What stands out in your memory about living in the 1950's?

Question

For those, of course, who did.

I do enjoy ALL your answers very much. I was born in 68 and have a lot of my Grandmothers things, much from the 50's, I like to picture what things where like for her at my age 30's.
I forgot, it was post war and before Vietnam. All your input rings a clean view of life.

Answer 1

How safe we felt.

We really thought we were on the verge of ending disease and want.

That as 'THE' world leader we were indestructable, and we trusted our government to keep us safe and treat us as a benevolent parent would.

I think everything was just as bad as it is today, but we weren't aware of it. Reporting was different. Society was different. For instance, child sexual abuse was almost never mentioned. When it was reported, the child was assumed to be lying and was essentially ignored or punished.

TV and radio were regulated, and only used in the evenings. Our news came from newspapers that weren't focused on making money and managed to give us real news . . . often several views of the news.

There was good and bad. Like during any other time! If you were poor or black the 50's were not such a good time.

Answer 2

1950: Watch With Mother , a series for young children featuring favourite characters such as Andy Pandy, the Flowerpot Men, Rag, Tag, and Bobtail, and the Woodentops, is shown on British television.

.1951: Two plutonium - production reactors, the first full - scale nuclear reactors in the UK, go into operation at Windscale (known as Sellafield from 1973) in Cumbria, England.

1952: The play The Mousetrap , by the English writer Agatha Christie, is first performed, in London.

1953: The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II is watched on televisions in homes and public places, such as church halls, by an estimated 20 million viewers in Britain. The event also stimulates the purchase of television sets.

1954: The Television Act establishes the Independent Television Authority in Britain to manage the introduction of commercial television, which will begin in 1955, ending the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) monupoly.

1955: English engineer Christopher Cockerell patents the first hovercraft.

1956: The popularity of singer Lonnie Donegan's ` Rock Island Line ´ (recorded in 1954) triggers the skiffle craze in Britain. The sound is based on acoustic guitar and home - made percussion, including washboards. Its main significance is to make the British market more receptive to blues music.

1957: The USSR launches the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1 , to study the cosmosphere. It weighs 84 kg (184 lb) and circles the Earth in 95 minutes, inaugurating the space age.

1958: Eight members of the Manchester United football team from England are killed in an air crash in Munich, West Germany, while returning from a European Cup tie in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

1959: The Mini Minor car, designed by Alec Issigonis for the British Motor Corporation, is launched in Britain, costing less than £ 500. By 1965, one million Minis will have been produced, and the car becomes a symbol of `swinging London ´ in the late 1960s..

Answer 3

The optimism about the future. There were articles in newspapers about how we were going to spend our leisure time when computers and robots did the work,. Unlimited power was going to become available from nuclear energy. Our cars were going to be replaced with vehicles that could fly. Overpopulation would be solved by settlement on other planets. A cure for all deceases including cancer was just around the corner. The only thing that even came close to our expectations is communications and the Internet.

Answer 4

OK, I hope there isn't a psychologist in the house...

I was born in the LATE 50s. My perceptions are those of a toddler, but this is what I perceive:

I believe the in the 50s people were neither as affectionate nor as cruel as they are today. I think people were rediscovering themselves developmentally as one unit: mankind. I think the 50s began a slow drift towards intellect building and away from character building. I remember conversations in my home about preparing for the future and building science, math, and reasoning skills. I believe you begin to see that more tangibly in the changes in education that began in the early 60s... "new math," and new whole language / sight reading of the Dick and Jane era.

Children were encouraged to think for themselves and make their own values judgments.

I was just a kid, but that is what I think about sometimes, and I remember conversations about it. I also remember watching my parents work to inspire us to question "why?"

Beyond that, I remember hanging out with my family and fighting with my brothers.

OK, and I also remember our skinny armed long red sofa and skinny legged wood veneered dining room table.

I also remember the refrigerator with the little freezer in the top of the fridge.

I remember the station wagon with "wings" in the back.

I also remember the "car seat" we had for my little brother. He was "belted in" with tiny plastic straps. The car seat had a steering wheel and the car seat was NOT attached to the seat with a seat belt!

Interesting question, threeicys.

Answer 5

I was just a little girl, but I remember black and white TV shows with no need for censorship ( and you were lucky if you could afford a TV), being able to leave the house without locking the doors, really nice neighbors who helped each other when needed, buying a bottle of Coke for a nickel, skating or riding my bicycle all day with all my friends and we all had ponytails, getting drinks of water from the water hose and chunks of ice to chew on from the milkman's truck, dressing up really nice on Sundays and holidays - including white gloves, Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver, Lassie, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Gene Autry, Sky King.......and on, and on , and on......

Answer 6

Watching Davy Crockett on 'Wonderful World of Disney.'

Riding my bike with baseball cards in the spokes to make it sound like a motor.

Collecting those baseball cards.

Reading comic books.

Reading Nancy Drew books.

Watching the 'Ed Sullivan' Show.

NY Yankees in the World Series.

Going to the Drive-In on Saturday nights with my parents.

'Duck and Cover' drills at school.

Catching lightening bugs at dusk.

Knowing everyone in town and feeling safe.

Answer 7

i didn't.......but when I hear 1950's I think swing time and bobby skirts and I can still see my father putting Vaseline on his head to slick back his hair,although it was in the late 60 when I was born I know Elvis was big and people where more for one another then for themselves. Life then, I think was even for everybody,what was hard for one was hard for all. I would say, if I had to pick an era to live in it would be the early 60,like Woodstock and flowers.

Answer 8

Okay, I was sooooo not alive then, but my dad was born in 1945, and my mom in 51, and I remember talking with my mom about this once, and it just seems bizarre to me that girls weren't allowed to wear pants to school. That really stuck out in my mind as a kid. She was also a natural lefty, forced to write with her right hand.

Answer 9

I had this cool colored mobile thing in my crib that went round and round and played music.

Answer 10

Falsies.
They stood out, all right!