What teenagers in the 1950's felt their futures would be like

[wit-nit]

In the 50's it was cars, hotrods, girls, beach, boogie boards, rock & roll music and a "what me worry" attitude.

[pushin80]

What kevxu said. +1
I felt I was reading my own experience... I couldn't have said it better. School, family, economics and the personal parts... so close.

The video could easily have been from my high school... I could pick out every individual and give a name of my own classmates. Deja Vu in spades!
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My personal experience was as follows: Don't bother to read it... just a little stream of conciousness that I'll enjoy as I trigger memories. Try to ignore the ego trip...

I was a senior in "West" High School in 1954, and then, jeanie...though I had her as a friend since age 7, no romance until our first date, which was the Senior Prom. A steady love from that night through the four years of college....She at Boston University, and me a Bowdoin College in Maine. We married three weeks after graduation... had four sons, and celebrated our 61st anniversary this last July.
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The "after high school" discussion was different for me. From a relatively poor family, no way to pay for college, but a double blessing opened the door. First, good grades... and an IQ of 145. Second, a high school athletic experience. I was a swimmer... from the beginning of HS for four years, voted to the National High School All-American team. Second in the nation in 1953, and first in 1954. Though not the number one college sport, hundreds of schools have swim teams, and just like football, team members are on the lookout for leaders ontheir HS sport.
I was deluged... even as a junior, invites from college swimmers to visit their schools. Too many to count... Visits to schools all over the country... Univ. of Mich... which was 2nd in the country at the time, and Yale, which was first. I even spent my senior year Christmas vacation, five days, at Yale... training with the team, and staying with Bob Kiputh... (all time #1 swim coach in the nation even today). Can't even remember the number of schools.. from Maine to Florida, including Harvard, and MIT, U of F, Princeton and next to my home town... Brown University... the tough one to turn down, as I knew and swam with their team members in AAU meets.
I fell in love with Bowdoin... #1 Liberal Arts college in the US... then , and still #1 thru #5. I applied to 9 schools, and was accepted at all... except Bowdoin. The last one to reply. Was offered scholarships at all the schools, but there was only one for me. A full scholarship, room, board and books... but renewable only by keeping a B average. Current equivalent cost.... $65K/yr. ... back in 58. Sophmore year, dropped to a B- for one semester, lost my board scholarship, and had to take an extra campus job (already had two). All the rest of the years were good.

Over all, probably would have gotten a better after graduation job with a Harvard or Yale degree...and maybe should have continued in my major in Psych... but marriage and 9 months and 3 weeks after getting married had our first child, so had to work... with a management job in retail sales. Still.... at age 53, was able to retire...though not rich by any means.

BTW... never was number 1 in AA college swimming... came closest in 1958 at #2.

Back to the beginning... High School decision... and as the point was made in the video... Liberal Arts... That was a decision I will never regret... a broad base of... and thirst for... knowledge. Four years at Bowdoin continues to make my, (our) lives a soul satisfying experience. Would not trade for any amount of money.

.....end of ego trip...

[grad_student200]

Originally Posted by Bette

I wish (LOL) - she got a job at a university, met my dad there and she was 34 when she got married; he was 27.

She had kids into her 40's which was unheard back then.

No one knew her age - except close friends who may have asked.

At her 70th birthday party, her friends were invited and months later, she said to me that is was a lovely party but her friends had no idea her age. Most of her friends were around 55. (It was the only time she mentioned it and then I knew it did bother her).

That would stand to reason since all of us grew up with those kids.

She gave up her career, became a SAHM and loved the years of having her children and making a home.
She, however, spoke fondly of her college years always.

Definitely not a conformist; had her own mind. Always.

The people I admire from that generation of 1950s teens would be those who went the distance into late elderly stages of life without getting divorced. I saw a very elderly couple the other day where the wife was helping her husband walk. He had a cane and obviously had poor eyesight. But I could see they were still very strong as a couple - they went the distance in staying married into modern times when divorce and infidelity are rampant. These days, there are more single moms than married moms under the age of 30. In that sign of the times, when I see an elderly couple (the 1950s teens) I can't help but admire them. When I saw that man and his wife the other day, I thought of this song by the Diamonds and how the lyrics were real in their marriage. They made it to that very ending phase of life as a married couple - rare in modern times. It certainly is a huge testament to endurance when the 1950s teens married young and somehow managed to stay together after all those years - a triumph.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysVLzXWnTzA

[in_newengland]

The volume on my computer doesn't go high enough for me to hear it very well but I did see that most of them were not going to college. I got mad when that one guy started to put down that one girl who did want to go to college. She wanted to see what her options were and he more or less ridiculed it by calling it "trial and error" while "wasting money." UGH. That is exactly what we women were up against, the men or boys feeling so superior to us. He was using that slightly mocking tone of voice and patronizing attitude that I remember so well.

My high school had some of that but it wasn't an ordinary high school because about 98% of the seniors went onto some form of higher education. They counted two year colleges and secretarial school into the 98%. Out of our class a few guys went into the Army though, got killed in Viet Nam.

I knew from the time I was in my high chair that I was going to college, like it or not. My parents believed in college. My dad was first generation and he and his siblings had been the first in their family to attend college. It is the dream of immigrants to further their education. Even my mother lectured me that I needed to have a career so that I wouldn't be dependent upon a man.

I was even told what college I would attend. By the time I was old enough I rebelled and chose a stupid college that I hated, just for the sake of being different. They should have made me work for a year before letting me choose a college. But in those days, you applied and you went. You didn't get a gap year.

In the summers my dad did make me work in factories just so I would see what it was like, what it must have been like for my grandfather and how lucky I was. Working for a few months in those factories showed me another side of life but I couldn't identify with it. I just looked at it like an outsider looking in, like a sociological study of another type of life.

My high school had been very competitive and people were going to Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Princeton, Smith, Mt Holyoke, and all the rest of the high end colleges. We practically had no choice. You had to go to college. I'm glad I went to college but I do wish I had been mature enough or brave enough to choose better.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

My dad was a Korean war veteran, ended up an Oakland CA cop, bought a house with the GI bill in the East Bay (SF Bay Area).. Mom didn't even have a high school diploma, but she ended up a VP of a company after divorcing my dad in the 1970's.

My Mom never even got her high school diploma but ended up kicking butt as far as a career, and it was a huge secret that she hadn't even actually completed high school.

I don't think things were a whole lot different back then, really. It's still hard to afford an education, and still hard to make it as a female in the corporate world. Not impossible. Easier now, maybe. But, still, not a whole lot different - unfortunately.

[Mongobongo]

I wasn't a teenager until 1959. I thought I'd go to high school and the college like my older brother and then live my life. I never gave a thought to the military and what that could mean.

[parentologist]

I will never forget my mother, who was first in her impoverished family to go to college (which was thankfully free - Brooklyn College of the CUNY), telling all of her daughters, "Don't marry a doctor/lawyer/whatever - BE a doctor/lawyer/whatever". She preached that even though you might wind up being a SAHM, you never knew what life was going to throw at you, and you had to be prepared to support yourself and your children financially.

I feel so bad for all the wasted female talent and intelligence. So many memoirs by people who were raised by intelligent, frustrated women who were trapped at home with kids and household chores.