Okay, I looked back in reflection because my parents were from the same time period. Our parents were from the same generation that thought Jim Crow was fine, and that women should stay in the kitchen and gays in the closet. Jews were excluded from a lot because they were Jews. College was only for rich people, and many folks were barely literate. The word was "bums", not "homeless". People with disabilities were better kept out of sight, and of course no accomodations were made for them anyway. The term was "crazy" not "mentally ill". They read the approved Bible from the correct Christian denomination they belonged to, because the people that read those other Bibles were going to burn in Hell. People that lived through the Depression, the rationing of WW II, and the privation that most working people lived with anyway. knew what it was to be frugal, but don't think that they weren't influenced by advertising, which paid for newspapers and radio just like television and the internet. If you were picked up by the poorly paid corrupt cops back in the day, they were just as likely to beat you up, take what was in your wallet, and throw you on the street as to fill out the paperwork at the station. Street prostitution was common, and addiction was considered a failling of character.

Finally, the amount of people who do things in the great outdoors is vastly greater than in the olden days. Most people back then were too tired from working to camp or hike, and adults didn't even ride bicycles. Most of the largest American cities were filthy poisonous industrial shitholes back then as well.