17 June 2010

50 years of American marriages

I find this graph to be particularly interesting because my grandfather, a staunch full-blooded Norwegian, was genuinely disturbed when my aunt chose to marry a Swede in the 1940, and only grudgingly permitted it.  Some years later, when I was a child, another uncle kept his even more radical marriage (to a Catholic!) secret from everyone else in the family for many years.

Now, my generation of the family has I think four interracial/interethnic marriages and one same-sex union, and no one thinks twice about any of them.

All this change within one lifetime.

Chart via The Daily Dish.

5 comments:

  1. I have noticed you type "noone" throughout your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 29 times, actually. I don't know when I lapsed into that error - obviously many years ago.

    Fixed. 29 times.

    Thanks.

    Stan

    ReplyDelete
  3. When we lived in Stoughton WI, the big celebration was not 4th of July, it was Settende Mai (sp?). Most of the population was of Norwegian descent. I was told that there's only one thing dumber than a dumb Norwegian--a smart Swede. I understand in Minnesota, it's the other way around.

    Seriously, my family is mixed, which only enriches us all.

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  4. "Ten thousand Swedes
    Ran through the weeds,
    Chased by one Norwegian..."

    I distinctly remember picking up the notion back in the mid-late 60's when I was a prisoner of a Catholic grade school, that dating one of the boys from the Lutheran school in town would lead to drinking, smoking, and probably sex.

    ReplyDelete