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For those of you who grew up in the 50's and 60's, especially in Chicago, here are some Christmas flashbacks for you.

t may be 2014 to the rest of us, but for the subjects in Jennifer Greenburg’s photographs, it is still 1951. The assistant professor of photography at Indiana University Northwest has been photographing America's Rockabilly community for more than ten years; people that not only dress like it’s the Fifties, but also drive perfectly preserved Cadillacs and decorate their homes with furniture to rival the retro sets of Mad Men. 'At first I thought the culture was about fashion,' the 36-year-old photographer told MailOnline. 'Then I realized it was much, much, more than that. I realized that this was a...

Motoring through LA in the early 1950s one's shocked to see freeways that are wide open, streetcars, even Model A Fords still on the streets, a bustling downtown and the first malls, a Ford and Chevrolet Factory and it all looks so clean.

New Year’s observances blend recollections of the past, celebrations in the present, and anticipation of the future. For a variety of reasons, I’m feeling nostalgic this year. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the decade of my childhood—the 1950s.In October, my wife and I saw a play in which people weary of the hectic pace of contemporary life could escape to an “authentic” 1950s community where the more relaxed pace of the past had been recreated. In the play, the benefit of relocating to the ’50s was a simpler, less stressful life, but it came at a price—enduring...

Where to start... the guy basically invented modern rock-n-roll and inspired all others that followed, no less: the sound, the look, the moves- songs about hot cars and beautiful girls. It's basically impossible to create or perform rock-n-roll music without borrowing some element from him... Legendary guitarist Kieth Richards said of the first time he heard Berry playing his signature hit 'Johnny B. Goode': "Floored me... knocked me out. After (hearing) that, I knew what I wanted to do..."  Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry -dob 10.18.26- is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and it's surely an understatement to say he's 'one of the pioneers of rock'. With hits like...

A short silent film of London taken from the back of a vehicle showing some of the best recorded ordinary-street scenes ever. What are now termed Classic Cars abound in this as yet undated film. It has the early 1950's aura to it. It wouldn't have been during the 40's and it was definitely not the 1960's, safe to say approximately early 1950's. Great colour film for the period.

http://oldfortyfives.com/TakeMeBackToTheFifties.htm

Scientists say Fifties housewives consumed far fewer calories and were much fitter and healthier than modern women. We asked writer Amanda Cable to spend five days as a housewife in still-rationed 1953 and keep a diary. Amanda, 41, lives in Blackheath, South-East London with photographer husband Ray, 45, and children Ruby, 12 and twins Charlie and Archie, nine. MONDAY: My day begins at 7am with a bloodcurdling scream. My children have discovered I have confiscated their phones and gadgets. They storm into my room but stop dead at the sight of me in a tight-waisted cotton dress, and applying full...

The 'biggest American car show in the world' opened in Västerås in central Sweden on Thursday. More than 10,000 cars are expected for the Big Meet 2008 show. The annual event started 31 years ago and was founded by Kjell Gustafsson who has seen it grow from the humble beginnings of 40-80 cars in a parking lot in Anderstorp. "Just to keep the show going over three days costs 1.5 million kronor ($252,000). 160 officials work with this. That is around the same as the Hultsfred festival," Gustafsson said to Di.se. The Big Meet 2008 show will take place over...

Vaesteraas, Sweden - Thousands of mint-condition Chevrolets, Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles from the 1950's boulevard-cruise with Brylcreemed greasers draped over the steering wheel and rock 'n roll hits blaring on their radios. You might think you've been transported back a half-century to small-town America but, no, this is a scene found in any number of towns across Sweden where the early days of the US car culture never went out of style.

American Decadence—Part 4 of 4 The Characteristics of an Uncivilized People by Reginald Firehammer [American Decadence—Part 3] The Sign of a Child There is another feature of declining cultures, such as ours, which to many is quite bewildering—the sexual exploitation of children which I've documented in this article. The bewildering aspect of this is not just the horrors it inflicts on young boys and girls, which are bad enough, but what kind of people could be part of that horror and what attracts them to it. This, again, is nothing new, because most of the world has never been civilized,...

American Decadence—Part 1 of 4 The Characteristics of an Uncivilized People by Reginald Firehammer In describing the character of the people who dominated the society of the 50s I used words like courtesy, decency, respect, reverence, and dignity. None of these words can be used to describe the last two or three generations except in the negative. Today's society can only be described as discourteous, indecent, disrespectful, irreverent, and; well, there isn't a word that captures what those with no sense of personal dignity truly are, graceless, or despicable, or contemptible, perhaps. I'm not attempting to characterize today's entire population....

Profanity by Reginald Firehammer One reason people of today, who never experienced the fifties, cannot imagine what they were like is because they are immersed in a totally corrupt and uncivilized culture and society. Profanity is one example. It was heard rarely in the fifties, and almost never in polite society or in the presence of women or children. Such profanity as one was likely to hear was the mildest kind, unlike the crudities that fill the mouths of so many people today, including women and children and is heard everywhere, in the 50s were almost never heard. Even those...

Characteristics of Civilized People by Reginald Firehammer While the possiblity of civilization can be curtailed by a political system, it is not ultimately a society's politics, or its economy, or the artifacts of its culture that determines the degree of its civilization. Whether a society is civilized or not is determined by the kind of people that comprise it. American society of the fifties was dominated by young and middle-aged people who were the most civilized of the entire 20th century. The clearest picture of the fifties can be formed by examining the characteristics of the people who dominated it....

The Uncivilizing Revolution of The West by Reginald Firehammer Those living in a society or culture during or after a revolution are often unaware of the nature and extent of that revolution becauase it is nearly impossible to imagine what came before. In his brilliant, "Aliens Cause Global Warming," lecture to the California Institute of Technology, though his purpose was to demonstrate the impossibility of predicting even the near future, Michael Crichton demonstrates the radical changes that have occurred since 1900 that can only be described as a revolution. For example, the main means of transportation in 1900 was horses,...

Fifty-one years ago today, in a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations, an influentual New York-based think tank, US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles outlined what became known as the policy of massive retaliation. He explained to his listeners that the US would no longer allow itself to be drawn into conventional regional conflicts such as the Korean War--or, for that matter, Vietnam--but would reserve the right to respond to Communist aggression with "massive rataliatory poser" applied at places and with means of its own choosing--or, in other words, nuclear weapons might be used directly against the Soviet...

<p>MORE than 50 years after they were executed as So viet spies, the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg continues to generate intense emotion on both sides of the political spectrum. For the left, it has long been an article of faith that two wholly innocent radicals were framed and executed solely because of their politics.</p>

<p>Women have come a long way in 50 years - but not when it comes to being leaner and fitter. A new report claims women were in much better shape 50 years ago than their descendants today, despite the modern obsession with dieting and working out.</p>

The Rockin' Fifties What a great time it was for all of us who were lucky enough to live in that magic time. And if you were in high school then it was pure fun! Bobbi socks, pony tails, penny loafers, rock and roll, ducks butts, sideburns, hoola hoops, American Bandstand, Howdy Doody, and a zillion other things come to mind but the thing that stands out is the dancing! Oh how we danced! The diners, the blue plate specials,  a nickle coke! We could get cheeseburgers  for a quarter, luscious milkshakes   and real french fries!  Yummy! Hoola hoops...