Tornado Alley (PROG)

[janice shell]

I believe you're correct. Like it or not, kids are more aware of a great many things now than they were when we were kids.

And when they're even younger, they tend to be very accepting of "different" people, unless their parents teach them not to be.

When I was in high school, Candy, written by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg, became a bestseller in the U.S. (It had first been published in 1958, but didn't catch on right away, because it was banned in many places. It was a parody based on the kind of pornography popular at the time. When it was published in the States in 1964 by G. P. Putnam, it created a stir. Outraged people complained to local authorities, and to the FBI. The FBI initially considered the book to be porn, but "'[/]Candy' was redeemed as 'satire' by an FBI analyst reporting to J. Edgar Hoover. The original FBI memorandum is printed in this 60th anniversary edition."

https://groveatlantic.com/10-scandalous-facts-about-the-1958-novel-candy/

So the book could, after that, be sold without anyone going to jail. But I was banned in many places. The town I lived in was one of those places. Even though it was a modern satire of Voltaire's Candide. And so as you can imagine, two or three of the guys drove up to Gary and bought multiple copies. They passed them on to everyone who wanted to read them.

The night I started my copy, my mother had invited the minister to dinner. I excused myself after dessert and read it in bed. That was very satisfying.