>>>>>>>>OTOH, my junior high was on shifts. The morning shift (which was all the 7th grades and the 8th graders who were going to go to a high school for 9th grade) started at 7 and finished at noon.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Not much provision there for parents being at work
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Yeah, well, this was the late 60's when most moms were at home. Besides that, it was junior high (grades 7-9, ages roughly 12-15, though I was a lot younger), so in theory, these kids could be home on their own.
>>>>>
>>>>>Oh well you all had maids back then anyway! :-)
>>>>
>>>>Maybe you did. We sure didn't. To be exact, at one point in my childhood, we did have a woman named Margaret who came about once a week to clean house. Other than that, we never had any household help.
>>>
>>>We did!? Why in many of the old B&W sit-coms from back in the 50s and 60s, and films, the guy went out to work, pipe in mouth, the "little lady" stayed home, with her pinny on, and the coloured maid came in :-) Tom & Jerry's household always had a maid (well a fat behind and stockings down at her ankles was all we saw of her!)
>>
>>But remember, the definitive family - the Cleavers. June did her own housework. She wore a party dress and pearls to do it, of course, but she did it herself. Ward always wore a tie and jacket at home. The jacket had the obligatory elbow patches.
>>
>
>For a dead-on depiction of upper middle class life in the U.S. in 1960, check out the new series "Mad Men" on AMC. (Yes, AMC). Charles Hankey and some TV critics recommended it and now I am hooked.

Unfortunately, I don't get AMC, or most anything else. I get 3, sometimes on a good day, 4 channels. All local, and none real clear.