southwest Baltimore through the eyes of a boy growing up half a century before life changed for the worst in that community. It was a time before the flight of manufacturing jobs to foreign shores, before racial integration, before sexual openness, before Little Leagues with parental management, before credit cards with large consumer debt, before supermarkets, mail order drugs, air conditioning and the 24 hour news cycle. In general, police, clergy, lawyers, and teachers were held in high regard, each offering a career with above-average pay and benefits. Doctors and clergy made house calls, police walked a beat, and teachers were not union members. Most tradesmen were employed by industry and homeowners performed the maintenance without hardware emporium training. Railroads were the principal mode of interstate travel and air travel was a novelty available primarily to the wealthy. Few people owned cars or handguns, a high school diploma was the goal of most youth, and few even considered the possibility of a college education. Sons and daughters who were employed and living at home were expected to contribute part of their pay to family expenses. Young males were subject to a military draft, the vast majority viewed this as service to their country: their patriotic duty in time of war. Subjects such as premarital sex and divorce, were frowned upon, and never discussed above a whisper. Condoms were kept behind the counter at the drug store. IUDs, morning after pills, and erectile dysfunction were unknown terms. Pregnancy out of wedlock was termed a girl in trouble and abortion was available primarily to the upper class. A shotgun wedding was the likely alternative for the poor. Moving pictures were mostly black and white, with sound that was not surrounding the listener, and music came via radio or from plastic disks spinning at 78 rpms on a Victrola. Some homes had central heating but most had one or more stoves. Indoor toilet facilities were growing in popularity. Municipal workers swept the streets and collected garbage and ashes each week. Postage stamps were a few pennies and the pace of mail delivery was not associated with snails. The Sunpaper book reviewer believed 50 Years Before Crack could become a classic in its field, see what you think of the follow-on.
