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A number of years ago, I read a book which focused on growing up in the 1950s in the US. The title is "Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen." Its author is Alix Kates Shulman. The narrative of this book is based on her 'coming of age' during that decade.
Ms. Shulman characterized the 1950s as 'conformist, prosperity driven, and communism obsessed.'
As someone who also lived through the 1950s, I concur with her conclusions.
Replace communism with something else (like terrorism, or grievance politics) and this describes every era of America since...
I do not remember anything about the 1950s personally, although I have studied the era and heard so much about them from my parents and relatives.
From the perspective of white, upwardly mobile college-educated middle-class adults, it was an optimistic and promising time. White middle-class people could easily move up the socioeconomic ranks. Even those without college degrees could live a middle-class lifestyle, including home ownership, domestic vacations, and hope for the future.
This especially applies to people from the Northeast, middle Atlantic, and the industrial Midwest. In rural areas and the deep South, things were very different. Watch the movie "The Help". Those were not "Happy Days" for anyone other than the White Upper Middle Class.
During the Eisenhower Administration, were steep 1968. The wealthy paid their fair share. From 1944-1963, the top income earners payed 90% of their income on taxes.
My friend was class of 1969. He showed me his class picture and all the boys look exactly the same, suit, tie, hair parted on the side.
I started high school 1965. The teachers had been in ww2. I was class of 1969, one year we all look like we're going to college prep, the next year the hippie movement hit and everyone had long hair. The whole class got busted and then nobody ever talked about it. Remember in 1969 we still had short hair in the pictures, but we were all doing lsd and smoking dope. My mother found a bag of weed ' what is this?' I said it was a school experiment. Something about james browns first song 1965. How dramatic everything was. There was no media. Most of America had not heard of bob Dylan until like a rolling stone and that was a 10min long song. Ringo Starr thought he would just make enough money to open a hair salon.
I told her I'm kind of young I need to play the field. You heard a smack. I never got a coke thrown in my face as bad as I was. My hand would stray, it was part of the whole romance thing. but that one little thing she went off on me. I don't know where we went over the line, she called the shots. I never asked it wasn't manly.
I think Americans have a more rose tinted view of the 1950's that many other western nations.
In terms of parts of Europe, it still had bombed out cities, post war austerity and rationing, along with the emerging Cold War.
The 50's also conscription (national service), wars such as Korea, whilst the 50's were also remembered for Teddy Boys and the brylcream and bobby sock generation.
Whilst they possible weren't the worst of times, they were far from some rose tinted era, although morally things were much better than the mess we have today.
In terms of the US, it now had a big advantage over the rest of the world, and it took counties decades and decades to catch up to the US, although the the US would later make the mistake of becoming involved in the Vietnam War, something which would sadly haunt the US and US Foreign policy for decades.
No doubt, the Brits had it much worse. They still had rationing and bombed out buildings. Unemployment was much higher. It was very grim.
WWII vets were still having difficulty finding steady work, even in the 50s.
Even in liberal NY, Jews and Catholics were not welcome in certain neighborhoods and many faced occupational limitations. Certain law firms would not hire Italian or Jewish lawyers. I think the series Mad Men portrayed the era of the late 50s fairly accurately. An Italian art director was an anomaly in that field and subjected to bigotry.
While most of Mad Men took place in the 1960s, it depicted a lot of "decade spillage" of the 1950s into the 1960s. The attire, mores, were pure 1950s until about 1965.
Many sociologists agree that the 1950s ended after JFK was shot. I think they lasted a little longer.
Betty Draper's clothes, the pouffy shirtwaists she wore almost every day for the first few seasons, were straight out of the 60s. Most younger mothers in metropolitan areas on the East Coast traded in dresses for tailored slacks with trim legs, cashmere weather sets or mock necks in the colder months, and Bermuda shorts, capris, sandals, or flats in the warmer months.
Coney, you are right again about Italians, Jews, and Catholics. Places like Garden City, Bellrose Village, and Jamaica Estates were restricted deed communities.
When Italians attempted to move into Jamaica Estates in the 1950s, Frederick Trump put up a fuss. The majority prevailed, though, and the family moved into Jamaica Estates.
I do not remember anything about the 1950s personally, although I have studied the era and heard so much about them from my parents and relatives.
From the perspective of white, upwardly mobile college-educated middle-class adults, it was an optimistic and promising time. White middle-class people could easily move up the socioeconomic ranks. Even those without college degrees could live a middle-class lifestyle, including home ownership, domestic vacations, and hope for the future.
This especially applies to people from the Northeast, middle Atlantic, and the industrial Midwest. In rural areas and the deep South, things were very different. Watch the movie "The Help". Those were not "Happy Days" for anyone other than the White Upper Middle Class.
During the Eisenhower Administration, were steep 1968. The wealthy paid their fair share. From 1944-1963, the top income earners payed 90% of their income on taxes.
The top rates approached 90%, but no one paid that rate. There were numerous deductions, and the tax shelters were way over the top.
Inflation is only part of the picture. Cars today get more than twice the MPG of cars in the 1950's. Using the calculator above for 1955, that would be over $6 a gallon today with inflation and the much lower mpg vehicles got then - passenger less than 10 mpg. And there were few interstates which meant more stopping and starting for lights and traffic. All in all, it's less expensive now.
This is good perspective. Gas was historically cheap in the 80s/90s and then in the latter Obama and early Trump years. They were trending up as 2020 approached and if Covid wouldn't have crashed the economy, gas prices likely would have gone higher sooner. I think we're going to have to accept that the days of sub-$2 gas nationwide are over until we've transitioned enough of the auto fleet away from fossil fuels that gas becomes cheap because fewer people are using it.
I'm guessing commutes were shorter though in the 50s. Most cities were a lot smaller back then. A lot of that GI-bill housing stock is pretty close to downtowns compared to the McMansion and tract house suburbs that would arrive in the 80s through today.
This is good perspective. Gas was historically cheap in the 80s/90s and then in the latter Obama and early Trump years. They were trending up as 2020 approached and if Covid wouldn't have crashed the economy, gas prices likely would have gone higher sooner. I think we're going to have to accept that the days of sub-$2 gas nationwide are over until we've transitioned enough of the auto fleet away from fossil fuels that gas becomes cheap because fewer people are using it.
I'm guessing commutes were shorter though in the 50s. Most cities were a lot smaller back then. A lot of that GI-bill housing stock is pretty close to downtowns compared to the McMansion and tract house suburbs that would arrive in the 80s through today.
Our house is in a Houston subdivision that was built from 1950 through about 1954. It's about 5 miles from Downtown, and traffic back then would have been very light. Shopping is located nearby, and has been since about 1955, so wives could have walked to get groceries. Many of the first houses have one car garages. Ours is 2 car detached.
This is good perspective. Gas was historically cheap in the 80s/90s and then in the latter Obama and early Trump years. They were trending up as 2020 approached and if Covid wouldn't have crashed the economy, gas prices likely would have gone higher sooner. I think we're going to have to accept that the days of sub-$2 gas nationwide are over until we've transitioned enough of the auto fleet away from fossil fuels that gas becomes cheap because fewer people are using it.
I'm guessing commutes were shorter though in the 50s. Most cities were a lot smaller back then. A lot of that GI-bill housing stock is pretty close to downtowns compared to the McMansion and tract house suburbs that would arrive in the 80s through today.
Not just small commutes, there were also smaller, but more, branches of the major supermarkets (think A&P), in addition to many smaller grocers/delicatessens embedded within walking distance of city neighborhoods. Supermarkets had not yet become the gigantic mega-stores with large parking lots that they are today. Maybe just a few aisles of groceries, and a handful of checkout registers, and many many smaller corner grocers.
I recently saw an old newspaper ad from the 30s and 40s, and saw that A&P at the time was operating many of the corner grocers in my city, with over 200 locations, before they began selling them off when they built the larger stores. Many/most of these smaller stores (under different owners) continued to operate for decades until cities became more car-centric.
Even by the late 1960s, just off the top of my head, I can recall at least a dozen or more of these small stores within a 10 minute walk from my house, in addition to 2 larger grocery stores (including an A&P with 6 to 10 aisles of food). Just within 1 block of my house there were 4 corner grocers, on residential streets, operating through the 60s and 70s, until chains like 7-11 and large supermarkets put them out of business (more variety, longer hours, sometimes lower prices) and more people had cars.
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