Bakelite.
I know it dates back earlier than the 50’s, but that’s the first thing I thought of.
Toni home permanents.
They even came out with a line of Toni dolls that had synthetic hair you could “perm” with a sugar water solution.
edited to add: US, in my middle 60’s
Brylcreem
Georgia (now Tennessee) Age:53
TV dinners
A 1950’s Style Death Ray.
Someday I’m going to go into detail on my theory that when people talk about a decade, it isn’t an exact ten year period. “The Sixties” usually includes hippies, Vietnam protests and civil rights milestones from '70-'72, but doesn’t include the more uptight early sixties: music like the Everly Brothers and “Teen Angel”, or Eisenhower-era politics, with Nixon as VP and JFK a mere senator.
Oh, yeah … hula hoops.
The three Ps of cool:
Pat Boone
Penny loafers
Poodle skirts
And lipstick on someone’s collar being proof of infidelity. Collar?
Western movies.
Jello
Home perms
missred, 51, Tennessee ( formerly Indiana)
Oh yeah - Buddy Holly playing a Strat.
Born 1963.
I agree
Hula Hoop, Davy Crockett hat, pogo sticks. I had all three. 66.
TV sets. Specifically, B&W sets.
I had a History prof who insisted the 1950s ended with the Kennedy assassination in 1963 and the 1960s with Nixon’s resignation in 1974.
Hula-hoop.
TV Dinners
69 here.
Ovaltine(Captain Midnight).
Great big honkin monstrosities of cars, made of steel and good old American sweat.
I wasn’t born until the 70’s so my reference point is mainly stuff like Happy Days and Back to the Future.