I don't see much innocence in the past, even in my own past which is considerably closer than the 40's and 50's. My folks always made sure their children knew what was going on and why...also why and how to work for a better world. Fairness is a majorly large issue with children and they respond viscerally to reports of big corporations exploiting little people - especially when they're old enough to comprehend that they themselves are being used and manipulated in someone's quest for money and power.

Now please excuse me while I rant: Some kids WEREN'T safe in the 40's & 50's PRECISELY because of the "dark historical happenings." A beloved in-law of mine is a black woman who, as an 8 year old out riding her brand new fourth-hand Christmas bike, was raped, beaten, thrown in a ditch and left for dead by a group of white teenagers in America in the 40's; it was three days before her folks found her and she continues to suffer physically from the sequelae of that atrocity. And when the "old people" of her family dared to ask for justice, they were NOT treated respectfully. And European Jewish children and old people were certainly not safe and respected in the 30's & 40's - not always even if they made it to America or England. It is true that no German child ever sassed a Jewish teacher back then, at least not after the Nurnburg race laws were formulated. And what did "historical happenings" do to a white Christian child or old person in the Kentucky coal fields in the good old days of the 20's and 30's - if your family was on the wrong side you could literally starve ... maybe expect to see a father, brother, or son shot or beaten.

"Dark historical happenings" happen to living, breathing, fully human people - who find themselves with memories of wonderful movies and baseball games that are somehow tainted - a less than nostalgic view of the past - an ugly memory of a childhood Christmas; but these happenings don't just 'happen', of course; other living, breathing people bring them about. I love my good memories as well as anyone; I've just never believed blanket endorsements of any era inhabited by humans could be realistic.

Glade