# If someone from the 1950s suddenly appeared today, what would be the most difficult thing to explain **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 21, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454 "2013-11-21T17:57:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/181 "2013-11-29T21:09:01Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > What about everyday use of swear words? Damn & Hell use to be nasty, now Fuck & Shit are used in casual conversation. > > And the converse side, words that were fine in the 1950’s that are totally taboo today. Not only the “n-word,” but just let the 1950’s traveller call a full grown female a “girl,” or a “colored guy” a “boy” and see the reaction. The best example of this for me is the word “sucks”. In the 70s I remember this being a nasty dirty word with purely sexual connotations; over time it drifted over to be a rather innocuous synonym for “stinks” and its brethren, like “This sucks” and “I suck at this game” I have even heard this spoken in casual conversation at church without anyone raising an eyebrow, because “sucks” has completely lost its edge. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/182 "2013-11-29T21:55:06Z")
I think most people would be shocked by how much stuff there is to buy. And central air /heat in people’s homes. The reason houses were so affordable in the 50s was they were just boxes with minimal electricity and plumbing. When I was a child in the 50’s people just didn’t have ‘stuff’. You wanted stuff, it was easier to make it yourself. And rooms were heated one room at a time. Window air was shockingly new. TV was for rich folks. And I lived in an area where TV was available by 1950. When I say rooms were heated one at a time, my childhood bedroom was heated by an open gas flame like [this](http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/5/7/3/5/4/7/webimg/718837441_o.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2013, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/183 "2013-11-30T00:18:17Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > The best example of this for me is the word “sucks”. In the 70s I remember this being a nasty dirty word with purely sexual connotations; over time it drifted over to be a rather innocuous synonym for “stinks” and its brethren, like “This sucks” and “I suck at this game” > > I have even heard this spoken in casual conversation at church without anyone raising an eyebrow, because “sucks” has completely lost its edge. You can say “pissed off” on TV now, too. My pastor has even used that word in sermons. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2013, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/184 "2013-11-30T12:02:15Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > And on top of that, fathers getting primary custody after a divorce, or even keeping their children at home with them if his wife died, and fathers staying involved with the children, along with his extended family, after a divorce. > > Even in the 1970s, none of that was the norm. I’ll admit that part of it was women who remarried and told the kids things like, “You have a new daddy so you don’t need the old one any more”. My Grandparents divorced in the early 60s, so only a little later, and my Grandpa wound up with full custody (and never remarried). People apparently thought it was a bit unusual, but it wasn’t a total shock. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/185 "2013-12-01T20:05:33Z")
The first time the time traveller lit a cigarette in public would be hysterical. “I can’t smoke in the building. I can’t smoke 50 feet outside the building? What type of a Communist state is this?” ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/186 "2013-12-01T20:51:09Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The first time the time traveller lit a cigarette in public … Is your time traveler from before 1400 BCE? Or from Europe before 1500 CE? Then he would be puzzled seeing anyone lighting up something so dangerously close to their face, even in designated smoking areas. Smoking? What’s that? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/187 "2013-12-01T22:22:21Z")
😕 The time traveler is from the 1950s, unless I lost track of the discussion somewhere… ---
**Author:** ![runningdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@runningdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runningdude)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/188 "2013-12-01T23:05:54Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > The most difficult thing to explain would probably be how and why people have become so stupid. > > “Lemme see if I get this straight—they let people who can barely read, write, or perform grade school arithmetic graduate from college now? And people have stopped vaccinating their children because a criminal and a Playboy bunny told them that doing so will cause a developmental disorder that resembles severe schizophrenia?” People regularly dropped out of high school back then, so poor education would be no surprise. They will likely be shocked that people spend $40,000 to send their kids to a state school, to party and drink for four years… Turning down perfectly good vaccinations, I agree would shock them. Many of these diseases were still rampant back then! ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/189 "2013-12-01T23:41:42Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > The time traveler is from the 1950s, unless I lost track of the discussion somewhere… I guess the wormhole only goes to / comes from there. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/190 "2013-12-02T14:58:59Z")
I imagine a religious type would take the gay marriage thing and the widespread availability of just about any kind of porn of all levels of explicitness and figure that Satan had pretty much won and t he apocalypse would be coming Real Soon Now. Though this may not be all that difficult to explain as their mythology prepares them for it. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/191 "2013-12-02T17:07:44Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > The fact that no nukes have been used since Hiroshima and Yokohama would probably amaze them. I’m pretty sure you’re in the wrong universe; in _this_ time line it was Hiroshima and Nagasaki. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/192 "2013-12-02T17:42:12Z")
Yokohama was destroyed by American bombers, but using conventional explosives. > **[Yokohama](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokohama)** > > Yokohama (Japanese: 横浜, .mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}pronounced \[jokohama\] ⓘ) is the second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous municipality.\[a\] It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a population of 3.7 million in 2023. It lies on Tokyo Bay, sou > [@](#): > > Yokohama was rebuilt, only to be destroyed again by thirty-odd U.S. air raids during World War II. An estimated seven or eight thousand people were killed in a single morning on May 29, 1945 in what is now known as the Great Yokohama Air Raid, when [B-29s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-29_Superfortress) firebombed the city and in just one hour and nine minutes reduced 42% of it to rubble.[[8]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokohama#cite_note-interesting1-8) Nagasaki was the city that Fat Man was dropped on. > **[Enola Gay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enola_Gay)** > > The Enola Gay (/əˈnoʊlə/) is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets. On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare. The bomb, code-named "Little Boy", was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and destroyed about three-quarters of the city. Enola Gay participated in the second nuclear attack as the weather reconnaissance aircraft for the prim... > [@](#): > > _Enola Gay_ participated in the second atomic attack as the weather reconnaissance aircraft for the primary target of [Kokura](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokura). Clouds and drifting smoke resulted in [Nagasaki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagasaki) being bombed instead. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/193 "2013-12-02T17:58:49Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The first time the time traveller lit a cigarette in public would be hysterical. “I can’t smoke in the building. I can’t smoke 50 feet outside the building? What type of a Communist state is this?” I read through the entire thread and was coming in to state this! Smoking would be a big one. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/194 "2013-12-02T19:21:34Z")
Well, I’m from the 50s. Aside from the technological advances, a 50s person who just woke up from a coma might have a hard time understanding why men wear such voluminous bathing suits to the beach while the women are wearing the skimpiest pieces of fabric. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/195 "2013-12-02T19:47:44Z")
When I was a kid in the 50s, I remember my mother telling me that in the Soviet Union, there are women doctors, lawyers and engineers, or anything else they wanted to be. We both thought that was rather strange. And I remember, I guess sometime in the 70s, when tv news people started to act more casually with each other. Before that, they were all male, and were dead serious all the time. But I still say the greatest difference would be attitudes toward LGBT people. Nobody was out in the 50s, and even if they were, they’d be equated with child molesters or sociopaths. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/196 "2013-12-02T20:13:42Z")
Sex, sex, sex every day every where every way both visual and aural. Pandora’s box. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2013, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/197 "2013-12-02T20:29:24Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > “And we call this the ‘Special Olympics’”. > > “You mean you RACE them!?”:eek: Yup…did pretty good with that boxed exacta on the third race. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/198 "2013-12-07T16:24:19Z")
The idea that the “devil’s music” of rock and roll not only was not a fad, but survived in about 200 forms to become the biggest musical revolution in history. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/199 "2013-12-07T21:07:19Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The first time the time traveller lit a cigarette in public would be hysterical. “I can’t smoke in the building. I can’t smoke 50 feet outside the building? What type of a Communist state is this?” There’s a TV show called _The 4400_, about a bunch of people who disappeared over the course of some sixty or so years, who all reappear at the same time, unaged, with no memory of the missing time. One of them is a black guy who vanished shortly after taking a savage beating for dating a white girl. As he’s walking around modern day New York, he’s amazed by the number of interracial couples he sees, and the way no one seems to care about his skin color at all. While it’s certainly better than the way things used to be, it just makes his culture shock stronger and stronger. Finally, he’s sitting in a cafe, having a cup of coffee, and some white punk kid is glaring at him, and he thinks he’s finally in a situation he understands - here’s some naked racism at last, just like he grew up with. Until the kid points over his shoulder, at the “No smoking” sign. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454/200 "2013-12-07T22:13:05Z")
> [@Sahirrnee](#): > > Single mothers, bi-racial relationships and the divorce rate. Eh, the rate is about three times higher now, but 10% of children were in single parent households even in 1960. It was hardly unknown, and I doubt it simply being more common would blow a time-travelers mind. I’d say the same thing about bi-racial relationships as I said about race issues in general. The CA case invalidating miscegenation laws happened in 1947, so its not like bi-racial relationships were some sort of unknown. Depending on who he was, 1950’s guy might not have liked the fact that they were legal throughout the US now, but I doubt he’d have trouble understanding it. The wind was already blowing in that direction by 1950. Ditto divorce rates. They’ve more then doubled since 1950, but then, 1950s-guy would probably be at least vaguely aware that they’d more then doubled between 1900 and 1950. I doubt he’d really have trouble understanding that a trend already apparent in his own time had continued. I still think acceptance of gays is the only thing people have profered that 1950’s-guy would really have trouble wrapping his brain around. Indeed, judging by the demographic breakdown on polls about gay-issues, plenty of people that have traveled to our time from the 1950’s via the normal aging process do indeed have trouble getting their heads around it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-someone-from-the-1950s-suddenly-appeared-today-what-would-be-the-most-difficult-thing-to-explain/674454.md?page=11)