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I guess he's trying to stimulate conversation, but I must admit, my head is staring to spin, trying to keep up with all the questions he asks, bless his heart. ....Although, there was much good in the fifties, it was not Utopia. ... Every time in history had it's good points, but none of them had Utopia. I think that DULLNBORING was simply trying to remind you not to look into the past with rose-colored glasses.
All absolutely true! I grew up during the fifties and trust me: For the average middle-class American family, any resemblance to TV shows like Leave it To Beaver, Father Knows Best, Ozzie and Harriet, Make Room for Daddy, The Donna Reed Show, etc. was only superficial -- appearance, cars, current slang. The same problems that beset people and families today were going on during the fifties; the only difference was that far more of an effort was made back then to keep such things hidden. "Never air your dirty laundry in public", as my mom always used to say!
As many have pointed out, life was far more difficult for many groups of people in the fifties than today; so the argument could even be made that in some respects the 1990s or 2Ks are the "better" decades for "more people" in terms of overall quality of life.
When I was in school during the mid-fifties to sixties, it was routine to have both Fire Drills and Air-Raid Drills; and people were encouraged to designate an area in their home's basement or other area as a fallout shelter and stock it with nonperishable goods. This, of course, was in the event of an attack by "The Reds". People who were born in the late 60s and afterwards are probably reading this and thinking "how ridiculous is that", but believe me it was a very serious worry back then.
In the fifties we worried about the Russians firing off nuclear missiles and listened to Kruschev banging his shoe on a lectern and declaring "We will bury your children!" Today we worry about Al Quaida and listen to threatening rants on CNN from Osama Bin Laden.
Utopia? That's only the title of a book, my friend.
.... I suspect that vasinger is simply indulging in the Internet equivalent of throwing handfuls of **** against the wall just to see how much of it will stick.
"Yeah, the fifties were great. Except for you know, blacks, women, gays, Jews, Italians, women who wanted a career, people trapped in unhappy marriages, men who grew their hair long, people with polio......
I could continue on for some time. Leave It To Beaver was not real. It was a television show. The 1950s were not utopian by any means."
To all you 'warm glow' of nostalgia fans, here's a book for you to look for: 'The Good Old Days - They Were Terrible' by Otto L. Bettmann.
My mom hated the 50's. Just hated them. I've heard from other old timers who agreed with her.
To get a knock in here - I didn't ever care for Elvis. If I wanted to see & hear good rock-a-billy/R & B music performed give me the originators who Elvis stole it from. And that 70's rock n roll? Why watch some white guys with frizzled hair exposing their navels with that way over-amped sound playing 'Crosswords' or 'Good Morning Little Schoolgirl' when you can hear Howlin' Wolf or Junior Wells do it so much better? I don't understand why people settle for s__t. Worship Jimi Hendrix? Checkout T-Bone Walker and get back.
BTW - that moonwalk Michael Jackson did some years back? I've seen that same dance move performed by 50's black performers on old celluloid, and they were better at it and had a more original routine IMO.
Myself, I hated most of the ugly 70's. To me, the 70's were the line of demarcation where many Americans lost the ability to tell the difference between talent and mediocrity. Have we turned the tables toward enlightenment? I don't think so, not by a long shot. We did reelect Bush. Right? So maybe the slide into mediocrity continues with even more fervor than in the past.
The "Utopia" of the 50's was captured in our television shows and movies. The Truman Show was a perfect example of how Hollywood can depict utopia. Real life was quite different.
I do wish we had the simpilcity of the era but that would come at a price that is too dear. Examples have already been provided by the others reponding to the post.
If you want to delve into this further, you have to also look at our history and what led us this era of "utopia." The end of World War II was very fresh in the memories of our nation, the first housing developments were being built in the late 1940's which contributed to this - see:
http://www.levittcorporation.com/story/index2.php (broken link)
This is just a mini history lesson but I thought you might find this of interest vasinger.
The fifties had child abuse, wife beating, murder, robbery, wars (bloody ones too like Korea, French Indochina which became the Vietnam War when we took over fighting from the French), McCarthyism communist witchhunts, polio epidemics, segregation, lynchings, fear of nuclear war with the then Soviet Union....it was just peachy.
I grew up in a Levitt home; in fact, in the town literally right next to the original Levittown shown in that article, and can vouch for the fact that everything said there is true.
My parents bought their Levitt cape cod house in 1950 for the sum of $9000. I still have the original deed somewhere among my late father's papers. He took out a GI mortgage to pay for it. There was a living room, what'd be called today an "eat-in kitchen" but in those days was considered a dining room, one bathroom, two bedrooms, a full unfinished basement, and an unfinished walk-up attic. Stone front, asbestos siding on other three house walls. Wood windows with storms and screens that hung on hooks. An attached 1-car garage but no direct access to the house.
Here's the same house structurally today (only a few blocks from where I grew up). It looks as if it may even be all original!
I grew up in a 50's suburban house as well 1.5 bathrooms, 6 people that my parents paid about 65k for in the mid 80's. My dad finished the unfinished basement so that I could have my own bedroom. I wonder if they'd even build such a house today.
I really want to go back to being tied to the sink by my apron strings, all the while waiting for my husband to come home from work so I can pour him a scotch, slip on his house shoes and tell him all about my exciting day pushing the Hoover around!
BTW: I have every respect for domesticated goddesses or domestic engineers, but going back to it been the only option ......
IMHO life is alot better in 2007 than it was in the 1950's. Granted, im not American, knor was i around in the 50's!
Beaver was fictional, so was the Brady Bunch. I think i would go crazy if families were like them.
Life is better now because of many things. Health care has improved, i dont have to leave the couch anymore, i can sit there all day long and watch TV, clap my hands and the lights come on, program my heating / ac, have the fridge order food for me online, have it delivered, have coffee made before i get up etc etc. I could go on, but hte 50's were not as good as some people think, the 50's were TOUGH to put it lightly
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....Although, there was much good in the fifties, it was not Utopia. ... Every time in history had it's good points, but none of them had Utopia. I think that DULLNBORING was simply trying to remind you not to look into the past with rose-colored glasses.
Oh, and about those multiple threads...
