Tell me what L.A. was like back in the 1950's/1960's (Los Angeles: salaries, cost of living)

[Celesteren]

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley in the 50's. There were orange and lemon orchards all over the Valley. My parents bought their home for $12,000 in 1952 - our dog would get out and kill chickens in neighboring farms and drag them across the yard. There was a dairy where we'd go to get our milk and you could smell it long before you could see it. When I learned to drive, people would move over to allow access on the freeways and knew how to use their turn signal! The doors were left open during the day - we kids would go out to play in the mornings and come home when the street lights turned on. There were lots of open fields to play in. We walked to and from school unattended. It was a great place to grow up.

[Exitus Acta Probat]

Originally Posted by Celesteren

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley in the 50's. There were orange and lemon orchards all over the Valley. My parents bought their home for $12,000 in 1952 - our dog would get out and kill chickens in neighboring farms and drag them across the yard. There was a dairy where we'd go to get our milk and you could smell it long before you could see it. When I learned to drive, people would move over to allow access on the freeways and knew how to use their turn signal! The doors were left open during the day - we kids would go out to play in the mornings and come home when the street lights turned on. There were lots of open fields to play in. We walked to and from school unattended. It was a great place to grow up.

I wish I could have witnessed that era, as I'm sure many people do. All this "progress" our politicians speak of is taking us in the wrong direction.

[katie45]

Originally Posted by Celesteren

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley in the 50's. There were orange and lemon orchards all over the Valley. My parents bought their home for $12,000 in 1952 - our dog would get out and kill chickens in neighboring farms and drag them across the yard. There was a dairy where we'd go to get our milk and you could smell it long before you could see it. When I learned to drive, people would move over to allow access on the freeways and knew how to use their turn signal! The doors were left open during the day - we kids would go out to play in the mornings and come home when the street lights turned on. There were lots of open fields to play in. We walked to and from school unattended. It was a great place to grow up.

Wonderful memories! I am from that generation as well in SoCal and can relate to the quieter, safer, more casual laid-back lifestyle you described.

We kids had such freedom back then and I feel for children of today that can't feel safe just playing in their front yards.

It was always fun to go to the local drive-in movie. There was playground equipment just below the movie screen and we kids would play there until the cartoon came on (before the movie) and we'd scramble back to our parent's (and we wore pajamas since we knew we'd fall asleep before the movies were over).

As a teen in the late 50's and early 60's we truly lived like the movie American Graffiti - great times back then.

[BRinSM]

Originally Posted by katie45

We kids had such freedom back then and I feel for children of today that can't feel safe just playing in their front yards.

out of curiosity, why can't kids today feel safe playing in their front yard?

[Count David]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

out of curiosity, why can't kids today feel safe playing in their front yard?

Because their faces are in phones.

[CaliforniaGal]

You know, not everything was bleak for Blacks back in the late 50's and 60's in Torrance. We had Blacks working at our neighboring Thriftimart food store and they were so nice. There was common respect and it wasn't all bad.

My great uncle did own a lot of land in Watts from what I understood but most people were genuinely kind to people of color and vice versa in Torrance. My father grew up in South Bend, Indiana and my mother grew up in Culver City - went to Hamilton High.

I listen to Mo'Kelley on KFI Talk Radio who grew up in Torrance and is Black. He talks about being pulled over yet he does not understand that Whites were also pulled over. My brother and his buddies were always getting harrassed. Torrance PD were equal opportunity harassers.

[nmnita]

I think I have answered this before, but will put my 2 cents worth in again. I graduated from Eagle Rock High school in 1955. We used to walk everywhere, a lot of girls didn't even drive til they were out of school. Families rarely had 2 cars. We had dances at our high school almost monthly and spent a lot of our time, during he summer at the pool or the beach. Life was good, but not much different than any big city I am guessing. The house we lived in until I was in high school had 3 apricot trees, we would climb them and ea apricots until we almost got sick; we also had a tangerine tree, plum, grapefruit, an avocado trees. Lots of people had orange and grapefruit trees.

I remember the first freeway, which was called the speedway. It connected Pasadena to downtown L.A. First it was called the Arroyo Seco, then later the Pasadena freeway.

My first love was a guy who went to So Pasa. High school. We we together for about a year. On the last day of our Jr Year he wanted to celebrate our becoming seniors and took me out on a very special date: we started by having dinner in china Town at The Golden Pagota restaurant. we each got the all inclusive dinner. It was $1.25 plus we later went to the movie in Hollywood and finished the night at Bob's big boy. As the time was getting really late and he didn't want me to get in trouble he called my parents to assure them I was alright. I am sure they were in bed by then. Today a guy would never think to do that I don't imagine. Most guys had some type of job and most of the gals made our spending money baby sitting for about .50 an hour. There were very few who used alcohol in high school, maybe the guys drank a little; never remember any of us smoking until at least our senior year and many not then. Drugs were something no one even talked about. That came in the 60s and pre marital sex, yep, not everyone was holier than thou,but it wasn't nearly as common as today.

Not everything was peaches and creme, the gangs were beginning to be part of the scene if you lived near the downtown area. yes, there was more prejudice than today, the Korean war was a concern in the early 50s and of course Nam in the middle 60s. Polio was a huge concern until the vacine in the early 60s. Those of us going on to college worried about getting into the college of our choice and those who were going into the working world spent the last part of high school trying to find a decent job. I can't remember the min wage but I think it was around .75 cents an hour. The summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college I was a car hop, making .72 an hour plus tips. I was excited it I made $8.00 of more in tips in a night.

I guess I could go on and on, but others have said many of the things that come to my mind.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by nmnita

I think I have answered this before, but will put my 2 cents worth in again. I graduated from Eagle Rock High school in 1955. We used to walk everywhere, a lot of girls didn't even drive til they were out of school. Families rarely had 2 cars. We had dances at our high school almost monthly and spent a lot of our time, during he summer at the pool or the beach. Life was good, but not much different than any big city I am guessing. The house we lived in until I was in high school had 3 apricot trees, we would climb them and ea apricots until we almost got sick; we also had a tangerine tree, plum, grapefruit, an avocado trees. Lots of people had orange and grapefruit trees.

I remember the first freeway, which was called the speedway. It connected Pasadena to downtown L.A. First it was called the Arroyo Seco, then later the Pasadena freeway.

My first love was a guy who went to So Pasa. High school. We we together for about a year. On the last day of our Jr Year he wanted to celebrate our becoming seniors and took me out on a very special date: we started by having dinner in china Town at The Golden Pagota restaurant. we each got the all inclusive dinner. It was $1.25 plus we later went to the movie in Hollywood and finished the night at Bob's big boy. As the time was getting really late and he didn't want me to get in trouble he called my parents to assure them I was alright. I am sure they were in bed by then. Today a guy would never think to do that I don't imagine. Most guys had some type of job and most of the gals made our spending money baby sitting for about .50 an hour. There were very few who used alcohol in high school, maybe the guys drank a little; never remember any of us smoking until at least our senior year and many not then. Drugs were something no one even talked about. That came in the 60s and pre marital sex, yep, not everyone was holier than thou,but it wasn't nearly as common as today.

Not everything was peaches and creme, the gangs were beginning to be part of the scene if you lived near the downtown area. yes, there was more prejudice than today, the Korean war was a concern in the early 50s and of course Nam in the middle 60s. Polio was a huge concern until the vacine in the early 60s. Those of us going on to college worried about getting into the college of our choice and those who were going into the working world spent the last part of high school trying to find a decent job. I can't remember the min wage but I think it was around .75 cents an hour. The summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college I was a car hop, making .72 an hour plus tips. I was excited it I made $8.00 of more in tips in a night.

I guess I could go on and on, but others have said many of the things that come to my mind.

Those were the days. I grew up in OC and everything was very similar. Now .....

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by nmnita

we each got the all inclusive dinner. It was $1.25

That's amazing, nita!

[Celesteren]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

out of curiosity, why can't kids today feel safe playing in their front yard?

I've thought about this. I think part of it is because when I grew up, there were LOTS and LOTS of kids around. We all had three, four, five children families. Also most of the mothers were stay-at-home moms, so there was always someone at the window doing dishes, someone watering the lawn, or outside talking with neighbors. Now when I drive around family neighborhoods, there's no one around. It would be much easier to snatch a child when adults are all at work and they don't have tons of friends around to sound the alarm. That's my $.02 anyway.