Consuming and the American Dream?

Knee pain. That’s what it started with. Then there was pain in my ankles and hips. I tried to run less, but as the pain continued I finally decided that I had to stop running altogether. After a few months and once the pain subsided, my spouse and I decided that it was time to pick up a new pair of running shoes and to start running again. I visited Gotta Run, a local running store in Arlington, VA, and picked up a pair of Brooks Addiction 7s ($90). I had run in Brooks before—they have the widest toe box on the market and fit my “flipper feet” perfectly. Because the Addiction 7 helped to control my excessive pronation, almost all of my knee pain is gone (it’s still aches when I run up and down a lot of hills, but a knee strap and stretching usually helps). If you have similar problems, then consider changing your shoes!!!

As I mentioned on Wednesday, the Internet Archive’s Prelinger Archive may prove a really rich source for you over the semester.

Check out the videos under the consumerism tag on the Prelinger Archive tag cloud.

Note: The videos may take a minute or so to load.

There is “In the Suburbs,” a 1957 advertising sales promo film extolling 1950s suburbanites as citizens and consumers.

Download In the Suburbs

Here is a reel of classic 50s and 60s television commercials.

Download Television Commercials 1950s-1960s

Or the two part series “Consumers Want to Know” from 1960.

Download Consumers Want to Know, Part 1

Or even the strangely bizarre and gendered “Consuming Women” (1967).

Download Consuming Women

Or this 1955 gem “A Word to the Wives” about two women who trick their husbands into buying a new kitchen.

Download A Word to the Wives

Anyway, enjoy the Archive.

Jim