Throughout the 1950s a
national ethos took over the United States. This was the American Dream. The
American Dream was an ideal in which freedom included the opportunity for success,
a white picket fence, safety, community, and all that was good in the world. It
culminated in the Cold War world as a democratic vision that communist enemies
could not imagine achieving. As a result, countless Americans embarked to
achieve this dream. They all started from various points - rich, poor, country,
and city. It was an effort filled with numerous twists and turns such as deaths
in family or national crisis. Even after these families finally moved to the
suburbs and seemingly achieved the dream they had to maintain their income and
lifestyle through employment and making a journey to work daily.[1]
This can specifically be seen when examining one World War II veteran, Charles
Thomas Anderson, who moved to the Orlando suburb of Winter Park, Florida from
his hometown in Kentucky with his growing family in 1955. There, he found a
home, a job at the United States Post Office, and the all-mighty American
Dream. The mail route that Mr. Anderson then took daily from the mid-1950s
until his retirement in 1974 was the constant movement to maintain the American
Dream.[2]
A present examination of this journey will piece together whether these efforts
of maintaining the suburbs and the American Dream still exists today.
Charles Thomas Anderson embarked on his journey at
the Winter Park United States Postal Office, located on New York Avenue.
Despite there being multiple of postal offices throughout the area, he would
choose begin his journey at this one and it remains the starting point for this
mail route today.
Throughout his journey through his mail route,
Charles Thomas Anderson would often have to take numerous twists and turns,
just as with the left onto Park Avenue that is depicted in the picture above.
These twists and turns were part of Mr. Anderson’s travels and the current
mailman’s as well.
Charles Thomas Anderson finished his route at the end
of Palmer Avenue. However, his journey would not actually be over for he this
was not just a one-time excursion. Both him and his predecessors would have to
continue to make this journey day after day.
Everyday in the 1950s, Charles Thomas Anderson would
make this journey to deliver his mail route on foot. It was one and a half
miles long and took him approximately twenty-five minutes, depending both on
the day and the weather. As years went by, this route would remain unchanged.
Everyday, Charles Thomas Anderson would embark from
Winter Park Post Office. He would head north on New York Avenue from the Winter
Park Post Office, take a right on West Canton Avenue, a left on Park Avenue, a
right on East Stovin Avenue, and then a right again on Palmer Avenue.[3]
This was the journey to work that Charles Thomas Anderson took to preserve his
life in the suburbs and the American Dream. His journey, like the American
Dream began with a starting point, was filled with twists and turns, and was a
never-ending effort to maintain it. Most importantly, the mail route, and all
the aspects that came with it, that Mr. Anderson traveled remains unchanged –
proving that the efforts of maintaining the suburbs and the American Dream
still exists today.
Bibliography
Primary
"Funeral Notice- Charles Thomas
Anderson." The Orlando Sentinel, January 15, 2006.
Secondary
Horowitz, David and Carroll, Peter. On the Edge: The
United States Since 1945. Belmont: Wadsworth/Thompson Learning, 2002.
Metler, Suzanne. "The Creation of the G.I. Bill of
Rights of 1944: Melding Social and Participatory Citizenship Ideals." Journal
of Policy History 17, no. 4 (2005): 345-374.
Mormino, Gary. Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams.
Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005.
Teaford, John. The
Metropolitan Revolution. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.
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