For those who remember the 50's!

[PRINCESS VIJA]

> IT WAS GOOD
>
>
Were you a kid in the Fifties or earlier? Everybody
makes fun of our childhood! Comedians joke. Grandkids
snicker. Twenty-something's shudder and say "Eeeew!"
But was our childhood really all that bad? Judge for
yourself:

In 1953 The US population was less than 150 million...
Yet you knew more people then, and knew them better...
And that was good.

The average annual salary was under $3,000... Yet our
parents could put some of it away for a rainy day and
still live a decent life... And that was good

A loaf of bread cost about 15 cents... But it was
safe for a five-year-old to skate to the store and
buy one... And that was good.

Prime-Time meant I Love Lucy, Ozzie and Harriet,
Gunsmoke and Lassie... So nobody ever heard of ratings
or filters... And that was good.

We didn't have air-conditioning... So the windows
stayed up and half a dozen mothers ran outside when
you fell off your bike... And that was good.

Your teacher was either Miss Matthews or Mrs. Logan
or Mr. Adkins... But not Ms Becky or Mr. Dan... And
that was good.

The only hazardous material you knew about... Was a
patch of grass burrs around the light pole at the
corner... And that was good.



You loved to climb into a fresh bed... Because sheets
were dried on the clothesline... And that was good.

People generally lived in the same hometown with
their relatives... So "child care" meant grandparents
or aunts and uncles... And that was good.

Parents were respected and their rules were law....
Children did not talk back..... and that was good.

TV was in black-and-white... But all outdoors was in
glorious color....And that was certainly good.

Your Dad knew how to adjust everybody's
carburetor...And the Dad next door knew how to adjust
all the TV knobs... And that was very good.



Your grandma grew snap beans in the back yard... And
chickens behind the garage... And that was definitely
good.

And just when you were about to do something really
bad. Chances were you'd run into your Dad's high
school coach... Or the nosy old lady from up the
street... Or your little sister's piano teacher... Or
somebody from Church.... ALL of whom knew your
parents'
phone number... And YOUR first name... And even THAT
was good!

REMEMBER...
Send this on to someone who can still remember Nancy
Drew, The Hardy Boys, Laurel & Hardy, Abbott &
Costello, Sky King, Little Lulu comics, Brenda Starr,
Howdy Doody and The Peanut Gallery, The Lone Ranger,
The Shadow Knows, Nellie Belle, Roy and Dale, Trigger
and Buttermilk as well as the sound of a reel mower
on Saturday morning,
and summers filled with bike rides, playing in cowboy
land, playing hide and
seek and kick-the-can and Simon Says, baseball games,
amateur shows at the
local theater before the Saturday matinee, bowling and
visits to the
pool...and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar, and wax
lips and bubble gum
cigars

Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, Yeah,
remember that!
And was it really that long ago?

 

[minniemick]

I agree with you about the 50's. It was a happy safe time for everyone. I also met my husband in the 50's, the music was much more meaningful as well.

 

[Mouseteacher]

I was a child in the 50's - add:
-The Mickey Mouse Club
-American Bandstand
-Corner penny candy store
-the soda fountain at the drugstore
-hanging out at the drugstore and no one was upset with us kids
-summer nights - talking to your neighbor through the open windows when you were supposed to be sleeping
-Doctors made house calls
-proper dress to go to school
-jumping rope at recess and knowing all the rhymes
-going home for lunch every school day

 

[Regina]

The Andy Devine show, Winky Dink, Tom Terrific.............

 

[jjskribs]

school milk in little glass bottles with the cream floating on the top

 

[bekkiz]

Not trying to start a fight here, as all of the things you've pointed out are wonderful examples of suburban American culture, but can you honestly say " the 50's. It was a happy safe time for everyone." McCarthyism/Communist Control Act, racial riots, Jim Crow Laws, Korean War (the forgotten war), the Cold War, the massive firing and discrimination of women and minority workers. I mean other good things happened too (Brown vs. Board of Education etc.) but hindsight is 20/20 and it's dangerous to over romanticize the past.

 

[GeorgeG]

Oh, for the good old days...

Life was so much simpler back then. We have a lot of new technology and other "advancements" these days, but when I think of "quality of life," the '50's win hands down. About the only bad memory I have from that decade was having my tonsils out (they were still using ether).

 

[jjskribs]

I can honestly say that I felt a lot safer then than I do now.

 

[Dan Murphy]

And that was good, so very true. Thanks, Vija.

 

[Pin Wizard]

I'm happy to say that I'm a little too young to remember the 50's and barely remember the 60's.