Life in the 50's.... Were We Better Off?
Hula Hoops, Poodle Skirts, Racism
I've heard people say the world was better back in the 1950s and we'd be better off if America was still like that.
Well I'm sure it seems that way for those that didn't live in the 50s. We hear about how simple and innocent life was then. And in ways it was. In 1951 local phone rates were 10 cents, but there was also only the old slow dial phone, there wasn't any such thing as a cell phone that so many think they can't live without now.
In 1955 the first IBM 752 computer shipped in February and was the first IBM business computer. Though it was nothing like the computers we have now. And no one knew anything about the Internet.
On December 1 American Civil Rights leader Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, and it resulted in a city-wide boycott of the bus company and stirred the civil rights movement across the nation.
In the 1950s, racism was deeply institutionalized. 50% of black families lived below the poverty line; migrant workers suffered appalling working and living conditions; people of color were not permitted to take part in the American dream. Here it is 2005 and thankfully racism is all but gone in that aspect. A black person has the right to what they want in life and is living the American dream
The U.S. federal minimum wage was $1. Amazing isn't it that hasn't changed much and it should have. Minimum wage now in 2005 is only $5.15 and hour. Seems like we aren't to far from the 50s on that.
From 1950 to 1959, 257,455 cases of polio were reported, mostly in children; 11,957 died of it. Thank God in 2005 thanks to vaccines polio no longer threatens the life of our children.
Wife-beating was not really considered a crime. Many psychologists explained that battered wives were masochists who provoked their husbands into beating them. A husband raping his wife was not a crime at all, but a sign that the woman was deficient in fulfilling her marital obligations. Could you imagine someone getting by with wife beating and raping you just because they are your husband?
The labor force ratio for male/female was 5/2; average yearly salary was $2,992. Women that didn't live life as was expected taking care of her husband, kids and the house because she wanted a career or to get a better education was considered to be something less of a true woman.
There were Bomb shelter plans like the government pamphlet "You can survive" that became widely available. I guess that's another thing we go though even in the millennium, remember everyone being scared after 911 and rushing out to buy duct tape and gas masks?
Gasoline was less than 10 cents a gallon. Don't we wish we were close to that!
In the 50s Elvis Presley came on the scene and changed music forever. The girls loved him, the boys wanted to be like him and the older generation hated him saying he was a horrible influence on the younger people. Little did they know that in 2005 Elvis would still be well know even after death and that he would be The King of Rock and Roll, and considered to be a good person for the teens to admire. After all he was a very generous, helpful and caring man, abused by the doctors and people who were supposed to help him just for the money they were receiving.
Now we have people like Michael Jackson, Eminem and Marilyn Manson. Do you think they will be to the future what Elvis is now?
It was safe to send a six year old to the store to get a loaf of bread. For a quarter, he could get the bread and enjoy a candy bar on his way back.
There wasn't air conditioning, so you left the windows and doors open. And you weren't afraid to do so. You knew every person in the community and their children. When a neighbor needed help, the neighborhood was there to lend a helping hand.
You had teachers who really cared and parents who were thankful for those teachers. If you got a paddling in school, you knew you were going to get another one when you got home. And you could go to school and not worry about someone having a gun.
And the only drug you had to worry about was being "drug" out of bed in the morning.
You could go down to the theater and watch an Elvis Presley movie, enjoy a coke and popcorn, all for 25 cents.
You enjoyed fresh veggies from the garden, and the chickens ran loose in the yard.
You were taught patriotism and Christian values in school. You had prayer, pledged allegiance to the flag and the teacher read from the Bible!
Kids played hopscotch, jump rope, baseball, dodge ball, hula-hoop, read books and hung out at the local malt shops. Now kids watch TV, play video games, talk on the internet (get stalked by someone pretending to be there age). Go to school and worry about drugs, violence and teachers that aren't to be trusted.
So as you can see life in the 1950's did have some simple things that made life better but in 2005 even though we have lots to worry about we have made a few improvements.
Now a black child can go to school with a white child and be treated the same and get the same education. We no longer worry about Polio. If a husband abuses is wife he will be punished for taking what is supposed to be a loving relationship and turning into a place where the woman is scared to death of him.
Many things are different from the 1950's some for the good, some for the bad, but would we really want to go back to the 50s? Would you be willing to give up Cell Phones, Computers, and Air Conditioning? But most important would you give up the freedoms we've gained or the medical advances that have been made?
We can get are life back to the 50s somewhat if we choose. Have dinners with all of you there. Monitor the TV kids watch, have Family Game Night, take away the play stations and computers instead teach the kids the basic of hopscotch and jump rope. Save money and raise a garden. Buy a few chickens to get your eggs and have a chicken dinner with that same chicken later. Make cookies with the kids. Just make time for one another.
Published by Cindy Wright
Cindy Wright is a Featured Arts and Entertainment Writer for Associated Content. She has been writing for AC since 2005. She is a mother of three, and lives in Southern Ohio. Cindy is currently working towa... View profile
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36 Comments
Post a Commenthttp://www.amazon.com/Way-We-Never-Were-Nostalgia/dp/0465090974 Read this book, if you truly want to know how the 50s were overhyped and still are, as you can see.
As someone who is in his 40s and gets nostalgic for the 70s and 80s music and culture, I can see why people would be fascinated with "going back in time" to a supposed "better time", especially baby boomers, but I would bet that most on here who are wishing to go back are baby boomers and white folks. As a person of color, I would NOT want to trade growing up in the 70s and 80s, where things were a lot better for us "colored" folks, where i was able to attend college, get a career, etc. Sure, we had better "values"... in terms of being nice to one another, politeness, etc. We had manners in the 70s and 80s, so manners weren't only found in the 50s... so I can honestly say that this generation of the 00s' is a lot more impolite than ever! I do miss good manners. But I don't miss the history of lynching, segregation in churches and restaurants or schools, lack of opportunities for people of color, domestic violence being treated li
I think the 50's were a great time except for all the labor and discrimination. Remember that saying your parents would always tell you "Don't jugde a book by its cover". God made all of us different for a reson. Just because someone has a different skin color, religion, hair style, smile, or anything else doesn't mean we get to jugde them. God put us all here with different looks, personallities for a reason, but He put the same love and hard work into every single one of us. People need to relize that when they die they will fase jugdement, and it is only their life choices that will determin if they are going to go to Heaven or hell. Everyone needs to accept that we are all here for a reason, and we are all EQUAL. Let there be no jugdement or there will be judgement on you in your final days.
Overall, I think the 50s were infinitely superior than this day and age. More entertaining sports, far nicer people, better music, cooler cars, postwar economy. Shall I continue?
Of course the 50's were better. Families spent more time together, people said hi to each other instead of walking by ya texting someone on their phone. Jobs were here instead of outsourced some where. Technology was less which means the media wasn't controlling peoples simple minds, people weren't sitting on there asses watching tv or playing video games. People today are the most boring freaking people I know and pretty much just lazy. You know who are cuz you'll disagree with me. Wish we could turn back time if we knew what was coming.
seriously, r all da ppl readin these posts 'bout da 50s BORN in da 50s? i mean, if it wasnt 4 my pace project, i so wouldnt be here. lol
i guess im just boooooorrrreeeeed... the 50s is gone, ppl. get over w/ it
Racism still exists, but minorities now have equal rights. The technology example provided by the author is irrelevant. Think back to the 80's when the original NES arrived on the market. How many of us were playing Mario Brothers and thinking to ourselves "man these graphics are bad, and this game isn't very interactive"? None, that's who. Technology in the 50's was just as impressive to them as 80's technology was to us.
It appears that everything started changing for the worst around the mid to late 60's. It has now spun out of control. Crime rates, poverty rates and teenage pregnancy rates have spiked severely (just to name a few). Overall, consideration, compassion and respect for others has disappeared. Many young people today attribute these beliefs to baby boomer nostalgia, but it is extremely apparent that the boomers are correct. This is much more than nostalgia. There really has been a breakdown in society.
Look at fashion. Men and women always looked respectable. Even chi
All I can say to those who were not there is if you could go back- you would stay! This disgusting disgraceful world today is a vile sewer! I feel sorry for you young folks... we surely did not envision this mess!
The only thing I ask from the 50's to come back is MANNERS. Children today are just awful creatures and most of the time their parents are the exact same way. I would trade in all the 50's cars (sniff) just for the kids and other people to have manners in my day and age.
I would just love to see the kids of gay and lesbian parents try to make it in the 50's, especially in 1950 which was 13 years away from when bible Reading was banned from school. A family consisted of only a Father and a mother and that was how it was supposed to be and no one dared change it. Preachers laid down the Law of God Almighty and you were suppose to follow it or else! Teachers were kind but firm. If a kid dared defy the law the teacher(99% of the time a woman) had the right to spank you and you had no right to say anything, yet these kids whom were subject to corporal(bodily) punishmenty turned more that alright. Father and Mother had the right to spank you, and you had the right to withstand it.