Does anyone here remember the Fifties?

[kentuck]

What do you remember about them?

The cars? The music? Television? The movie stars? School integration?

Do you remember the hula hoop?

I'm curious as to what people remember about the '50's?

I was ten-years old in 1957.

I'm sure a lot of the Baby Boom thinking is tied to those formative years.

[msongs]

1. the decade or the age group lol ? nt

[kentuck]

2. The decade.

Sorry.

[mainstreetonce]

3. Poodle skirts

And Patti Page

[kentuck]

5. I remember Eisenhower....

I thought that was a "funny" name for a President?

I recall all those picture posters of candidates running for office stapled to telephone poles along the country roads. I specifically recall the poster for A.B. "Happy" Chandler.

[dgibby]

4. I was 12 then.

Fifties: Rock and Roll (Bill Haley and the Comets), Elvis, tv (we had a floor model Dumont), Poodle skirts, wearing cardigan sweaters buttoned up the back with dickies, bobby socks, black and white saddle oxfords, crinoline pettiecoats (the more the better!-my max was 7), cruisin' the main (only for the older kids), drive-in movies, hula hoop, Cold War (duck and cover drills in school), segregation (so glad that's over), Saturday afternoon matinees at the movies-lots of westerns, war films, romantic comedies, cartoons, etc., wearing hats and gloves to church (only for the girls! LOL!). Lots of the women got dressed up just to go shopping. Men all wore suits and hats to church, downtown.

[kentuck]

15. I lived in the mountains of Appalachia...

As a small boy, I remember the old men sitting on the porch at the old country store. If they didn't have a chair, they would sit on the wooden Pepsi or Coca~Cola cases. Some of their faces were still black with coal dust and they walked stiffly whenever they moved. If they were not playing "checkers" with pop-bottle lids, they were whittling on a piece of unmistakable cedar or making jokes about one another. Of course, they would take time out to walk to the edge of the porch to spit out their worn-out chew of Red Man or Days o' Work chewing tobacco.
They would talk about squirrel hunting up on the "spur" by the mulberry tree. If you got there at the right time, you could get yourself two or three squirrels before breakfast. Eventually, the discussion would get around to who had the best huntin' dog on the creek and who made the biggest fool of himself drinking "moonshine" last week. Boredom would finally win out as the weekend drew near. It was time to go to town and "trade" for groceries and meet old friends.
The courthouse square was the usual meeting place for anyone that went to town. It was not uncommon to meet folks you hadn't seen for several months, or even years. On those hot and muggy days, most folks would be standing under the shade trees. A few of the women would be slowly fanning themselves with those wooden-handled paper fans from the funeral home.
Many years ago, there were a couple of farmers that lived just outside of town and whenever they would clean out their barns, they would hook up their horses to their wagons and haul that horse manure right through the middle of town. The people called them "honey wagons." If the wind was blowing just right, you could smell 'em before you could see 'em. So they would drive those "honey wagons" straight thru town -- right past the courthouse square.
It seemed there was always a group of people milling about the square and those unmistakable smells would be wafting thru the air. The horses hooves played a joyful melody on the pavement. It was quite a distraction, to say the least.
As they passed by, the old men in their overalls would simply turn their backs, spit their tobacco juice, and continue to swap stories and pocketknives. The women in their sunbonnets would turn their heads away and start talking about last Sunday's church service and gossip about who was sleeping with the deacon. The leaves would be lilting in the breeze as the unforgettable aroma would soon drift over the trees and be lost to the clouds.
On one hot, muggy evening, a local politician -- in a tight race for County Sheriff -- happened upon a fairly good crowd in the courthouse square. Being a "politician' and being in a hotly contested race, this was as good as a packed crowd at the gymnasium. By fortune or circumstance, an empty "honey wagon" was on its return trip back thru town. That unmistakable aroma was still lingering.
Someone yelled, "Homer, why don't you jump up here on the back of this wagon and say a few words to the folks!" So Homer, not wanting to miss an opportunity to get a few potential votes, jumped up on the back of that almost-empty wagon and waved to a few people, looked down at his boots, stuck his nose up in the air and got a good whiff of that heavenly fragrance. He thought for a moment, looked the people straight in the eye, then he said.... "You know, I've been a Democrat all my life and this is the first time I've ever given a speech on a Republican platform."

[Beringia]

34. nice story, thanks for sharing

[lpbk2713]

6. I remember a lot of firsts.

Our first TV, first home phone, first gas stove.

I remember watching Queen Elizabeth's coronation at school. It took two janitors to carry
the teacher's TV up stairs to the classroom so we could watch it. It must have taken place
late in the day London time because taped video delay hadn't been thought of then. Davy
Crockett was a big deal on TV then too. And I remember exactly where I was when I heard
on our car radio that the Russians had launched Sputnik.

Born Feb 1944.

[starroute]

78. There was no live TV from Europe then

The first communication satellite wasn't until the early 60s -- 1961, I think. So they filmed the coronation and flew the films over and showed them on television a couple of days later.

[lpbk2713]

84. That must have been what it was.

I didn't know a thing about the technical aspects of it at the time.

[wyldwolf]

7. only from Happy Days

[Wellstone ruled]

8. Buck night at the Drive Inn.

Just how many could you get into the 49' two door Sedan. Fourteen was our record. And yes we filled the trunk. Nickel Beers at the Lake Resort on a hot summer night. And no one drove if they had more than one beer,to darn many rellies and neighbors hanging out at the same joint. How about the stand up collars. White bucks with contrasting lases.

[Divernan]

90. Guys hiding in car trunks to get into drive in for free!

[JanMichael]

9. Not first hand. Born in late 60's. The anti-leftism of the 50's is not my cup o tea. nt

[Warpy]

10. I remember regimentation, segregation that went way beyond just race, and

a very unhappy mother who was stuck at home with her engineering degree gathering dust and going out of date. I remember everybody smoking like choochoo trains, all the time, everywhere, and being very sick from it. I remember polio and measles. I remember the first "all white" school I went to and what a joke it was, all colors of the human rainbow represented except African brown or black. I remember moving twice a year, all those new schools.

I also remember McCarthyism and how afraid people were of each other. One phone call from somebody with an imaginary grudge could ruin your life.

I remember enough that I would never, ever want to repeat them. It was the best deal that white working men had ever had. For everybody else, not so much.

[Jesus Malverde]

11. I wasn't born

My impression duck and cover drills were traumatic and fear generating. A fear and hatred that manifests itself in hatred of Russians to this day.

I was shocked when I met Russians raised under communism and discovered they were better educated than most americans. It was a real eye opener for me after all the years of propaganda I had consumed.

Hatred of communism enabled the Vietnam war. Now the communist are our biggest trading partner and the TPP includes Vietnam.

[Art_from_Ark]

16. I think I was one of the first groups to miss out on duck-and-cover drills

By the time I entered school, they had morphed into tornado drills. But if school had been in session on August 9, 1965, kids might have had to do a real live duck-and-cover-- not from Russian missiles, but from a missile that was housed 100 miles away.

http://www.techbastard.com/missile/titan2/accident_373-4.php

[JI7]

12. hula hoop was around in the 80 and 90s also

I didn't live in the 50s but have read about it.

[Downwinder]

13. Nickle Cokes, Dime Stores

[cloudbase]

37. And the "one armed bandit" that dispensed those Cokes.

Free road maps at gas stations. Full service, of course.

[4now]

14. Polaroid camera

Zorro and The Mickey Mouse Club

[mainstreetonce]

19. No, Kodak Brownie cameras

The Lone Ranger and Howdy Doody

[Art_from_Ark]

24. I had a Brownie camera

My uncle gave me one for Christmas, 1966.

[Igel]

17. What's more important isn't going to be icons.

Marilyn Monroe, Howdy Doody, Patti Page.

Or, necessarily, the Platters or Buddy Holly.

It's going to be home life and schools, things that actually shaped people. (My first words were spoken soon after 1960s started. My brother finished high school in the mid-60s.)

That's going to be highly individual.

[kentuck]

22. Remember this guy?

From the same time frame as Howdy Doody?

https://archive.org/details/Pinky_Lee_Show

[mainstreetonce]

26. Yes I remember

He was weird.

[Divernan]

93. Whole family watching TV together after dinner

We each had our particular place to sit or sprawl, including the family dog, who loved having everyone together.

We all had memorized the nightly lineup on NBC, CBS & ABC. Local dept. stores closed early on Tuesday nights so everyone could watch I Love Lucy.

I've had some tough spots in my long, adult life, but have always been thankful to have had a safe and secure childhood. Miss you, Daddy; miss you, Mom; miss you, big brother Dave!

[madamesilverspurs]

18. Skate keys.

Public pools closed in fear of polio. Rubber swim caps. The Fuller Brush man. Waiting for the TV to warm up to watch "Kukla, Fran and Ollie". Rabbit ears and television lamps. Tiddlywinks.

[NV Whino]

20. I remember being happy

Climbing granite boulders in Colorado.

Cowboy movies on the single channel TV: Roy Rogers; Buster Crabb; Hoot Gibson; Gene Autry; Bob Steel; Hopalong Cassidy; Lash Larue.

Ed Sullivan, What's My Line?

Snapdragons and columbines. Home made bread and pickles and donuts and creme puffs.

Chipmunks and garter snakes. Snow and sledding.

Then I grew up.

[Divernan]

94. Trigger, Buttermilk, Champion, Nellie Bell, Gabby Hayes, Lassie & RinTinTin

All those sidekicks of old

[Art_from_Ark]

103. I had a 45rpm record of a song that mentioned "Nellie Bell"

It was called "Graveyard Filler of the West" and was about a horse that no one could ride without putting their life at risk.

[Divernan]

111. Here's the back story on the motorized Nellybelle

The Roy Rogers Show, featured a 1946 Willys CJ-2A Jeep
named Nellybelle, which had some unusual bodywork. It was in fact
owned by Roy, but was driven in the show by his comic sidekick,
Pat Brady. The name apparently developed out of Pat riding an
ornery mule in the earlier movies, and addressing it with
phrases like "Whoa, Nelly!"

In most episodes of the show, Nellybelle's name is painted on her
doors. In the picture above, the show begins with a wild stunt in
which Nellybelle starts rolling down a hill by herself, and
Roy chases her on Trigger and leaps from his saddle into the
Jeep to bring her to a safe stop.

Dale says, "Roy, you shouldn't have taken a chance like that for
Nellybelle!" But Roy replies "Well, she's part of the family,
Dale."
As Pat Brady drove around Mineral City, he had the habit of
talking sweetly to his Jeep as if his verbal compliments could
convince Nellybelle to get up and go.

Roy Rogers chose to include a Jeep into the program because
he noticed that after WWII, the Jeeps were real popular,
especially with children.

[Cleita]

21. I was a senior in high school in 1957, however, my life wasn't like

Richie Cunningham's. However, I do remember that all my classmates and I lived in a house with a yard. I didn't know anyone who lived in an apartment and only a few whose moms had jobs. As an only child, I was a rarity as most families had four or five kids. I remember poor people but no homeless. Mostly we ate at home and bagged our lunches. Hamburgers out were a treat not a daily meal. I guess the best way to describe it is most of us were working middle class. There were a few rich kids and a few poor but none were homeless or went hungry.

[Hekate]

105. I was 10 in 1957, and I remember that we all seemed to think we were middle class...

...even when it was mostly aspirational, if that makes sense to you. My dad carried a lunch pail and thermos to work, but he and my mom assumed we kids would graduate high school and go to college. With what money, I don't know, but as it happened we all went and the times were such that we were all able to work our way through with little help from home.

You're right about larger families; I'm the oldest of four. I babysat starting from age 11 or 12, and family sizes ranged up to 6 kids. My brother had a paper route from age 10 or 11.

I never saw a homeless person or visibly crazy person on the streets until Governor Reagan emptied the State Hospitals in California in the 1960s.

Burgers out were a rare treat, reserved for the family coming back from the beach all sandy and salty: 25c burger, 25c milk shake, fries 15c.

School lunches -- I didn't experience those until we moved from SoCal to Hawaii in 1957. Hawai'i had a well-developed hot lunch program in every school, complete with full kitchens on site and permanent employees. Every meal was designed to provide 1/3 of the daily nutritional requirements of a growing kid. They were not exciting meals, on the whole, but there was nothing wrong with them either. The only thing I never liked was beef with green curry sauce. A kid with a larger appetite (usually boys) could ask for an extra scoop of rice at no extra cost. Lunches were so cheap at 25c apiece that even my very frugal mother admitted she could not beat that price and doled out the quarters to us.

I assume the lunches were government subsidized. Our town, the island, the whole state, had the same price for school lunches, with no distinction. We all had to take turns working in the kitchen a few times a year, prep, serving, cleanup.

[Cleita]

119. My parents had the same educational aspirations for me although they only expected me to get an AA,

which I did. After all back then you needed business training so you could work as a secretary if you were a girl, the only profession you were encouraged to work at. If you went to four years of college, you were expected to be a teacher or a nurse. Aspiring to anything else was a push against the establishment norms for educating women and you had to fight against male privilege to do so by being smarter and working harder than the boys did.

But my parents were very proud of me because neither had finished high school. My mom quit when she was fifteen to go to work and my dad, who finished formal schooling after the fifth grade, became an electrical engineer through sheer determination, a lot of night school and sheer luck. He worked mostly overseas and traveled six thousand miles to come to my graduations. That's how proud he was of me.

[Hekate]

121. California community colleges were the best invention ever. My whole family ended up going...

...to Chaffey Community College in what is now Rancho Cucamonga, over the years.

I can just see your mom and dad glowing with pride at your achievement.

[Cleita]

122. I actually got a scholarship to a small women's college out of state,

but it would have been community or state college for me otherwise that were tuition free at that time. In any case I would have left college debt free, which I did. Too bad no one has the will to bring back the state system that existed then.

[TlalocW]

23. Tom Servo does

As well as remembering the 70s.

TlalocW

[NobodyHere]

97. I wanted to post that

[CK_John]

25. I was in Parris Island boot camp in 57 when the Sputnik was launched.

Best thing for me, a 17 yr old kid who just wanted to get out of NYC and had no idea beyond that. The USMC gave all of us a IQ test and after boot camp and ITR training I was sent to electronics school for a yr, which later led to university and a career in computer systems.

The Korean War caused a lot of grief in our neighborhood and Truman standing up to the military saved us from a military take over.

Five Congressmen Shot in House by 3 Puerto Rican Nationalists; in 1954.

The Sentor from WI and Ron Reagan begin the blacklisting of Hollywood.

[Smarmie Doofus]

27. Yeah. But not a lot.

Born in '54.

I remember watching the NY Giants ( BASEBALL TEAM) play on our fuzzy, fritzy b and w tv. They left NY for SF in after the 1957 season so that's got to be my earliest conscious memory.

Also remember Eisenhower commercial on same antique tv. He wasn't running for anything though. He was dedicating the ground at what was to be Lincoln Center. That would have been 1959-ish.

Yes... I remember the hula hoop, and a few kids tv shows ("Claude Kirschner's 3-Ring Circus" ) Wonderama, ( local NY kids show).

My older sister sketched a pic of Khruschev and Eisenhower at a summit from the cover of Time. What year was that?

OTOH: 1960 - I remember *distinctly*. Lots of stuff happening. Kennedy; Nixon; the election. Mazeroski, the World Series.

The world was changing. I started school.

[Art_from_Ark]

35. Was Wonderama the show with the Merry Mailman?

[Smarmie Doofus]

50. All I remember is that the host was "Sonny Fox".

It was a Metromedia Station ( later sold to Murdoch; that sale began the evil empire's expansion into the American airwaves.)and Sonny did some other kid shows in the 60s on the same station.

The Merry Mailman does NOT ring a bell.

[Art_from_Ark]

52. I looked up the Merry Mailman

He also had a kids program in the 50s and 60s in the New York area. That's probably why I confused him with Wonderama.

[starroute]

79. I got the Merry Mailman's autograph once.

He spelled it "Mery." I was very disillusioned.

But his program did show Crusader Rabbit cartoons. That was the best part.

[Art_from_Ark]

81. I don't remember the show

but I had a 45rpm record of a couple of his songs-- Watzing Matilda, and Be Kind to Your Web-footed Friends. At the end of the songs, kids would say, "That was pretty, Merry Mailman".

[kentuck]

28. I think it may have been close to the peak in the art of music...

[livetohike]

29. I was five in 1957. I remember "duck and cover". I remember

some TV shows "Howdy Doody", "The Mickey Mouse Club", "Superman", etc.

The milk man and bread man came to the house. There was a huckster with a truck full of fruit and vegetables and he came around once or twice per week.

We lived with my Grandma until my parents bought a home in the suburbs. She lived across the street from the high school and I remember seeing the girls wearing poodle skirts and saddle shoes.

I remember roller skating with friends and wearing the key around my neck . Playing hide and seek and tag in my Grandma's yard ( she had a double lot). Making a hopscotch table with chalk on the sidewalk.

Good memories. Walking to the theater for the Saturday matinee. Walking to the local drugstore for penny candy. There was a lady who lived nearby and made candied apples. They cost 5 cents.

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. Have you ever seen "A Christmas Story"

shown on tv every Christmas for a number of years now.
VERY accurate of the 50's.

We had drive in movies. TV went off the air at midnight, they played the anthem, then static came on.
We had Sat. cartoons until noon, and kids would wake up early, make a bowl of cereal, plop in front of the tv and watch for hours, while the adults slept in.
Radio stations played many different kinds of music..you could hear Benny Goodman, and then a country song, and then what was becoming rock music, all in an hour. We had AM, there was no FM that I knew about in the 50's.
I remember hearing Elvis for the first time in 1957, and instantly knowing THIS was wayyyy different than Pat Boone.
Most decent size towns had more than one radio and tv station, and we had antennas on the roof and could choose among 3 channels!
Black and white tv, of course.
the adults chose the programming except on Sat. mornings.

Kids could go by themselves or with siblings to a Sat. move, and spend a whole 50 cents on admission and cokes and popcorn and candy.
Mothers stayed home, mostly, and there was one family car that the Dad drove to work.
Kids could roam all day from sunrise to dusk, outside in good weather, and parents did not worry.

Everybody smoked, everywhere, and parents told their kids not to smoke. Riiight.
Girls had to wear a dress or skirt( well below the knee) to school, boys wore slacks, blue jeans were considered something that only James Dean rebellious types wore.
Fonzi in Happy Days was a good example of that.
It wasn't until after 1960s that blue jeans became popular for everyone.

Everyone was scared of Communists, whatever they were.
Lousy birth control and zero real sex education, girls were terrorified of "getting caught" ( pregnant) and would be sent "away"
to have their baby at a home for unwed mothers, it was supposed to be a secret but everyone knew. I had a cousin, age 15,
that happened to. It was quite scandalous at the time.

The 50's were a period in time that the Republicans would love to bring back again, when men ruled jobs and at home, kids never talked back, and the lil woman knew her place.

[StevieM]

38. The Baby Scoop Era was so horrible. Women and girls really didn't have a choice.

And they were usually treated like garbage at these homes. One way of another, they were going to extract these girls' signatures.

Did your cousin ever find her long-lost child?

[dixiegrrrrl]

43. I lost track of her.

She married early and moved several states away.

[Chipper Chat]

31. Everyone had a job.

Most boys in 5th grade thru junior high worked after school or on weekends. I started out in 5th grade weeding tomatoes at a local nursery on Saturday. Then I "upgraded" to stock boy at the corner grocery store (fun). At 13 & 14 I had paper routes. When I graduated from high school the classifieds were full of ads. You PICKED which ones you wanted to apply for. That's a lot different today.

[Chipper Chat]

40. Things I remember:

Hearing "It's a Blue World" by the Four Freshmen for the first time. Blew me away.
Watching the World Series on TV in study hall (thank you Principal Salm!)
Spin and Marty.
Being in a movie with Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine (Some Came Running).
"Phosphates" at the candy store.
Watching hydroplane races on the Ohio River.
Crabby old-maid teachers.
The day James Dean died.
The day Buddy Holly died.
The nights TV was "good" (the RECEPTION, not the programs!)
Chuck Berry.

[dixiegrrrrl]

45. Hydroplane races!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Lake Washington.
Miss Thriftway! Bill Muncie.

Several racing crews were from Seattle. My greatest joy when I was around 8 was I got to sit in the cockpit of Miss Thriftway,
the boat was at someone's garage that my uncle knew.
If I could not be near the lake during Seafair week, the tv stations provided excellent coverage.
A couple of times I watched the races on tv at houses close enough to the Lake that we could those roaring engines in stereo.

Once the turbines came in, it was never the same.

[FuzzyRabbit]

66. Slo Mo IV and Slo Mo V

And watching on the TV, Slo Mo V flipping.

And watching it over and over and over. Probably the biggest tragedy in Seattle ever, for this 9 year old kid, anyway.

[dixiegrrrrl]

68. I stopped watching after Muncie died.

But for many years, it was a glorious sport to behold.

[FuzzyRabbit]

71. I did too.

Too many of my heroes were injured or killed in those days.

But I still remember the beautiful sound of the old piston engines. I'd hang out all week near the pits and watch the boats start up and listen to the deep roar of the Rolls Merlin and Allison engines. Best thing about the summer back then.

[Chipper Chat]

112. Miss Thriftaway disenigrated at the Madison Indiana race.

About 1960. My best friend still has a large piece of the hull he fished out of the water. The unlimiteds in the 50s were huge (Gale IV and Gale V). Guy Lombardo owned a boat called "Tempo" which I thought was cute.

[NOLALady]

32. Segregation.

Jim Crow.

[kentuck]

36. Thanks for putting it in perspective, NOLALady.

[Hekate]

106. I remember all of that from the evening news, from LIFE and TIME magazines, like an alien planet

Early elementary school for me was in San Fernando Valley, where we had a mix of white and Mexican American kids; don't really remember if there were any black kids in my school at the time. My best friend's name was Mercedes, and one of my classmates was named Jesus. In junior high school and high school there would have been more of a mix because of all the neighborhoods feeding into the higher grades.

In 1957 we moved to the Territory of Hawai'i, where people live in relative harmony. There has never been segregation. There has never been a miscegenation law. And it shows.

I was a child watching the evening news on black and white TV in the 1950s and I could not believe people could behave as hatefully as I saw them behave toward children my age just trying to go to school.

[Scuba]

33. I remember the late '50's well (born in '48). Climbing the hill to get the cows at milking time ...

... fishing and swimming in the "crick", the county fair, Elvis Presley and, finally, girls.

I really miss those simpler days.

[Agnosticsherbet]

39. Broderick Crawford in Highway Patrol, The Mickey Moust Club, Sea Hunt,

Buying firecrackers from fire cracker stands before the 4th of July.
My Grandfathers Bottle Green 1955 Ford Victoria custom
Going to the movies on Wednesday nights for 15 cents (Yes, I said $0.15)
Gong to the Saturday Matinee for 25 cents.
Science Fiction and Horror Movies
Watching Horror movies on Saturday Afternoon.
Dan D. Dynamo (3-d Danny), played by Danny Williams, who also involved with Forman Scotty.

[NanceGreggs]

41. Born in 49 ...

The Fifties were ...

Two-tone cars, five-and-tens with lunch counters, penny candy, hand-scooped ice cream, egg creams, Milton Berle, I Love Lucy, Burns & Allen, drive-in movies, poodle skirts, Toni "home permanents", milk delivered to your door, butcher shops with sawdust on the floor, bread and cakes from the neighbourhood bakery, civil defense drills, real Coke in green bottles, playing marbles, "street baseball", pick-up-sticks, nuns wearing "habits", Emenee musical instruments for kids, dollhouses, card games like "Go Fish", "War", and "Help Your Neighbour", roller-skates with "keys", streamers on your bike handles, Jon Nagy "Learn to Draw" kits, Winky-Dink, Johnny Mathis, Patti Page, Frankie Laine, and my first Barbie doll.

[HereSince1628]

42. I remember Alaska and Hawaii gaining statehood

and the classroom flags being changed

I remember the mid-fifties cars with their round features being replaced by cars with fins. I can remember my shoulder being sore from playing four-hole Buick

Delivering papers for my brother's paper route, cleaning the pigeon coop for my brothers merit badge

Helping oil the wheels on my brother's soap-box racer.

I remember my paternal grandmother calling me Hannsie and getting the dog to come instead of me. We named our dog Hans... my godfather called me Johann and my grandmother turned that into Hannsie.

Howdy-Doody, Lassie, Fury and Sky-King all watched on a 10 inch b&w screen.

I remember my father recording family stories of reunions with a wire-recorder...thousand feet or so of fine wire that became magnetized and wound off a metal spool and onto the base of the turntable of a record player.
Like the one at this link...http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Silvertone-Wire-Recorder-With-Recording-Wire-/171359558272

"erector-sets" kits of metal 'girders' held together with real but tiny screws and nuts.

a neighbor friend with thousand or so baseball cards.

I remember being green with envying my friend's 3 speed bicycle.

[GoneOffShore]

44. So, anyone remember class pictures?

The guy with the big view camera and the creepy mustache?

[IMG][/IMG]

[hunter]

87. What was with those guys?

I recall several creepy school photographers.

One that didn't bother me so much was incredibly drunk. I was a kid who recognized incredibly drunk people.

Just one of the many reason's I quit showing up on picture day, make-up picture day, and call-you-out-of-class picture day.

Cool, a hall pass. I'm out of here, and later among the weirdos not pictured in the yearbook, Hunter.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

46. The conformity. Lousy music. Poverty. Fear of the Russkies.

I was 6 when the '50s began and 16 when it ended. We were living in Florida in 1958. I remember a grandmotherly looking teacher in the 9th grade telling us "We will never allow N*****S in this school." And, kids on the school bus hanging out the windows yelling N****** at an old black man and spitting at him. As a 14 year old from California I was shocked.

"White privilege" was a given back then. We were poor but we always knew that we were better than "them".

Those incidents changed my view of life and view of "the system".

[leftofcool]

47. Eisenhower hula hoops, poodle skirts, real coke bottles, the hop, Elvis

[RebelOne]

48. I remember what everyone here has posted.

After all, I am 76 years old.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

49. I was born at the end of 1949

so I lived through all of the 50s, mostly as a little kid. I remember Fearless Fosdick on TV, which was a great puppet show with life-like sets and the Pinkie Lee Show for kids which came on in the afternoon. Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney and Howdy Doody with Buffalo Bob were favorites. I watched Ding Dong School every day as well as Captain Kangaroo. I remember I Love Lucy on TV and The Life Of Riley. I was a nut for Science Fiction Theater as a kid. I loved the Friday Night Fights on TV and their Gillette theme song (my dad always watched and had been a pro boxer during the depression). The Adventures Of Superman were loved by all the kids my age. Every afternoon after it ran, you would see little kids jumping off their front porches wearing bath towels around their necks. I liked the adult show Soldier Of Fortune that came on at night. The Mickey Mouse Club was a show I never missed and as a five year old, I fell in love with mouseketeer Cheryl (every little boy had a crush on Cheryl). Captain Gallant Of The Foreign Legion was also a fave (Buster Crabbe). Re-runs of Flash Gordon again with Buster Crabbe were very big and I also had a crush on his girlfriend Dale. The kids all loved Roy Rogers, too. What's amazing to me is that I kept watching these shows after my Air Force dad was transferred to Germany for three years in the middle of the 50s and I saw them on American military TV being operated out of the base at Spangdahlem, Germany.

When I was three years old, my mom took me to see It Came From Outer Space and then Invaders From Mars. That started a lifelong interest in SF and horror movies and as a kid I saw them all, from Forbidden Planet to The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. On the Air Force base in Germany when I was six, a gang of us little kids would go out by ourselves at night and walk to the base theater to see the latest horror or SF movie like Them!. It wasn't considered at all dangerous. it was a different world..

When my dad was transferred to Oklahoma (I was three) we lived next door to the chief of the Caddo Indian tribe. I think their last name was something like Hensugar. I used to play with the younger brother and he always wanted the Indians to win when we played cowboys and Indians. They would take me down to the nearby fishing hole to hunt for crawdads.

I loved the music on the Hit Parade show on TV. My mom loved Johnny Ray and would make me cry when she sang his big hit The Little White Cloud That Cried. Johnny Ray was a great artist who could belt out a tune like no other.

There were a lot of other things I liked and did but I'll stop there.

[kentuck]

53. The Gillette Theme Song...

[mountain grammy]

51. We go a tv in 1954 when I was 7.

because my mom wanted to watch the Army-McCarthy hearings. She could've listened to them on the radio, but the family was ready for a tv.
I remember North Carolina in 1957-1958, with "colored only" or "white only" signs, and segregated schools.
My dad spent 1952 in Korea.

Not a lot of fond memories of the 50's here.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

54. Lots of stuff:

TV shows - Andy's Gang, Sky King, Lassie, Mickey Mouse Club, The Lone Ranger, Davy Crockett - to name a few. Saddle shoes, not being allowed to go swimming in August because of polio, Sputnik, riding on passenger trains, riding on streetcars, Mr. Potato Head played with real potatoes, Cootie, Slinkies made of metal (not those cheesy plastic ones), roller skates that clamped to your shoes using a key, having to watch the Lawrence Welk Show on TV when our grandma was visiting, trading cards, candy bars that cost 5 cents, comic books that cost a dime, rotary phones and party lines, wearing white gloves to church, taking May Day baskets to the neighbors, running unsupervised around the neighborhood with other kids.

[lordsummerisle]

64. I was only a small child then

Oddly enough for some reason I remember the buzz about Hawaii and Alaska becoming states.
Also later I learned that segregation was quite widespread (though that was still true in the sixties and arguably even today) and African-Americans had a really hard time voting, like having to recite the Constitution, for example, at the polls before they voted. Also I remember back then they were referred to as the colored or the n-word. By the time the sixties rolled around the racial issues were at least finally addressed.

[Art_from_Ark]

86. I remember some of that from the '60s

My memories probably start with 1962 or so. Lassie was on Sunday evenings, but we always watched something else. I watched the Mickey Mouse Club for a while, but was only interested in the cartoons at that time. Davy Crockett was on TV, and I also had a 45rpm record with the Davy Crockett theme song. I also had a Slinky made of metal, probably got that around 1968. We watched Lawrence Welk at my grandparents' place. I had trading cards called Odd-Rods that came out in 1969. Candy bars were a dime in 1968, some comic books were still a dime (although I think Mad Magazine was 35 cents-- cheap). We also had a rotary phone and a party line until we got rid of both in the late '70s. And we ran unsupervised around the neighborhood with other kids.

[Blue_In_AK]

55. Sure, I remember the '50s.

I was born in 1946. I remember hula hoops, Elvis on Ed Sullivan, my tiny transistor radio in bed with me at night listening to rock 'n' roll out of KOMA in Oklahoma City. (I could only pick up the signal at night.) Sputnik, Eisenhower. Some personal family tragedies.

I remember the '50s well.

[2banon]

57. oh yeah..

[jberryhill]

58. Emperor Claudius was doing a good job then

The founding of Utrecht was one highlight that stands out for me.

[WillowTree]

59. Fizzies!

?noCache=1434074573

[immoderate]

60. Captain Video.

And Tom Corbett, Space Cadet! Near the end Link Wray.

And all the rest.

--imm

[FuzzyRabbit]

61. Smallpox and polio vaccinations

I think it was in second grade when all the students in each classroom would line up and we would receive smallpox and Salk polio vaccinations. I don't remember parents permission slips but I am sure they were required, and everyone in school got the shots.

For years after, through high school and beyond, everyone had the little circle on their upper left arm where they received the smallpox vaccination.

Before the polio vaccine every parent was terrified that their child would contract polio and either become crippled or die. You don't hear much about polio anymore.

[FuzzyRabbit]

62. You'll wonder where the yellow went

when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.

Brusha, brusha, brusha, with the new Ipana . . .

[3catwoman3]

63. Born in 1951.

Most of what others have mentioned is very familiar.

A particularly vivid memory is going to an ice cream place somewhere near the town of East Aurora in western NY, which was on top of a high hill. We watched Sputnik go by.

I also remember wondering how crouching under my desk was going to do anything at all to protect me in case of a nuclear attack.

[House of Roberts]

65. I remember having the radio on in the morning,

because the TV stations didn't broadcast until around noon. I remember 'Queen For A Day', and the Art Linkletter Show. Then there was Benny Carle in the afternoon with the cartoons.

[marked50]

67. Bomb Shelters

The Nautilus under the North Pole. Nickel drinks at the Soda Fountain and 15 cent hamburgers. Lots of live TV shows and Rin Tin Tin

[FuzzyRabbit]

69. Burma Shave signs

Burma Shave posted series of several small red signs with white lettering along highways. They had humorous messages, one line per sign. As you drove past you would read each sign in succession. Like this:

WITHIN THIS VALE

OF TOIL

AND SIN

YOUR HEAD GROWS BALD

BUT NOT YOUR CHIN

BURMA-SHAVE

[Divernan]

91. OTHER SHAVES

WILL LET YOU DOWN

FASTER THAN

A STRAPLESS GOWN!

Burma Shave

and

CANDIDATE SAYS

CAMPAIGN CONFUSING

BABIES KISS ME

SINCE I'VE BEEN USING.

Burma Shave

[Thinkingabout]

70. This has been a wonderful refreshing thread, was dreaming along, singing a song.

I remember the fins on cars and the '57 Chevy, beautiful car, for me it was the growing years and still have some of the same friends. Thanks for your post, you made a better world here on DU tonight. Oh, remember the peanuts in the 6 oz cokes, what a combination.

[Kingofalldems]

72. Tires had tubes,I used to fix my bike tires with a patch kit. Schwinn was THE bike.

Very few people had air conditioning, we had fireworks in the back yard.

[Divernan]

92. Skate keys to tighten clamp on roller skates.

[Art_from_Ark]

100. Captain Kangaroo used to plug Schwinn bikes

"Remember, kids.. Schwinn bikes... the quality bikes... are best"

[femmocrat]

73. Yes, I remember the 50s better than the 90s.

Since around 1990, everything is like fast forward. The 50s and 60s are like slow motion.

[INdemo]

74. I remember all that including the Davy Crocket/movies crase and the coonskin caps

The car hops
Sat afternoon movie matinee for .25
I was 11 in 1957
Yes I remember the 3 channels on TV and off the air at 10PM

Talk about the good ol' days

[frogmarch]

75. I remember lots and lots

about the 50s, but what popped into my mind just now was my mom not wanting my older sister and me to see the movie The Student Prince because she thought the star, Edmund Purdom, was that vulgar, hip-gyrating rock and roll singer her church friends had been tsk tsking about.

[starroute]

76. I remember how thrilled I was when they were over

I was also ten in 1947. And I still have my original hula hoop hanging up in the basement.

But by the time I was twelve, I was more fed up with this country than I can say. I was sick of "the family that prays together stays together." I was sick of Nixon getting pelted with rotten tomatoes in South America and the Republican foreign policies that had brought it on. I was sick of feeling that the rest of the world hated us.

When Kennedy was elected, it was an enormous relief. I was more than ready for the Sixties to get going.

[starroute]

80. Also Mad Magazine

One of the few places you could go for the truth.

[kentuck]

85. Who can forget Alfred E. Neuman?

[starroute]

98. It was only years later that I recognized all the hidden drug references

There was lots of subversive stuff buried in those issues.

[Thirties Child]

77. I was 15 in 1950, married in 1957, first child in 1958, left Texas (permanently) in 1959.

For me the 50s were high school, college, starting a family. I remember how happy I was when Brown vs Board of Education came down, very end of my freshman year. Surprised when roommates, suite mates, etc. (all from Dallas, East Texas) were horrified. I got an A on a history paper I wrote about a family get-together in Kansas, Christmas, 1954. I contrasted the attitudes of those from Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. Very different. My first job was reporter for the Dallas Times Herald, February 1957. I was paid $60 a week, a young man, also just out of college, was paid $65. Apparently that hasn't changed much.

[tularetom]

82. I remember buying a 49 Mercury for $75 and filling it up for 4 bucks

I was 16 when I bought it and I drove the thing until I went into the army in 1960.

I remember baling hay for $5 a day and I remember watching Rocky & Bullwinkle on the TV.

And I remember the first hamburger I got at the McDonalds at Shields and Blackstone in Fresno CA (for years there was a plaque in the sidewalk at this location stating that this was the first McDonalds franchised by Ray Kroc but I think the restaurant is long gone now).

Most of all I remember water skiing in the irrigation canals, towed by a car driving down the service road.

[Divernan]

89. We'd chip in for $.25 worth of gas & cruise Main Street on Friday nights

And steady couples would park by the boat docks and makeout until the sheriff's deputy drove through and flashed his lights on us.

It was pure, unadulterated American Graffit!

[hunter]

83. I was born there, but the first President I remember was JFK.

My very earliest memory is Pacific Ocean Park in California and my dad was carrying me.

[Divernan]

88. Shock Theater parties w/ host "Marvin" & his wife, "Dear"

My senior year of high school, my gang gathered every Saturday night to watch Shock Theater - great scary fun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_%28horror_host%29

Marvin was a television horror host, played by Terry Bennett, who originally appeared on Chicago's WBKB from 1957 to 1959.

It began with a dark night sky, broken by long fingers of lightning that ripped down from the sky. Deep-throated thunder followed, and another flash of lightning. That dark old house would then appear on the TV screen, dark but for a patch of light glowing through a cellar window. Down there, in the cellar, Marvin would be waiting for us....[1]

Premiering at 10pm on December 7, 1957, Marvin (sometimes called Marvin the Near-Sighted Madman) hosted Shock Theatre, presenting horror films late Saturday nights. His character was a demented beatnik who wore thick glasses and a black turtle neck sweater, and was an instant hit.[1][2]

Marvin's companion was his wife, who he only referred to as "Dear." Viewers never saw her face, as the camera was always behind her, or her face was obscured by a mask. Marvin would constantly perform experiments or amputations on "Dear", but she would always be back to normal by the next commercial break. "Dear" was played by Bennett's real-life wife, Joy Bennett.[3]

While Bennett played mostly for laughs, poking fun at the movies, he occasionally frightened his audience as well. The show became so popular that station management soon expanded the series with a new half hour segment after the movie called The Shocktale Party. Marvin was joined by several other characters; "Orville", a hunchback, "Shorty", a giant wearing a rubber Frankenstein mask, and a band called "The Deadbeats", who were members of the Art VanDamme quintet,and wore white makeup with black circles around their eyes.[1] Bennett wrote and arranged much of the music himself, as he did on his morning children's show, The Jobblewocky Place.[4]

[Lugnut]

95. Television!

We got our first TV on my 5th birthday in 1950. I also got my first two-wheel bicycle with training wheels.

The Everly Brothers, Elvis and rock and roll. I remember the duck and cover air raid drills and when "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance. I remember being able to identify every make of car on the road. I remember Hurricane Hazel when the power was off for two days.

[olddots]

96. born in 1948

I remember Nat King Cole's 15 minute TV show , Ernie Kovacs ,Steve Allen ,Ginsberg and Miles Davis .I also remeber a country in transition becoming a materialistic hell hole in reaction to communism .We have become the over entertained ,under educated bullies that even hate ourselves .........but I digress:bor ing:

[kentuck]

113. You probably remember this?

[Ex Lurker]

99. My parents came of age in the Fifties

When I was a youngin, I always wondered why they had no interest in watching Happy Days. Then, That Seventies Show came along, and I understood.

[longship]

101. Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy.

Hi-ya! Hi-ya! Kiddies.

[longship]

102. In Detroit, it was White Fang, Black Tooth, and Pookie. Soupy Sales, of course.

White Fang was the meanest dog in the whole world. Black Tooth, the sweetest... (Don't kiss!)

Here's Black Tooth.

Every day it was Lunch with Soupy, bird baths.

Words of Wisdom for today: Be true to your teeth and they won't be false to you.

[Liberty Belle]

104. I was born in '57.

So about all I remember is our black & white TV, watching Captain Kangaroo or Romper Room or the Mickey Mouse Club. But times were good, we were happy, back in the days when a family could get by just fine on one income, with just one car. The community was safe- we kids played outside, no worries.

[carolinayellowdog]

107. Packards, Studebakers, Nashes, DeSotos, Hudsons

First car I ever remember riding in was our 1947 Cadillac. Lately I've been watching Highway Patrol on Hulu Plus and enjoying all the great 50s cars.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

120. My dad owned a 1948 Buick Roadmaster convertible

Black with red leather seats. It was a spectacular car. People would ask him how he could afford it on a young Air Force Captain's salary and he said he'd won it in a poker game (which he did)




When I was a kid, I liked Nash cars because I once found a Nash insignia inside a box of Grape Nuts cereal. A friend's father owned a Nash Ambassador, a huge car.

[JDPriestly]

108. High school in the late 50s.

Elvis Presley, Doris Day.

Kool-Aid.

Pizza was something new. Curry was almost unheard of. You had to know someone from India to have curry -- at least in the Midwest.

It was safe to walk home from school.

TV was fairly new. There was a radio program Saturday mornings that played a song and then told children to pick up toys and put them away while the song played. I think we could use a bit of that show today if my grandchildren are typical for this time.

We walked to the store to buy milk in glass bottles, and the milk did not always make it home without being spilled.

On cold winter days, we girls wore pants (leggings) under our school dresses until the principal finally allowed us to wear jeans to school. (very early 1950s)

Homemade ice cream and Adlai Stevenson buttons.

JFK's election marked the end of the 50s.

[dmosh42]

109. Born in 1942, so remember the 50s very well.

And I do remember there were strong unions and jobs were always getting increases in wages. Eisenhower set the country on a strong infrastructure building policy with the interstate highway system. Big business was all about protecting US business and jobs. People who talked against that were considered unpatriotic. The people in Congress didn't get all that much pay in relation to the working world, so were starting to complain more about their pay scale and how a higher pay would get better people for the jobs. Now we give them good pay and we only have a bunch of crooks to show for it.

[B Calm]

110. Grade school went to the 8th grade with no middle schools. Coal trucks

sliding coal down a chute into your basements.

[DawgHouse]

114. I was too young but based on what I've seen on Facebook

it was the most awesome time ever.

[MineralMan]

115. Sure. I was 12 in 1957.

It was good times for this white boy who lived in a small citrus town in California. Soon, though, I became aware of the world beyond my insulated little life. As we moved into the early 60s, things became clearer to me. For example:

Minorities had to deal with very serious discrimination. My little town of 5000 people was about 30% Hispanic. Not a single black family lived in that town, because there were clauses in deeds that prevented that. I had Hispanic friends, but I soon learned from disapproving adults that they were second class citizens.

Women had many really serious problems. Not the least of those was lack of access to contraception. The only options were abstinence, diaphragms and condoms. Since husbands were never prosecuted for forcing sex on their wives, the first was out for many women. Diaphragms were only available by prescription and condoms bore labels that said, "For Prevention of Disease Only." Women who were physically abused by their husbands had no real recourse. Women who were raped were treated as the cause of the rape in court, and questioned about every aspect of their lives without any relief.

By the time I graduated from high school, Vietnam was already underway and the draft loomed over our heads. Most of us remembered the Korean War, still. If you couldn't go to college, your chances of being drafted were very high, and many kids couldn't go to college, even though it was far more affordable than it is today.

Cars had no seat belts, spewed pollutants freely and in large quantities. Los Angeles was covered with a yellowish cloud of really, really noxious smog most days. It stank of auto exhaust.

If you were gay, you could be beaten or even killed without consequences or even much of an investigation by the police.

I remember "Impeach Earl Warren" billboards and the John Birch Society.

My little town still had operated assisted telephones. You picked up the phone, and an operator said, "Number please." We finally got dial phone service the year I graduated from high school. Computers were locked in big rooms and operated only by technicians. I took my first FORTRAN programming classes in 1963, preparing code by hand and using a card punch machine to make it machine readable.

The cold war was in full swing. I still remember ducking under my grammar school desks in Atom Bomb Drills. I had recurring dreams of looking out my south-facing window and seeing mushroom clouds over Los Angeles.

The 50s were OK, if you were white, male, straight, protestant, had a good job, and were smart. Otherwise, a lot of it sucked. As I learned more about the world, I understood that and hoped for a better future. Today, we have that better future in many ways, but there's still more to do.

[just us]

116. Polio shots and

saddle shoes,burr hair cuts,smallpox vaccination,hub caps,no interstates,Joseph McCarthy,IKE,shoe skates and erector sets.

[just us]

117. Howdy dody,buffulo Bob Smith

Clarabell,Finious T. Bluster,Dilly Dally,Princes WinterSummerFallSpring,Kookla,Fran and Ollie,Life of Riley,I Remember Mama,Milton Burrel, Uncle Al,Maverick,bronco Lane,Sugarfoot,Roy Rogers,Gene Autrey,Cisco Kid.

[ananda]

118. I remember Jim Crow

..