Jim Francis Research Paper

People that are seventy or more years of age have been through many life changes in these past years. While learning about these different viewpoints, I interviewed Jim Francis from Decatur, Alabama. During the course of his life, he has experienced many social, political, and technological shifts that have shaped his life to the way it is today.

Jim Francis was born on September 4, 1939, and he grew up in Moulton, Alabama. During his lifetime, he has seen the world take on many social changes that has shaped the world to the way it is today. In his town there were predominately Caucasian people and they did not accept African American or Hispanics. While in high school, Mr. Francis recalls not ever seeing anyone of color because they

Francis has seen over his lifetime have been very dramatic. When Mr. Francis was growing up, Harry Truman was the President of the United States. Mr. Francis was only five years old when World War Two ended and he remembers how happy the people were that the war was over in Decatur. Mr. Francis says that politics back then were a big deal because of the war. The President had to make careful decisions that would affect the United States in a drastic way. Mr. Francis was a part of ROTC in Petersburg, Virginia. He says that he traveled all over the world for it and the politics was different everywhere he went. Mr. Francis also recalls when Dwight D. Eisenhower was the president. Eisenhower was a part of the Republican Party and ran the United States under his ideas of a modern republic. The economy was still recovering from the wars Mr. Frances explained. There was absolute poverty in some parts of the United States. Mr. Francis explained to me that even though he was very young at this time, he remember everything that has happened to him. He said, “I have a fine memory darling.” When it comes to politics, the way it works has not made a big change in the mind of Mr. Francis. He says that history repeats itself and each president will eventually end up doing the same thing. Everything president will have their strengths and weaknesses, but at the end of the day, there will always be certain things they do that are the

Francis’s lifetime. There was no technology when he was growing up. There was no air conditioning in cars or power steering. Mr. Francis does not use much technology today because he says it is not needed and way to advanced. His family was the first in North-West Decatur, Alabama to get a television set. He remembers people coming into their house and crowding around their television to watch it with them for the first time. In today’s society, there is so much technology and we have gotten so used to it we do not think for ourselves. Mr. Francis explained to me that since there was no technology or cell phones, people actually communicated with each other and had real conversations. He told me that today’s generation relies on our phones and social media so much we forget how to communicate in the outside world, and we talk to people like we talk to them online. Today’s social groups do not have the same values as the peer groups did back in Mr. Francis’s time. Mr. Francis says he was so amazed when he saw a computer for the first time. He said he had never seen anything like it in his life. It is so amazing to see how things have evolved over the years and how it affects the way the world is. Even though Mr. Francis has access to many technological devices, he chooses to communicate through writing letters. He writes letters to his family members that live in different states and family friends that are in