The death of Arthur Miller made me realize it…the 1950’s were a LONG time ago! Marilyn Monroe, Philip Johnson…they are all gone now.
Such an era as the 1950’s…makes me nostalgic for them…bobby sox, poodle skirts, the Fonze, etc. Will we ever see such a productive era again?
Were people in the 1920’s nostalgic for Victorian times? And, will future generations EVER be nostalgic for the awful 1990’s?
“Awful 90s”? You mean plentiful jobs, no war in Iraq, and no fears of terrorism? Heck, I’m nostalgic for that now.
In any event, each era’s memories selectively forget the bad and remember only the good. In the 50s we had racial segregation, organized crime making the news (Kefauver hearings anyone?), fears of nuclear annihilation, fears of Communists in the government (Joe McCarthy, anyone?), fears of juvenile delinquency, war in Korea, and our vice-president fleeing for his life from crowds in Caracas.
And the Fonize is a product of the 70s. In the 50s, people like that were hoodlums, and they weren’t photogenic.
I think the Roaring 20’s were the antithesis of the repressive Victorian times… and perhaps an overeaction to them, just as the 60’s was an overreaction to the 50’s. (IMHO, of course.)
June Cleaver vacuuming in pearls and pumps? “Duck and Cover” in the classrooms? As if hiding under a school desk would make a bit of difference. :rolleyes:
My mom used to watch June scrubbing floors in her finery and laugh out loud. My dad called Ward “that obnoxious know it all”, and all us kids just loved Eddie Haskell. Later on we used to say Eddie grew up to be Alice Cooper (not true).
I actually took part in the “hide under your desk from the nuclear bomb” drills. Even then, I knew it doesn’t work. As Chef said when “duck and cover” was taught as protection against volcanoes,
“That’s the biggest load of pig crap I ever seen” 
I ducked and covered once. In 1960. For 20 minutes.
Waiiit, I lived in the '50s there was no Fonze there.
Productive? The Eisenhower Sleep was productive? June Cleaver and Donna Reed vacuumed in spike heels, for Og sake! Lucy got pregnant from across the room. They were the role models for little girls.
The role models for boys all carried guns.
People like Joe McCarthy were believed. Groups like the KKK were condoned, even respected. Children in orphanages were given radioactive milk to see what it might do.
Thanks, but, that poodle skirt had asbestos in it. I’ll pass.
I see the 1950’s in a different light, sure, you had a few problems. But consider this:
-my dad could support his family on one salary-my mother never had to work!
-my dad would buy a new car every 3 years (on a salesman’s salary)
-houses were affordable-college students didn’t go on drunken rampages when the patriots win the Superbowl (oops, no superbowl)
And, President Eisenhower wasn’t a bad guy at all…as a former Army general, he knew something about war. hence, he was VERY reluctant to get involved in places like Somalia, Vietnam, east Shittolia, etc.
Gas was 12 cents/gallon, a small V-8 was 400 cu. inches, and the bikini was invented!
And, we had Elvis!
The 50’s were great! (Except for that 1958 recession…anybody have a link to that famous commercial: “How to start a recession”? it’s a real tear jerker.
They were not better than the '90s or '00s and a lot worse in numerous ways, including, but not limited to: racism, misogyny, child and spousal abuse all being acceptable and condoned because they “need to know their place”; communist hysteria being much worse than the current terrorist hysteria; ***nonstop *** and ***blatant ***meddling in any country we suspected of having communist leanings; and seperate but equal schools.
But cheap housing and automobiles excuses all that.
Amd if your mother had worked, it would have been for less money for doing the sam ejob, and no recourse in case she suffered sexual harrassment on the job
Cars which were demonstrably unsafe
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-houses were affordable-college students didn’t go on drunken rampages when the patriots win the Superbowl (oops, no superbowl)
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OK, you have a point there.
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And, President Eisenhower wasn’t a bad guy at all…as a former Army general, he knew something about war. hence, he was VERY reluctant to get involved in places like Somalia, Vietnam, east Shittolia, etc.
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Actually, Eisenhower did get us involved in Vietnam after the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
Now, that’s a good point, but you omit that we also had Little Richard.
The 50’s were great! (Except for that 1958 recession…anybody have a link to that famous commercial: “How to start a recession”? it’s a real tear jerker.
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Basically the 50s were a great time to be white, male, socially conservative and financially comfortable. If you met those requirements the world was pretty much your oyster. This explains a lot of the nostalgia for those times, and who has it.
Papa Doug tells me he had a great time, running a concession stand at a city pool, doing modest customizing to prewar cars, studying live TV production in college, then making training films as a Navy officer (where he met Mama Doug, who had to resign her commission to marry).
I think I just peed myself…or it could be the pain pills.
Yeah, the fifties. A great decade to be a straight white male Republican American Protestant in.