As an English child of the '50's, I was in awe of American culture. England was still trying to pick up the pieces of a shattered infrastructure and struggling with an post-war economy that seemed to go nowhere. Culturally, the British Empire had eclipsed and there was nothing to take its place. Simply put, there was no cultural direction, except perhaps a vague longing for some sort of idealized pre WWII condition.
But there was light. Rock'n Roll was seeping in, occasionally bullying its way onto the stuffy British radio. My generation drifted into our teenage years, and the magnificence of American materialism hit us like a cultural LSD sledge-hammer. Suddenly there was a future, the Beach Boys, space shots, fantastic cars, hot dogs, chewing gum, Coca-Cola, Twiggy. My generation didn't know where we were going, but we were loving the journey. The British Isles emulated this cultural dynamo, the results of which are so obvious today that we don't even think about it.
Read More