Posted on 04/06/2016 9:00:44 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Is America a better place today than it was back in 1956? Of course many Americans living right now couldn’t even imagine a world without cell phones, Facebook or cable television, but was life really so bad back then? 60 years ago, families would actually spend time on their front porches and people would actually have dinner with their neighbors. 60 years ago, cars were still cars, football was still football and it still meant something to be an American. In our country today, it is considered odd to greet someone as they are walking down the street, and if someone tries to be helpful it is usually because they want something from you. But things were very different in the middle of the last century. Men aspired to be gentlemen and women aspired to be ladies, and nobody had ever heard of “bling”, “sexting” or “twerking”. Of course life was far from perfect, but people actually had standards and they tried to live up to them.
So how did it all go so wrong?
Could it be possible that life in America peaked back then and we have been in decline ever since?
Before you answer, I want to share with you a list of comparisons between life in America in 1956 and life in America in 2016…
In 1956, John Wayne, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe were some of the biggest stars in the entertainment world.
In 2016, our young people look up to “stars” like Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga.
In 1956, Americans were watching I Love Lucy and The Ed Sullivan Show on television.
In 2016, the major television networks are offering us trashy shows such as Mistresses and Lucifer.
In 1956, you could buy a first-class stamp for just 3 cents.
In 2016, a first-class stamp will cost you 49 cents.
In 1956, gum chewing and talking in class were some of the major disciplinary problems in our schools.
In 2016, many of our public schools have been equipped with metal detectors because violence has gotten so far out of control.
In 1956, children went outside and played when they got home from school.
In 2016, our parks and our playgrounds are virtually empty and we have the highest childhood obesity rate on the entire planet.
In 1956, if a kid skinned his knee he was patched up and sent back outside to play.
In 2016, if a kid skins his knee he is likely to be shipped off to the emergency room.
In 1956, “introducing solids” to a baby’s diet may have meant shoving a piece of pizza down her throat.
In 2016, we have “attachment parenting” which advocates treating children like babies almost until they reach puberty.
In 1956, seat belts and bicycle helmets were considered to be optional pieces of equipment, and car safety seats were virtually unknown.
In 2016, millions of us are afraid to leave our homes for fear that something might happen to us, and if something does happen we slap lawsuits on one another at the drop of a hat.
In 1956, many Americans regularly left their cars and the front doors of their homes unlocked.
In 2016, many Americans live with steel bars on their windows and gun sales are at all-time record highs.
In 1956, about 5 percent of all babies in America were born to unmarried parents.
In 2016, more than 40 percent of all babies in America will be born to unmarried parents.
In 1956, one income could support an entire middle class family.
In 2016, approximately one-third of all Americans don’t make enough money to even cover the basics even though both parents have entered the workforce in most households.
In 1956, redistribution of wealth was considered to be something that “the communists” did.
In 2016, the federal government systematically redistributes our wealth, and two communists are fighting for the Democratic nomination.
In 1956, there were about 2 million people living in Detroit and it was one of the greatest cities on Earth.
In 2016, there are only about 688,000 people living in Detroit and it has become a joke to the rest of the world.
In 1956, millions of Americans dreamed of moving out to sunny California.
In 2016, millions of Americans are moving out of California and never plan to go back.
In 1956, television networks would not even show husbands and wives in bed together.
In 2016, there is so much demand for pornography that there are more than 4 million adult websites on the Internet, and they get more traffic than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined.
In 1956, the American people had a great love for the U.S. Constitution.
In 2016, “constitutionalists” are considered to be potential terrorists by the U.S. government.
In 1956, people from all over the world wanted to come to the United States to pursue “the American Dream”.
In 2016, 48 percent of all U.S. adults under the age of 30 believe that “the American Dream is dead”.
In 1956, the United States loaned more money to the rest of the world than anybody else.
In 2016, the United States owes more money to the rest of the world than anybody else.
And there is one more thing that I would like to share with you before I wrap up this article.
This is what the New York skyline looked like on March 31st, 1956…
And this is the kind of thing that we are seeing displayed on the Empire State Building these days…
For those that don’t know, that is an image of the Hindu goddess of death, time and destruction known as Kali. And next month a reproduction of the 48-foot-tall arch that stood in front of the Temple of Baal in Palmyra, Syria is going up in Times Square.
So now that you have seen what I have to share, what do you think?
Has America changed for the better, or has it changed for the worse?
You actually think the Interstate Highway program was a bad investment ? Hooooboy
My parents bought their house for 8500.00 in 1956
two bedrooms in the attic
two bedrooms upstairs, full laundry room upstairs, nursery and bathroom
full kitchen, dining room, living room, pocket doors between the front door and living room!, bedroom downstairs
we never locked the front door
we had eggs, milk and bread delivered to the house, the delivery men walked right in the back door and put them in the refrigerator
we had one phone, and one tv set
we played outside all day, even in the rain
we sat on the front porch and watched thunderstorms, I love them!
I think that house is now worth half a million dollars
Yes, life was better in the 50’s and 60’s
In 1956, we still had Democrat instituted Jim Crow laws; that, at least, has changed for the better, thanks to Republicans.
In 1951, the difference in unemployment between white teens and black teens was 1%. That is, there was no difference.
By 1975 it was 37%.
I know some of you will not understand this message,but I bet you know someone who might. I came across this phrase yesterday. 'FENDER SKIRTS'
A term I haven't heard in a long time, and thinking about'fender skirts' started me thinking about other words that quietly disappear from our language with hardly a notice like 'curb feelers'
And 'steering knobs.' (AKA) 'suicide knob,' 'neckers knobs.'
Since I'd been thinking of cars, my mind naturally went that direction first. Any kids will probably have to find some older person over 50 to explain some of these terms to you. Remember 'Continental kits?'
They were rear bumper extenders and spare tire covers that were supposed to make any car as cool as a Lincoln Continental.
When did we quit calling them 'emergency brakes? At some point 'parking brake' became the proper term. But I miss the hint of drama that went with 'emergency brake.'
I'm sad, too, that almost all the old folks are gone who would call the accelerator the 'foot feed.' Many today do not even know what a clutch is or that the dimmer switch used to be on the floor. For that matter, the starter was down there too.
Didn't you ever wait at the street for your daddy to come home, so you could ride the 'running board' up to the house?
Here's a phrase I heard all the time in my youth but never anymore - 'store-bought.' Of course, just about everything is store-bought these days. But once it was bragging material to have a store-bought dress or a store-bought bag of candy.
'Coast to coast' is a phrase that once held all sorts of excitement and now means almost nothing. Now we take the term 'worldwide' for granted. This floors me.
On a smaller scale, 'wall-to-wall' was once a magical term in our homes. In the '50s, everyone covered his or her hardwood floors with, wow, wall-to-wall carpeting! Today, everyone replaces their wall-to-wall carpeting with hardwood floors. Go figure.
When was the last time you heard the quaint phrase 'in a family way?' It's hard to imagine that the word 'pregnant' was once considered a little too graphic,a little too clinical for use in polite company, so we had all that talk about stork visits and 'being in a family way' or simply 'expecting.'
Apparently 'brassiere' is a word no longer in usage. I said it the other day and my daughter cracked up. I guess it's just 'bra' now.
'Unmentionables' probably wouldn't be understood at all. I always loved going to the 'picture show,' but I considered 'movie' an affectation.
Most of these words go back to the '50s, but here's a pure '60s word I came across the other day 'rat fink.' Ooh, what a nasty put-down!
Here's a word I miss - 'percolator.' That was just a fun word to say. And what was it replaced with 'Coffee maker.' How dull... Mr. Coffee, I blame you for this.
I miss those made-up marketing words that were meant to sound so modern and now sound so retro. Words like 'Dyna Flow' and 'Electrolux' and 'Frigidaire'. Introducing the 1963 Admiral TV, now with 'Spectra Vision!'
Food for thought. Was there a telethon that wiped out lumbago? Nobody complains of that anymore. Maybe that's what Castor oil cured, because I never hear mothers threatening kids with Castor Oil anymore.
Some words aren't gone, but are definitely on the endangered list. The one that grieves me most is 'supper.' Now everybody says 'dinner.' Save a great word. Invite someone to supper. Discuss fender skirts.
We stopped being great in 1973 when our Supreme Court decided that it was ok to kill a baby and since then thousands are killed every day like some sort of mass Roman spectacle.
In 1956 we had Elvis, 2016 the biggest “star” is Kanye West, any questions?
Since it was the executive branch who did it, it was not an investment but a power grab. And the highway trust fund is an insolvent Ponzi scheme just like SS and Medicare; has been for decades. No, what I’m saying is that the private sector could have done it instead, not that it shouldn’t have been built.
The pay was tiny by today’s standards but I was in high school in the 1950’s and it was my ticket to what I thought was financial independence. Ice cream cones at Dairy Queen were $.05 and you could buy a Ship ‘n Shore 100 percent cotton shirt for $3.99. We used to ride the street car in town and used either red or green plastic tokens - believe they called them mills but it was too long ago to remember. No credit cards, counter checks at all the stores and people used layaway and paid $1.00 or so a week until their items were paid for. Life was good.
I do believe that the good Lord above agrees with you.
“And how long would an average worker have had to work in order to save that much money?”
LOL with principal and interest, usually thirty years. :-P
They had this weird thing called home mortgages even back then
Then why didn’t they? I’ve never read of private companies chomping at the bit to build interstates in the 50’s. And you’d enjoy paying a toll every time you got on one?
We are protected on two sides by oceans. No foreign power is ever going to come to our shores and invade us from there (exploiting our highway system).
(Please: No cheap jokes about the invasion already taking place along the Mexican border!)
Regards,
Of course you won’t hear about it. Certainly enough private contractors were “chomping at the bit” to take the people’s tax money to build the system, which suppressed any initiative, never mind suppressed any questions about constitutionality.
I’d be fine paying tolls if it meant not having to pay Uncle Sam any gas tax. At least I would not be wondering what they did with that money, since it all goes into the general fund and gets “transferred on paper” to the so-called “dedicated fund” (per the FHWA themselves).
Those jokes write themselves; one of the biggest was Kerry declaring the Monroe Doctrine “over”, remember. Kerry’s inviting them in.
“In 2016, our parks and our playgrounds are virtually empty and we have the highest childhood obesity rate on the entire planet.”
Virtually empty except for men wanting free, guaranteed, anonymous sex with other men in the middle of the night.
The obesity thing is almost a guarantee against some sort of armed rebellion. Has there ever been a revolution in the history of the world where the poorest people were also the fattest?
FReegards
PS. What I described with respect to private contractors building interstate highways was one of the biggest instances of “crony capitalism”.
I am a child of the 50s and 60s. Many, many things were much better than today. I’ll add to the list:
How was it that we had good schools, roads, fire departments, police, water, and even great libraries on 2 to 3% sales tax? We can’t do crap on four times as much now. Mind you that is four times as much in real inflation adjusted dollar terms.
Bicycle and walk to school
We were of modest means and we could AFFORD to take the dog to the vet.
Life was quiet and we didn’t miss much at all
Property tax assessment changes came once in a blue moon instead of once a year.
There were less people but we were almost ALL just AMERICANS not this polyglot mess we have now.
If you asked someone to do work at your house you could be pretty much assured they spoke ENGLISH.
We did not live in constant concern or fear of not knowing what law we had broken. The things you should not do were just common sense.
An upscale house was over 2000 square feet and modest houses were 1500 square feet or more. We did fine with a family of four or five. When we moved up to 1800 square feet we thought we had moved into a mansion that today would hardly merit a first glance let alone a second one.
And on and on.
I have no doubt at all that times were better than they are now. I remember bad things and I remember the Cuban Missile crisis, Duck and Cover and fear when the air raid siren went off but they were still much better days than these.
you lived lush but other than the house we lived much the same. Our little house that was new in 1959 is gone now.
I think Mom and Dad paid 13,500 for the house but that sounds high. I know they sold it for 18,000 in 1968.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.