The Vanishing World of My Chicago Childhood: Growing Up on the South Side, 1945-1960

"In the modern world we have invented ways of speeding up invention, and people's lives change so fast that a person is born into one kind of world, grows up in another, and by the time his children are growing up, lives in still a different world." -Margaret Mead, People and Places (Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Company, 1959)

The Vanishing World of My Chicago Childhood is a delightful memoir of growing up in Chicago in the 1950s-but it is much more than that. The author argues that childhood has changed dramatically over the last seventy years-and not for the better.

Zucker and his neighborhood pals played games outside almost constantly when the weather permitted. Sixteen-inch softball, basketball, touch football, marbles, kick-the-can, and yo-yos were among their favorites. They also constructed their own soapbox cars, built miniature golf courses, chased butterflies, hunted snakes, camped overnight in vacant lots, and shot bows-and-arrows. When bad weather forced the kids indoors, they played a wide variety of board games, listened to music, and read books. In contrast, the author observes that children today often spend hours indoors playing electronic games on phones, computers, or TVs, leaving them with little time for outdoor play.

The author notes, however, that the infotainment revolution-and the roots of modern American childhood-began when he was a kid. In the 1950s, American families began purchasing television sets en masse. Although he admits that American families-including his own-enjoyed watching television, he believes its arrival in American homes marked the beginning of a growing social isolation that has had profound consequences for both children and adults. As a result, the childhood and the world that Zucker experienced growing up on the South Side of Chicago have largely vanished today.

Author: Charles Zucker
Publisher: Bublish, Inc.
Published: 11/15/2025
Pages: 170
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.52lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.39d
ISBN: 9781647049713

About the Author
Zucker, Charles: - Charles Zucker was born in Chicago in 1945 at Ravenswood Hospital where his mother, Leah, had been a registered nurse before retiring. He was raised in the Chatham-Avalon neighborhood on the city's South Side. Zucker graduated from Dixon Elementary School and attended Hirsch High School for one semester before the family moved to the suburb of Lincolnwood. After graduating from Niles Township West High School in 1962, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he majored in history, graduating in 1966. He then entered the Ph.D. program at Northwestern University and received his Ph.D. in American history in 1972. Zucker taught at Fayetteville State University (North Carolina) and at Carroll College (now Carroll University) in Waukesha, Wisconsin before seguing into professional association work. In 2007, he retired after serving for nineteen years as the executive director of the Texas Faculty Association. He now resides in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife Shaya.