The biggest difference was the schools. In the early 50’s no one had locks on their lockers. Imagine all that implies... Our teachers were the same women that in today’s world would run companies. Teachers were smart and capable and were there because they were locked out of better jobs.
They taught the values that allowed us to live in a world without locks on our lockers.
The biggest problem with students in the 50’s was kids chewing gum in class. Which we all at one time or anther tried to get away with...
Most adults had stories about a teacher who changed their life - and I don’t mean the type of stories we have today about ‘teachers’ who push sexual mutilation and pornography for elementary school kids. And because we hadn’t gone through liberal culture scams yet - (like “kidnapped” kids pictures on milk cartons) Kids played outside. The milk carton lie was based on things like ‘a divorced man being more than 10 minutes late returning his own kids to their mother counted as ‘kidnapped’ for lying statistics) With the 70’s came the ‘nonprofits faking their numbers to get money to keep money flowing to keep their doors open. And the ‘kidnapped kids’ lie was right in there with that time period.
And yeah in the 50’s we had dances and parties and more socializing. But part of that was because there were ZERO computer games, ZERO computers, no cell phones, no air conditioning , very few TV’s in the early 50’s and movies cost a dime to see... So kids went to movies on Saturday mornings. And most of us walked to the movie theater because families only had one car and we were used to walking to places. It was a different time.
Oh, it sure was a different time. We respected our teachers and our parents. We got outdoors as much as possible, were tanned by Memorial Day, which reminds me of the parades and the great feeling of patriotism. Memorial day parades, 4th of July parades, Labor day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The biggest problem in my school were the wise guys with spitballs. Block parties, neighborhood barbecues. A great time right up until about the mid sixties, when things started to change, some for the better, and some not so much.
I was probably one of the last American kids to experience Saturday matinees. The US Army base in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, where my father worked as a Department of Defense Dependent Schools teacher, featured Saturday morning matinees. They would begin with a cartoon, and then a serial such as "Radar Men from the Moon," "Zorro's Black Whip," or "Panther Girl of the Kongo," and then the main feature would be a movie such as "Hands Across the Border" or "In Old Amarillo" starring Roy Rogers or even a horror movie such as "Dinosaurus."
Kids stateside could see all of these on TV, but the experience is not the same as seeing them in the theater.
Do you remember the first TV you ever watched? For me, it was a neighbor’s B&W about 1949. What I recall was similar to what Arnold watched on Green Acres, a posse chasing bandits with hooves kaclopping, then the bandits with the same sound effects plus gunfire.
We had radio which gave us Jack Benny and Rochester and Mel Blanc. Also, Gunsmoke with no boring posse chases. The Shadow provided mystery and some “magic” for the imagination.
Instead of walking, we rode our bikes everywhere: to the movies on Saturday (parked them behind the library); to the lake with our rifles on the handlebars; and to school.