Birth of a Consumer Nation

You probably didn't grow up in a little old house in a little old town. Chances are, you grew up in the suburbs.In my case, I was raised in "Canada's first planned community" - an enclave called Westdale, built around 1930 as a miniture town on what was then the ouskirts of the old city of Hamilton. Back then, anybody could buy one of the quaint little bungalows or larger family homes as long as you met two requirements: you were white and you were Protestant.

What sweet irony; it was my Chinese stepfather who showed me the conditions of ownership on the copy of the original deed he had received from the old gent we bought the house from.

Last week I had a lot of reaction to the Saturday Evening Post cover I posted. Some people were offended by my attitude towards the suburbs, some agreed with me.

This week, lets take a look at the early years of the baby boom, and how the groundwork was being laid for the sprawling consumer society we inhabit today.