USA POPULATION TURNS 300 MILLION

U.S.A POPULATION TURNS 300 MILLION IN OCTOBER

I would like to introduce you to my “mom.’ Her name is Maxine and I adopted her after my real mother Doris Snell died in 01.’ She is in her mid 90’s and was born roughly around 1910. When she came into the world, there were about 90 million people. Her youth was spent in the roaring 20’s of the “Great Gatsby” and the depression of the 30’s. “Buddy, Can you spare a dime?” It was in the depression that she got married to her husband, Perry. They had 3 children.

At the beginning of the 40’s, there were about 130 million people and after the great World War II “over there” America was experiencing a “baby boom.” Maxine and Perry had one additional child named Richard and that was the story of America. Most had refrained from child bearing in the 30’s but added one more than the usual 2 kids in the mid-century. During the 50’s, I would spend summers working at Maxine and Perry’s Park Rapids, Minnesota resort called “Weigelwood.” We could watch “Ozzie and Harriet” on television at night, but the most fun was listening to other folks talking on the rural party line on the telephone.

At the beginning of the 60’s, the United States had grown to about 180 million people. So the population had doubled. When my wife Jennifer and I got married the day Robert Kennedy was buried in 68’ our country had passed the 200 million mark. From the 60’s onward, we have added about 25 million people a decade. All this happened when the Vietnam War and Civil Rights occurred, and President Reagan was shot.

 There were about 280 million when we argued about who won the presidential race Bush or Gore? For Maxine, the population had tripled.

Now 6 years later in October, the Census Bureau’s official time clock will indicate that we have 300 million people. We are getting to be in the same league with India and China. That is another 20 million in just 6 years. Countries are lucky when they have a large educated active population (folks 15 to 55) for they work; pay taxes, and have kids.

Iowa’s big growth has come in the corridor from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City and in the larger Des Moines area. Maxine has spent most of her life in Iowa (Spirit Lake.)

How does she feel now living in the city where she was born which is Omaha? Her house at birth is now in the “inner city” and the metropolitan area is now 200 more blocks westward. She is ambivalent. Population spurs the economy, but sometimes there are problems. Her attitude is probably similar to most of the rest of us. We would like to have it both ways. That is a fast growing economy without social problems. So let the arguments begin. Maxine just lets the world go by for at her age she has seen it all.