The explosive growth of the 'burbs gave birth to the Shopping Center (or mall). It was, no doubt, far more convenient to park once and shop for everything from clothes to food to building supplies in what amounted to a single stop.
But as is evidenced by Sears, the once-mighty shopping mall has been humbled by online shopping--particularly Amazon and iTunes. Even I have to admit, especially living in a rural area, that it's mind-blowing to order precisely what you want and have it delivered to your doorstep (or your hard drive) either instantly or within a few days.
In the pre-online shopping days, I remember driving to Minneapolis (about 150 miles) and spending an entire day going from place to place looking for a particular piece of cookware or small appliance or CD or clothing and sometimes not finding it. Now it's click, click, click and the exact item you want is on its way to you. Hard not to be seduced by that.
Glad the film touched on the national/world political issues of the time, as well. It's easy to look back and think everything was wine and roses. It wasn't.
My sister, who was born in '47, talks about how scared parents (and kids, for that matter) were during the polio epidemic. Even though I was born a few years after that, I grew up knowing a handful of people who wore the braces that came with surviving polio.
At any rate, I thought it was an interesting little film, albeit designed to sell Redbook as a comprehensive guide through the young adult/young family years.