Addressing parents: “May I . . . ?”
Parents: “No.”
For me it was a great time to be a kid. My father had a welding business and he made good money. We weren’t wealthy, but quite comfortable. I was born in 1950 and by 1957 was riding my bicycle all around town with my friends. We would stop at my dad’s shop and grab some bottles of coke from his cooler, then be gone until dinner. Never had any fear of harm from wackos like there are today. We lived in a house that was the last one on a dead end street, and next to a 40 acre field, then about 60 acres of woods with a creek and some ponds. I spent many hours in those woods, saw lots of wildlife. Today interstate 287 runs right through those same woods that are gone, along with the ponds we used to skate on in the winter. There were only 3 tv channels ABC, NBC, & CBS. Commercials were fast and not so frequent. Saturday mornings were cartoons until noon. Sunday was Roy Rogers and Disney. Movies at a theater was 50 cents, candy in machines 5 cents, popcorn 10 cents. School was fun with trips to dairies, zoos, & museums. I don’t remember any protests or riots, it was for me a peaceful decade, and a great time to be an American.
Born 1951.
I didn’t know the politics of the time, being so young but I could sense differences of what was and what I had. I had running water and electricity and a toilet. My grandparents did not have a toilet so I did get to experience the joys of a pit toilet...a 2 holer and a set of steps up: a master crapper if ever there was one.
I remember black and white tv with Mickey Mouse, Howdy Doody, Mrs. Francis [”Are you a Do Bee or a Don’t Bee?”] and Disney. Going to the movies to see such classics like Bambi, Snow White and Song of the South.
I did not know the rural life. I was in a tract home in a small town near Philly. There were many Levittowns and they did change the face of America. Suburbia was a thing.
I recall the fear of nuclear wars and the ridiculous war drills in school, covering our heads in the hallway.
There was Breyers vanilla ice cream in dixie cups. There were Sugar Smacks and Rice Krispies and chocolate milk.
There were kids with braces on their legs from polio, There was measles and chicken pox that we all survived.
Much was gained in the 1950’s and a lot was lost. I guess it was trade-offs.
As a young child in the 1950’s,innocence was augmented by a positive afterglow of American success in WW2. Society had as many ills as it does today, they just were not weaponized to the extent they are today for political gain.
Just boys and girls.
Perverts of all stripes didn’t dare show up in public.
Public schools were safe and had no pink haired, nose ringed weirdos.
Trannies were confined to men’s clubs as “female impersonators.”
Narcotics were something you vaguely heard about in some far-away dark alley of a big city.
People went to church.
People believed in America. There were NO people inside the gates screaming “Death to America.”
We didn’t have much money, but we were happy.
Everybody smoked and drank to excess.
White bread, baloney and Miracle Whip sandwiches.
The 50’ were far better than today.
Born 1950. Good times, good memories, good thread.
I was born in 1962. It was the last year of the original baby boom things were better in someways in the 1950s yes but look at how many people are surviving diseases now for example cancer it’s like night and day even compared to the 70s so many Advances have been made since then
Statler Brothers’ “Do You Remember These?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puGQsQux80k
I was born in 1947. Dad was in college on the GI Bill. Mom took care of “mom things” and they lived in the married students apartments at the University of Alabama which were converted army units.
By the early 50’s Dad had a great job and we lived in South Miami. Middle Class back then meant we didn’t have much but it was “enough.” Our TV had a screen less than 12 inches …. Black and white, but my brother and I watched Winky Dink show on Saturday mornings where we stuck a plastic sheet to the screen and used special crayons to draw and color in to help Winky Dink’s adventure. We all went to church on Sunday and afterwards lunch at the corner drug store’s Soda Shop with family friends where we kids all had our first hamburgers. Life was great for us kids….. family picnic trips to the beach, playing Roy Roger’s and Dale Evans in the back yard, riding our bikes, ballet lessons, Brownie Scout meetings (Mom was our leader), cardboard paper dolls we cut out and dressed in paper clothes, my baby doll that Mom and Memaw sewed the clothes for, my brothers Davy Crockett stuff, he let me wear the coon skin cap sometimes.
We kids spent summers at Memaw and Popaw’s farm back in Alabama, because Mom didn’t want us in public swimming pools in Florida due to Polio (pre-vaccine). There with my cousin we made mud pies in the “play house” (the little shed where they raised the baby chicks in the spring), cooling off in the creek, making flower chains for our hair in the clover field, singing Zippity Doo Da in the front porch swing.
By 1960 we had our first house that was not a rental. It cost $12,000 and had 2 bathrooms (WOW) one with a tiny shower, first one I had ever seen. School was free of protests and controversial stuff …. Teacher read a verse from the Bible every morning right after we pledged allegiance while boys from the scout troop raised the outdoor flag. On Saturday I helped Mom run the little concession stand at the Baseball field while my brother pitched for his team. In high school we didn’t drink, no one got pregnant, but we still managed to have a great time. Friday night dates with my boyfriend at the coffee-house (called the Flick) where we listened to folk songs, watched the chords they played, and spent Saturday trying them out on our own guitars. I saw the Beatles and The Beach Boys live concerts.
At college back in Alabama in 1965, girls wore only dresses/skirts til 1970. we tolerated the cold in winters in our mini skirts while everyone walked to classes. Dorms and sorority houses didn’t allow men upstairs. At football games we girls wore dressy suits and heels and gloves, sometimes even fancy hats. At parties at the Frat houses we danced to music everything from MoTown to BeachBoys.
A sliiight change from Little Richard's...sportier...lyrics.
I was born in 52 - missed a lot of this but it was a simpler and nicer world
Simpler times. Fewer people in the world. Businesses closed on Sundays; it was a family day. Most families were in church Sunday morning. No personal computers, Internet, cell phones, or video games. Kids played outside, in the woods, rode bikes. Black & white TV with 3 or 4 channels. News people that were journalists not entertainers, and they reported the facts and didn’t try to tell us how or what to think. Families ate around the table and talked. Holidays were for family. No Interstate highways. A trip was an adventure. Stops along the way to see and do stuff. Roadside picnics. Neighbors talked and socialized; sewing circles, chatting over the fence, community dances, church dinners. People were friendly and more caring and took time for each other. Doctors made house calls. Health care before the government got involved (Medicare and Medicaid) was about and not money. X-ray taken and read at hospital was $25; that was a substantial sum but not like the thousands it costs now.
Simpler times. We are worse off now in my opinion.
Cars that had no plastic parts. Seats were made of cloth or leather. If it lasted a 100K miles before wearing out you were lucky. On hot days it would sometimes vapor lock. Sometimes when on a trip you would have to stop and clean and reset the points in the distributor. And them old Fords always had a squeak in the front end. Flat tires always required pulling the tube and patching it. On long trips you would pack bread and lunch meat to have lunch at a road side park that consisted of a picnic table under a tree. Lots of gravel roads in rural areas consisting of chuck holes and mud holes when it rained. Free cigarette samples arriving in your mailbox and using cards and a clothes pin an your bike spokes to make it sound like a motor bike.Saturday night was bath night in a wash tub set up with water heated on the cook stove, first the kids, then mom and then dad last so we would be clean for church in the morning.Listening to big sisters idolizing Pat Boone singing love letters in the sand on the radio.When radio stations played a variety of music on the same AM station from rock and roll to motown and country thrown in. Variety shows on TV such as Steve Allen and George Burns and good ole Ed Sullivan. Game shows such as I’ve got a secret and what’s my line and don’t forget Groucho and the secret word for a hundred dollars.Reruns of the little rascals and the 3 stooges. Oh and the Alfred Hitchcock hour.Tarzan and Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin movies.
There was no pornography available on the magazine or news stands. No swearing or indecent language on TV or radio. It was only shortly after that a book like "Lady Chatterly's Lover" would be contemplated by publishers who used the imprimatur of the Bishop of Boston as their OK to set a novel before the public.
Were deeply in the Cold War then, and nothing tolerating communist ideas would have appeared without very strong objections. Scenes from movies like "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951, Vivien Leigh/Marlon Brando) or the song/dance "Moonglow" (click here) ( from "Picnic", Kim Novak/William Holden) were tapping on the doors of decency standards in those days.
You simply cannot know from this standpoint what it was to be daily immersed in the culture of the '50, or how sorrowful one like myself feels to have lost that life.
I saw thaose movies when they first came out. I was entranced by Kim Novak--she was only a little older than myself, now 91--and withdrew from movies like the one with Frank Sinatra ("Man With a Golden Arm") that introduced the ways of the drug culture, and went on to live a decent life as an arist, faithful to her husband and after he died, to another.
The past is the past (thankfully, when wholly considered).Now, I only think of the future, which is continually unfolding, ever and forever.
See you there?
The video was typical Hollywood production. A bunch of professional dancers, some faking screw ups, or pretending to be novices.
In reality it would be a dancefloor full of girls dancing with other girls. The guys would huddle together along the walls talking about cars and ogling the girls.
For me it would be more very late fifties and early sixties, but I had an older sister.
Peak America. Before “diversity” became the national religion and Americans were told they were a bunch of racists who had to allow every bizarre religion and 3rd world person into America and that every normal, Christian-based moral standard was ‘wrong’ because it didn’t respect the freaks and nuts.
Now we have trannies on tv and in your child’s library.
I was just a kid born in 1952, so I didn’t witness any of that first hand. But my dad came home a war hero in the late 40’s, got married to my mom in 1949, had my sister in 1950 and then me and 3 more after that.
Judging by all the photographs from those times, the social scene was pretty crazy. I remember my parents going out quite a bit and leaving s with a baby sitter. I’d say every single weekend and then some. I can only imagine what it was like for the young adults that were still single. Lots of alcohol and loud jazz music.
One thing to remember. The alternative to going out on the town was staying home and reading a book or listening to the radio. The homes were not set up for entertainment - the televisions were tiny. Hardly anyone had a pool. There were no movie rentals - you had to go out. The more extroverted hosts would host card games or bore people with slide shows of their trip to whatever, or force friends to listen to an accordion performance.
Going out was the only way to really have fun and there were no drunk driving laws yet - and little fear of STDs. So yes, the dance halls were filled, as were the roller skating rinks, the bowling alleys, movie theaters, restaurants and everything else. Things were hopping after the war.
I hated and still hate “Rock Around The Clock”.
NOT Rock & Roll to me.
Elvis, Everly Brothers, Paul Anka, Buddy Holly were REAL Rock & Roll groups.
Rock & Roll really got going in the early sixties.
50’s were great. $.15 hamburgers, rock and roll on AM radio, pizza parlor openings, every body had a new car, patriotic celebrations, a lot of American Pride, black people actually ran their own businesses and black men lived at home with their well behaved children. If there was a problem it was punks with black t shirts and cigarette pack in the sleeve. That was me. The punk that is.