A recent donation of 1950's jigsaw puzzles to the Levittown Historical Society reminds me of those pre-Cyber Age leisures enjoyed by Levittown children in the old days. The artifacts of those leisures are on display at the Levittown Historical Society's museum in the Levittown Memorial Education Center.

The toys of the '40s, '50s, and '60s, say much about the post-War American suburban culture that Levittown epitomized. With all of the original homeowners being GIs and a high veteran population being maintained for some years thereafter (55 percent in 1970), it should be no surprise that so many lead soldiers, plastic green army men, and GI Joe action figures filled toy boxes.

Recall that WWII was "the good war." For better or worse, the GIs of 1945 came home exhausted, but exuding the confidence of a moral crusade well fought. They were not haunted the least by the Old World's moral ambiguities that haunted their parent's generation after WWI.

There was no post-WW II "Lost Generation," as F. Scott Fitzgerald dubbed it. Just, in the words of Tom Brocaw, the "Greatest Generation."

Cowboys and Indians and other Western-motif items are also in evidence as they were in the l950s when John Wayne and the Western were second only to war movies, on the big screen. Sociologists today are quick to point out that the suburban conformism of the '50s, prompted the Levittowners and other suburban tract dwellers to wax nostalgic for the days of the open range. True enough, perhaps. But Levittown in the early days cultivated its own "pioneer spirit" and had a certain small town quality that is missing these days. In a l990 interview in Memories Magazine, the late Tom Caroll, an early Levittowner and the founder of the Levittown Historical Society, said that "there was more camaraderie back then. Now everybody's got two or three cars in the driveway and there are shopping malls all over the place. You don't have to get involved with your neighbor. Nowadays you got mothers and fathers working; nobody has time for a cup of coffee over the back fence."

Lionel model trains also abound in the Levittown Historical Society's toy collection. The dying industry, temporarily reinvogorated by WWII, became yet another way that l950s children recalled the "thrilling days of yesteryear." Few were aware then - or now- that the railroad in the l800s was seldom greeted with enthusiasm and certainly was not romanticized. Dolls, doll houses, prams, and toy tea sets were all the mainstay of young Levittown girls in the 50's. Feminists would later condemn these as "gender role assignment." But the reality was, that as late as l960, only 22 percent of Levittown's households could have been described as two-income households. The ubiquity of girl's toys that were homemaker-oriented merely reflected the socioeconomic condition of the times rather than any conscious desire to indoctrinate.

At some point in time, every historian ponders what he/she would place in a time capsule to be opened in the distant future. But no generation was as pampered as the Baby Boomers. Consequently, no generation's toys better reflected the concerns of and historical forces at work within, than the ones that grew up in the bedrooms and backyards of Levittown.