Rebirth in America

After moving to New York for a while, Angel suggested that we all go shopping in New York stores together on the weekends. This idea was quickly agreed upon by the whole family, who had long wanted to find time to go out and play. In the most prosperous city in the United States, it is impossible not to go shopping.

The center of New York is different from the suburbs they lived in before. There are many people and cars, and there are a variety of shops everywhere. According to statistics, the population of New York City has increased by 11% in the past few years, and many of them are residents like them who have recently moved into the city. The tide of urbanization is affecting all aspects of the United States. Not only the urban centers, but also the population in the suburbs has increased a lot.

These so-called suburbs will also develop into part of the city in the future. Suburban development was initially associated with the expansion of the automobile industry and the construction of new transportation arteries.

In the postwar years, the U.S. automobile manufacturing industry boomed. Car production surged from 2 million in 1946 to 8 million in 1955, and the number of registered cars also increased from 25 million to 51 million.

Bart used to work in a factory that specialized in car production, and he was particularly familiar with this change. He watched cars being produced on the assembly line and brought to stores for sale. The number of vehicles on the streets is gradually increasing, and the roads are becoming more and more crowded.

Not only are there more vehicles, but there are also more people.

The 1950s were a period of unusually high marriage rates and extremely rapid birth rate growth. The postwar "baby boom" reached its peak in 1957, when the birth rate in that year was the highest in American history.

Alex, Richard and Karen are all children of the "baby boom", and population growth has further stimulated economic prosperity.

An industry journal happily stated: “More people mean new business opportunities and good times.”

This is indeed true. At this time, the United States is full of opportunities. As long as you work hard, you can find job opportunities.

This era was also the time when American family ideals were most prevalent, and it was the happiest era for American housewives. What they pursue is a high-quality life with privacy, freedom, comfort, spaciousness and enjoyment.

At this time, the income of the middle-income family had almost doubled, and stores were filled with products ranging from blenders to disc tying machines, which were electrical appliances that were simply impossible to have before.

For Angel, her happiest time is when she goes shopping, taking down large and small items from the shelves, putting them on the shopping cart, and carrying them home. When she was shopping, her eyes were sparkling and her face was rosy, as if she had seen a treasure.

The Carpenter family of five walked along Fifth Avenue in New York's Central Park. They entered the stores they saw along the way and bought the food they saw. There is a food district here, a street decorated with glass houses and colorful light bulbs, and American things can be seen everywhere. Seafood and meat are the main foods in this food area. They taste good and are not very expensive.

After eating and drinking, under the leadership of Angel, the family came to a clothing store. Faced with these brands that Alex couldn't name, he didn't know what to choose. From his aesthetic point of view, the clothing of this era still looked very conservative and rustic, and he simply couldn't imagine how it would look on him.

"Alex, why don't you pick out some clothes?"

"But I don't like these clothes very much. They look too ugly."

"Nonsense, these are very popular clothes now!"

"Then mom, please help me choose a few."

With Angel's help, Alex randomly selected a few pieces. These clothes seemed to be relatively later-generation style clothes. It’s just that Angel didn’t like it very much. She kept mumbling: “This dress is rarely worn by people and it’s not popular at all.”

Unexpectedly, after Alex put it on, it looked surprisingly good, and even Angel changed his mind and praised it.

As for women's clothes, Angel quickly chose them. Women's clothing in this era is not like that during World War II, where most of the women's clothing looked like work clothes for the convenience of work, which seemed so heavy and rigid. Although they are not as open-minded as later generations, the women have regained their charm and elegance, and they can't wait to leave the lifelessness of the war era behind them.

As for Bart, he chose a few pieces of cheap, durable denim clothing that he planned to wear while doing rough work. He also chose some clothes with patterns and bright colors. These are clothes worn at home, making him look more relaxed and comfortable. As for a suit, of course it is also required. It must be worn in formal occasions.

Richard and Karen also each chose some clothes they liked, and they shouted, which attracted the attention of other customers in the store.

Alex looked at the clothes in the store and felt that most of them did not meet his aesthetics, so he said: "We should customize some clothes ourselves. Handmade clothes will fit better."

"Customized clothes?"

The Carpenters were very interested in Alex's suggestion. They had also heard that wealthy people would find someone to customize their designs. Each piece of this kind of clothing is super expensive, and one custom-made clothing can almost buy hundreds of items in the store. When they heard this before, they found it a little unbelievable. Now that they have money, they feel that such a thing is natural.

Alex saw that his parents were a little excited, so he said more vigorously: "Yes, custom-made clothes, I will design a few pieces for you to see."

"Can you also design clothes?"

They were more interested in the fact that Alex could design clothes than in custom-made clothes. They really want to know what kind of clothes their son designs and whether they look good on them.

Bart immediately clapped his hands and said with a smile: "Then it's decided, Alex, you will design a few sets of clothes for each of us. When the time comes, I can wear them out and show them off!"

Angel also pursed her lips and smiled. She also felt that it was a glorious thing to go out wearing unique clothes designed by her son.

After the Carpenters selected their clothes, they had them packed and delivered to their home. It was still early at this time, so I continued to browse other stores. In addition to clothes, I also bought some furniture, decorations, daily necessities and so on.

They could hear the songs of the "Carpenter Brothers" in many places. At the beginning, they would deliberately ask questions to the store clerk to find out whether their songs were popular. After seeing it too much, you won't be surprised. Fortunately, no one had seen them before, and those who liked the songs of the "Carpenter Brothers" didn't recognize them.

This is New York, a city that is unfamiliar to them and unfamiliar to them. If they had been where they lived before, someone would have recognized them.

A morning went by while shopping. According to Alex's observation, times are different and social backgrounds are different, but the one thing that remains unchanged is always the people. After living in this era for so many years, he has begun to adapt to this life. Of course, occasionally he still thinks of his old world.

The Carpenters found a restaurant to have lunch. At this time, everyone felt a little tired and wanted to sit down and rest for a while. But they don't want to go home yet, especially the children who are still very interested and want to play outside for a while.

Bart discussed it with Angel and decided to continue shopping until he went home in the afternoon.

"Why don't we go see a movie?" Angel suggested.

"Movie?"

When Alex came to this era, he had not seen many movies. He has been performing everywhere with Bart, and during his break, he is studying music, studying his own abilities, etc. There was simply no time to go to the movies, and even if he had time, he didn't have much interest in the movies of this era.

Today is different. He wants to have a deeper understanding of people's living habits in this era and see what the movies of the 1950s were like. It’s impossible to say that he will also look for opportunities to make movies in the future. If we don’t learn more about him now, we’ll wait until later.

"Okay! Let's go to the movies! We love going to the movies."

"What is the movie?"

Richard rarely went to the movies either, which he certainly welcomed. Karen has never seen a movie. She has just learned to speak and has never heard of the word movie.

There was a movie theater nearby, and they went in to see what kind of movies were being shown. After you’ve made your choice, buy movie tickets and go in to watch it.

"Bart, look at "Red Mansions" is still being screened. I heard this movie is quite good."

"Well, children may not be able to understand this kind of movie."

"What about Beauty from the Comet?"

The two movies Angel chose were about Hollywood actors. Bart thought that these kinds of movies were too boring and it would be better to find a western movie.

"How about "Strangers on a Train"? It's about two men who met on a train. One wanted to kill his wife and the other wanted to kill his father. They agreed to kill each other, but because one party didn't abide by the agreement and blackmailed the other, the result was All kinds of things happened.”

Bart read the synopsis on the poster and felt that the story suited his taste, so he wanted to watch the movie.

Angel frowned and said, "This kind of movie should not be shown to children."

At this time, there was no grading system for movies, and parents controlled what movies children watched. Bart and Angel looked around at movie posters and found that there were no movies suitable for children. At this point, they either choose to go home or choose a movie to watch.

In the end, they chose a movie called "The Tyrant Burns the City". This is a 171-minute luxury blockbuster set in the ancient Roman Empire. Peter Ustinov plays the shameless and shameless Emperor Nero, and expresses the turmoil of that era by telling all kinds of absurd things about Emperor Nero.

Karen clapped her hands, pointed at the person on the screen excitedly and shouted: "Mom, look, Princess Lijie is so beautiful!"

Angel stroked his daughter's hair and said, "Well, yes! No wonder the general fell in love with her at first sight!"

When he saw Nero rewarding the victorious army, Bart said with some surprise: "Emperor Nero actually rewarded her to the general. This emperor is not stupid."

"Why does the princess not like the general and run away instead?"

"The princess is a Christian, so she can't agree with the general's conquest and massacre."

Alex found this explanation a bit funny, as Christianity does not shy away from blood. However, since the movie obviously glorified Christians, he didn't say anything. He just felt that this reason was a bit far-fetched. It would be more reasonable to say that the princess was scared and ran away.

On the screen, in order to recover Li Jier, the general found a secret gathering place of Christians. When I first heard Peter's sermons about Christ, I met Li Ji again as a child. Although they were already in love, they were still fascinated by the spirit of Christ.

When Angel saw this scene, she clasped her hands and said excitedly: "Thank God, the princess touched the general with her love and made him realize his return."

Immediately afterwards, the plot of the movie came to Nero going crazy and trying to burn down the city of Rome. As a result, the general rescued the princess and led the refugees into the palace. In order to calm the anger of the people, Nero blamed the Christians for burning the city, captured the Christians, fed them to lions, crucified them, and burned them in fire.

At this time, it entered the climax, St. Peter was crucified and died, but all the Christians sang hymns and died. The general revealed the truth on the spot. The Roman army retreated anyway, and Nero committed suicide to end the atrocities.

The movie ends here!

After watching this blockbuster film from the 1950s, Alex felt deeply how advanced American movies were. A film like this was actually made in this era. You know, in the absence of computer special effects and various shooting techniques, such a movie was completely shot in real scenes, and he had to be deeply impressed.

However, he felt that the director focused all his energy on the grand scenes and majestic set displays, while the content of the script was relatively mundane and boring, and some parts had cold scenes. However, the actor who plays Nero is quite good, and his performance makes people believe that this is the historical Emperor Nero himself.

Alex observed the people around him, and it seemed that people of this era still liked this kind of movie.

Bart likes to watch movies with big scenes like this, and he felt very satisfied after watching it. Angel wanted to watch it because the film also tells the story of Christians being oppressed.

Richard seemed to be fascinated by all the killings and absurd scenes in this movie, and he couldn't recover for a long time.

Only Karen, she only noticed that the people on the screen were tall, colorfully dressed, the heroine was beautiful, etc.

After watching the movie, the Carpenters returned to their home in downtown New York. Along the way, they were still discussing why Emperor Nero was so absurd, the love between the general and the princess, the heroic sacrifice of Christians, etc.

"If only we could make a movie like this!" Bart exclaimed.

"Making a movie? Investing, directing or acting?" Angel asked him.

"Of course it's investment. It's impossible for the two of us to be directors or actors. Well, maybe Alex and Richard have a chance to be actors."

After hearing this, Richard said excitedly: "Actor? I want to do that too!"

Alex looked at his family with a smile and said, "Maybe it's not bad to be a director! That way I can shoot whatever I want, and whoever I want to shoot."

Angel said with some worry: "The investment is huge. A movie requires at least millions of dollars. Not all movies can make money. If they lose money, they will be finished."

Bart laughed loudly after hearing this, and said, "I'm just talking casually, why should you take it seriously."

As for Alex, he is not just talking casually, he really wants to make a movie, a movie that can bring him huge wealth. It’s just that the time is not yet mature yet, and it takes time to accumulate technology, capital, and connections.