Posted on 06/05/2005 6:37:36 AM PDT by sushiman
" It wasn't all Ward and June Cleaver."
Hey - I remember cowering under my desk at St. Mary's School in Willimantic , CT ...The city also had drills ...A special siren would go off and everyone had to go indoors and stay there until the drill was over ... Weird ...
We left our doors unlocked all the time too. I remember once when we were leaving for 2 weeks, we couldn't find the key to lock the door.
My parents were young adults in the 50s. I've heard that you could smoke anywhere, anytime you wanted back then.
We had a window fan that we only used at night. That thing could have you freezing by morning. We used to sleep at the foot of the bed because that was closest to the window. Also every morning I would wake up back at the head of the bed with a blanket on to keep me warm.
People used to leave their cars running while shopping , too !
Or leave the keys in the ignition !
Hey, I remember cowering under my desk last February. Only it wasn't a drill.
There were mortars raining in on us. ;-)
we rode our bikes to school. When we came home, we watched Mickey Mouse club on black and white TV.
So much for Ward being rough on the Beaver.
"It was hot, sushiman, really really hot. No one had A/C in their houses or not even in cars..."
LOL, this is true!
I remember my dad talking about some place he used to visit for his work back in the 50s before I was born (in 1958 that was) and how there were two guys that worked there, salesmen or whatever they were, they were very hyper types, and no matter the weather they'd always be drinking hot black coffee. I remember him telling me this and saying "Now remember, this was before air conditioning!"
We all basically live in the lap of luxury now. But is it doing us any good?
I remember that, too. I was born in 1956. We had to get under our desks during some of the drills, and sometimes we would cower in the hallways covered by blankets. Even at the tender age of 6, I remember wondering just how these crazy adults thought we were going to survive a nuclear attack this way.
Remember the air raid siren testing on Fridays at 11 am? That sound still makes my skin crawl.
Ward got lucky just a couple of times in his life and died a very unhappy man.....lol.
Second Wednesday of every month at 11 Am for me.
You think he would have known better.
Well, not in public, anyway.
Well, I sure hope not!
:-)
Flying over the front car seat when someone pulled out in front of us and Dad hit the brakes (no seatbelts).
Dad buying and installing seat belts.
A milk pasturizer in the kitchen because we lived on a dairy farm.
Three meals per day prepared by my mom during which everyone sat at the table.(Boy, do I feel lazy when I think about that.)
In the U.S.A.,.......domestic jobs and 29 cent a gallon gas....
....the World's PRODUCING Powerhouse....
....Quality CONTROL.....
......Church bells ringing everywhere on Sundays.....
.....Truth in journalism....
......T.V.,.....was family FUN time,......No perverts allowed!!!
....the 'Chain-gang',.....kept crime DOWN!!!!
"Of course we had the Cold War ...Air Raid drills ...Heavy duty racism ...Conformity ..."
In my little home town there were only people of two races,
white and a few Mexican families. Nobody locked their doors in their homes or their cars. There were very few burglaries
or violent crimes. We went to the one movie theatre in town every Saturday and watched decent western movies. The only other entertainment was dragging main and honking at your friends and meeting them at the Dairy Queen for a coke.
Almost everybody with a pickup had a rifle and a shotgun in a window rack and left them in the vehicle at school unlocked. Nobody bothered them. TV was mostly black and white and every program on the air was decent enough for children to watch.
i was a kid on a farm. we had no indoor plumbing, nor did our one room school. my 3rd grade teacher was our pastor's wife, and she was mean to me.
my father was a work-a-holic, a tenant farmer saving money to buy a farm, whenever we didn't get hailed out.
we didn't get tv until late--1957, just after sputnik. then my mother sat in front of the tv and got fat while us men worked on the farm.
then, in the 1960s tv told women that they were "oppressed". and my mother got even more angry.
we did not lock our doors in the 1950s.
(my father's now 91 and still working full time on his dairy farm. he does all of the tractor work and irrigation. my brother milks the cows. my mother died in 1990 from being fat and watching tv.)
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