# Why are the 50s and 60s a unique target of nostalgia, and is it justified? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 5, 2014, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697 "2014-05-05T07:07:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697/81 "2016-11-30T05:15:56Z")
I think its also because the items built back then were American made and usually built pretty solid. Not the plastic, Chinese junk you get today. Take old Tonka trucks for example. Built tough. Kids today can still play with the toys of their grandparents. A few years ago I bought a Rockem-Sockem robots set. It was NOT the same as the old one and broke the first time we tried to use it. When I was a kid I had a toy, cap gun and gun belt. The guns were made of real metal and the belt/holster was made of real leather. Wish we hadnt thrown it away. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697/82 "2016-11-30T05:22:16Z")
I would also like to add that back in the 50’s it wasnt so crowded in the US. Most people grew up in areas very close to forests and wild areas. When I was a kid it seemed like we always had a creek nearby. Beaches, mountains, and wilderness areas were not crowded like they are today. Finally I think most people had a relative who still lived on a farm or out in the country where one could visit and be away from the city. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697/83 "2016-11-30T06:03:48Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Depends on the age of boomer we’re talking about. Anyone born between 1946 and 1964 is regarded by demographers as a boomer. Only those born on the early side of that range really remember the 1950s very well. I was born in 1954, and while I remember bits and pieces of pre-British Invasion culture, I’m culturally a child of the 1960s. Peace, love, Woodstock, tie-dye. My wife, born in 1964, is OTOH a child of the 1970s who remembers disco fondly, and remembers the 1960s not at all. Wow. A mixed marriage. 🙂 As for the 60s, well… sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, baby!! What’s not be nostalgic about?? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697/84 "2016-11-30T06:17:27Z")
We can watch a lot of tv from the 50’s and 60’s. Listen to their music. Even some of the news clips are available. It almost can transport us back to that era. What we see is fictional but it seems so real. I’d love to live in Mayfield with Wally and The Beaver. Get on American Bandstand. Grab a burger from a carhop. The early seasons of the Wonder Years very closely mirrors my childhood. It’s a strange feeling for me to watch that show. It triggers so many powerful memories. They got late 60’s suburbia so accurate. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697/85 "2016-11-30T08:03:04Z")
I’m absolutely gobsmacked that **Starving\_Artist** hasn’t posted to this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697/86 "2016-11-30T10:49:09Z")
I’m trans and bi, the '50s would be a **garbage** time to be alive for me. And yet… there’s something just so oddly, infectiously endearing about things from that time period. As straight and white and cis and protestant and gender normative everything from that period was, the commercials, advertisements, PSAs, and the like are just so infectiously optimistic. Everyone is so excited about the boys in the lab, or this new invention to help in the home, or how we can all work together to become a better family unit. A simple PSA about drunk driving is an endearing, if patronizing, morality tale instead of a gripping, haunting 2 minute thriller trying to shock you straight. There’s just this sense of hope, and togetherness, and sincerity about how we’re all going to work together to make our nation and neighborhoods a better place! Even in things that weren’t optimistic, there was just this odd earnestness, sincerity, and softness behind its sentiments. Of course, in many ways the 1950s were not a rosy time for everyone, and it absolutely pays to remember that. It does nobody any favors to deny the reality of the situation. I don’t think I’d like to live in the '50s, but I dig its aesthetic to no end; even if it masks some serious problems under that veneer. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697/87 "2016-11-30T13:31:33Z")
I’m wondering whether with reference to films and TV shows like Mad Men people are mistaking nostalgia for period drama. How is Downton Abbey, Victoria, or Agatha Christie period drama and Mad Men nostalgia? ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697/88 "2016-11-30T14:09:42Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I’m trans and bi, the '50s would be a **garbage** time to be alive for me. And yet… there’s something just so oddly, infectiously endearing about things from that time period. As straight and white and cis and protestant and gender normative everything from that period was, the commercials, advertisements, PSAs, and the like are just so infectiously optimistic. Everyone is so excited about the boys in the lab, or this new invention to help in the home, or how we can all work together to become a better family unit. A simple PSA about drunk driving is an endearing, if patronizing, morality tale instead of a gripping, haunting 2 minute thriller trying to shock you straight. There’s just this sense of hope, and togetherness, and sincerity about how we’re all going to work together to make our nation and neighborhoods a better place! Even in things that weren’t optimistic, there was just this odd earnestness, sincerity, and softness behind its sentiments. > > Of course, in many ways the 1950s were not a rosy time for everyone, and it absolutely pays to remember that. It does nobody any favors to deny the reality of the situation. I don’t think I’d like to live in the '50s, but I dig its aesthetic to no end; even if it masks some serious problems under that veneer. While my sister was staying in San Francisco, she happened upon Donna Reid Night at a bar she’d visited previously. Most of the patrons wore heels, shirtwaists with petticoats, big hair–and pearls, of course. So, it was nostalgia, in a way. But those guys really did _not_ want to go back to those days… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697/89 "2016-11-30T14:19:07Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > How is Downton Abbey, Victoria, or Agatha Christie period drama and Mad Men nostalgia? Because Mad Men is within living memory for a lot of people. Many fewer people who grew up in the earlier period are still alive. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697/90 "2016-11-30T14:36:28Z")
> [@](#): > > It was a positive time in which everything seemed to be getting better. Joseph McCarthy. Not a good time at all for many people. The consequences of HUAC still resonate in many families I know today, and they certainly don’t think “everything was getting better” in the 1950s. ---
**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:** [November 30, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697/91 "2016-11-30T14:55:17Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Mostly, the 50s were a high point for straight white Christian men; the people you most hear express fondness for the 50s. I’ve heard blacks and women on this forum comment that they’d rather die than live back then; there certainly aren’t fond of the period. Exactly. The 1950’s and early 1960’s were great for the straight white Christian male, and crappy for the rest of us. My oldest brother scored wonderfully on math tests, and was told to be an engineer. I scored higher and was told to go into teaching because “it’s a women’s field.” ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697/92 "2016-11-30T15:15:20Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Exactly. The 1950’s and early 1960’s were great for the straight white Christian male, and crappy for the rest of us. My oldest brother scored wonderfully on math tests, and was told to be an engineer. Yes because famously antibiotics, vaccines, the pill, jet travel, household appliances, food surplus, satellites, integrated circuits are effective on or can be used by only White Men. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697/93 "2016-11-30T16:56:29Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The baby boomers. World War II ended and a lot of young people started families at the same time. Their children grew up in the fifties and sixties. So normal childhood nostalgia became associated with those particular eras. Yep. I was born in 1948. Childhood in the 50s, adulthood in the 60s. I remember things being much easier then because they were. I didn’t have to be responsible for myself. Once I left home and went out into the world on my own, things got a helluva lot more complicated. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697/94 "2016-11-30T17:14:05Z")
> [@](#): > > I remember things being much easier then because they were. I didn’t have to be responsible for myself. I wonder if is this is more the case in time period/locations where parents shielded children from the difficulties than in locales/times when they didn’t/couldn’t? Which sends me off on a tangent - how many people have any nostalgia for childhood? If not their own particular childhood, then at least the idea of it? Not many that I can think of. At least, not exactly. People don’t want to be kids again, and few call that the best time in their lives. Despite the lack of cares (if you were fortunate), the lack of freedoms would drive most of us batty in a week. Can’t choose what you eat or when you sleep or what you wear (even at home) and have to get permission to get up and go to the bathroom 8 hours a day. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697/95 "2016-11-30T20:05:12Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I think its also because the items built back then were American made and usually built pretty solid. Not the plastic, Chinese junk you get today. > > Take old Tonka trucks for example. Built tough. Kids today can still play with the toys of their grandparents. > > A few years ago I bought a Rockem-Sockem robots set. It was NOT the same as the old one and broke the first time we tried to use it. > > When I was a kid I had a toy, cap gun and gun belt. The guns were made of real metal and the belt/holster was made of real leather. Wish we hadnt thrown it away. Some things were built tough. Other things were flimsy crap. You don’t remember the flimsy crap because it broke the first time you used it, and then you threw it away. There were plenty of toys made out of balsa wood or cardboard or flimsy sheet metal back then. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-50s-and-60s-a-unique-target-of-nostalgia-and-is-it-justified/687697.md?page=4)