San Antonio in the day

With its prosperous military infrastructure, our city was a perfect little microcosm of a nationwide trend of prosperity and hope.  Young men and women, both military and non-military, poured into the city from all regions, meeting and marrying sometimes within months.  Soon they were birthing us, the boomers, and bringing us home in their new cars, which they could now actually afford on monthly payments.  We were carried in their arms into new homes in the burgeoning suburbs, bought on time as well, thanks to the GI bill and no down payment.

 Schools sprouted every where and teachers were suddenly in short supply.  Our parents would find themselves able to provide for us, their children, as their parents had never been able to provide for them.  It was their pledge that our lives would be different and better.  Our generation had taken root, would grow throughout the 1950s and the 1960s in ways our parents could never have foreseen.

Most San Antonians know their basic history.  The San Antonio river valley was occupied by the Papaya people who named it Yanaguana.  Then arrived the Spanish who built our fabled missions.  The Texas war for independence brought us the legends (some of them true!) of the Alamo.  In the years after independence, San Antonio continued as a sleepy little Southwestern city, home to cattle drives and the quaint San Antonio River snaking through the middle of town.  Slowly, it was changing and preparing for the dramatic changes that would overtake it in the 40s and 50s and set the stage for us.  Roosevelt’s CCC of workmen had been busy at work on our fabled river walk, building the charming walkways, bridges and benches where we still stroll today.  Military bases were burgeoning, and included Brooks Field, soon to become the home of the Air Force Aerospace Medical Division, Fort Sam Houston, home of the 5^th army, Randolph Air Force Base, Kelly Air Force Base, and Lackland Air Force Base.  Jobs were plentiful for both ex-military and civilians.  With jobs and an influx of workers comes the need for housing.  The city began stretching rapidly to the north and the northwest.  Old money Alamo Heights was already well established, but Terrell Hills was developing out of the Terrell Family ranch as well as the upscale Northwood. 

Black and white Kodak snapshots, especially with black, lacy borders around them show the essence of our childhoods.  Our mothers took pictures of us with box cameras, dressed in our best out in the front yard of our new and modest homes, or better yet, in front of the new car they were able to buy on time in the post war prosperity.  It was a time of hope, and relief that a war which killed 8 million young American soldiers was done with.  Vietnam was on the horizon and Korea and the cold war were realities, but we were still blissfully unaware of that.  Young men and women were getting ahead.   Suburbs were expanding at an alarming rate as young families snapped up new housing.  The wave that was the baby boomer generation was rolling, and was not to crest for many years.