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What was the 50's really like ? ( Vanity )
me

Posted on 06/05/2005 6:37:36 AM PDT by sushiman

I would like to hear from folks who were adults during the 1950's ( I was born in 1952 ) about what it was really like back in those days . In nostalgiac moods I often wish I would go back , as an adult , and see for myself if it was a wonderful as I remember it with romantic , childhood visions ...I know this is a very broad topic ...any memories , thoughts , etc...would be appreciated ...


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To: bannie
No, you just need to recalibrate your attention span to the specifications of the younger generations. ;-)
121 posted on 06/05/2005 10:44:23 AM PDT by LongElegantLegs ("Se habla, MoFo!")
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To: sushiman
You remember when the web had something to do with spiders, and the net was something to catch fish in. You recall doctors making house calls and driving Buicks. The models in TV underwear adds had their clothes on. Items concerning intimate personal hygiene, condoms, and sexual performance were found in drug stores,..and not on prime time tv adds. Teaching was a profession, and not a trade union. Everybody stood during the National Anthem. Truck drivers were safe and courteous drivers. Guns in school meant the school had a rifle team. Crack was a wise-ass remark and Coke was a soft drink. "Luxury" and " pickup truck" were never used together. People with a high school diploma could read, write, and figure percentages. People with a college degree could read, write, and figure percentages. A jar of urine might mean you were on a car trip, but it sure as hell wasn’t displayed in an art museum. Nice hotels had color tv and good food, ...prisons weren’t supposed to. Immigrants came to America to be Americans. "Drill Instructor" and "Sensitivity training" were not used in the same sentence. If the Ice Cream was "fat free", that meant the recipe was screwed up. Eating beef was considered healthy. A "ho" was a garden tool. If parents thought it was a good idea for kids to emulate sports celebrities. Your mothers cooking was considered good for you. The only guy with a small, portable telephone was Dick Tracy. Coffee was a beverage, not a cult experience. When America was at war, Hollywood celebrities joined the war effort,.. on our side. Catchers were the only folks who wore baseball caps backwards
122 posted on 06/05/2005 10:56:08 AM PDT by Ramonan (Honor does not go out of style.)
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To: JoeSixPack1

Good post, I would add that school kids played out all day, often forgetting about meals

We all came home by dark or our moms would yell for us out the front door

A real treat was riding our bicycles to the cornor store, sipping a RC and naming the makes and models of every car that came down the road

Schools in the surburbs were growing, had a lot of programs, mech drawing, metal shop, wood shop, auto shop.

Savings accounts in little pass books paid 4% while home loans were 6%. This rate persisted for years and years. Real Estate agents knew your payment because the rates were so constant they could memorize them


123 posted on 06/05/2005 11:17:26 AM PDT by KC_for_Freedom (Sailing the highways of America, and loving it.)
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To: sushiman

The dairy trucks that delivered fresh milk right to our porch.

The Helms Bakery truck with its distinctive whistle.

Second-story bedrooms, and homes with scary basements (until we moved to California).


124 posted on 06/05/2005 11:17:32 AM PDT by Blue Champagne
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To: sushiman

Yikes. I wasn't an adult in the 50s, but a kid. Sorry 'bout jumping in...


125 posted on 06/05/2005 11:27:39 AM PDT by Blue Champagne
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To: bannie
Sometimes in the summer, we slept outside. (Bakersfield, CA)

We did too... the older houses on the mainland which were two or more stories high, often had "sleeping porches" upstairs because it was cooler away from the hot ground. Typically it was a screen porch with the side facing the street with latticed or pierced wood for privacy- I go by an old Victorian-era house like that on Union Street every day.

When the Bug Truck drove by the house spraying DDT, all us kids went and played in the fog, reasoning with childish logic, "bad for bugs, good for me!"

Polio was still a terror then- I knew one kid in an iron lung, and everytime an outbreak was reported, all the Moms kept their kids out of the public swimming pools.

Never worried me much, because I disdained pools and swam only in the ocean.

126 posted on 06/05/2005 12:35:09 PM PDT by backhoe (-30-)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear
The average annual salary was $2,992.

Gas $0.19

Sugar $0.10

Cigarettes $.10

Used car $50

Rent $10

127 posted on 06/05/2005 12:39:53 PM PDT by RightWhale (We're trying to get rid of foreign oil, not find something more efficient or cheaper)
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To: sushiman

Well, I wasn't an adult, but I do remember:

TV:
* DuMont network
* Ernie Kovacs, Sid Caesar, early Steve Allen
* Lots of ads for rerigerators on prime-time shows
* Daytime shows: "Bride and Groom"; "Queen for a Day"; Bess Myerson; Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon in "Who Do You Trust?"
* "Beat the Clock"
* "Omnibus" on Sundays, hosted by Alistair Cooke; "Wide, Wide World" hosted by Dave Garroway
* "Victory At Sea"
* Growing up and moving on from the "Mickey Mouse Club" to "American Bandstand" in 1958

Movies:
* Drive-ins
* 1953 version of "War of the Worlds" that scared me to death!
* "Rock Around the Clock"

Clothes:
* My gray felt poodle skirt
* First day of school: patent-leather shoes and plaid dresses
* Men wore hats, not baseball caps
* Women dressed up in cocktail dresses, hats with little veils, gloves, and fur (I'm waiting for a Dior revival...)

Food:
* "Supermarkets" then had less variety than a lot of corner convenience stores do now (although you could buy pkgs of frozen horsemeat!)
* 6 candy bars for only 25 cents (and the bars were bigger, too)
* When glass milk bottles delivered to your door had the little cup on top where all the cream collected
* Soda fountains in the drugstores

Boston:
* Before: urban renewal, the Prudential Center, Rt. 128 and the Mass. Turnpike.
* When the wind was right, you could smell the chocolate at the Baker's Chocolate factory.
* As a little kid, going anywhere on the MTA and feeling safe
* Norumbega Park, Pleasure Island, and Nantasket Beach
* Christmas at the downtown Jordan Marsh store, and their blueberry muffins anytime
* Schools: (and yes, I'm talking 1950's not 1850's) bolted down wooden desks; learning to sew on a non-electric pedal-powered Singer; learning to write in ink using dip pens in inkwells; learning U.S. geaography from a 1930's book that exclaimed about the opening of the Lincoln Highway; no cafeteria - everyone brought lunch from home, got a carton of milk at school, and ate at their desks

Science and medicine:
* Polio epidemics in the summers; first large-scale polio vaccinations with Salk vaccine
* Pre-Sputnik
* Coca-Cola syrup when you were sick


128 posted on 06/05/2005 1:00:56 PM PDT by LibFreeOrDie (L'chaim!)
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To: sushiman

I was born in 1962, so I honestly can't tell you, I do know my parents married in the 50's, but to be honest, anything before 66 is a real blank. Though, I will always remember Hurricane Camille.


129 posted on 06/05/2005 1:46:36 PM PDT by AzaleaCity5691 (Farragut got lucky, if we had been on our game, we would have blasted him off Dauphin Island)
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Just woke up and it is a sunny morning here in the Kumamoto hinterland ...Would like to bump this thread now , and once I've had my cup of java & breakfast will chime in with some more comments ...Thanks all for your memories !


130 posted on 06/05/2005 2:52:32 PM PDT by sushiman
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To: sushiman
America in the 50s was a completely different world, so different you would not recognize it if you were to somehow travel back in time.

It would take far more space then is available here to convey even some faint idea of how it was to live then. I am 77 years old, born in 1928.

A young person with a high school diploma was far better educated than most college grads today. People had manners, went to church, worked every day, paid their bills and mortgages on time, kids played in the neighborhood free of fear, murderers were killed, people got married before they had kids, charity was for the truly poor and came from the church, children took care of they parents when their turn came, banks were solid, cars cost $600 and ran for a long time, people were proud to be an American and were independent, a good house could be built for $4000, a good suit cost $12 and a Coke was 5 cents.

Most important of all, a person never had to deal with government unless he went to the post office to get a one-cent postage stamp.

I could go on and on.
131 posted on 06/05/2005 5:23:23 PM PDT by R.W.Ratikal
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To: sushiman

America in the 50s was a completely different world, so different you would not recognize it if you were to somehow travel back in time.

It would take far more space then is available here to convey even some faint idea of how it was to live then. I am 77 years old, born in 1928.

A young person with a high school diploma was far better educated than most college grads today. People had manners, went to church, worked every day, paid their bills and mortgages on time, kids played in the neighborhood free of fear, murderers were killed, people got married before they had kids, charity was for the truly poor and came from the church, children took care of they parents when their turn came, banks were solid, cars cost $600 and ran for a long time, people were pourd to be an American and were independent, a good house could be built for $4000, a good suit cost $12 and a Coke was 5 cents.

Most important of all, a person never had to deal with government unless he went to the post office to get a one-cent postage stamp.

I could go on and on.


132 posted on 06/05/2005 5:24:00 PM PDT by R.W.Ratikal
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To: sushiman

America in the 50s was a completely different world, so different you would not recognize it if you were to somehow travel back in time.

It would take far more space then is available here to convey even some faint idea of how it was to live then. I am 77 years old, born in 1928.

A young person with a high school diploma was far better educated than most college grads today. People had manners, went to church, worked every day, paid their bills and mortgages on time, kids played in the neighborhood free of fear, murderers were killed, people got married before they had kids, charity was for the truly poor and came from the church, children took care of they parents when their turn came, banks were solid, cars cost $600 and ran for a long time, people were pourd to be an American and were independent, a good house could be built for $4000, a good suit cost $12 and a Coke was 5 cents.

Most important of all, a person never had to deal with government unless he went to the post office to get a one-cent postage stamp.

I could go on and on.


133 posted on 06/05/2005 5:24:41 PM PDT by R.W.Ratikal
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To: sushiman

America in the 50s was a completely different world, so different you would not recognize it if you were to somehow travel back in time.

It would take far more space then is available here to convey even some faint idea of how it was to live then. I am 77 years old, born in 1928.

A young person with a high school diploma was far better educated than most college grads today. People had manners, went to church, worked every day, paid their bills and mortgages on time, kids played in the neighborhood free of fear, murderers were killed, people got married before they had kids, charity was for the truly poor and came from the church, children took care of they parents when their turn came, banks were solid, cars cost $600 and ran for a long time, people were pourd to be an American and were independent, a good house could be built for $4000, a good suit cost $12 and a Coke was 5 cents.

Most important of all, a person never had to deal with government unless he went to the post office to get a one-cent postage stamp.

I could go on and on.


134 posted on 06/05/2005 5:25:20 PM PDT by R.W.Ratikal
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To: sushiman

America in the 50s was a completely different world, so different you would not recognize it if you were to somehow travel back in time.

It would take far more space then is available here to convey even some faint idea of how it was to live then. I am 77 years old, born in 1928.

A young person with a high school diploma was far better educated than most college grads today. People had manners, went to church, worked every day, paid their bills and mortgages on time, kids played in the neighborhood free of fear, murderers were killed, people got married before they had kids, charity was for the truly poor and came from the church, children took care of they parents when their turn came, banks were solid, cars cost $600 and ran for a long time, people were pourd to be an American and were independent, a good house could be built for $4000, a good suit cost $12 and a Coke was 5 cents.

Most important of all, a person never had to deal with government unless he went to the post office to get a one-cent postage stamp.

I could go on and on.


135 posted on 06/05/2005 5:25:54 PM PDT by R.W.Ratikal
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To: backhoe

RE: Polio

I remember when the whole small town lined up outside of the fire station to get our first polio vaccines. I remember my mother's disbelief that polio would be stopped. It was such an odd thing to see all of the families lined up in their family groups and chatting with the others about the miracle. I was probably 4 or 5; but it made a huge impression on me.


136 posted on 06/05/2005 5:54:16 PM PDT by bannie (The government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul.)
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To: sushiman
Segregation in the South.
137 posted on 06/05/2005 5:57:07 PM PDT by jsbankston
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To: Ditter

When I sold my house a few years ago, I couldn't find the key either. I had Rottweilers - who needs a key!

I used to say - if you can get past the dogs, you can have the VCR.


138 posted on 06/05/2005 6:09:08 PM PDT by Dashing Dasher (Magnums for everyone..........)
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To: Dashing Dasher

My next door neighbors have a burglar alarm, outside lights and a high fence. They also have two English Mastiffs at about 180 pounds per dog. All they need are the dogs. I wish they would put up video cameras so we could see the look on the face of anyone who breaks in.









139 posted on 06/05/2005 6:56:03 PM PDT by Ditter
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I'll never forget this middle aged guy who used to walk passed by house on his way home from work . I was 5 or 6 at the time ( 1957-8 ) , and used to sit out on the porch a lot and watch the people and cars go by . He'd see me and say , " Hello Buster ! " , and pull a root beer barrel cazndy out of his pocket , give it to me , and continue on his way . I tried to give a candy to a kid on a train in Tokyo a couple of years ago and the mother looked at me like I was child serial killer . Times have changed ...


140 posted on 06/05/2005 8:17:13 PM PDT by sushiman
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