All this talk of Elvis on Milton Berle put me in a nostalgiac mood ...
A reminder is coming.
Many Many Many men were alcoholics. Only, people didn't know it was a problem.
Okay, I'm 18 I know but I talk to my parents ALRIGHT.
I remember that air conditioning only existed in supermarkets and movie theatres.
Yeah it was great... unless you were a Red Chinaman or a Damn Ruskie Commonist.
Well, not in public, anyway.
Guitar players weren't near as good then....
It wasn't all Ward and June Cleaver.
For one it was a time when the people in our neighborhood did not lock their doors when leaving so friends could come in and relax till you got back. The open housing law passed by congress sure changed all of that.
The average annual salary was $2,992.
You could be impaled by a tailfin at a drive in movie, a danger that no longer exists.
Women did a lot of cleaning; men put on a suit and tie and went to work; there was a martini waiting at home once you pulled in; breakfast consisted of a stack of pancakes, a mountain of scrambled eggs, two kinds of breakfast meats, a tall glass of whole milk, and strong coffee; dinner was a either a large steak, pork chops or meatloaf (fish on Friday); pensions were fully funded; everyone drove a Ford or GM product; houses had white picket fences; you rooted for the Yankees and laughed at the immigrants from Brooklyn; Johnny U. and Notre Dame were the football choices.
There was no sex except for reproductive purposes.
Being an engineer was the best job in the world; Sputnik happened across the nation we became math, physics and chemistry geniuses; we put together the precursors for putting a man on the moon; we entered the screw up known as Viet Nam in order to aid our "allies", the French (Dien Bien Phu); we set in motion the division of the nation that was the 60s.
My parents were young adults in the 50s. I've heard that you could smoke anywhere, anytime you wanted back then.
we rode our bikes to school. When we came home, we watched Mickey Mouse club on black and white TV.
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!!!!
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.)
Blacks and Whites had separate restrooms and water fountains and public schools.
Many restaurants didn't serve Blacks or Jews.
There were no weather satellites; forcasting was much more of a guess.
Life expectancy was 69.6 years; currently 77.6.
Rock'n Roll was just getting started in 1954 (in the White Community.)