[Omnivore-Dan]

I remember new blue jeans were stiffer than cardboard and pretty damned uncomfortable until about a half dozen washes, but they seemed to last forever.

[BerryDingle]

I'd light up a cigarette at 8:30 in the morning and turn on the TV with 2 channels and watch Captain Kangaroo.

I still have a pair of engineering boots and the wide belt down here in Florida now.

[PUGACHEV]

I lived through the ‘50s and remember it as being impossibly different than what we have become today. (1) There were ridged standards of dress, behavior, and expectations. Men wore hats and women wore dresses on most occasions. My father put on a suit to go to the auto parts store, and I never saw my mother in a pair of pants, ever. (2) In some ways there was less division between classes. Buying a house was far easier, but not everyone could afford a TV. Gas was 15 cents a gallon and that price included an attendant who pumped it and checked your oil. However, it was far tougher if you were penniless or unemployed. (3) There was a strong undercurrent of pessimism about the future, not present today. We were trained at school to shelter under our desks in case of a nuclear attack, which most people considered inevitable, especially when China got the bomb. There were frequent, often monthly, practice air raid alarms and every city had nearby shelters stocked with food and water. Part of this anxiety produced a deep distrust of science, and especially foreign-born scientists. We were, as Tennessee Williams put it, “A world waiting for bombardment”. (4) As Americans, we were secure in our culture and had no doubt that we were the best and strongest society in the world. We envied others nothing, except their exotic food on occasion. (5) Amid all this stability, we were restless for something different. Eisenhower was often viewed as a do-nothing president who spent his time golfing apart from governing. This set the stage for the explosive ‘60s, and all the rapid change which has followed.

[Bonemaker]

“I want to know if life was like that: Congested dance halls..”

I lived through the whole thing and never saw anything that frantic except maybe on American Bandstand. The boogie woogie craze in the 30’s was another thing,

[1Old Pro]

I remember new blue jeans were stiffer than cardboard and pretty damned uncomfortable until about a half dozen washes, but they seemed to last forever.

I remember wearing them so long rips would develop around the knees. Now kids buy them like that LOL