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True.
But this thread is specifically talking about the '50s.
But many people mention the threat of nuclear war and the 1950s together as if it was exclusive to the '50s.
Also, from those I've talked to who lived in that era, it certainly didn't affect their day-to-day life and their leisure time. I mean they weren't all walking around looking up at the sky wondering it an A-bomb would drop.
So, I realized something: many people point to the 50's in a bad light.
Extremely progressive people or the far left often look at something and say that it is typical of the 50's, not "this day and age" or not 2012 (or whatever year it is when they speak).
So, I wonder, why all of the hatred for the 1950's? I realize that there was racism and many other things that keep the decade far from perfection, yet it was one of the best periods for the U.S., even with its many problems.
I'm sorry if the question doesn't make too much sense, I just had to ask. Personally, I like the 50's and saw it as a time of unity in the U.S., the fruition of the American Dream for a majority of citizens and unparalleled economic progress.
I do see, though, that for many Western countries, it was rebuilding time and a different feel altogether, so I apologize, but this question is for someone who see the U.S. perspective.
Thank you.
I wish I was back in the '50s again. We had not had as many of our freedoms taken away back then.
But many people mention the threat of nuclear war and the 1950s together as if it was exclusive to the '50s.
Also, from those I've talked to who lived in that era, it certainly didn't affect their day-to-day life and their leisure time. I mean they weren't all walking around looking up at the sky wondering it an A-bomb would drop.
The threat of nuclear war was a very real one and it made a big impact on the culture.
Going by photos of that era and by what family members and friends told me, that didn't seem to affect their daily living much. They still went on vacations, spent time on the beach, held parties at home, went to drive-in movies, etc.
There was no perfect decade, but the '50s had a lot going for it, as many who lived through the era will attest to.
I see nothing wrong with having children outside of marriage. A marriage doesn't make for a happy home nor a stable one, and I am perfectly okay with single parenthood. A person shouldn't be barred from having a child just because they don't have the slip of paper.
The problem is with a poor, single parent with lousy education and job prospects who then has to provide for a child. And that the mother and child are both likely to become dependent upon public funds and/or the kindness of relatives - who may themselves be far from decently provided for. It created a spiral of increasing welfare costs and generations of badly supported children.
I just skimmed the Duck and Cover part of that. We were told our ID bracelets were in case we got lost. I have no idea if the parents were told it was to help identify bodies. (The parents weren't wearing them.)
We also had air raid sirens that were tested once a month and we did the duck and cover drills in school. I was very young in the 50's but I can state that we always had the A-bomb in the back of our minds. Always. We also had a few home-built bomb shelters in the neighborhood and every single kid knew where the city bomb shelters were.
The schools passed out the Duck and Cover pamphlets to all the kids. As kids we all knew who Kruschev was and were scared to death of him. (Though I suspect most of that awareness came in the very early 60's. For me, anyway.)
Going by photos of that era and by what family members and friends told me, that didn't seem to affect their daily living much. They still went on vacations, spent time on the beach, held parties at home, went to drive-in movies, etc.
There was no perfect decade, but the '50s had a lot going for it, as many who lived through the era will attest to.
Thing is, you don't have to spend your life looking at the skies waiting for the bomb to have it always be something your aware of. Yes, people lived life, but were aware that tomorrow it could firmly and finally end. Just like that, no warning. Where I lived, it would have been close enough we might as well have sat out and watch it come. People figured out if they'd die quickly or slowly, and dealt with it. It's different and has a great impact on the psycye if that's in your mind.
We had the duck and cover drills where we put some of us under a desk incase the bomb came. They actually served a greater purpose if you had quakes, but nothing about our teeny little desks was going to save you from either. When those who were there talk about it the bomb is still hanging above them and its always going to be. You can'l live in fear of something which might come though. It's not fear which hangs on, but awareness. Awareness changes the way we look at life.
The world after the bomb was this dark place with monsters and radiation and misery. It had no defination. Not until The Day After was it portrayed with any attempt at accuracy. You ask someone who lived then, who grew up with it if they'd pick surviving at all, and you'd be surprised how deeply they'd thought about mortality and the prices of surviving. During the most extrememe paranoia of the 50's, war and death was still casting its shadow across the world, and would continue to for a long time.
Yes in some ways its a good time. But never ever forget the dark haze that was there, even if those who remember it are so used to it it just there now.
But many people mention the threat of nuclear war and the 1950s together as if it was exclusive to the '50s.
Also, from those I've talked to who lived in that era, it certainly didn't affect their day-to-day life and their leisure time. I mean they weren't all walking around looking up at the sky wondering it an A-bomb would drop.
By no means.
The Duck and Cover drills were looked upon by the students the same way that the regular fire drills were: as a great break from the normal school routine. Could the school ever catch on fire - sure; could the Russians ever bomb us - sure...but kids were not hung up on the likelihood of either one really happening. Probably because kids knew that adults always exaggerated, and life always looked great through kids rose-colored glasses.
Besides, by the time we were in H.S. it was obvious that the Russians were far more interested in steadily taking over the world in bite-sized pieces rather than inheriting a cinder after a nuclear war.
In addition to which, anti-Communist propaganda and the insistence on U.S. superiority in every aspect of human endeavor was an omnipresent feature of our education and public life...and as a kid I believed. So, how could the Russkies ever really outdo us, out gun us, out smart us???!!!! Not possible.
I cannot remember my parents spending any time worrying about an atomic war, nor did any adults I knew. What they were all paranoid about was a "Communist takeover" of the U.S. as Sen McCarthy whipped up his wave of hysteria and alcoholic BS.
But I read Orwell's 1984, and that planted some seeds of doubt about whether the entire Cold War wasn't at least a little bit bogus, and then when McCarthy was exposed as the fraud he was, I really began to wonder if this Russky stuff wasn't in large part being blown out of proportion...and finally Ike's warning about the dangers of America's military-industrial complex to our way of life really convinced me that Americans were being manipulated to some extent.
My first genuine sense of terror about nuclear war came later with the Cuban missile crisis. Then I was scared.
Sometimes debating about the good ole days brings contradictions and illusions.
Yet, I will have to admit that the 50s, absent the constant media scrutiny and hype, absent the in your face rhetoric rampant today, absent the emphasis on me me me, and absent the need to one up everybody and everyone----the 50s indeed were a simpler less intrusive time.
This, some people may argue, was because we werent as savvy and sophisticated by technology----ok, maybe-----but you know what----for that period of my life I will take the 50s and say thanks for that decade and its simpler and less complicated way of life.
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I have no idea if the parents were told it was to help identify bodies. (The parents weren't wearing them.) 