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How did people in the 1950s perceive the times they were living in
The people with enough maturity/experience to have perspective ... in ~1955?
They had all lived through WW2 and The Depression before then. Few were younger than 25.
On the whole ... they perceived that the world might actually work out for them after all.
What they DIDN'T perceive were the views of anyone with experience of the '60's or the 70's
or of any other later time.
Everybody else had to put up with bigotry and intolerance. They were paid less for the same work, and were denied employment or advancement in favor of less qualified SWMs.
How do people in the 2020s perceive the times they live in? I bet you could get 8 billion different answers.
I was born just after the 50s ended. I witnessed early to mid 1960s here on LI in east Nassau County. I could honestly say that it was not much different than Mayberry. It was nearly perfect. Everyone on our street were nearly the same age (at least 10 kids were in my same grade at school on a street with 20 houses). The same was true for the nearby streets. All of us were friends and most of our parents were friendly with each other. Every father worked and every mother was home. There were absolutely no cars parked in the streets because there was one car for each family, which the father used to go to work. Everyone had a mother and a father. No drug arrests or anything close. My parents were the first to split up in the late 60s. It was very embarrassing. I never told anyone outside of the kids on my street out of pure embarrassment. I was the only one.
My mother told me that there was a few months where she had to accept food stamps because she was a stay at home mother (like everyone else on the block) who was suddenly on her own until she could find a job. She said it was the most embarrassing time of her life to use food stamps. She said the cashiers would look at her funny and she even walked further to a supermarket where no one knew her because she was so humiliated. Contrast that with today's society where lazy people take everything they can get from the government and have no shame doing it. Hey, it is there if you need it while you get back on your feet after a set back, but to be proud and change the name "food stamps" to "SNAP!" so that it sounds cool, is sick.
Everyone of us played baseball in the street (no cars at all to hit), basketball at the house or two that had a hoop, rode bikes, played in the sprinkler, listened to records inside, went in someone's pool, etc. We would be out playing tag or hide and seek in the street and every Tuesday and Wednesday (I think), we would all run to our own homes and watch Batman on TV. I remember watching Bewitched at my friend's house and it said "now in color) and I was amazed they had a color tv. It was that simple. No crazy stuff. Never saw a police car stop on our street. Never heard overly loud music playing because we were all considerate toward each other. Never heard politics or religion spoken other than the woman next door who was a Jehovah's Witness and kept pleading with my mother to join up because the world was going to end on a number of exact dates. My mother never fell for it and of course, those dates came and went. Not a single neighbor dispute that anyone ever heard. I guess we were lucky. When you are young, we assume everyone lives just like we did. I remember being shocked when I asked a classmate of mine (around 1970) if he saw the I Love Lucy episode the night before (a rerun probably shown around 7pm) and he said his family doesn't watch that show. I couldn't believe it.
Our house in 1965 cost $17000. I think there was little property tax. You could have a modest job and afford to buy a house and go out to eat and movies and do everything because it all was so cheap. Imagine paying $17K over 30 years. Hell, that is barely the cost for closing on a house today. I hate the world today. Everything is supersized, over sensationalized and out of control. I loved watching baseball in the 60s. Just a b/w tv, the player's name, batting average on the screen. One camera most of the time. Who the hell needs all of these crazy graphics flying in and rap music playing? Just show the game for what it is. I would give up all phones, computers, etc to go back to that time.
All said, this was a decade after the 50s but I think it was probably similar. The 50s had an amazing new surge of music and excitement. It wouldn't be until the Beatles in 1964 that teenagers would get a voice and start the Generation Gap, so in that regard, the 50s would have been a better time for parents with their children, who should be seen and not heard.
I was born just after the 50s ended. I witnessed early to mid 1960s here on LI in east Nassau County. I could honestly say that it was not much different than Mayberry. It was nearly perfect. Everyone on our street were nearly the same age (at least 10 kids were in my same grade at school on a street with 20 houses). The same was true for the nearby streets. All of us were friends and most of our parents were friendly with each other. Every father worked and every mother was home. There were absolutely no cars parked in the streets because there was one car for each family, which the father used to go to work. Everyone had a mother and a father. No drug arrests or anything close. My parents were the first to split up in the late 60s. It was very embarrassing. I never told anyone outside of the kids on my street out of pure embarrassment. I was the only one.
My mother told me that there was a few months where she had to accept food stamps because she was a stay at home mother (like everyone else on the block) who was suddenly on her own until she could find a job. She said it was the most embarrassing time of her life to use food stamps. She said the cashiers would look at her funny and she even walked further to a supermarket where no one knew her because she was so humiliated. Contrast that with today's society where lazy people take everything they can get from the government and have no shame doing it. Hey, it is there if you need it while you get back on your feet after a set back, but to be proud and change the name "food stamps" to "SNAP!" so that it sounds cool, is sick.
Everyone of us played baseball in the street (no cars at all to hit), basketball at the house or two that had a hoop, rode bikes, played in the sprinkler, listened to records inside, went in someone's pool, etc. We would be out playing tag or hide and seek in the street and every Tuesday and Wednesday (I think), we would all run to our own homes and watch Batman on TV. I remember watching Bewitched at my friend's house and it said "now in color) and I was amazed they had a color tv. It was that simple. No crazy stuff. Never saw a police car stop on our street. Never heard overly loud music playing because we were all considerate toward each other. Never heard politics or religion spoken other than the woman next door who was a Jehovah's Witness and kept pleading with my mother to join up because the world was going to end on a number of exact dates. My mother never fell for it and of course, those dates came and went. Not a single neighbor dispute that anyone ever heard. I guess we were lucky. When you are young, we assume everyone lives just like we did. I remember being shocked when I asked a classmate of mine (around 1970) if he saw the I Love Lucy episode the night before (a rerun probably shown around 7pm) and he said his family doesn't watch that show. I couldn't believe it.
Our house in 1965 cost $17000. I think there was little property tax. You could have a modest job and afford to buy a house and go out to eat and movies and do everything because it all was so cheap. Imagine paying $17K over 30 years. Hell, that is barely the cost for closing on a house today. I hate the world today. Everything is supersized, over sensationalized and out of control. I loved watching baseball in the 60s. Just a b/w tv, the player's name, batting average on the screen. One camera most of the time. Who the hell needs all of these crazy graphics flying in and rap music playing? Just show the game for what it is. I would give up all phones, computers, etc to go back to that time.
All said, this was a decade after the 50s but I think it was probably similar. The 50s had an amazing new surge of music and excitement. It wouldn't be until the Beatles in 1964 that teenagers would get a voice and start the Generation Gap, so in that regard, the 50s would have been a better time for parents with their children, who should be seen and not heard.
Sounds great! I knew life wasn't all doom and gloom in the '50s and '60s.
I was born just after the 50s ended. I witnessed early to mid 1960s here on LI in east Nassau County. I could honestly say that it was not much different than Mayberry. It was nearly perfect.
This is what I remember about Long Island around then:
Quote:
EXPECTING protests, Andrew Jarecki took his new documentary to Great Neck a week ago. But to his surprise, he said, his work received a fair hearing. Mr. Jarecki's apprehension was understandable because the movie, ''Capturing the Friedmans,'' tells the story of Arnold Friedman and his son Jesse, who both pled guilty in 1988 to numerous counts of sexually abusing local boys during computer classes in the basement of their Great Neck home. The father died in prison in 1995 at age 64. Jesse, now 34, was released in 2001 after serving 13 years.
My mother told me that there was a few months where she had to accept food stamps because she was a stay at home mother (like everyone else on the block) who was suddenly on her own until she could find a job. She said it was the most embarrassing time of her life to use food stamps. She said the cashiers would look at her funny and she even walked further to a supermarket where no one knew her because she was so humiliated. Contrast that with today's society where lazy people take everything they can get from the government and have no shame doing it. Hey, it is there if you need it while you get back on your feet after a set back, but to be proud and change the name "food stamps" to "SNAP!" so that it sounds cool, is sick.
Did you resent Reagan sailing into office on the back of a 'welfare queen' and going on about "Big bucks buying t-bone steaks while you can't afford hamburger"?
Last edited by Manigault; 05-07-2023 at 02:41 PM..
Everybody else had to put up with bigotry and intolerance. They were paid less for the same work, and were denied employment or advancement in favor of less qualified SWMs.
How do people in the 2020s perceive the times they live in? I bet you could get 8 billion different answers.
The nation was 90% straight and white. White women were not slaves in the 1950s. You make 1950s America sound like Sparta.
So basically, you only had it mostly bad if you were among the 10% of black people or the 1% of other minorities.
Oh, unless you were one of the 10% improverished white people living in poverty, such as all over the Appalachian region. Straight white Christian men and women living in poverty! Who knew?
The FBI contacted the employers of leftists. What do you think happened? I remember J. Edgar Hoover would compile all sorts of files on various people. Not just the leftist.
Restrictive covenants kept some folks out. There was a significant housing shortage after WW2 that resulted in the mass construction of suburban homes on cheap land. That fueled the exodus to the suburbs that is often viewed as "white flight". That term oversimplifies the era.
SNIP
I saw them living under an underpass in my neighborhood. Yep. Homeless/Hobos lived in what was called "Hoovervilles" (a term left over from the depression) of cardboard and tarpaper shacks on public or waste/vacant land.
Ask Billie Holliday or Lenny Bruce. Truck drivers used amphetamines. Musicians were casual users or sometimes addicts. Miles Davis, for example.
Actually, there were far fewer guns in homes than now. The incidence of domestic violence was mostly unreported in the '50s. Womens liberation started in the 1950s and there was increased documentation of abuse and more reported violence after that.
SNIP...SNIP
You don't know what Jack Ruby ran in Dallas? You ever hear of Candy Barr, Gypsy Rose Lee, or Norma Vincent Peel? You just had to know where to look.
Winthrop Rockefeller, Ronald Reagan, Todd Palin, Jesse Jackson, and Pat Robertson all had their first child less than 8 months after they were married.
Excellent response.
The 1950s were better than the 1940s but nothing to celebrate. There are a lot of misconceptions about the 1950s.
Racially motivated killings were not uncommon in the 1950s. The last "official" lynching was in 1981.We just aren't comfortable calling them as such anymore.
The drug problem, often blamed on the Hippies was already here. The Beat movement had some similar aspects of drug usage a decade before the Hippies. Our military in Vietnam had easy access and gained drug experience from tours during the war. That is where my exposure to drugs came from -- returning soldiers. The psychedelic drugs originated in labs as experimentation drugs and were initially legal and then endorsed by Timothy Leary and others. Heroin, cocaine, uppers, etc were here and in use for a long time. The Hippies, as part of the Boomer generation were more open and media-photogenic as drug users.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hermit12
Sounds great! I knew life wasn't all doom and gloom in the '50s and '60s.
Adults had it harder than kids. If you were a white kid living in a standard healthy and successful nuclear family in the suburbs going to a decent school, your expectations were met, and you didn't see or care about much else. I recall the first time I encountered segregation. My mom arranged for a 10th birthday swim party in '58 at the local pool and I realized that blacks were not allowed at the pool. I couldn't figure out why but that was the unwritten rule. There were no signs or guards at the door. It was just known. That is how it went if you were not in the deep south. Nobody pushed the issue until later. This was in Ferguson, Mo.
That was sort of the motto of the 1950s -- conform and do not push the issue, whatever it was.
The nation was 90% straight and white. White women were not slaves in the 1950s. You make 1950s America sound like Sparta.
So basically, you only had it mostly bad if you were among the 10% of black people or the 1% of other minorities.
Oh, unless you were one of the 10% improverished white people living in poverty, such as all over the Appalachian region. Straight white Christian men and women living in poverty! Who knew?
The US poverty rate in the early 1950s was about 30%, not falling below 20% until the 1960s. Even at the end of the 1950s the white poverty rate alone was 18%, so it wasn't just minorities. Today's poverty rate is 11.6%, for comparison.
I wasn't alive in the 1950s (missed it by just 18 days), and many commenters who were alive then were either children or teenagers, who likely maintain an idyllic child's view of the past. Adults at the time may have very different views of that timeframe. People who turned 21 during the 1950s would be now be 83 at the youngest, 94 at the oldest.
What I know about the 50s I heard from my mother and older (by 10+ years) siblings. We lived in a working class city neighborhood, which included immigrants, children of immigrants, and refugees from the war. My father worked long hours in a dirty and smoky steel mill, went out with his friends after work. My mother stayed at home with 3 kids (with me on the way by 1959), grandmother and uncle lived upstairs. Uncle was drafted during Korea, and lived at home when back from the war, never married. My father also was subject to periodic unpaid layoffs. During summers my grandmother and sometimes mother (and kids) left the city to work as farm laborers. My brother says he hated going to "the farm" which was before all before he even turned 10. Our family was not considered to be in poverty. My family's experience was pretty typical of other families in the neighborhood. Most people did not have an idyllic suburban lifestyle.
As I stated earlier, my mother always firmly believed that there was no such thing as "the good old days."
Last edited by RocketSci; 05-07-2023 at 05:40 PM..
I can never remember all of the positives. I started a post, but I just ran out of steam. Too much to mention and too hard to remember at the spur of the moment. These didn't exist for all people everywhere, but were extremely common.
- There were no metal detectors in schools and no prison fences hemming them in
Boys would get into fights at school, that sometimes involved knives. Youth gangs were so common, a musical theater production was made on the topic of feuding street gangs, that enjoyed great popularity nationally.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igor Blevin;
- Lifetime employ at one company was common, followed by a pension to pay for retirement.
- Women did not HAVE TO work to make ends meet.
Women not only were barred from certain professions, they weren't allowed to choose certain majors in university. Women encountered discrimination in hiring. Women who held jobs considered to be for men during WWII had to give up their jobs when GI's returned from war.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igor Blevin;
- Schools were the envy of the world. Elementary schools, not just Universities.
Schools were weak in the sciences, an issue that turned out to be a national embarrassment when Russia beat the US in the "race for space", by sending up the first satellite.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igor Blevin;
- Meat was cheap.
Not so much by the standards of the day. Paychecks were much smaller then.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igor Blevin;
- gasoline was so cheap it was almost free.
Cars with A/C were considered luxury vehicles. Few bought them, because they couldn't afford the extra fuel the A/C consumed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igor Blevin;
- Cars were affordable. Nobody needed a 7-year auto loan, let alone needed 2 or 3 cars for one family.
Most families couldn't afford more than one car. A car purchase was a major expense in most families' budgets. Many continued to use public transit, until the mid-50's, when the auto and petroleum industries colluded to remove commuter train lines and electric trams and buses, replacing them with petrol-fueled buses that covered fewer routes and had less convenient schedules, in an effort to force people to buy cars.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igor Blevin;
- A woman could walk down most streets at midnight in safety.
Not in many cities. Parents made sure their girls were home before nightfall. Child abductions occurred, but weren't talked about.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igor Blevin;
- Teaching was an honorable profession.
Women teachers who became pregnant were fired from their jobs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igor Blevin;
- You could park most places for free.
Parking spots in downtown areas were metered, just as now. There were also parking lots that charged a fee.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igor Blevin;
- Doctors and Lawyers were seen as role models.
- Scientists were respected.
As most still are today.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igor Blevin;
- Drug overdoses were rare.
In the White community, with some exceptions. Drug and alcohol dependence were not spoken about, until Betty Ford confessed publicly to drug and alcohol addiction in the 70's.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igor Blevin;
- We played outside.
Kids still play outside. Notice the popularity of skate parks as one example. Skateboarding is now an Olympic sport.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igor Blevin;
- Kids could be kids. There was no big pressure to grow up "too fast".
- Low rates of illegitimate pregnancies
Unwanted pregnancies wrecked teen girls' lives, and weren't talked about. Some teen couples with an unplanned pregnancy were forced into marriage before they were mature enough. There were no oral contraceptives in the 50's. Divorce laws were highly restrictive.
Child abuse, child molestation and incest were among the many maladies, that weren't talked about. There was no duty to report suspected child abuse to authorities, for teachers and medical professionals. Children weren't believed if they spoke to anyone, including a parent, typically, of abuse or molestation.
Society has evolved in positive ways, as well as problematic ways. And there's always room for improvement on the plus side.
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 05-07-2023 at 07:01 PM..
Well, as someone from the northeast it sure was weird in about 1970 when we decided to drive to Florida for a vacation. I think it was when we entered North Carolina that there was this enormous billboard that said, "You are entering Klan Country." I was aghast. It featured a gigantic picture of hooded idiots on horseback holding flaming torches. I couldn't quite figure it out because who would put a sign like that as a welcome to their state? It was almost unbelievable.
To make matters worse, as we drove along that road, I kept seeing signs for Negro motel or Negro drinking fountain. It makes you feel sort of crazy as if you're on some other planet. I never knew such things existed and I would have thought those people would be embarrassed to have people from other states see such things.
After having read the above post, I wonder if maybe we ate in a segregated restaurant. It was Christmas eve that first time we took the drive south and nothing was open. We stopped at a few restaurants and they told us they were closed. This was our first trip so we were dumb enough to think there would be places to eat open on Christmas eve. Funny thing was, we finally got to one restaurant and they actually let us in! It was a black person who told us the kitchen was closed but then they said we could come in and they would make us some sandwiches if we didn't mind that they'd be over on one side of the room having their Christmas party. What a welcome relief! Food! So we happily sat and ate our sandwiches while they opened their presents and, come to think of it, they were all black people. Maybe we ate our sandwiches in a segregated restaurant. Those people sure were nice and they shared the spirit of Christmas. This hasn't occurred to me until now. White people in a black people's restaurant. Unbelievable.
Cant say this is true or not but there was supposed to be a sign at the Alabama State border that said:
"N.Word. Dont let the sun go down on you in Alabama"
My father in law's brother from Vermont was posted by the Army to one of the southern states during WW2. He was assigned to work at a POW camp guarding German prisoners who were shipped over here for agricultural labour.
At meal breaks the Germans ate with the white guards in the town's segregated restaurants
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), and many commenters who were alive then were either children or teenagers, who likely maintain an idyllic child's view of the past. Adults at the time may have very different views of that timeframe. People who turned 21 during the 1950s would be now be 83 at the youngest, 94 at the oldest.
