SUNDAYS WITH SHARON: Living The Dream

Sometimes we aren't thankful enough for our successes. The world has gotten to be a strange and dangerous place. In my talk yesterday, I discussed how now is the perfect time to be a writer. And who can forget the 2008-2009 time when we were worried the stock market would crash and there'd be war right around the corner? Some writers wrote their best works, and great movies were produced during another dangerous time.

Here's what was happening some 70+ years ago:

Major Political/World Events:

            General Franco and his Nationalists won the Spanish Civil War

            Germany and Italy sign the “Pact of Steel”

            Germany annexes remaining Czech territories, Czech Republic is dissolved

            Italy occupies Albania

            Soviet-Japanese border war erupts

            Nazi-Soviet pact formed

            Germany invades Poland (beginning WWII)

            Britain, France, India, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany

            US decides to remain neutral, but begins to arm for war to help ease

                        effects of the depression

            USSR attacks Finland

            USSR is expelled from the League of Nations (precursor to UN)

Albert Einstein writes letter to FDR about the possibility of an atomic bomb

and the Manhattan Project is launched

Other background for those times:

World Leaders are:

            USSR:              Joseph Stalin

            UK                   Neville Chamberlain

            USA:                Franklin D. Roosevelt

            Japan:             goes through 4 in less than 8 months

            Australia:        goes through 4 in less than 5 months

            Germany:       Adolf Hitler

            Italy:               Benito Mussolini

And then some major accomplishments:

            Gone With The Wind is made from Margaret Mitchell’s book in 1936

            Heinkel He 178 is the first jet aircraft to fly

            John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath

            Of Mice and Men was made

            The Jefferson Memorial is started in Washington, DC

            Hewlett Packard is formed

            The first air conditioner is offered in a car: Packard

            New York World’s Fair is hosted by US

Here’s what things cost:

            Average new home price: $3,800.

            Average wages per year: $1,730.

            Cost of a gallon of Gas:  10 cents

            Average cost to rent a house:  $28. Per month

            Loaf of bread:  8 cents

            1# Hamburger:   14 cents

            Average new car:  $700.

            Toaster:  $16.

            Due to increased usage, cost of electricity is cut ½ in 10 years

Do you know that people thought publishing houses and the movie studios were done? That no new books would be printed, movies made?

They were wrong then. They are wrong now. Keep Writing!!