# how accurate is the kids' swearing in Stand By Me **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 8, 2011, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121 "2011-05-08T02:59:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/1 "2011-05-08T02:59:52Z")
is it believable that kids could talk like that in the 50s? I never heard it on Leave it to Beaver ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/2 "2011-05-08T03:21:03Z")
Heh. Beaver. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/3 "2011-05-08T03:42:16Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > is it believable that kids could talk like that in the 50s? I never heard it on Leave it to Beaver At a museum I worked at we had a Bill Maudlin cartoon with the caption “To hell with it, sir. Let’s go back to the front.” A little girl asked my why there was a swear word used because she thought people back then didn’t swear. It’s completely believable that kids back then could swear like that. It’s not like they were doing it in front of their parents. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/4 "2011-05-08T03:43:18Z")
Assuming you’re serious ( _Leave it to Beaver_ was not exactly a documentary ), the author grew up in a very similar milieu to the setting of the story and I’m sure drew on his own childhood experiences for it. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/5 "2011-05-08T03:48:45Z")
Fuck yeah it was accurate. Back then there was less swearing in front of elders and the like, but 12ish-year-old boys with each other? It’s a game to see who can swear the most. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/6 "2011-05-08T04:45:31Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > I never heard it on Leave it to Beaver I never saw married couples sleep in the same bed on LITB, but they did that in the fifties too. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/7 "2011-05-08T04:55:48Z")
I’ll bet you didn’t know that Wally and Eddie Haskell were lovers, either. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/8 "2011-05-08T05:23:53Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > (_Leave it to Beaver_ was not exactly a documentary ) Cite?! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/9 "2011-05-08T05:37:28Z")
Back in the 60s during the Summer of Love ™ in San Francisco little boys would see how many times they could say “fuck” and in as many ways as possible. But not around the grown-ups. Yes, TSS spent the SoL in SF and remembers it. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/10 "2011-05-08T06:47:45Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Cite?! Greatest cite request EVER! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/11 "2011-05-08T12:25:10Z")
Being a few years younger and growing up on the East Coast, I thought it was exaggerated. We did, a few times, “to show how masculine we were”. But not as much as the kids in “Stand by Me” But just like Marty DiBergi wouldn’t show the times Spinal Tap didn’t get lost going on stage, the meathead who did this film exaggerated to make his film look “edgy” and “real”. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/12 "2011-05-08T13:04:51Z")
That’s a whoosh right? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/13 "2011-05-08T13:19:28Z")
They DID swear on _Leave It To Beaver_. Real Beavophiles, know that in one episode, some guy trips Beaver and Beaver swears at him. But just as Beaver cusses, the school bell rings and we can’t hear what the Beaver says. But Miss Landers does and she’s flabbergasted and sends home a note, which a parent has to sign. But, and here’s the conflict, Ward is out on a business trip, so Beaver would have to have his mother sign a note. Of course Beaver can’t bring himself to show the note to June as he’d have to tell June the swear. So Wally comes in as the “man of the house,” to, not only typical hilarious results but we also learn something too ---
**Author:** ![The\_Jay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b77776/32.png) [@The\_Jay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Jay)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/14 "2011-05-08T13:33:58Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > That’s a whoosh right? The fact you have to ask means that you have been wooshed. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/15 "2011-05-08T13:48:14Z")
There’s also the time that Ward was a little too hard on the Beaver last night… ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/16 "2011-05-08T18:30:32Z")
As a child in the late fifties, I remember the first time I got away with saying “Jesus Christ” as a swear phrase in front of my mom. I used it enough to where she questioned it, just because I was too stupid to be be selective and threw it into every sentence, just like a seven year old would. The point is that kids really like using their new swear words, until an adult points out that they’re being assholes about it. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/17 "2011-05-08T20:44:13Z")
I don’t think it was realistic in view of their ages in the film. I have no doubt older kids like “Ace” would be swearing a blue streak but 12 year olds, I think not. In the film they were swearing every other word, I just find it hard to believe 12 year olds would be doing that in the fifties. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/18 "2011-05-08T20:59:16Z")
I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in the 50’s, with boys as friends, and swearing was rare. Except for one guy who said “fuck” every other word. “Which one is Gary?” “The one who says ‘fuck’ all the time.” “Oh yeah, him.” He stood out, which makes me think that most boys didn’t talk like that, in the 50’s, in small towns. **Jim’s Son’s** post might be a whoosh, but he has a point. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/19 "2011-05-08T21:45:05Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > I don’t think it was realistic in view of their ages in the film. I have no doubt older kids like “Ace” would be swearing a blue streak but 12 year olds, I think not. In the film they were swearing every other word, I just find it hard to believe 12 year olds would be doing that in the fifties. That’s kind of an odd belief. I know that my father and uncles (growing up in a railroad town in the '40s and '50s) were notorious for their bad language c. 1953 (when my father was eleven,) and that my mother was specifically cautioned to stay away from the foul-mouthed little fuckers. I’m also pretty sure that the sort of language I used when _I_ was twelve was not reflected in contemporary televised depictions of kids my own age, and would think it would be an easy inference that the same held true for past generations. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121/20 "2011-05-08T21:55:55Z")
I find it completely realistic. And apparently this came straight out of Steven King’s personal experience. There’s no reason to believe that it is unrealistic just because your personal experience was different. The '50s weren’t some kind of magical, isolated time. Those of us swearing as kids in the '70s got those words from those '50s kids. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kids-swearing-in-stand-by-me/581121.md?page=2)