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

me

[lowbridge]

http://www.fiftiesweb.com/fifties.htm

[Judge Roy]

Yes it was a time when one could leave the house unlocked and the keys in the car and basically come and go with out fear.
But the one thing America has lost that has hurt the most is pride, in the fifties a craftsman could take pride in his work, there was pride in your neighborhood, your school even in your local bar where people could meet and visit and talk. But sence we are all are the same and get paid the same whether we do a good job are not, pride is gone. This loss of pride for who and what you are has been a great demoralizer for most Americans and cousing many to no longer care.

[sushiman]

" We had the neighbors who fought every Saturday night when the father came home drunk, but were in church on Sunday morning. "

You didn't live on Jackson St. in Willimantic , CT by any chance , did you ? Hehehe...

[Semper Paratus]

If you went home crying about bullies your father gave you boxing lessons.

Sputnik scared the crap out of everybody.

School class sizes were 40+.

Parents would put their kids in PJ's and go to the drive in on weekends for a double feature.

Could get an A&W rootbeer with cheeseburger and fries for under a 1.50.

You finally got your own room at home when either your brother got drafted or you grandfather died.

[A knight without armor]

Gas stations treated you well. When you pulled in at least one attend would come flying out to pump the gas in, check the oil, wipe the windows and I mean the windshield and rear window and even the side windows if they were up. By the way I remember cars had what we called flaps, small triangle shaped windows on the sides up front so you could just open a flap for some air. I remember all gas station employees were male. And gas stations sometimes gave away real drinking glasses and such.

Also, I remember that people commonly made fun of items made in Japan as junk.

I guess as a throw back to her earlier years my mother sometimes called cigarettes "fags".

We had real thick heavy records called 78s.

We had a refrigerator but our town still had a big ice house and I remember us walking there with my red wagon and buying a huge block of ice and me sitting on it on the way home. My mother would chip it up to take on a picnic or put it in a box to chill extra food that didn't fit in the frig like watermelon.

[Ditter]

With A/C came privacy. You couldn't hear your neighbors fight unless it spilled outside into the yard. Ah....... the cool quiet.......

[Nea Wood]

I was born the same year you were. I remember the air raid drills where we'd have to get under our desks, but I don't remember being upset or scared about that. The nuns' stories about the "end of the world" were much scarier to me, and seemed more real!

Anyway, I'm glad I had a chance to grow up in the '50s and early '60s. I think we were the last generation of kids who truly had freedom. You could leave the house on Saturday morning and have total freedom all day! Sure, your parents told you to look both ways before crossing the street, don't talk to strangers, and be home by supper. But aside from that, we were were free! We could go to a friend's house, the playground, or the candy shop. Ride our bikes and pretend we were riding horses or motorcycles. Go exploring. Whatever we felt like.

Kids now seem to be chauffeured everywhere...to soccer practice, or to dad and his girlfriend's house for the weekend, or whatever. They can't just show up at a buddy's house and say, "Hey, Mrs. Jones, can Johnny come out to play?" No, they have prearranged "play dates." Or they sit on the computer or in front of the TV all day.

Despite all their "stuff," and the fact that kids doing "chores" seems to be a quaint old custom of the olden days, (or perhaps because of this,) many of my friends' kids seem bored, snotty and demanding.

I think back on how well behaved we were in our classrooms back then and it amazes me, compared to today. The worst thing that ever happened was if the teacher had to raise her voice to get us to stop talking amongst ourselves. You never heard about things like "ADD" or "dyslexia" or "emotionally disturbed" or all the things that three-fourths of the students seem to be afflicted with now. Maybe in the '50s, such kids had to go to "special schools"? I don't know, but either they weren't in the public schools or their problems weren't tolerated.

I know the '50s weren't perfect, but I'm still glad I grew up when I did.

[sushiman]

" Gas stations treated you well. When you pulled in at least one attend would come flying out to pump the gas in, check the oil, wipe the windows and I mean the windshield and rear window and even the side windows if they were up. "

They still do this in Japan .

[backhoe]

I grew up on an island off the Georgia coast at that time...

 

 

• Summers so hot that toward the end of August, you slept for an hour, then woke up soaked-- despite attic fans, hassock fans, floor fans, oscillating fans, and ceiling fans.
• Never locked the doors... of course, we all had weapons in our bedrooms, too.
• Racism? It was around, but since about a third of our neighbors were black, we didn't practice that foolishness.
• The TV ( one ) was B&W, and had a round tube... and "High Fidelity" was monaural... no stereo...
• We were one of the few families with a second car-- "Jarhead," a 1947 Plymouth station wagon used for fishing. Our phone number was Melrose-8-2210, but you only needed prefix to get off-island... locals only dialed ( rotary ) 2210 to reach us.
• Memories... rowing my boat to the pier in The Village to redeem coke bottles for a penny a piece, for spending money... target shooting from the front porch ( everyone did this )... flying box kites on the beach... watching the blimps from Glynco ghost over the house at night, returning from patrol at sea...
• Mom & Dad both smoked- him, hand-rolled cigarettes, and they always had one drink, or one beer before dinner, "to improve the appetite."
• Cancer was a death sentence, and nobody mentioned the word without great trepidation. OTH, a visit to Doc Towson was $5, and you got a diagnosis on the spot. No waiting. Dentists were for emergencies- Novocaine & mechanical drills made a minor filling agony.
• Men were worn out by 50 or 60, although there were always a few tough old birds in their eighties and nineties around... and they usually smoked and drank, too, but did physically brutal work.
• Swearing was confined to private places, or among men-only groups-- you "didn't do that around children, the womenfolk, or the elderly."
• I knew one divorced couple when I was growing up-- and yes, it was a scandal.

[tomkat]

..pride is gone

not completely...

[sushiman]

" The nuns' stories "

Ahh...you went to a parochial school too, huh ? I recall being told that if the Commies invaded and we were asked by them if we were Christian or not , we were to tell the truth even if it meant certain death . In other words we were NOT to renounce God ...

[ken21]

very good.

you just reminded me that we had wind-up phone. if we ringed one and a half, we got one of our neighbors.

i forget what the ring for the telephone company operator was. you rang her up and she'd connect you to the hospital, the doctor, the feed store, etc.

[texgal]

I am from Texas and remember it being so hot that we would get up during the night and shower to cool off.

On Saturdays mom would drop us off at 10:00 am the Broadway Theatre (my sister and I were 7, and my brother was 6) and leave us all day. For 25 cents you got a movie, a majic show and all the popcorn and soda you could handle.

We never locked our doors on the house, we always left our keys IN the cars and never thought twice about it.

I remember the drills at school and the film clips about "the bomb" and I wondered how hiding in the hallways would help any of us.

During the summers moms would pack up sack lunches and send us out after breakfast, telling us to be home in time for supper.

I was about 10 when we heard that some guy had "grabbed" a girl a few blocks away from us. I heard that some of the local dads took care of the problem. Never saw or heard of the guy ever again.

I remember that my dad was laid off and the neighbors came by and helped out with food and money until he found another job. We did the same thing for others.

My mom had been a nurse before having 7 kids and she helped others when they called her. Our neighbor was a mechanic and he helped when we had problems with our cars. We knew our neighbors and they knew us. If someone else's mom told you to behave, you'd better do so or else you got 2 spankings!

I remember Friday nights at the drive-in movies (before TV) and wearing our PJ's so we could fall asleep and be carried in by my dad.

[Nea Wood]

I went to parochial school from first through sixth grades, public school the rest of the time. I don't remember being told that about the commies. We were told very little about commies; the big thing they scared us with was "the end of the world." At that time, they told us, planets would be falling from the sky. Then we'd all have to take turns standing in front of God while every sin we ever committed was read aloud for the whole world to hear. Our church even had one entire wall as a stained glass depiction of "the end of the world." It showed people cowering in terror as planets fell from the sky. It's funny now, but wasn't then. If we misbehaved, the nuns would say, "What if the end of the world happened today? Would YOU be ready to die?" Sheesh, and we were so good compared to kids today, yet we were made to feel so guilty! I wonder what Catholic schools are like now?

[sushiman]

Thanks to you and all for your memories ...It's nearly midnight here in Japan , so I am off to bed , and dreamtime ...Hope to hear from more of you by morning ...

[backhoe]

you just reminded me that we had wind-up phone. if we ringed one and a half, we got one of our neighbors. I forget what the ring for the telephone company operator was. you rang her up and she'd connect you to the hospital, the doctor, the feed store, etc.

I had a wall-mounted magneto-crank phone that I wired from my treehouse to an old candlestick phone in the kitchen. Mom hated the dang thing.

My Aunt & Uncle in Ohio were on a party line back then, and while I can't remember which was which, they & their neighbor each had a ring number... one, or three, I think.
And yes, we could dial "O" and get the operator to call the Doc or the drugstore in a pinch.

We also had a monitor-top reefer in the laundry room, because it kept a constant near-freezing temperature that was idea for storing leftovers.

[ken21]

oh, god!

you just reminded me of another thing. we were on party line too. and, as you're probably aware, not all housewives like other housewives. so, my mother used to rubber in on her enemies on line!

my brother and i were sworn to complete secrecy, because my father is a pretty straight guy; he would not have approved of my mother's actions.

[kassie]

LOL. We had a party line too. Our phone rang 2 times for us and our number had 2 numbers and one letter.

Now area code, and no prefix.

[texgal]

Goodnight, Sushiman, sweet dreams!

[Dawgreg]

Old shows like Gunsmoke, Sid Caesar. Seeing Eisenhower on TV. The 1955 Chevrolet we bought brand-spanking new. Local wrestling matches on Friday nights.......Pop would really get into it (like it was real) and my sister and I would watch him.....(he was better than the match). My Mom always home. Washing our hair on Satuday afternoon and haveing to go inside to get it rolled so we'd have curly hair for church on Sunday....(I hated that break from playing outside). Being allowed to go with my friend to the local theater for the first time.......seeing a vampire pic and remembering I couldn't sleep for a month afterwards. Playing outside AFTER dark. Putting cardboard on the spokes of our bicycles. Feeling like we were in high cotton if we had cokes in the fridge. Starting school in 1954 and the janitor putting sawdust looking stuff on the floors and sweeping them. Hearing the ice cream man 2 blocks over and scurrying to find change before he got to our street. These things come to mind......I'm sure there are many more. *~*