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I went to parochial school and both sexes wore uniforms, except for church on Sunday's when the boys got to dust off their White Bucks and the girls donned their frillies. Frilly was hot, IMO - But when you can't have something all the time it just makes you want it more.
The Mustang saved Ford after they blew it by making the T-Bird a four seater.
The 2 Seater T-Bird Coupe with removable hard top and port hole windows was one beautiful machine.
I liked it when I went to the parochial school and we had nice plain uniforms. Mom's creative touch was banned. I just missed my friends. It was more complicated in 6th grade since I had started to develop and she added more layered things to keep it from showing. But I like simple and plain. My renfair garb has only one small bit of homemaid lace to cover up where I sewed the top of the chemise on the sewing machine. But I croched it myself. Mom was highly dissapointed in my fashion sense.
For my last birthday dinner, hitting official 'senior' status, (not that I look it, hah!) I wore a couple of layered tube tops, the second with lacing, and a long cotton skirt, shown off with a handmade blue belt to emphasis the waist. And the bajoran earrings and all the rings and the choaker with the stones. I felt like I was in my best. Mom was doomed to never get me.
My first job, my boss had one of those four seater TBirds with the sunroof, his utterly prized position. It was just beautiful. Sure wish you could have cars like that today without being your own mechanic.
The bank had teeny little parking spaces for employees and he was always getting notices about parking it in customer parking. He told them he did too have an account and if they scrached his car they'd pay to fix it.
Someone who smoked four cigarettes a day would be a nonsmoker by 1950s standards.
Back in the 1950s doctors told their patients to smoke in order to lose weight.
I don't believe the results of that WHO study, but if it was done recently it is altered by the fact that smoking in the USA and in countries with similar cultures is heavily on the decline among the "one percent". Said "one percent" are the group least likely to be obese. In the 1950s, all socioeconomic groups smoked.
In the 1950s amphetamine diet pills were widely available over the counter and were widely used by teenagers and adults alike. Those may have also contributed to young people "looking older".
I will agree that smoking and amphetamine use can keep weight under control, but if you are under the impression the obesity problem we have in this country are due to smoking cessation and the lack of diet pill use with amphetamines, I think you really need to look at the true causes of obesity. We have gone from a society that relied on whole fresh foods for our dietary needs to a country that is completely dependent on cheap processed foods, along with portion and calorie escalation. The CDC and the NIH (National Institute of Health) have been tracking the data for decades. The proof is there for everyone to see. The average American consumes more than this, but an extra hundred calories a day, everyday, over the course of a lifetime can add up, a pound a month, 12 pounds a year. This is why almost 3/4 of our society is overweight or obese. In fact HBO is running a documentary series this month on the subject. "The Weight of the Nation" A real eye opener.
I disagree with this. Middle-aged and older women back then didn't exercise at all. People controlled their weight by being perpetually on a diet, but they had no muscle tone and were flabby. I weigh more than my mother, due to greater muscle mass, but I'm a size or two smaller. If we take average people, they're more fit today. I tend to put obesity well outside the average, though I guess these days it's really skewing the statistics as to what truly is "average" in the US.
One thing you have not really looked at. People 50+ years ago did more manual labor than today. Everything today is mechanized and computerized. Manual work means exercise. As for women, they worked in factories or did housework, etc. They also didn't jump into a car to go down the block. They were lucky if they had more than one car. This is an example How many calories burned doing house work We think that doing manual chores does nothing for a person physically, but it does. You can burn more calories in an hour doing gardening an you can going for a walk.
It's easier to gain muscle mass now than it was in the 50's because we have a better understanding how to do it now, but look at pictures of men without shirts on. I agree most of them were not ripped with bulging muscles, but you had to look hard to find a guy with a bulging belly. Overweight and obese people are the norm today. 68% of Americans now fall in that category.
I liked it when I went to the parochial school and we had nice plain uniforms. Mom's creative touch was banned. I just missed my friends. It was more complicated in 6th grade since I had started to develop and she added more layered things to keep it from showing. But I like simple and plain. My renfair garb has only one small bit of homemaid lace to cover up where I sewed the top of the chemise on the sewing machine. But I croched it myself. Mom was highly dissapointed in my fashion sense.
For my last birthday dinner, hitting official 'senior' status, (not that I look it, hah!) I wore a couple of layered tube tops, the second with lacing, and a long cotton skirt, shown off with a handmade blue belt to emphasis the waist. And the bajoran earrings and all the rings and the choaker with the stones. I felt like I was in my best. Mom was doomed to never get me.
My first job, my boss had one of those four seater TBirds with the sunroof, his utterly prized position. It was just beautiful. Sure wish you could have cars like that today without being your own mechanic.
The bank had teeny little parking spaces for employees and he was always getting notices about parking it in customer parking. He told them he did too have an account and if they scrached his car they'd pay to fix it.
For the boys a white t-shirt and Levi's were top fashion mode. Then came the wool long sleeve Pendelton shirts. Mine was royal blue plaid.
The '56 T-Bird with port windows sells for top $$$$ today.
My dad worked in coal mines as a kid,then went to Korea. After that,he was an ironworker in Chicago until he retired. He worked hard,stressful jobs. It showed on him,as he aged too early,just like his father.
quote: "The idea for kids that age was to look older, not have the permanent adolescence we have today. "
Teenagers aspired to be mature adults. More kids in every family encouraged the older ones to grow up faster, get a job and leave home. Since people started having 1 or 2 kids, many have become like permanent lap dogs in the household.
I will agree that smoking and amphetamine use can keep weight under control, but if you are under the impression the obesity problem we have in this country are due to smoking cessation and the lack of diet pill use with amphetamines, I think you really need to look at the true causes of obesity.
I didn't say they were the only factors regarding obesity. High fructose corn syrup is a major, major factor. (And a major reason why Americans' caloric intake has increased)
However widespread smoking and amphetamine use contributed to young people looking older, which was the original topic of this thread (as well as reducing obesity).
I didn't say they were the only factors regarding obesity. High fructose corn syrup is a major, major factor. (And a major reason why Americans' caloric intake has increased)
However widespread smoking and amphetamine use contributed to young people looking older, which was the original topic of this thread (as well as reducing obesity).
HFCS only contains 7 more calories than sugar. It's processed the same way by the body. Neither is healthier than the other. The bottom line is we overeat and consume empty calories.
For one, B&W film (due to camera technology at the time) had more of a grainy appearance, the shadows and the way the film reacted to light made pictures not as high quality as what we get now with digital. girls also didn't dress the same or wear as much makeup. Guys wore suits and ties for the most part. Makeup may be the biggest reason girls look younger today. A good experiment would be for someone to wear no makeup and take a picture with a digital camera and view the picture in Sepia or greyscale. I have done this with landscape photos and it almost gives a depressing feeling to the picture.
quote: "The idea for kids that age was to look older, not have the permanent adolescence we have today. "
Teenagers aspired to be mature adults. More kids in every family encouraged the older ones to grow up faster, get a job and leave home. Since people started having 1 or 2 kids, many have become like permanent lap dogs in the household.
They didn't just aspire, but were expected to. Attlitudes to childhood, and especially boyhood, were different then.
Frex, in 1950 it was only five years since you'd had 15yo boy sailors serving (and sometimes dying) on Arctic convoys and the like. Several 16yos went down with HMS Hood, and iirc the youngest RN fatality in WW2 was only 14, though he probably lied about his age. Boys (and sometimes girls) of similar ages were also found in the French Resistance and other such bodies, running the same risks as their elders.
I had the point rammed home to me earlier this year, when I bought the dvds of an old bit of children's sf from 1960. Called Pathfinders In Space its unlikely plot involves a British Lunar expedition in which the Professor's three children (sons about 11 and 14, daughter abt 12) find themselves acting as a backup crew when a second ship is needed at the last minute. There is an accident on the Moon, and it seems as if only one adult and one child will be able to return.
This news is received with the stiffest of upper lips, not just by the adults but the children as well. When the Professor names those to be saved (he isn't one, of course. As "Captain" he has to go down with the ship) there is no word of protest from anyone. The Skipper has spoken, and that's that. The 11yo is allowed one hint of emotion when he begs (and gets) a place on the escape rocket - for his pet guinea pig. His elder brother doesn't even go that far, hearing his death sentence (and his father's and brother's also) in the same dignified silence as the grownups - of whom he evidently considers himself to be one. As for the Professor, he's so wrapped up in his work that he never even gets to speak to his sons on what could well have been the last day of all their lives.
Well, this being a children's programme, the worst doesn't actually happen. The Professor pulls an eleventh-hour rabbit from the hat, and the ultimate sacrifice is not required. Yet even afterwards, neither he nor anyone else makes any comment on the young boys' behaviour in the face of death. Apparently, it was just how a well brought up 14-year-old was expected to act on the last day of his life. In such circs, I fear I would have disappointed them. Yet the teenager, in particular, seems to have no real problem with being treated in this way. He plainly shares his elders' values, and in 20 years one suspects he'll be exactly like his Dad. Had Geoffrey Wedgwood been born 50 years earlier, I could imagine him as a young signalman on the Titanic, still dutifully tapping at his Morse key even as the water laps around his ankles.
In short, while PiS is only so so as sf, it has aged into a fascinating social document. Though a lifelong space enthusiast, at times I found myself wondering why the characters bothered going to the Moon, as they themselves are more of an alien species than anything they are likely to find in Outer Space. Yet the Programme was made well within my own lifetime. When things change, they can change very fast indeed, and I came away with a distinct feeling of "culture shock" - though as I was twelve in 1960, it was arguably my culture as much as theirs.
Last edited by Mikestone8; 05-24-2012 at 01:12 AM..
Holy cow, younger guys, it wasn't the faces that were old! Look at pictures of the boys, for the most part they looked like neatly dressed boys. The girls looked older because they wore hairdos, clothes and makeup similar to women in their late 20's and older.
In the 60's makeup became lighter in color, for a fresher more youthful look. The dark red lips and rouge started to become passe, in favor of colors like rose or peach in lipstick and blush. Note that they quit calling it rouge. It was the beginning of the youth culture. Older women wanted to look younger, and girls makeup choices followed suit, so they also started to look younger, meaning more their own age.
Gee whiz.
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