Legalization of gambling came March 19, 1931.
No, the money I saved working in the US. I’d save most of it for investment. One of the beauties of living on a kibbutz is that there aren’t any expenses.
I’d try to find a nice colored boy.
Ha! I was thinking about all the pictures of my grandma and her sisters curiously sans eyebrows. I can only imagine the '50s as full of women looking permanently surprised.
I’m glad I recall you are an African-American Woman, or I would have had a serious :rolleyes: moment. I take it you are one of the younger dopers?
Walloon: Thanks, I knew it was well before 1957. Am I right thinking it did not take off until [del]Moe Green[/del] Bugsy?
I’ve never really thought about 1957, but I did have a dream once that an experiment-gone-wrong threw me back to 1945 (which actually helps me a lot, compared to 1957, in some ways). There, I looked up my grandparents (I fortuitously landed in their hometown) to ask for help for a few days, since I knew that even without my being able to prove who I was, they would help a stranger in need. Once I got myself back on my feet, I commenced hitchhiking to New Mexico. Around then I woke up, but the next step would be to talk myself into Los Alamos (delicate balance between getting in and getting arrested, there), and getting together with the greatest physics minds of the century, all conveniently gathered together in one place, to try to figure out how to send me back.
Given that “colored” and “negro” were the proper terms in 1957, with “black” not becoming predominant until about 1968, would you have been upset had monstro not been black or female?
It was the complete package of “colored boy”. It caught me very off guard and made little sense until I realized **Monstro ** was having some fun and is probably a young “colored girl”. I think even in 1957, “colored boy” was not an acceptable term for someone you were treating with respect. I think she was trying to shock a little and succeeded with me.
Jim
Didn’t employers also commonly ask draft-age men to present their selective service cars (couldn’t a man be arrested for not having one)? Of course 1957 was after Korea and before Vietnam so draft dodging wouldn’t have been a big problem. Would a 22 year old male be able to enlist without any papers? What would military service entail in 1957 and how long would a term of enlistment last?
AFAIK, the current mania with proof of identidy is relatively recent. I don’t know whether one could enlist without any papers, but I’m not sure it would be a bar to enlistment, either.
As for terms of enlistment - IIRC my father choose around that time to “volunteer” to be drafted to the navy for a short term. The standard term of an enlistment is four years, but I think that some of the draft terms were two years.
I’ve been thinking about this. Assuming I could survive the first few days/weeks with help from charites/churches I’d actually have it pretty easy. I’d just go to my current employer and ask for a job. They might not give me the same thing I’m currently doing but I’d at least know a hell of a lot about what was going to happen to them and that they’d be a reliable longterm bet. While it was not common for women to work in transport back then, it wasn’t unheard of either. I think I’d do OK.
Other than that, I’d just sit back and wait for the 60s to start and get albums from as many bands as I could.
I didn’t live in the 50s, but it’s my understanding that “colored” was the politefolks term for “person of negroid ancestry”.
Regardless, there’s no reason to be shocked by the term. It’s only offensive because it’s an archaic, throwback term from the “bad old days”.
Which is what we’re talking about.
Michael Dukakis and Elvis Presley served two-year draft terms in the Army in the mid- to late-1950s.
The “colored” part was. The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was founded in, and thus a strong influence in, my community near Baltimore. “Colored” was the polite word until the mid-60s in that region, when “Negro” (which has also been a polite term) became a dominant self-referent (see United Negro College Fund, founded in the 1940’s), but only briefly. When I was a child, “Black” was offensive. Later, it was “Afro-American” and “African-American,” followed by “Black.” I can’t speak for the experience in other regions.
The “boy” part is and has been variously insulting, familiar, or jocular, depending on the interpersonal context.
As I said, I don’t think “colored boy” would have been well received from a white person. It caught me off guard. I am regretting saying anything. Colored was still pretty commonly used when I was little. Calling someone a “nice colored boy” in the early 70s was already considered condescending or at least ignorant. I could be dead wrong about the 50s. Sorry for the hijack everyone.
Jim
And age. I don’t think even today that males under 21, white or black, particularly object to being called a boy.
Been there done that. I got off the bus in Atlanta almost 20 years ago with only $20 in my pocket. I can allways get a job doing what I’m doing now, and working in some of the same houses I work in now. By the way I’m a glazer a job witch has not changed much in about a thousand years. For money right away I can always cook, Waffle House was around then. Invest in Coca-Cola, IBM,Bell… Put all my long term money in Real Estate knowing witch way Atlanta will grow.
I’d try to wriggle my way into CIA or such. Fluency in Russian is just about my only selling point that would survive the time shift; almost everything else is tied to computers.
If you apply to the CIA of fifty years ago, of course they’re going to do an extensive background check on you. The fact that your history can’t be traced is going to look suspicious. The most obvious conclusion is that you’re a Soviet spy.
Conveniently win a few sports bets then use my winnings to buy Apple, Microsoft, AOL, IBM, etc as they went public.
I will retire in about 1998 with enough money to own a small carribean island.