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Sure, it certainly wasn't a perfect time in our history, things like racism and sexism were definitely there. Even my Mom, who was a Saint, was opposed to my Sister marrying my future BIL because he was "Catholic". And my Mom was the kind who never said a bad word about anyone.
It was also a very conservative time. I remember on the Johnny Carson show some actress came on with a slightly low cut top on and they brought out a scarf to drape around her neck. For women it had to be a somewhat oppressive time and I am sure they were thought of a second class citizens. Of course that wasn't right at all.
But by and large it was a simple time and safe. Kids enjoyed things that required exercise and going out for an ice cream was a big deal and fun. When a neighbor got a new car everyone in the neighborhood would go over and marvel at it. Families would visit you and you would visit them, and you would have actual conversations.
I am not one to fantasize much, but I do wish I had a time machine sometimes to go back to that period of my life..........if only I would have known at the time how great it really was.
the 50's were great. i was there.
there were some things wrong with it colored people treated pretty bad, whether good or bad people.
a few things about it i did like .
if you shot or stabbed a cop you would not live.
if you broke into a house while im home, you would die.
if you attacked my kids you would die.
insulting women or old people would get you a busted lip.
muggers were shot not arrested.
we did not rely on jail birds to deal out justice to the wicked.
we did it ourselves.
That would be a dream to go back to those times in spite of the Korean Conflict, Cold War, Polio, I came along later, but my parents and aunts/uncles all lived during that time.
Much simpler life, TV was a novelty, no cable so no "honey boo boos", you still had to understand math and science and be able to write if you wanted to graduate school, and a high school diploma was enough to get you into a good job.
There was a unity then that is sadly missing now. I believe the majority were able to adequitely provide for their familes on one income, no credit card debt, you weren't rushing from one end of the country to the other to chase jobs as you could go into a job right out of high school and plan on retiring from that job.
Seniors weren't warehoused in retirement homes, they were still a valuable part of the family. People could still have conversations about issues without resorting to character assasination as is so prevelent today.
People still wanted to get married and have a family, it wasn't predicated on daycare or whose career was more important, and marriages weren't disposable as they are today.
The food didn't have all the preservatives and additives, people didn't need to eat as much because the food still had nutritional value, people walked safely around town or the park and could do so at any time of the day or night in most places.
You didn't need to have an electronic tracker implanted in your kid to prevent someone stealing them, the kids could leave after breakfast and come home after dark with no worries because the whole town watched out for their safety and also kept them from getting into trouble.
Yeah, it would be nice to go there, I know I would in a heartbeat.
Go to one of those Dollar Stores and buy 300 hand held calculators. Take them with you to 1952 and you could sell them there for 200 bucks a pop giving you 60 K.
Use the 60 k to lay sports bets on outcomes you already know. Look up a struggling 26 year old copywriter for Esquire Magazine in Chicago and tell him that in exchange for 40 % of the future revenues, you will completely fund his dream of launching an adult magazine called "Stag Party"...suggest that he change the name to "Playboy."
It probably would be nice if you were a heterosexual white male/female. For other groups, the 1950's were not all that great.
If you were white herto male. A lot of women today would hate it. The mindset of surburia was that men worked to take care of their wives and children. Women did not work. My mom nearly joined the first group which became Hanna Barbarra as an animator. Dad said no, he didn't want her to work. She told me later she had regretted that all the time since.
I'd hate it, even more as I was born in 1952 and grew up seeing it through middle class children's eyes. I'd hate the housedress and how women had to get dressed up to go shopping. I just hate dresses. Women would have the job of being wife and baby maker. If you were expected to 'fit in' then it would be odd that you had no interest in living the role.
And I'd make sure I had a fresh polio vaccunation. 1952 was the year the epidemic peaked. People lived in fear of it. One of my dear friends in Jr High walked with a brace and was hard to understand and I stood by her when the idiots teased her. We didn't know that ANY of us could have been her. And you had the McCarthy hearings and the marginalizing or demonizing of anyone who didh't fit the mold.
I'm wiccan. I'd not be going to church and refuse to pretend. That wouldn't go over well at all. Religion then was worked into life even if you didn't believe people pretended. NOBODY wanted to stand out as 'different'.
For little kids, it was neat. I went to see my friend a couple of blocks away without an escort or someone driving me. I knew all the kids in the neighborhood. There was a couple who were 'us' and basque and their daughter was one of my best friends. But only after mom and dad got to know them real real well.
I'd rather be a product of the rebellion against the fifties and all the set rules and the new freedoms everyone has gained than be the generation that had to live in that grey world. And if there was one thing I could change, mom would have said YES to that job and Dad would have had to decide if he wanted her or a forced image of a 'wife'.
the 50's were great. i was there.
there were some things wrong with it colored people treated pretty bad, whether good or bad people.
a few things about it i did like .
if you shot or stabbed a cop you would not live.
if you broke into a house while im home, you would die.
if you attacked my kids you would die.
insulting women or old people would get you a busted lip.
muggers were shot not arrested.
we did not rely on jail birds to deal out justice to the wicked.
we did it ourselves.
what I didn't like:
If you ran from a cop, they shot you, even if you were a teen and it was a nothing thing.
Child abuse was not even reported. Parents could do what they wanted to their kids.
Beat your wife, same thing.
No medical malpractice. If they cut off the wrong leg or the scalpel slipped, too bad.
Drunk drivers were told to drive home and sober up. If they killed someone, they got off because they were drunk and "didn't know what they were doing."
If a woman got pregnant out of wedlock, the kid went to an orphanage (try to find one today).
You receive a knock at your door. Opening up, a man in a very out of fashion suit and hairstyle walks in and introduces himself as "Rob", insisting you write it in all capital letters and tells you have important news. Taking a seat, he informs you that in one week you will be forced through a time vortex to live in a standard suburban American town circa 1952. Your life will continue there from that point, and you can never return (although if you live long enough you might see the present day as an old man/woman)
As you reel from the shock, he informs you of further rules.
You will receive a fully paid off and furnished suburban house to live in, large enough to start a family but small enough that it wouldn't be unusual if you didn't.
You will be given a job that is the closest approximation possible of your current one. For example, a person in IT now will be given a job working on the very basic computers of the time.
You get one small suitcase to pack anything you want, technology can be brought but electronic items cannot have a total modern price value over 300 USD.
If you are economically dependent on someone else, they will come as well but will be mind wiped into thinking they always lived in that era.
If you are not American, you are given an excuse of having recently immigrated.
What can you do to adapt to your new life? Do you face any special challenges from 50s culture and/or technology?
As someone who knew the outcome of every major sports upset for the next 60 years, and knew which stocks would take off, I'd become very rich! I might even invent Google (reference to Hot Tub Time Machine)
As someone who knew the outcome of every major sports upset for the next 60 years, and knew which stocks would take off, I'd become very rich! I might even invent Google (reference to Hot Tub Time Machine)
But if you follow the usual theory of time travel, what you know may not hold. Small actions can have large effects. Maybe something happened because nobody was paying attention. Maybe you did and they got nervous and never made the discovery? Maybe you met someone who was intended to meet some other person and a gateway birth never happened since you found the mom or dad first. The push and pull of how things happen is very complex, and one could easily without intention change its pathway. The only way someone would allow you to go back in time would be to wipe your memory of the future and make up one in the past. While your actions still could change things, they would be far less of an effect.
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