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On the contrary, I have discussed at length life in the '50s with my mom and several aunts. All of them said it was their favorite decade.
So stop with the personal attacks, okay?
Have you done any independent research like reading a history book or even looking stats up online? With all due respect to your relatives, most humans romanticize the past especially when comparing it to the present day.
You undoubtedly refute the nuclear family consisting of two normal parents and their children and have a better, yet drastically different in many respects, superior variation of what constitutes normal.
Do I?
That's interesting, I'm happily married with a child. I don't see how I "refute" the nuclear family.
But it is normal for people to have struggles and go through stuff. Or to be gay, or to deal with alcoholism, or to deal with abusive spouses (of both genders) or to get pregnant by accident, or to have kids with special needs - there is no perfection in families. We're all human, therefore stuff happens to us. It's all normal stuff. If none of it happens to you, you can bet it happens to someone on your block.
Now, we don't sweep it all under the rug as they once did. That's the only difference. And - people aren't forced to stay in abominable situations as they once were. It is not considered weak to acknowledge that things aren't perfect (unless you're one of those people who must keep up appearances at all costs), a la the fifties.
Have you done any independent research like reading a history book or even looking stats up online? With all due respect to your relatives, most humans romanticize the past especially when comparing it to the present day.
If my relatives were "romanticizing the past," why did they pick the '50s as the decade they liked the most? Why didn't they pick the '40s or the '60s or the '70s?
The reason why is that they had no biased toward the '50s is that they just came to their conclusions from their experiences, which is usually more accurate than reading a history book or looking up stats online.
One example (of many) why they liked the '50s... downtown Los Angeles (and Hollywood) was a very nice area. Less crowded than now, less crime, very nice shops and restaurants, well-dressed people.
Well one example is: ALL IN THE FAMILY "THE ELEVATOR STORY" -- I saw this on TV Land and erased it cause alot of the stuff archie said in the elevator WAS EDITED OUT!! -- I found the same episode on a regular channel and recorded that one...
Another one is THREES COMPANY -- When jack handcuffs himself to chrissy,stuff jack says in the restaurant is changed on Nick's version...(And who knows what else,i didnt see that whole episode on a reg channel)
Thanks for the info I'm not old enough to look upon those days fondly, but I do recall the stories that my parents and grandparents had told me about what was going on with them and the people around them. There were some positive things even within the black community (unity, accountability, self suffiency due to the racism) but outside of it was terrible.
I'm not old enough either. I'm 26. However, I do have a memory of what I first thought of the 50s. When I was 7-8 years old, I used to watch alot of TV shows that were in Black and White, such as Dennis the Menace, I Love Lucy, Dick Van Dyke, I Dream of Jeanie, etc. I thought it would be really cool to live in those times. It was the TV shows themselves that made me think of this. I never questioned why there were never any Blacks seen. However, years of seeing the Black and White films of the Civil Rights movement made me thankful that I was born in the 1980s instead of the 1940s. I realized that in those days, I wouldn't have been welcomed where they lived.
And there was also violence in TV. You have to consider that Westerns were very popular in those days. Alot of gun violence on television in the 50s. People often forget this because we aren't dealing with shows like The Wire. All I have to do is what a Western.
I'm not old enough either. I'm 26. However, I do have a memory of what I first thought of the 50s. When I was 7-8 years old, I used to watch alot of TV shows that were in Black and White, such as Dennis the Menace, I Love Lucy, Dick Van Dyke, I Dream of Jeanie, etc. I thought it would be really cool to live in those times. It was the TV shows themselves that made me think of this. I never questioned why there were never any Blacks seen. However, years of seeing the Black and White films of the Civil Rights movement made me thankful that I was born in the 1980s instead of the 1940s. I realized that in those days, I wouldn't have been welcomed where they lived.
And there was also violence in TV. You have to consider that Westerns were very popular in those days. Alot of gun violence on television in the 50s. People often forget this because we aren't dealing with shows like The Wire. All I have to do is what a Western.
I quit watching westerns as well as Tarzan movies because of the mistreatment and mischaraterizations of Native Americans (mostly played by whites) and Africans in those movies. You rarelt seen any black cowboys in those movies, pretty much like they never existed.
Yep'same here . My wife alos says it was like that i her home. Feel sorry for those who lived like we see so much now.
Like that in our homes and most of my family's homes. The homes where it wasn't they wished it was and others strived and learnded to do better. Oprah once said years ago when interviewing mothers from old shows with June Cleaver type mothers that it wasn't like that in her family and sort of made fun of them. The woman who played June Cleaver said it is sad it is no longer like that and thinks it should be even though her own family life, (herself a working mom) was not like it. Years later after shows like Roseanne which were said to be more like real families, Married with children Oprah had those moms on again. This time Oprah realized the good of the shows. It's not that every family was like that it was something to strive for an example to work toward. There was something you could take from the shows. Instead we had shows like Roseanne, Married with Children which made it ok for children to talk back, parents act like idiots instead of the one to go too.
I quit watching westerns as well as Tarzan movies because of the mistreatment and mischaraterizations of Native Americans (mostly played by whites) and Africans in those movies. You rarelt seen any black cowboys in those movies, pretty much like they never existed.
One thing about the 50s was this. Everything was slated to have what some people felt to be an idyllic image. In the world of Leave It To Beaver, or alot of Westerns, it definitely was like Blacks didn't exist. If one watches these westerns, no one would know that one third of the cowboys were people of color, or that there were Black towns in places like Oklahoma and Kansas. I guess the world some people wanted was a world where Blacks didn't exist. Doesn't surprise me.
One example (of many) why they liked the '50s... downtown Los Angeles (and Hollywood) was a very nice area. Less crowded than now, less crime, very nice shops and restaurants, well-dressed people.
I experienced the wonders of Hollywood and the L.A. Civic Center (that's what the hep people called it, BTW, calling it "downtown" was a clue you went to the Iowa Day picnic in Long Beach) in the 50's.
And, trust me on this, those well-dressed people going to a first run movie at the El Capitan included men who drank too much with "the fellas" after work then came home and smacked the little woman around just because they could and women who took "diet pills" that were actually nothing but speed and got horrendously addicted to them.
Aunt Henrietta in the Valley was having an affair with one of the Cub Scout fathers and Uncle Pete belonged to a golf club that admitted neither Blacks nor Jews. Oh, and Sally, who had a dang good curve ball, couldn't play organized sports with her brothers and the other boys on the block because she was.... wait for it..... a girl.
I experienced the wonders of Hollywood and the L.A. Civic Center (that's what the hep people called it, BTW, calling it "downtown" was a clue you went to the Iowa Day picnic in Long Beach) in the 50's.
And, trust me on this, those well-dressed people going to a first run movie at the El Capitan included men who drank too much with "the fellas" after work then came home and smacked the little woman around just because they could and women who took "diet pills" that were actually nothing but speed and got horrendously addicted to them.
Aunt Henrietta in the Valley was having an affair with one of the Cub Scout fathers and Uncle Pete belonged to a golf club that admitted neither Blacks nor Jews. Oh, and Sally, who had a dang good curve ball, couldn't play organized sports with her brothers and the other boys on the block because she was.... wait for it..... a girl.
The difference between the 50s and the 90s has alot to do with illusion. Illusion comes from not having someone say anything. Because "the other" didn't have a say, everything was basically kept silent. People today say that we live in a more divided society than ever. People say we have more degenerates than ever.
I say this. WHEN HAVE WE NOT BEEN DIVIDED? WHEN HAVE WE NEVER HAD DEGENERATES? The difference between then and now is this. The "others" didn't have a say. If you were Black, Asian, female, Hispanic,etc , you didn't have a say. Any problems that you had, you kept them to yourself because you were considered "inferior" and you were expected to "know their place".
People complain about degenerates in our society. They have always been there. However, in the 50s, degenerates were shoved to the shadows. If you were considered a degenerate, no one wanted you around. There was no one to promote you. There were gangs in the inner cities in the 1950s. However, if you lived in the suburbs, you didn't think about this. You weren't there.
Basically, silence was the difference between 1950 and now. Today, everything is "in your face". The problems that have always existed in society were brought to the forefront, were put in everyone's face. People had to acknowledge these problems. No one had to acknowledge the dismal treatment of women until women started speaking out in larger numbers. No one had to acknowledge that African-Americans were being treated like crap until Dr. King and his protesters were being physically attacked by police officers and attack dogs. No one had to care, until it was on television.
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I'm not old enough to look upon those days fondly, but I do recall the stories that my parents and grandparents had told me about what was going on with them and the people around them. There were some positive things even within the black community (unity, accountability, self suffiency due to the racism) but outside of it was terrible.