I had exactly that reaction upon reading James K. Fitzpatrick's essay, "What Would Chip Hilton Do?" While Fitzpatrick and I grew up in the same town, College Point, New York in the borough of Queens, and even served Mass at the altar in the parish church of St. Fidelis, never once during those years did he ever mention Chip Hilton. Fitz was an aspiring athlete, but being physically smaller, I tended to avoid team sports, and basketball was never my game. The Hardy Boys I knew, but I can't say as I ever got into Nancy Drew. You had to draw the line somewhere.
Jim attended the parish school whereas I went to one of the three public schools in the village. That I became an altar boy while in 7th grade was a matter of personal choice and a decision applauded by my teacher who happened to be Jewish. He delighted in helping me to memorize the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass responses and prayers. Some, but not many, of my friends and classmates went the way of the drugs and alcohol scene; few, if any, took to crime. My memory might be faulty; I could be wrong.
Fitzpatrick's essay elicited a number of thoughts. The times indeed were different when the Chip Hilton series made its debut in 1948. World War II had just ended. Weary of conflict, it is safe to say there existed a yearning for stability and tranquility. Men and women looked to a brighter future and ways to maintain the newly-won peace.
Some returning veterans aspired to the political life and the promise it held; JFK and even Richard Nixon come to mind. Others left the fields of battle to pursue religion. Seminaries and religious communities across America overflowed with men firm in the belief that their contribution could be substantial. Religious communities of women experienced similar growth. With a baby boom about to explode on the scene, other men and women embarked on low-paying careers in education. Even famous athletes, baseball players mostly, returned to take up their bats, balls and gloves; think Ted "Teddy Ballgame" Williams. Idealism and optimism soared.
So the emergence of a Chip Hilton character was a natural and reasonable post-war phenomenon because the noble character traits he espoused and lived out were, at least on the surface, universally honored and supported by institutions, leaders, families and culture in general. Chip was able to trust authority figures because, yes, times were different. Back then my public school teachers, male and female, made no untoward overtures that I can recall. Nor did the priests to whom I looked for guidance and inspiration betray any of the trust I placed in them. Were all politicians honest, beyond reproach? I doubt it. Even to my innocent eyes, the teachers, priests and politicians weren't perfect, but to those same eyes they modeled goodness, service and in some instances, heroic virtue.
Were we naïve? Perhaps, but I don't think so. The nuns who taught Jim in St. Fidelis School and me in Confraternity of Christian Doctrine classes were never reluctant to tell us that evil was present in the world, nor were they shy when cautioning us to avoid sin and the occasions of sin. At the same time my public school teachers made similar demands for good behavior without imposing the possibility of everlasting hell-fire. Those sentiments were supported in our homes where to a greater of lesser extent the word of our parents was law.
In October 1963 Bob Dylan recorded then released in 1964 one of his most popular songs, The Times They Are a-Changin, and change they did. With this in mind it is not surprising, but perhaps only coincidental, that the last book in the Chip Hilton series was published in 1966. More than thirty years later the series would be updated and reissued by the author's daughter and son-in-law, but as Fitzpatrick noted, "The news (read book sales) is not that good." Perhaps if Chip's first name got changed to Paris, the books might sell better on Amazon. Then again the message might be somewhat different.
I do not pretend to have an answer to his "chicken and egg" conundrum, but I do know that somewhere through the years, many of our trusted institutions and the men and women who work in them have fallen on hard times becoming, themselves, untrustworthy. Just as the youth of my 60's generation could not, perhaps would not, trust the man, in today's world it is unsafe to trust the man or the woman who could be your teacher, minister, doctor, policeman or politician. These are scary times to be young.
Peer pressure was present in my youth, but community standards were also a part of everyday life supported by clergy, educators, policemen, politicians and, oh, yes, athletes. There was the weight of that recent history and the wars that had been fought with the promise of a better life if you played by the rules. A youngster who would take the time to read a Chip Hilton story today sadly does not have the same cultural supports to reinforce any values good old Chip might espouse or esteem. Sadder even more to say, I know a great many men and women whose lives as husbands, wives and parents are nothing short of exemplary, but for all of their good modeling, excellent parenting skills and the best of intentions, the children they raised are either abandoning or paying less attention to the values they so diligently imparted.
Minus a cultural underpinning, with a prevailing attitude that everything is up for grabs, hooking up is the norm, and once-trusted individuals and institutions no longer deserve or merit trust, no amount of modeling by a fictitious character is going to alter behavior. There's too much competition.
If I keep this up I could get depressed, but wait, isn't Chip Hilton really a sign of contradiction, a voice in the wilderness, and isn't that also part of the Gospel? The message hasn't changed; the challenge has only gotten greater and perhaps a bit more complex.
Batter up!
