The time: The 50's???

Question

What was it like in the 50's? I mean the year by the way. Not the age. By the way, I didn't know what topic to put thus under.

Answer 1

Yes, it is a huge question. And it is difficult for people who did not live thru it to ever fully comprehend what it was like.

There was a national mood, following WWII, that we were safe now, could relax a little and enjoy the good life. Korea, Commie expansion and Russia had the bomb were all concerns but more like annoyances / trailing consequences of WWII.

TV was invented in 1949 and didn't get fully distributed / integrated into every home until mod-50s, so life moved slowly, by letters (which took a week to go coast to coast for 3 cents), personal contacts and very expensive phone calls. But it was definitely more face-to-face and personal. Living the good life of the two-tone car and suburbian house was everything.

No one had problems (not that they talked about) and no one wanted to listen to stuff happening on foreign shores (been there, done that, time to live the good life). In the long perspective, it was a backlash from some horrid times (Depression leading into WWII) and our self imposed isolationist mood cost us dearly in later decades. But, we kinda knew that and didn't care. It was our time for the good stuff and we wanted that.

What ended that mood? The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Assassination of Kennedy. All of a sudden, the world was back at our doorstep, very close and doing stuff that we couldn't ignore anymore. Danger had returned. Wake up everyone.

Answer 2

Moonypie, I grew up in the 50's and it was like any age - a mixture of good and bad. It was a simpler time in some ways like others have said. More people attended church, were involved in social clubs, kids were physically safer in general. And there were new inventions in our homes: television, colored phones (you still had to dial rather than push buttons), dishwashers, motorized lawn mowers, to name just a few. We saw things on the TV we'd only read about before. BUT it was also the age of hypocrisy and fear of anything different from the upright, white communities most pictured on that same TV. There were wonderful people alive at that time: Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Duke Ellington; Thor Heyerdahl. And there were the other not so wonderful folks like Joe McCarthy.
The 50's were a time when we believed that science and God would deliver us from all illness and poverty before the 21st century. And they were times when we were all sure that the 3rd world war was right around the corner. I remember my father wanting to build a bomb shelter in our back yard. I also remember being trained to dive under my desk in school - to duck and cover -in the event of a nuclear blast. People were more polite then, but racism was everywhere. My father was a dentist in a small Ohio town who wouldn't treat a black man he knew and liked unless he did it after hours. It was a strange time but no stranger that the other times in history. I like James H. answer very much - he's right about the splintered mentality of the time.

Answer 3

The 50's in America was the time of baby boomers, the dads were home from WW2, the economy was increasing, home ownership flourished, sock hops, Elvis and rock n roll, the beginning of the nuclear age, Korean war, nuclear submarines, drive in fast food restaurants and waitress's on roller skates, easy credit, aluminum in home sales, milk was delivered to your door, a simpler time and more family time and values.

Answer 4

growing up in the 50's was nice for a kid, I seen Sputnik at night, we would get lost for hours not having to fear being kidnapped or abused, going to the movies on sat and sun, costing a quarter and seeing 2 movies, cartoons and previews. for a quarter you could get a pop, bag of chips and a candy bar, we walked a lot,rode bikes or got on a bus to go most places, a lot of people didn't cars. There was discipline in the schools and if you got in trouble, you got double trouble once you got home. The neighborhood watched out for everyone, you could get yelled at by your friends mom or dad, and when you got home you'd get yelled at again. I could go on but it was a great time to live, and sad that you will never know what it was like

Answer 5

Do you have some more specific questions, this waaay to general.

Answer 6

try