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Old 05-19-2012, 05:27 PM
 
47 posts, read 92,897 times
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I look at pictures of high schoolers from the 50's, and they look like old people to me. Maybe women's hairstyles were all short back then and this is the main reason why. It's sad how little in common their generation has with the young people of today. I think the teens of today will never really get old, and the baby boomers were the generation that thought they were the first "cool" generation, but now a lot of them seem old anyway.
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Old 05-19-2012, 05:39 PM
 
28,896 posts, read 53,932,532 times
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Several reasons:

The idea for kids that age was to look older, not have the permanent adolescence we have today.

People didn't take good care of themselves. People smoked, ate badly, and didn't get much exercise.

Most the photos were in black and white.
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Old 05-19-2012, 05:48 PM
 
827 posts, read 1,665,482 times
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Not many preservatives in the food. Had parents that MADE them act there ages and not like little kids.
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Old 05-19-2012, 05:51 PM
 
Location: southern california
61,290 posts, read 87,066,921 times
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they were much more fit and much more disciplined they were far more mature.
does not having tattoos make u look old?
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Old 05-19-2012, 05:56 PM
 
Location: New York City
4,035 posts, read 10,253,685 times
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Everyone aged quicker in those days. It wasn't just looks but also actions. Many people got married right after high school so they had to grow up quickly. Women had children very young so it was common to be quite matronly by time they were 30 or so.
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Old 05-19-2012, 05:57 PM
NCN
 
Location: NC/SC Border Patrol
21,656 posts, read 25,488,059 times
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The amazing thing to me now is to see how many women past thirty wear their hair like you would expect teens to wear. I think that looks sloppy and unkempt.
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Old 05-19-2012, 05:58 PM
 
13,499 posts, read 18,082,452 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrandyPuppy1977 View Post
I look at pictures of high schoolers from the 50's, and they look like old people to me. Maybe women's hairstyles were all short back then and this is the main reason why. It's sad how little in common their generation has with the young people of today. I think the teens of today will never really get old, and the baby boomers were the generation that thought they were the first "cool" generation, but now a lot of them seem old anyway.
Hmmmmm. I was looking at my high school yearbook just a few days ago, and once again I was struck with how incredibly young and square we looked - 1956 in this case. I do notice that more girls wore hair styles that were quite similar to what their middle aged mothers were wearing, but they look so out of place with the young face below the dowdy hairdo.

I think today's high school seniors look like young people in their twenties oftentimes, and they dress in much more stylish clothing. There is often an assertive, self-confident look about them that I do not see in the faces in my yearbook - we look rather vacuous.

You may be right about today's teens never getting old. I worked in advertising in the early 60's and the "youth market" was limited to high school kids. I have younger friends in advertising today and they say that "youth market" advertising is aimed to a gamut that runs from high schoolers to people in their mid-twenties.

"It's sad how little in common their generation has with the young people of today."

I wonder if I understand this comment. Because all I can think of is "Why is it sad?" Teenagers of the Fifties have lived half a century of life, good grief! I would hope that they would have so much more in their lives that they would not have a great deal in common with young people of today....it would be pathetic if they had stayed stuck in some "Youth Culture" groove all that time. And most young people have a herd mentality, whereas older people have time to give much of that mentality up and break out onto many different, idiosyncratic and personal trajectories as they are exposed to more and more of life.

Last edited by kevxu; 05-19-2012 at 06:10 PM..
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Old 05-19-2012, 06:20 PM
 
Location: Sinking in the Great Salt Lake
13,139 posts, read 22,705,438 times
Reputation: 14115
It's entirely subjective... Teenagers look like little kids to me today but they sure looked old and scary when I was 10...
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Old 05-19-2012, 10:00 PM
 
Location: Elsewhere
87,956 posts, read 83,773,798 times
Reputation: 114134
Quote:
Originally Posted by kevxu View Post
Hmmmmm. I was looking at my high school yearbook just a few days ago, and once again I was struck with how incredibly young and square we looked - 1956 in this case. I do notice that more girls wore hair styles that were quite similar to what their middle aged mothers were wearing, but they look so out of place with the young face below the dowdy hairdo.

I think today's high school seniors look like young people in their twenties oftentimes, and they dress in much more stylish clothing. There is often an assertive, self-confident look about them that I do not see in the faces in my yearbook - we look rather vacuous.

You may be right about today's teens never getting old. I worked in advertising in the early 60's and the "youth market" was limited to high school kids. I have younger friends in advertising today and they say that "youth market" advertising is aimed to a gamut that runs from high schoolers to people in their mid-twenties.

"It's sad how little in common their generation has with the young people of today."

I wonder if I understand this comment. Because all I can think of is "Why is it sad?" Teenagers of the Fifties have lived half a century of life, good grief! I would hope that they would have so much more in their lives that they would not have a great deal in common with young people of today....it would be pathetic if they had stayed stuck in some "Youth Culture" groove all that time. And most young people have a herd mentality, whereas older people have time to give much of that mentality up and break out onto many different, idiosyncratic and personal trajectories as they are exposed to more and more of life.

Re the bolded--good catch. In the fifties, girls were still setting their hair in rollers and using hairspray to hold their 'dos. Vidal Sassoon, who died last week, changed all that in the 1960's with "wash-and-wear" hairstyles for women. You were looking at a huge cultural change in your yearbook!
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Old 05-20-2012, 07:52 AM
 
Location: Everywhere and Nowhere
14,129 posts, read 31,113,429 times
Reputation: 6920
Living in the '50s seems like it must have been uncomfortable. What a hassle just to go out of the house looking "presentable".
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