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Businesses in many towns closed on Wednesday afternoons and the banks closed all day. My parents owned a dimestore and we went downtown every Wednesday. Until I was about 13 my mother and I went shopping while my father went to the wholesale houses. Everybody dressed up to go shopping. I remember wearing basically Sunday dresses for little girls with petticoats.
Here's some more for you. In the 50's we didn't have any malls. If you were going shopping it was downtown. There were no fast foods places like there are today. Our phone number was Lehigh 4527 and was a party line. Calling long distance meant dialing 0 and the operator placed the call for you. The milkman came every Monday and Thursday and you left the empties on the front porch with a note in the bottles with your order. We had ice cream trucks that came by. A fudgcicle was a nickel and a Dreamcicle was a dime. We had stores like Winns and Ben Franklins for toys. You could buy most any toy truck or car for a dime. The REAL BIG toys were less than 5 bucks. A bicycle could be bought for under 20 bucks but a Schwin with full spring suspension and spring seat was a hefty $25.00. A bike tire was 49 cents. The "usual" allowance was 25 cents a week and you learned to stretch it. There was little TV and most information came from the AM radio. Around here, we didn't get any FM stations until the mid to late 60's and then it was nothing but classical music. Gasoline smelled like gas, not like the bugspray we buy today. As a teen in the mid 60's I pumped gas for 18 cents a gallon. You could fill most any car for under 5 bucks. Most everybody went church including Sunday school. Sundays were for family and either family was coming to your house or you were going to theirs. Cars didn't have power steering, few automatics, and none had A/C. Most were 6 cylinders in the 50's. You wore jeans to school with a nice button shirt with a collar. Shorts, cutoffs, baggy pants meant you were going home for the day and it was required that both of your parents come get you. Then they got to chat with the principal as to the requirements. A/C in schools was unheard of. A tablet meant a binder of paper that you wrote on. You used pencil in elementary school but once in Junior High, you used ink...as in fountain pens. Ball points were not allowed. There were no monitors, TV, projectors in each classroom, just books and a blackboard. If there was a projector in the room, that was an extra special day cause you were going to see a film. Most brought their lunch in a lunch pail or a brown bag. In the 50's, you had to be careful if you were going to pull something. Just because mom or dad didn't see it didn't mean a stranger wasn't going beat yer backside for screwing up. Houses were for living in, not these monuments that some folks build. Few had A/C. A lot of our toys we made like cars and boats from blocks of wood. A stick would work just as well for a toy grader in the dirt as anything. I think we had to have more imagination back then. The Saturday morning TV shows for kids was Howdy Doody with Buffalo Bob and then we had the Buster Brown show. Cartoons were funny and not nearly as violent as the stuff on today. Evening TV in the late 50's got to be Uncle Milty, Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, and Jack Benny. They were variety shows. Most everybodys bed time was 10PM at the latest and that included the parents.
Things were different back then, no doubt. We didn't have drugs, jeez, we didn't know about drugs except they came from the doctor. There wasn't near the traffic. Todays kids are exposed to a lot of pressures we didn't get. Lots of pluses and minuses. But the one thing I wouldn't trade for all the time today- I got to grow up as a driver during the muscle car days and rock and roll. Music today is crap and unless you're a computer expert, you're not hot rodding today. Back then it was my wrenchs and knowledge of what parts works best versus your wrenchs and knowledge with a little driver skill thrown in. Now it's all about the driver slamming the gas to the floor and the computer applies the HP as needed.
They'd marvel at how small our cars are and wonder why they don't fly.
They'd be puzzled by the profusion of little TV sets with attached keyboards on people's desks, and even more perplexed by the oblong portable lighted gadgets of various sizes that everyone seems to stare at when they're not gazing at their desktop TV set. Once their purpose was explained, they'd be amazed at the idea of having the entire world's reference library -- and much else besides, including a telephone and a camera! -- in their pockets.
They'd wonder why the air was so clean.
They'd be pleased (or not) that they could go shopping on Sunday.
They'd be bamboozled at the sheer gigantism of our big-box stores and shopping malls.
They'd be shocked at the way everyone dresses, and at the number of ladies with visible tattoos.
They'd be utterly flabbergasted at people with piercings.
They'd be appalled at the amount of stuff in shops that's made in Communist China.
They'd be jubilant at the fact that the Soviet Union no longer exists.
Basically kind of the same as someone from 1912 thinking of today thread.
So, how would someone from the 1950s react to todays current digital technologies and other cool gadgets and entertainment? Would he be impressed or a little dissapointed? To people who were around in the 50s or knew people who were around in the 50s what do you think of todays technologies?
People from the 1950's and I was born in 1954 would be amazed by our electronics and telecomunications since we were very much a vacuum tube culture back then . TV sets, radios, and HiFi systems were rather heavy but could be easily fixed by just replacing the tubes which the filaments did not light up. Also if you had a weak or noisy tube you could go down to a radio or electronics (Hobby) shop and use a tube tester! This was true into the the 1960s and there was a fight between the Stero purists who instited thst Vacuum tubes gave a warmer richer sound than transistorized equipment. In addition everything was analog not digital you didn't see digital stuff till the 1970s. Phone service was largely things like party lines and placing calls outside your local area was expensive and if you wanted to call Europe you sometimes had to schedule such a call to get on one of a limited number of cable or radio channels to the continent. Also push button phones didn't come in to the 1960s. The same with color TV and cable which began in remote or mountainous areas with poor TV service as CATV (community areal TV. I grew up in an area about 100 miles from Portland Oregon and TV was a little snowy and we only recieved signal from just 2 or the National Networks. It was quite an experience when we spent a week with relatives in California in 1966 and could watch clear TV snow free and in color and had 6 stations to watch I saw my one and only Star Trek episode then until we moved to the East Coast in 1967. My familydidn't have a color TV until the the early 1970s. I have grown up with electronics and my experience ranges from punch cards JCL cards, boot tapes, minicomputers like the PDP 11-20s,who remebers Dec Tape and the VAX computers by DEC, the first CRT IO systems, mico or PCs and now the Blackberryies and Tablets like the iPad.
Here's some more for you. In the 50's we didn't have any malls. If you were going shopping it was downtown. There were no fast foods places like there are today. Our phone number was Lehigh 4527 and was a party line. Calling long distance meant dialing 0 and the operator placed the call for you. The milkman came every Monday and Thursday and you left the empties on the front porch with a note in the bottles with your order. We had ice cream trucks that came by. A fudgcicle was a nickel and a Dreamcicle was a dime. We had stores like Winns and Ben Franklins for toys. You could buy most any toy truck or car for a dime. The REAL BIG toys were less than 5 bucks. A bicycle could be bought for under 20 bucks but a Schwin with full spring suspension and spring seat was a hefty $25.00. A bike tire was 49 cents. The "usual" allowance was 25 cents a week and you learned to stretch it. There was little TV and most information came from the AM radio. Around here, we didn't get any FM stations until the mid to late 60's and then it was nothing but classical music. Gasoline smelled like gas, not like the bugspray we buy today. As a teen in the mid 60's I pumped gas for 18 cents a gallon. You could fill most any car for under 5 bucks. Most everybody went church including Sunday school. Sundays were for family and either family was coming to your house or you were going to theirs. Cars didn't have power steering, few automatics, and none had A/C. Most were 6 cylinders in the 50's. You wore jeans to school with a nice button shirt with a collar. Shorts, cutoffs, baggy pants meant you were going home for the day and it was required that both of your parents come get you. Then they got to chat with the principal as to the requirements. A/C in schools was unheard of. A tablet meant a binder of paper that you wrote on. You used pencil in elementary school but once in Junior High, you used ink...as in fountain pens. Ball points were not allowed. There were no monitors, TV, projectors in each classroom, just books and a blackboard. If there was a projector in the room, that was an extra special day cause you were going to see a film. Most brought their lunch in a lunch pail or a brown bag. In the 50's, you had to be careful if you were going to pull something. Just because mom or dad didn't see it didn't mean a stranger wasn't going beat yer backside for screwing up. Houses were for living in, not these monuments that some folks build. Few had A/C. A lot of our toys we made like cars and boats from blocks of wood. A stick would work just as well for a toy grader in the dirt as anything. I think we had to have more imagination back then. The Saturday morning TV shows for kids was Howdy Doody with Buffalo Bob and then we had the Buster Brown show. Cartoons were funny and not nearly as violent as the stuff on today. Evening TV in the late 50's got to be Uncle Milty, Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, and Jack Benny. They were variety shows. Most everybodys bed time was 10PM at the latest and that included the parents.
Things were different back then, no doubt. We didn't have drugs, jeez, we didn't know about drugs except they came from the doctor. There wasn't near the traffic. Todays kids are exposed to a lot of pressures we didn't get. Lots of pluses and minuses. But the one thing I wouldn't trade for all the time today- I got to grow up as a driver during the muscle car days and rock and roll. Music today is crap and unless you're a computer expert, you're not hot rodding today. Back then it was my wrenchs and knowledge of what parts works best versus your wrenchs and knowledge with a little driver skill thrown in. Now it's all about the driver slamming the gas to the floor and the computer applies the HP as needed.
While most of your post is wonderful and gives a great picture of the 1950s, your comment about drugs couldn't be any more wrong. Opium, Heroin, Marijuana, Meth and Cocaine were all very prevalent back then. The CIA used LSD on people. Ever hear of the Beatniks? Well, that whole generation of druggies started in the 1950s. Ever hear of the French Connection? That was the 1950s too.
Just read "On The Road" and you'll see that drugs were quite prevalent in that era.
Also, just look at the drug usage in WWII and you'll see that drugs have been around for a while.
And the whole "Opium Wars" should tell you that as well.
This rose-colored look at the 1950s is simply not accurate. Plus, it doesn't mention the fact that men at work would drink hard alcohol all day and then drive home all liquored up.
I think perhaps where you live if they drank all day then ad then drive home drunk that you live in a evry different world than the 50's I grewup in.Drug have always been around especially i the 20's but not to the exrent that they are now. They would even beleive that some want to promote drug use because they want to tax it to pay fo stufff they want rather than pay for them theirselfs.
People from the 1950's and I was born in 1954 would be amazed by our electronics and telecomunications since we were very much a vacuum tube culture back then . TV sets, radios, and HiFi systems were rather heavy but could be easily fixed by just replacing the tubes which the filaments did not light up. Also if you had a weak or noisy tube you could go down to a radio or electronics (Hobby) shop and use a tube tester! This was true into the the 1960s and there was a fight between the Stero purists who instited thst Vacuum tubes gave a warmer richer sound than transistorized equipment. In addition everything was analog not digital you didn't see digital stuff till the 1970s. Phone service was largely things like party lines and placing calls outside your local area was expensive and if you wanted to call Europe you sometimes had to schedule such a call to get on one of a limited number of cable or radio channels to the continent. Also push button phones didn't come in to the 1960s. The same with color TV and cable which began in remote or mountainous areas with poor TV service as CATV (community areal TV. I grew up in an area about 100 miles from Portland Oregon and TV was a little snowy and we only recieved signal from just 2 or the National Networks. It was quite an experience when we spent a week with relatives in California in 1966 and could watch clear TV snow free and in color and had 6 stations to watch I saw my one and only Star Trek episode then until we moved to the East Coast in 1967. My familydidn't have a color TV until the the early 1970s. I have grown up with electronics and my experience ranges from punch cards JCL cards, boot tapes, minicomputers like the PDP 11-20s,who remebers Dec Tape and the VAX computers by DEC, the first CRT IO systems, mico or PCs and now the Blackberryies and Tablets like the iPad.
Born in 52, I remember all that stuff. My dad was a raidoman in the Navy and opened a TV repair shop when I was a baby. His chief 'fix' was plugging in the tv. I was very curious about how things worked and as a kid he explained how raido and tv and radar worked, and was dellighted his daughter obviously got the concept. I liked watching when the tv needed repairs since I wanted to see what was inside.
Its funny that I still remember my phone number in elementary school, pre numerical prefix, but half the time have to think of the cell number I have now... We got out first color TV about 1970 too, as my dad didn't think they were reliable enough and didn't want one until they were. But my great aunt had one and we'd go watch tv there. They didn't know how to adjust the color thought and apparently all the people on the shows were Vulcans, since they bled green.
When I took programming we used punch cards. The student reader was the districts old reject, and periodically would misread and shread a few of them. They gave us the jcl card since we wouldn't mess them up, but after my class it it we got to write our own. But card were fun... we had a beach bonfire at the end of the semester. They sure made spectacular fireworks when you tossed half a deck on the coals.
As to how an adult then would see now, yes, they'd be shocked by the clothes, especially the little girl hookers. And some would be put off with the toys and some would be drawn to them like amazed flies. My dad would get a few and take them home and take them apart to see how they worked.
I don't think they'd be so thrilled with our society. People didn't RUSH everwhere then. They didn't bankrupt themselves with credit cards. They didn't have so much 'stuff'. My dad bought our cars with saved money, not large loans. They got a credit card, but still did not rely on it even then.
Then there are the things which we do better at. I'm sure with my great interest in the stuff my dad knew, had I been his son I'd have been encouraged to study it. But you girls didn't do that. And I grew up where the air quality was among the worse in the nation. Today it would be one long first stage smog alert from spring to fall. Nobody kept us inside or worried too much. They'd like that the air was so much better, in comparison. They wouldn't like the way social media and cell phones had stripped away so much privacy, but they'd like the technology. I remember the first transistor raido. We got one and it sat on the kitchen table even at meals, and my mom loved the sound. She listened to music all the time. She'd love the idea of an mp3 she could have kept on her just set for what she liked.
Remember that the 50's were the time of the cold war, Korea and McCarthy too. The year I was born the largest number of new polio cases was reported, more than any other year since the beginning of the epidemic. We can wax nostalgic all we want, but having the ability to prevent disease would be a wonder. And they'd go ho hum what else is new about the wars. And the wide open fractionalism in politics would probably even be refreshing, since then if you fit the commie profile somewhere along the way you could find yourself unemployed, unemployable, and with a virtual brand on your forehead. We seem to be the polar opposite of it now.
Interesting how we fondly remember some things, and seek them out again. One reason I like where I live is its not overcrowded and not busy. The Valley (San Fernando, suburb of LA) wasn't when I was a kid either. But we can conviently shut out the stuff which its good changed.
No time is inheritantly better than another, unless its in a world war or famine or caught in some emergency. They are just different.
While most of your post is wonderful and gives a great picture of the 1950s, your comment about drugs couldn't be any more wrong. Opium, Heroin, Marijuana, Meth and Cocaine were all very prevalent back then. The CIA used LSD on people. Ever hear of the Beatniks? Well, that whole generation of druggies started in the 1950s. Ever hear of the French Connection? That was the 1950s too.
Just read "On The Road" and you'll see that drugs were quite prevalent in that era.
Also, just look at the drug usage in WWII and you'll see that drugs have been around for a while.
And the whole "Opium Wars" should tell you that as well.
This rose-colored look at the 1950s is simply not accurate. Plus, it doesn't mention the fact that men at work would drink hard alcohol all day and then drive home all liquored up.
Actually our national elephant in the room is that we've ALWAYS loved our drugs and used them commonly. They just change. Way back in pioneer days women who couldn't respectably couldn't drink, had their 'potients' which were alchol with a few drugs mixed in. We have a very paradoxical view of drugs, as the giant evil and the stuff of life at the same time, depending on one's personal choice.
All times have their favorites, and they change. In those terms, I really don't think much has changed since the 50's.
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