Community Chat

[suzyQ3]

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@DecorDiva wrote:

@roxxy1  - thanks for posting these pictures.  I was blessed to grow up in small town America, with two loving parents and a feeling of security.  That's totally gone for today's kids.

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@DecorDiva, first, no, it is not gone for today's kids. There are loving parents everywhere. There are also wonderful single parents. And where they live (small town or not) doesn't change that equation.

[ALRATIBA]

That bottom picture ..... I wonder if those are 78 rpms.   I think 45s are what we were playing in the 50s.

If they were 33s, they'd have cardboard album covers.

[this is my nic]

It seems that life in the 1950's are generally looked upon as 100% wonderful.  I guess people don't know about kids in school having drills in case they were bombed by Russia, that's the atomic bomb friends, not a bomb some nut put together to level the school.  Imagine being a parent and worrying that your child might become infected with polio.   Measles were still a childhood disease which could be deadly.  We tend to look back with rose colored glasses.  The 1950's were not without serious problems. 

[lovesrecess]

I fondly recall of few of those things...but don’t recall my mother ever wearing a corsage on an airplane. It was a rather primitive time in some regards....my parents were divorced in 1955. When we started elementary school some years later, she wasn’t allowed to join the PTA because she was a “divorcee” which carried a very negative connotation back then. I also don’t recall having a pink stove....😬

[Sooner]

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@millieshops wrote:

I was there -  it was simpler, but like most nostalgia pictures, we're seeing the chosen, stliized pieces.  Not everyone lived the life they show.  Not much in any of those shots show my experience.  I'm not complaining, but where are the homeless who begged the meal my mother handed them on our back steps or the kids in hand-me-downs, the unpaved streets, men putting chains on their tires so they could drive a little easier in the snow.  Cleaned-up simple looks ideal -  true simple is more complex.

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@millieshops No running water, no sewer, no trash pickup, lots of poverty where I lived with no real help for them, people working to the bone in factories for little money, if you hat a telephone it was probably a party line, many didn't have tv, and so forth.

No, it wasn't all sweetness and light.

[San Antonio Gal]

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@bathina wrote:
Not a single person of color in these "idealized" pictures. In fact, people of color were still prevented from voting in many states until the voting rights act of 1965. So maybe an ideal time for white middle class families, but not so much for others.

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@bathina  - that's the first thing I thought when I saw these pics - no person of color.  As you stated, it may have been a ideal time for some, but not for minorities, women who wanted careers and people with medical issues.

[itsmetoo]

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@roxxy1 wrote:

Just thought these pictures were fun to look at.  Not trying to be controversial.  Geeeeze.

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@roxxy1 

I so enjoyed that trip down memory lane.  Thank you! Ignore those people - some just like to be controversial.

[roxxy1]

Thanks @itsmetoo  

[ScarletDove]

Simplier, yes, for I lived my teen years in the 50's. And yes, there were inequities many of us endured and helped to make inroads for it to improve which it has for those younger; as a female, I remember it very well!  Every decade has its pros and cons and we as a nation and people have surely advanced.  Better technologically, yes, but not so sure in other ways!  All I will say is that my life in the 50's was surely better than my parents who were married year before the Depression hit, so they struggled and I never heard complaints or moaning from these humble and strong people over their lifetime.

[ScarletDove]

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@Ruby Laine wrote:

@roxxy1, I have never understood why threads like this make people so angry. I loved the 50s and 60s and had so much fun growing up. Loved sock hops!  Of course terrible things happened, worldwide and in private lives.

When haven't they?

My parents had such fond memories of the 20s, 30s, and 40s, in spite of the depression and WWII.  My dad had a terrible home life, but still thought those times were the best. No one had money, infants died of diseases that have been eradicated, and there were evil people in the world. But my parents still had such good times, too. 

Every generation looks back fondly at times gone by. What's wrong with that?

Thanks for posting those pictures!

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@Ruby Laine  Thank you for this great post....I totally agree 100%!