Reborn in America

Chapter 43: Shopping

After moving to New York for a while, Angel suggested that everyone go to New York shops together on weekends. This idea was quickly approved by the whole family, who had long wanted to find time to go out and play. In the most prosperous city in the United States, it is impossible not to go shopping.

In New York, the center is different from the suburbs where they used to live. There are many people and cars, and there are a lot of shops everywhere. According to statistics, the population of New York City has increased by 11% in the past few years, and many of them are urban residents who have recently moved in. The tide of urbanization is affecting all aspects of the United States, not only the urban center, but also the suburban population has also increased a lot.

These so-called suburbs will also develop into part of the city in the future. The development of the suburbs was initially related to the expansion of the automobile industry and the construction of new traffic arteries.

In the post-war era, when the American automobile manufacturing industry was booming, the production of cars soared from 2 million in 1946 to 8 million in 1955, and the number of registered cars also increased from 25 million to 51 million.

Bart used to work in a factory that specializes in the production of cars. He is particularly familiar with this change. He has seen cars produced from the assembly line and brought to the store to be sold. The number of vehicles on the streets has gradually increased, and the roads have become more and more congested.

Not only are there more vehicles, but also more people.

The 1950s was a period of unusually high marriage rates and unusually rapid growth in birth rates. The post-war "baby boom" reached its peak in 1957, when the birth rate in that year was the highest in American history.

Alex, Richard and Karen are all children born in the "baby boom", and the population growth has further stimulated the prosperity of the economy.

An industry journal happily said: "More people means new business opportunities and good times."

This is indeed true. At this time, the United States is full of opportunities. As long as you work hard, you can find jobs.

This era is also the time when American family ideals prevail, and it is the happiest era for American housewives. What they pursue is a high-quality life with privacy, freedom, comfort, spaciousness, and enjoyment.

At this time, the income of middle-class households has almost doubled, and the shops are full of goods from mixers to disc machines, which were impossible to have in the past.

For Angel, her happiest time is to go shopping, take large and small items from the shelf, put them in the shopping cart, and move them home. When she was shopping, her eyes were shining and her face was ruddy, as if she had seen the dragon of Treasure.

The Carpenter family of five people walked along Fifth Avenue in Central Park, New York. They walked in when they saw shops and bought food. There is a gourmet area here, a street decorated with glass houses and colorful light bulbs, and American things can be seen everywhere. Seafood and meat are the main foods in this gourmet area. They taste good and the prices are not very expensive.

After eating and drinking, under the leadership of Angel, the family came to a clothing store. Faced with these brands that Alex can't name, he doesn't know what to choose. From his aesthetic point of view, the clothing of this era still looks very conservative and rustic, and he can hardly imagine the appearance of wearing it on himself.

"Alex, why don't you pick a few clothes?"

"But I don't like these clothes very much, they look too ugly."

"Nonsense, these are all popular clothes now!"

"Then mom, help me pick a few."

With Angel's help, Alex chose a few randomly, and these clothes seemed to be more later-inspired clothes. It's just that Angel didn't like it very much. She kept muttering: "This dress is rarely worn by people, and it's not popular at all."

Unexpectedly, after Alex wore it, it was surprisingly beautiful, and even Angel changed his words and praised it.

For women's clothes, Angel quickly chose. Women's clothing in this era is not as heavy and rigid as it was during World War II. For the convenience of work, most of them are work clothes. Although not as open as later generations, the women have regained their charm and elegance, and they can't wait to leave the lifelessness of the war era behind them.

As for Bart, he chose a few cheap and durable denim clothes that he planned to wear for rough work. He also chose some clothes with patterns and bright colors, which were clothes to wear at home, which made him look more relaxed. As for suits, of course they are also needed, as they must be worn on formal occasions.

Richard and Karen also chose some clothes they like. They yelled and attracted the attention of other customers in the store.

Alex looked at the clothes in the store and felt that most of them did not meet his aesthetics, so he said: "We should customize some clothes by ourselves. Handmade clothes will fit better."

"Custom clothes?"

The Carpenters are very interested in Alex's suggestion. They have also heard that those rich people have customized it. Each piece of this kind of clothes is super expensive, and almost one customized garment can buy hundreds of clothes in the store. I heard it before and felt a little unbelievable. Now that they have money in their hands, they feel that such things are taken for granted.

Alex saw that his parents were a little moved, so he worked hard and said: "Yes, custom clothes, I will design a few pieces for you to see."

"Do you still design clothes?"

They are more interested in the fact that Alex can design clothes than customized clothes. They wanted to know what kind of clothes their son designed, but they didn't know whether they looked good or not.

Bart immediately clapped his hands and said with a smile: "Then it is decided, Alex, you will design some clothes for each of us. Then, I can show off to them when I wear it out!"

Angel also pursed her lips and smiled. She also felt that it was a very glorious thing to go out in the unique clothes designed by her son.

After the Carpenters chose the clothes, they were packed and sent home. It was still early at this time, so I went to other shops and bought some furniture, decorations, daily necessities, etc. besides clothes.

They can hear the songs of "Carpenter Brothers" in many places. At the beginning, they will deliberately ask the shop assistants about their unpopularity. Seeing a lot, it's no surprise. Fortunately, no one has seen their appearance, and those who like the "Carpenter Brothers" song have not recognized them.

This is New York, a city that is strange to them, and a city that is strange to them at the same time. If they were in the place where they used to live, someone would have recognized them long ago.

One morning passed while shopping. According to Alex's observation, different times and social backgrounds are also different, but people are always the same. Having lived in this era for so many years, he has begun to adapt to this kind of life. Of course, occasionally he still thinks of the previous world.

The Carpenters found a restaurant for lunch. At this time, everyone felt a little tired and wanted to sit down and take a break. But they don't want to go home yet, especially the children are still very interested and want to spend more time outside.

Bart discussed it with Angel and decided to continue shopping until he returned home in the afternoon.

"How about we go to the movies!" Angel proposed.

"the film?"

Alex came to this era and hasn't seen a movie much yet. He has been performing with Bart everywhere, and in the rest time he is studying music, studying his own abilities and so on. There is no time to watch movies at all. Even if he has time, he doesn't have much interest in the movies of this era.

Today is different. He wants to understand the living habits of people in this era and see what movies in the 1950s look like. I can't say that he will look for opportunities to make movies in the future. I don't want to learn more now, but when will he stay.

"Okay! Go to the movies! We like to watch movies."

"What is a movie?"

Richard also rarely watches movies, and of course he welcomes them very much. Karen has never seen a movie. She has just spoken, and she has never heard of the word movie.

There was a movie theater nearby, and they walked in to see what kind of movie it was showing. After you have chosen, you can buy movie tickets and watch it.

"Bart, you see "Golden Powder of Red Mansions" is still being screened. I heard that this film is pretty good."

"Uh, kids might not understand this kind of movie."

"What about "Comet Beauty"?"

The two films that Angell chose are about Hollywood actors' stories. Bart thinks that this kind of film is too dull, and it is better to find a good-looking western film.

"How about "The Train Stranger"? This is about two men meeting on a train, one wants to kill his wife and the other wants to kill his father. So they agreed to exchange murders, but because one of them did not comply with the agreement, they threatened the other, which triggered All kinds of things happened."

Bart looked at the introduction on the poster and thought the story suits his taste, so he wanted to watch the movie.

Angel frowned and said: "This kind of film shouldn't be shown to children."

At this time, there is no grading system for movies. Parents are in control of what movies children watch. Bart and Angel looked around the movie posters, and found that none of them was showing a movie suitable for children. At this point, they either choose to go home or just pick a movie to watch.

In the end, they chose a movie called "Tyrant Burning City". This is a 171-minute luxury blockbuster, set in the ancient Roman Empire. Peter Ustinov plays the shameless and shameless Emperor Nero, who expresses the turbulence of that era by telling all kinds of absurd things about Emperor Nero.

Karen clapped her hands and excitedly pointed at the person on the screen and shouted: "Mom, look, Princess Rigel is so beautiful!"

Angel stroked her daughter's hair and said, "Well, yes! No wonder the general fell in love with her at first sight!"

When seeing Nero rewarding the defeated army, Bart was a little surprised and said: "Emperor Nero will reward her to the general. This emperor is not foolish."

"Why the princess doesn't like the general, but wants to run away instead."

"The princess is a Christian, so there is no way to agree with the general's acts of war and massacre."

For this explanation, Alex finds it a bit funny, and Christianity does not shy away from blood. However, this film is obviously to beautify Christians, so he didn't say anything. He just thought that the reason was far-fetched. It would be more reasonable to say that the princess was scared and that was why he fled.

On the screen, the general seeks to recover Lijier and finds a secret Christian assembly. When I first heard about Peter's preaching about Christ, when I saw Liji's child again on the return trip, although the two had fallen in love at this time, they were still fascinated by the spirit of Christ.

When Angel saw this scene, she folded her hands together and said excitedly: "Thank God, the princess moved the general with love and let him know when he was lost."

Immediately afterwards, the plot of the movie came to Nero's madness to burn down the city of Rome. As a result, the general rescued the princess and led the refugees into the palace. In order to calm the anger of the people, Nero blamed Christians for the crime of burning the city, captured them, fed them to lions, crucified, and burned them in flames.

At this c****x, St. Peter was nailed to the cross and died, but all the Christians sang hymns and died. The general exposed the truth on the spot. The Roman army anyway, Nero committed suicide to end the atrocities.

This is the end of the movie!

After watching this blockbuster movie from the 1950s, Alex felt deeply about the advanced level of American cinema. Such a film has actually been shot in this era. You know, in the absence of computer special effects and various shooting techniques, this kind of film is completely shot in real scene, and he has to admire it deeply.

However, he felt that the director put all his energy on the grand scenes and majestic set display, the content of the script was relatively ordinary and boring, and some scenes appeared cold. However, the actor who played Nero was quite outstanding, and his performance made people believe that this was the Emperor Nero himself in history.

Alex looked at the people around him, and it seemed that people in this era still liked this kind of film.

Bart likes watching movies of this kind of big scene, and he feels very satisfied after watching it. Angel wants to watch it because this film also tells the story of the oppression of Christians.

Richard seemed to be fascinated by the various killings and absurd scenes in this film, and he couldn't recover for a long time.

Only Karen, she only noticed that the people on the screen are very tall, beautifully dressed, the heroine is very beautiful, and so on.

After watching the movie, the Carpenters returned to their home in downtown New York. They are still discussing why Emperor Nero is so absurd, the love between the general and the princess, the heroic justice of Christians, and so on.

"If only we could make a movie like this!" Bart said with such a sigh.

"Making a movie? Is it an investment or a director or an actor?" Angel asked him.

"Of course it is investment. It is impossible for the two of us to be directors or actors. Well, maybe Alex and Richard have the opportunity to be actors."

After hearing this, Richard said excitedly: "Actor? I think so too!"

Alex looked at his family with a smile, and said, "Perhaps it's not bad to be a director! This way you can shoot whatever you want, and whoever you want to shoot."

Angel said with some worry: "This is a huge investment, and a movie requires at least tens of millions of dollars. Not all movies can make money, and if you lose it, you will be over."

Bart laughed, and he said, "I'm just talking casually, why should you take it seriously."

As for Alex, he is not just talking casually, he really wants to make a movie, a movie that can bring him huge wealth. It's just that the time is not yet ripe, and it takes time to accumulate whether it is technology, capital, or connections.