was Memphis better in the 50s and 60s? (Jackson, Fairview: amusement park, how much)

[redwine]

Was it nice back in those days? Please tell?

[Ginsaw]

I'll take a stab at this because I hate to see a post go unanswered and because I happen to have been around at the time.

Yes, it was generally "nice". Actually, I'd say it was nicer in some ways than today but not so in others. No surprise there, right?

If you went back to '55 in a time machine the biggest difference you would notice is how many fewer people there were. How much less traffic. How bigger the cars. How much less the taxes (property taxes were about nothing compared to today). How much less college tuition ($600 per year at Rhodes - then Southwestern). How much less crime. How much less drugs (such existed but on the fringes; you could go all thru high school and never hear of drugs). If you were a kid then, you'd most likely prefer the youth culture and especially the music of the day (at least I think you would).

Physically, the city was attractive especially the parks and parkways (still is). Downtown and the riverfront were totally different, but in their own way had a certain charm that I greatly miss. Large chain stores didn't totally dominate. There were a lot more mom & pop stores.

We were not as conformist as is generally thought. The term "politically correct" did not exist. "Global warming" did not exist. When one talked of war, generally that meant WWII. We were you might say born out of that and nearly all our fathers and male relatives were in it. Vietnam hadn't yet occurred. And we didn't spend much time worrying about the A-bomb. We were more concerned with dating, and getting into college, and sports, and what fraternities or sororities and such. Guys took for granted being in the military and had no problem with it and many looked forward to it.

Much of what is now Memphis proper and Memphis metro was just plain farms and woods. The home I grew up in the Highland Heights area of east Memphis was the last one on the street. The street was gravel and everything beyond just open fields. I would probably call that aspect "nice", but then I like the outdoors (my first quail hunt was on a farm right in the middle of what's now Raleigh).

In education you'd notice things both similar and different to today. Private schools were few. Everyone including me went to public city schools, and they had good reputations. The schools were neighborhood oriented. Which one you went to depended on where you lived. You might have a dividing line right down the middle of a street. For instance, if you lived on one side, you went to Messick or East on the other. Or you might be given a choice in some instances. If you went to Bellevue Junior High, I understand you could go to either Central, Tech or Southside. The main private schools were MUS, Catholic High and CBHS.

Unemployment was probably a lot less. I say probably because I am not for certain about that; I was pretty young at the time. I do know we had many big businesses here with large payrolls that have long since gone away - IH and Firestone were a couple. Back then too, just about everyone had a friend, neighbor or relative who worked for a railroad.

Things were a lot more civil and there was far less vulgarity, but that's something which reflected the country as a whole.

If you are interested in old Memphis history, there are many good resources including places on the net that have historical material in story form or photos and maps going back to the early 1900s. If you wanted a 1950s vs. today comparison, there are Memphis high school websites with interesting material also. A really good one is www.scrapperalumni.org. There is a poem about what it was like then growing up in South Memphis. It sounds like it was a wonderful place with a very close knit sense of community.

That's enough for now. I won't weary everyone further or get into some of the more controversial features that are already too widely known. Cheers.

[tobester]

One thing the poster fails to mention about schools in the 50's/early 60's is that they were still segregated. I went to Brookmeade Elementary/Trezevant High up until 8th grade when my family moved away. I got an amazing education ... don't think that's possible in today's Memphis schools. I rode my bike everywhere ... don't think that's possible in today's Frayser where I lived.

[JoeCartpath]

The entire world was different in the 50s and 60s...not just Memphis. Less crime, people generally more honest and considerate of others. In many ways it was a "nicer" simpler time.

But...it wasn't always as "nice" as we like to remember. It was also an intolerant time. Wear your hair too long and get expelled from school. I know life was very different for blacks and other minorities than it was for whites, so I'm sure they would certainly not consider it a "nicer" time....back of the bus, different drinking fountains and restrooms for the "colored people", etc.

Racism existed then....and it seems just as bad today - but different. Back then, white against black racism was very overt. Those of us who came of age in the 60s were at the forefront of trying to change those attitudes. We envisioned a world where everyone would be considered equal regardless of race, sex, religion, etc. It's a very different world now in that respect. Not perfect, but perfection will never be acheived when dealing with the human race.

While white against black racism has declined considerably since then, I see black against white racism as a disappointing replacement. It's "OK" for blacks to be overtly racist, even among our elected officials. They somehow feel justified to hate whites because of their skin color, even though they fought so hard against the same justification for hate for so many years.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll live to see the world we envisioned 40 years ago come to pass - and that's such a shame.

[tobester]

I recall while at Trezevant in the early 60's a real dilemma .. a transfer student named Tommy Wong ... the only Asian. The school board had to decide if he was black or white.

[Ginsaw]

Since last posting I've done some more thinking about this, and decided to add a number of other features which may be of historical interest to know for those who weren't here then. First, it's not that easy to pick city features of the 50s/60s that were peculiar to Memphis and were not things that were going on nationally. But I'll try to limit this to mainly local -

One big thing was how the city was governed. We had no City Council; the city was run by a Mayor/Commissioner form of government (the idea was copied from elsewhere, maybe Houston, but I'm not for certain). The City Council was an attempt to broaden the participation to all. At the time it was quite an issue. Proponents called it the POP or Plan For Progress. Mayor Ingram (sp?) and others opposed it and he referred to it in the political campaign as Plenty of Politicians or Poor Old Politicians. I think it probably would be correct to say the older form was more authoritarian or autocratic or something of that nature.

We didn't have liquor by the drink, except in certain private clubs. That was another significant political issue the voters got to decide on. We also didn't have X rated entertainment places. That was a development of federal court decisions and affected everywhere.

There were no public employee unions. The law at the time did not require governmental entities to recognize or bargain with unions. That issue was closely linked to the sanitation workers' strike. To my knowledge the law on the subject was changed mainly through court rulings, however others here probably know more about that. I do know that as late as the 1980s some nearby communities were still litigating the issue. And speaking of sanitation, trash was picked up differently. Workers came up in your yard and picked up aluminum trash cans manually and carried them to the trucks.

As others have pointed out there was still segregation in the public schools (I actually may have heard of that incident about the Asian student...or maybe it was someone else like him). Busing had not yet been ordered, in fact I don't think I actually remember ever seeing a school bus in Memphis itself for any purpose prior to that time...I don't believe they were used here. How did you get to school? By walking, riding a bike, being driven by a parent or by car-pooling. Segregation ended to my knowledge (in my school) after the 1964 year.

Athletics were segregated as well. Some games were played at Crump Stadium and others at Hodges Field. Speaking of Crump Stadium, in those days Ole Miss played home games there. They also had victory parties afterwards in the Hotel Chisca downtown. I remember seeing them play a game against the Univ. of Kentucky in the mid 50s here. I don't recall anything at all about the game, but as a kid I do remember being real impressed with the Ole Miss majorettes...

Laws were more strictly enforced. The police were reputed to be willing to shoot at suspects who were attempting to flee in cars, at least that's what I recall. They also did still watches in places likely to be robbed in those days. And they had capital punishment for not only murder, but armed robbery and rape.

You definitely didn't see anywhere remotely near as many people running stop lights. It wasn't like today where you wait until everyone gets through running the red light before starting up.

Discipline in schools was quite strict. Paddling was routinely done, mostly by high school coaches.

Mid America Mall, Libertyland, Mud Island Amusement Park, the Hernando Desoto Bridge and the trollies didn't exist. Mid America Mall was Main Street. Libertyland was the old Fairgrounds Amusement Park. And they had a yacht club and air field on Mud Island.

There was no FedEx. What we did have was eight or nine railroads and two large passenger stations, Union and Central, and several outlying stations, like Buntyn on Southern. You could ride lots of places on trains then.

Well, that's just a little more from our past history...

[JoeCartpath]

Busing had not yet been ordered, in fact I don't think I actually remember ever seeing a school bus in Memphis itself for any purpose prior to that time...I don't believe they were used here. How did you get to school? By walking, riding a bike, being driven by a parent or by car-pooling. Segregation ended to my knowledge (in my school) after the 1964 year.

Since people pretty much went to their neighborhood schools during grades 1-6, everyone walked to school (or rode bikes)...except for the rich kids whose parents drove them. I lived in Bethel Grove, about 4 or 5 blocks from the school and walked it every day for 6 years.

Then I attended Fairview Jr. High....and normally rode the city bus (#32 East Parkway), after walking about 4 blocks to the bus stop. Students rode the bus for a dime.

Same thing when I attended Central HS (taking the city bus, #56 Lamar as I recall, to Lamar & Bellevue)...at least until I finally got a car and could drive myself to school!

I'm not sure of the original date that segregation ended, but Central was all white until my junior year. The districts were redrawn just prior to my senior year (I graduated in 1967) and I was placed in the Melrose district, but I was allowed to finish at Central since I had already been there for 2 years.

[Ginsaw]

Yes, I remember Fairview and Central quite well although I'm a little vague on Bethel Grove. In fact my father, who grew up in Midtown, went to Idlewild, then Fairview and then Central. But that was the 1920s/1930s. The only bus riding I remember doing was to go shopping downtown. Goldsmiths and Lowensteins were located on Main and had toy departments that were really exciting to get to see around Christmas time. Especially Goldsmiths. They had a really cool Lionel electric train display. Once in a while we also attended movies downtown.

Speaking of kids and Christmas, we seemed to have more snow back then and everyone had a sled and looked forward to school getting cancelled for snow - it didn't take much. We then got to ride our sleds down whatever steep hills we could find, like over at the water works behind the Univ. of Memphis. Another thing about then, I don't think we were anywhere near as materialistic as today. We sometimes simply made up our own toys. And many of the more affluent children today I know for a fact receive more Christmas presents and toys in one year than most of us did in our entire childhoods put together.

Generally speaking it was a more spartan time and by and large, I think today children generally are treated better and with more respect. In those days it was a lot more "kids are to be seen and not heard".

One more interesting educational fact...I went to school in Memphis all but one year which was in a small town in Mississippi. Anyway, the school year there was interrupted by an approximate month off in Oct-Nov. Why? It was so that kids could help their parents bring in the farm crops during the harvest season. Obviously that wasn't the case in Memphis. We were the "big city" here...

[toxickavenger]

When I lived in North Memphis near Jackson Ave and Evergreen at age 8 I could walk with my friendsy to Holcombs Drug Store ( they had an awsome soda fountain ) and get a cherry coke and walk home and never ever be scared of anything everyone I dealt with black or white was nice.
When my family moved to east Memphis near Lorece and Chickasaw I could at age 12 ride my bike all the way to Summer ave west of Perkins to
Lancasters Barber Shop park my bike out front get a hair cut then peddle down to Curtis Pharmacy and get a coke the bike home with out any fear at all of anything. THAT IS NOT EVEN POSSIBLE today. These days if you try that you are going to be killed, molested, intimidated, frustrated, pissed off and generally made unhappy. I lived live her and been a public servant for 38 years. This place stinks, and I cant wait to move away, anywhere but Memphis.

[UofMGrad92]

Originally Posted by toxickavenger

These days if you try that you are going to be killed, molested, intimidated, frustrated, pissed off and generally made unhappy.

Will all of these things happen, or just some of them? I can see how being molested would make me unhappy, but if I'm killed, I won't really care about the other things, will I? Maybe I'll get lucky and only one will happen when I ride my bike to the soda fountain and barber. If so, I pick pissed off or generally made unhappy.