The original Edward R. Murrow "This I Believe" with excepts:
http://thisibelieve.org/history/

***

"Confidential" magazine covers:
https://www.google.com/search?q=confidential+magazine&safe=off&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi51Lr2xNjSAhUY1GMKHTPbBDkQsAQITg&biw=1113&bih=484#safe=off&tbm=isch&q=confidential+magazine+1950s&;*

***

"The Atomic Cafe" (1982)
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-atomic-cafe/

***

So much of our current turmoil is rooted in nostalgia for the lost world of the 1945-1960 time period. I would even argue that LD$, Inc. uses this nostalgia as a lure to entice people into or remain in Mormonism. But really -- what was so great about the 1950s?

I've only seen the 1950s in old magazines, newspapers, newsreels, period TV shows and classic "B" movie SF films. Along with the ersatz idyllic "Leave It To Beaver" world there was also plenty of sex, crime and drugs and scandal and teen rebellion just like today. Most people still worked on farms or in factories despite the creation of a new middle class after the war. Medical treatment was still mostly surgical with just a few new drugs like penicillin and the polio vaccine. Things might have been cheaper but the pay was low. A home built back then for a family of four would seem small today but large for a couple who grew up during the Depression.

Cults try to sell some kind of perfect world and Mormonism is no exception. Mormons are probably one of the few groups renaming in America that have a traditional patriarchal nuclear family with a single provider. But even this artificially imposed lifestyle won't last forever. So, what (or was) is it? Religion? Economy? Social exclusion? There were atheists and non-conformists in that era too so it wasn't all mass conformity and McCarthyism.

You can't re-create the past. You can only try to build a better tomorrow.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2017 09:06AM by anybody.

I was born in 1957 to a poor Mormon couple who lived in a migrant house in Oregon. We moved to California before I was out of diapers. My father was a teacher in the early sixties, and he was having too many babies. It was like there was a smart, school part of him, and a really dumb and angry house part. Mormonism was still white supremacist at the time, so I was taught about the curse of black skin as a boy.

Then the president was shot, and our dog, Rags, ran away. We never found him. He was gone like Kennedy, and then later, Kennedy's brother and Martin Luther King. The TV made my father mad and my mother sad. I liked the Beatles, but Dad said they were evil. After 1965, said Dad, nothing was the same anymore. It was all going bad and only Nixon could save us.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2017 03:32AM by donbagley.

I don't know what's so great about back then, judging it based on how my grandma is and how she talks about it, it wasn't that great it was a very racist time way more than today. So if you want a bunch of whites being extremely racist then go back to that time period.

Agreed. And the racism was often violent and nearly always tolerated if not overtly abetted by authorities. A black man who whistled at a white woman or otherwise got "uppity" stood a good chance of being shot or lynched.

I'm white but my wife is Latina. I know that millions of Americans resent her presence in "their" country. She and I hate to be apart, and I hate to see her subjected to bigotry. Hence I live outside the U.S. now and I hope I never have to return.

Like anything else, you have to look at history in the context of the times. The 1950's came after WW2 and the Great Depression.

There were certain cultural things that were nice. First off television was considered family friendly. Programming was classier, they didn't show toilets, it wasn't racy, not like today where every program seems to be vulgar. There was Walt Disney and John Wayne who stood up for conservative values, and made pro-American Hollywood, everything they made was a of high moral value, they stood for the best. But sadly they are gone and quality has deteriorated.

People trusted each other more, houses were never locked, people didn't fear that burglars were going to come (in small town Utah). But then came diversity and all of the sudden America was scared of crime. Then came terrorists, the middle east seems to hate us more than in the 1950s. Islam was born.

Gender roles were more protected. Hard work was valued over having everything "fair" like today. Because of this women needed men and were less likely to divorce. People felt it a shame on their dignity to accept benefits. Kids who wanted free lunch at school were expected to work in the kitchen for that. Now in Ogden 80% or more are on free lunch. More than 72% of black children today are born to single mothers. It wasn't has high in the 50s.

Ask any veteran teacher (who isn't scared to be honest) and they'll say things were easier decades ago, before all the legislation came to protect every diversity.

Were the 50's better. All I can say is that there cultural standards that were highly desirable back then that we seem to have lost.

Um, Islam wasn't born in the 1950s.

And I still don't lock my doors at night -- in "small town" California. Because I and my ethnically diverse neighbors all look out for each other.

No, I don't miss the 50's -- or the 60's -- at all.

Interesting, women and minorities having little to no options in life equates to high cultural standards in the warped, deluded and downright insecure mind of our resident bigot "poopstone".

I'm glad poopstone is not in my sphere of peeps. She is, well, quite frankly, ignunt. I hope she stays put in Utah, if not in Utah, then please stay away from the Pacific Northwest.

Lolololololol!!!!! Islam was born in the 7th century, sweetie.

I grew up in the 1950's. Poopstone is right on target describing the cultural environment of that time. I would also add that a major difference between then and now is the economic "evolutionary" change that America has experienced. For example, everyone in my modest neighborhood was more or less on the same economic level. Next door was a policeman, across the street was a university researcher, and around the corner was a judge. Everyone lived in pretty much the same type of modest home with 1-2 cars. Fast forward to today and what has developed is tremendous economic disparity - the have's and have-not's have grown exponentially - creating, IMO, stressful social dysfunction. There are ALOT more adult toys to buy today, but it comes with ALOT of cost, on ALOT of levels. Is it worth it? I guess - hmmmm.

Fair point, and I would add that the leadership of this country wants nothing more than to NOT return to those days of seemingly economic equality. The more income disparity the better!

Thank Reagan.

I was a child during the fifties. I was lucky to have a great family. Some of my friends were not so lucky and had the shit beat out of them regularly and everyone knew it. No one said a thing.

I was in college in 1965. I got a summer job selling shoes in a shoe store. I was paid twenty five % less an hour than the one year younger male college student who was hired at the same time as me because he had a penis and I did not. I sold rings around him but it made no difference. I also had to work two extra hours a week for no pay and off the books. If I didn't like it I could quit.

So the good old days, no thanks.

I grew up in post war England, played in bombed out buildings and drooled at the thought of oranges, chocolate and other luxuries. We were heavily rationed and life was tough, especially for our parents. I remember seeing the broken bodies and minds of ex Japanese pows. No wonder we thrived in the 60s, we'd learned how to dig deep.

No nostalgia for the 50s here.

Briggy

The England that we dug deep for, before the EU. Now they were good days :-)

Briggy

I grew up in post-war England as well, in a place whose name became a proverb for depressed areas. By modern standards we had almost nothing. No car, no tv, no telephone. Cast-off clothes that had to last years. One winter our radio broke and we couldn't afford to replace it. But we did have a public library. Yet I remember a happy childhood. Church choirboy, cubs, scouts. To this day I am careful with money. Perhaps it all has to do with expectations. It was all I knew. But then I became one of the lucky escapees: I went to the grammar school and university.

In the 1950s, nobody had seat belts. Cars were not made to absorb the shock of a collision, so when two cars hit, the chassis would bend, and the seats and occupants would be ejected from the cars at highway speed. Good times.

(My LDS foster father always thought it was a better idea to be ejected from your car than to be confined by a seat belt. Seat belts came from the Communists, a subtle plot to kill unwitting and compliant Americans.)

Years ago I actually met the "father" of the automobile seat belt -- Col. John Paul Stapp, M.D., USAF (ret) -- the famous rocket sled pilot -- in Alamogordo, NM. You can't more apple pie, red white and blue American than that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stapp

Wow. How'd you meet that guy? Pretty impressive to have to stuff your eye globes back in their sockets like that.

His rocket sled is on display there:

http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/content.php?id=57

https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/rocket-sled-sonic-wind-i



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2017 10:41AM by anybody.

Also a whole lot of women doped on on valium to cope with their "perfect lives" and women sprayed Lysol up their vaginas to "be fresh."

https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/09/27/the-secret-of-vintage-lysol-douche-ads/

Sounds like a great time, eh?

* Child abuse was rampant and spanking was common and nobody reported anyone for anything. There were no free lunches programs or Head Start or anything like that, so if you were a child in the 50s and you weren't middle class to wealthy, good luck with that. Nobody would come to your defense.

* Spousal abuse was also common and women were often trapped in horribly abusive marriages. Many did not have education or skills to be able to support themselves. Marital rape was legal (and wasn't completely banned in the U.S. until the 1990s). Have you seen Mad Men? :: shudder ::

* Women could not get their own credit independent of a man. Banks would not make mortgages to single women. Single women had to live with their parents and the only career options were teacher, nurse, or domestic servant. Often, women were expected to give up their jobs if they got married or if they were already married but got pregnant.

* Racism, sexism, and homophobia were also rampant and anyone who was GLBT either had to hide in the closet or marry straight and be miserable in a hetero marriage, all the while pretending to be something they were not.

* Economically, however, I would like to go back to the 50s. The extremely wealthy were taxed at 90%, there was a thriving, vibrant middle class, and young adults could take a summer job and earn enough to pay for an entire year of college. Not that a college degree was necessary to obtain a good-paying job. Back then, young people could march down to the local factory and get a union-protected job that paid so well, ONE PERSON could support the entire family without pulling any overtime or having to take on a second job.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2017 10:03AM by dogzilla.

dogzilla Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The extremely wealthy were taxed at
> 90%...

Funny how so many folks who express nostalgia for the "income equality" of the time forget that little tidbit, isn't it?

A lesson from the '50's (actually, from the time of the start of the income tax until the 1980's): "low" taxes on the very wealthy does not create jobs or help the economy. HIGH taxes on the very wealthy do so. We've got over 80 years of data to prove it. The reason it works is because to avoid the 90%+ tax rate, they have to invest their money in businesses, so they do. Without the high tax rate, they don't invest in businesses -- they hoard it.

:)

My wife has cystic fibrosis. She's doing well. With all of 1950's medical advances, she would have died long before I could have married her. Had she made it, the drugs available for her condition would have made having babies a no go, and had they not, even the Caesarean deliveries she needed would have been far less safe. I'm glad we live in today's world and not in the world of the 1950's.

Regarding Richard M. Nixon . . . I attended an extended reunion of my dad's family just a few years ago. The relatives were discussing politics, and an informal poll was taken as to who would vote for Nixon if he were alive and well and ran for president today, knowing everything that is now known about what he did. My parents and I were the only ones who said we would not vote for him.

Is it just my relatives, or are other people's relatives as screwy as mine are?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2017 10:06AM by scmd.

scmd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The relatives were discussing politics,
> and an informal poll was taken as to who would
> vote for Nixon if he were alive and well and ran
> for president today, knowing everything that is
> now known about what he did. My parents and I were
> the only ones who said we would not vote for him.
>
>
> Is it just my relatives, or are other people's
> relatives as screwy as mine are?


Another Member of the Screwy Relatives Club here...

Had my maternal relatives been alive, they would, with great self-righteousness, have answered exactly the same as your relatives did.

Perhaps the only thing i miss is the slower pace of life...people took time to visit...out in this area at least once a month the whole neighborhood gathered at the bakers because they had a living room big enough for a dance...if a farmer were hurt or had breakdowns the whole neighborhood rallied to get his crop in...now hes just laughed at as lazy or stupid and would likely get run over if found laying on the road...no one had anything much but like my old neighbor said ..if you had a ton of coal and five gallons of kersosene and thirty dollars you could make the winter...people grew gardens and canned and had root cellars...there was no social safety net...you made your own....you didnt work you didnt eat...just that simple....sure it was hard times...but imo pursuit of easy things makes people weak...your sure welcome to your white knuckle high speed commute to the big towers and the stress of being all you can be and then some...when you drop over dead from stress...be sure and stay high...weve become so blind to having and getting stuff...we forgot what a flower smells like...oh well...progress...regardless of benefit is inevitable...your welcome to it...theres got to be more to life than dogs cannibalizing dogs...ill take the seventies forever...now that was a great decade...imo of course

I know that the "Take America Back" and "Make America Great Again" crowd want to go back to the 50s. Back when supposedly life was so easy and there was no violence and women knew their place and they prayed in school, and abortions were done in back alleys and "those people" were in the closet, and it was all black and white in Pleasantville.

In other words, back when America was great for White. Straight. Christian. Middle Class. MEN!

No, I want to move forward, not back. I want life to be in color.

I was raised in the 50's. Many things were better, simpler. However several things I would never want to go back to.

Car tires were really bad. You had to carry extra tubes and patch kits.

Medicine. People died with things we have forgotten about, polio, infections, diseases we forgot about.

Communications. Telephone were a luxury. Writing letters and pay phones were normal.

The 50's were my childhood. I loved that decade.

I was a teenager during the 1950s. I clearly remember the Korean "POLICE ACTION" Not a declared war. for the most part it was a nightmare for me.

Well, I know quite a bit about the time zone in question! tnurg was a baby boomer who loved the beach/fun in the sun! The Korean War ushered in this time period after a brutal World War II that had decimated the lives of many! I also got a chance to embrace mid to late 1950's Doo-Wop music, great love songs/ evolution of Rock n Roll throughout the 1960's! If I so desire, I can still enjoy beaching in the sun/my valued, oldies music in digital sound! I do admit that things were simpler in those days, you know - the rat race didn't produce as much stress, although, people do have a tendency to create their own problems in any time period!

Do I want to go back - not really?! Utopia is a tough find! I do recall significant bigotry, racism, white supremacy/misogyny influencing our culture! People who engaged in such intolerable behavior were usually white/in charge, making minority life very difficult for many innocent victims! As noted by others, civil rights/political assassinations were hurtful/all too frequent! And then, the draft/Vietnam played havoc with my generation/ that of my byu sweetheart who was also adversely affected by the cold war/ trumped up conflict in Southeast Asia that was a foreign policy blunder of epic proportions! Iraq can be inserted in recent years as a horrific foreign policy blunder/ debacle in a categlory with Vietnam! I'd just like to say - make the best of your time - in the end, that's what you have! Enjoy life to the fullest! Create good memories! As Always, tnurg (GRUNT)

I remember those times;

a nickle would buy a huge Payday candy bar, HUGE!

Soda Pop was a dime if you drank it there and didn't take the bottle

every store had a penny candy counter where you could get a piece of candy for a penny, or two for a penny

a dime would almost fill a gallon gasoline can for the lawnmower

kids who misbehaved were often times given a good beating right on the spot in plain sight

up the road about half a mile was a Japanese Internment camp, us kids were warned to stay away from it

when you purchased something from a store you got Green Stamps or Gold Strike Stamps that could be pasted in a booklet and redeemed for really awesome stuff

there were no mega stores, everything came from a Mom & Pop store owned by a neighbor

people had phones but were on a party line where other neighbors shared the line and you could listen to their conversations

there was a traveling salesman called The Jewel Tee Man and he offered odd stuff he carried around with him

Everyone had a milkman and a milk-box on their steps

people walked along the side of the road to get somewhere not for exercise

wristwatches were wound up and not very accurate

trucks and many cars had a floor starter pedal as well as a high/low headlight switch. A dash choke for the engine was also common.

church was in the morning and at night


There is more, I remember all of these things, but I don't want to go back and live in those times. At a State Fair in Idaho one time I had my little sister with me, we were about 4 & 5. An Indian man wanted to trade me his puppy for my little sister. It was a hard decision but I declined his offer.

It was nice for everybody who wasn't poor, non-white, gay, an immigrant, female, disabled, trans, an atheist...

Amen, Loyalexmo.

The Mormon church wants to return to the 50's because in the 50's, everything was lovely. As long as you fit the same mold that TSCC has for everyone.

If you didn't happen to fit that mold, life was anything but the happy vision of societal equality that some folks remember. And "everyone in my modest neighborhood was more or less on the same economic level." Well, how nice.

And everyone who was not on that same economic level was stuck away somewhere, where the "nice" people didn't have to see them. They weren't allowed to live in your neighborhood. And crime and abuse and discord and misery existed very well --- all the better because it was not to be spoken of among "nice" people. It was simply ignored by far too many. Hunger and poor-to-no education for many people. You could work your fingers to the bone, and still see your children suffer from malnourishment, poor medical care, and go without the basic needs that the "nice" people took for granted.

If you were lucky enough to live in a "nice" neighborhood, surrounded by the correct set of "nice" people, it was a lovely time to be alive. And it always has been, throughout all of history. As long as you lived in Fantasyland.

Let's see, in the 50's a man could provide for his family with a factory job. Women were valued for being wives and mothers. We didn't have to be politically correct. Let me tell you something, I grew up in the liberal northeast, they want diversity in someone else's neighborhood. They're tolerant until their daughter develops a crush on "Lamar Jenkins". Also, in the 50's we didnt insult people's intelligence by expecting them to refer to a man with breast implants as "she".

Do you change your mind or just dismiss the evidence?

Pro50s Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Also, in the 50's we didnt insult
> people's intelligence by expecting them to refer
> to a man with breast implants as "she".

Oh, goody, we have another poster that argues from ignorance, just like a fundie arguing with a geologist about the age of the Earth.

Here's what a lot of people DON'T seem to know: Transgender research and quite a bit of the early sex research was pre-WWII by Magnus Hirschfield at his Institute of Sex Research in Berlin. The Nazis destroyed his work and most of it was lost for the most part. Had Hirschfield's research survived and the institute, your generation might have come around quite early about transgender issues, but that's neither here nor there and we're making up for lost time and research now. Trans people have always been around and you're probably even peed next to them.

"Mormons are probably one of the few groups renaming in America that have a traditional patriarchal nuclear family with a single provider."

I don't think most young mormons fit this description. There are very few women in the ward here that don't work. There are some with young kids that would prefer to be at home until their kids are all in school, but they need the income. However, it's not just the economic need. Times have changed. A lot of these women never dreamt of being stay at home moms. They're doctors, engineers, accountants, etc... They make good money, they don't want 5+ kids... It's not the "church" I grew up in.

If you knew then what you know now, you wouldn't want to live back then.

If you knew then what was known then, it would be equivalent to you living now.

The idea of 100 million less people in the US with all the open spaces is very appealing.

For those who think things were cheaper back then, just remember minimum wage was maybe $0.50/hour, now it's between $10-15/hour, or 20-30 times more.

Gas might have been $0.25/gallon, that should make $5-7.50 now.

A loaf of bread was about 20 cents, it sure isn't $4-6.

It's all relative.

Like Thomas Wolfe wrote "You can't go home again".

Federal minimum wage was $0.75/hr. in 1950. It's now $7.25. That's about +3.5%/yr. since 1950.

Gas was $0.18/gallon. The same 3.5% annual increase would have gas at $1.80 today. It's currently only about 20% higher than that, but it's been 120% higher than that within the last few years as well.

A loaf of bread was also $0.18 in 1950. That's about kept pace with inflation.

You understated minimum wage in 1950 by 33%, and overstated minimum wage today by 100%. The fact is, you couldn't afford to live on minimum wage in 1950, and you couldn't afford to live on minimum wage today. The difference, I think, is that today we have far more entitled brats that think you should be able to live on minimum wage.

$15 is the standard in Seattle, WA. and $11 for the rest of the state.

WA State has typically been more expensive that most of the country.

Your comment, "The difference, I think, is that today we have far more entitled brats that think you should be able to live on minimum wage.", illustrates today's notion, while back in the '50s, it was entry level position that provided a learning experience to strive for a better job.

Nobody expected to make a career, provide for a home and family by working at drive in burger joints or gas stations in the 50's.

Baby boomers are the biggest entitled brats around. Millennials work more hours today with far less hope for a future, home ownership, etc. College was free or cheap. You didn't need a degree for most jobs.

College was not free, and by todays' standards might seem cheap, but was way too expensive for most of my friends to go to college. It took me many years to afford to buy a house, not something that was cheap or easy to come by.

When I got married we had a car that cost $350 and was happy when it started in the winter, and we had $35 dollars a week for food. This was in the 70s. We borrowed our neighbors land line when we needed to make a call.

I've paid all the tuition for all my kids to graduate from good schools and helped get them set up in life. This may have been stupid as certain groups want to do away with social security and medicaid. I'm not a saint but I don't think I deserve to be called greedy. I would suggest you enjoy what you have and try to help others instead of complaining and you will be a lot happier.

I'm very happy, and I've worked very hard. Take your own advice--sick of this generation being called entitled brats. It's ridiculous, and given how hard my students work it does indeed make me assume that those who say it are spoiled or uninformed themselves. Particularly when baby boomers demand respect but don't give it.

I teach history. I know what college cost. It's nowhere near comparable to what it is now. Debt is outrageous compared to anything any student faced in the 1950s, and college degrees were not required for many jobs that require graduate degrees now. Many college degrees absolutely were free (the UCs, for example). I would suggest looking at who has access to home ownership now and who did in the 1950s--it's not comparable in any way. This isn't anecdotal evidence (though my anecdotal evidence was that both my parents were dirt poor and paid fees of about $10 a semester and no tuition for college). It's stats. They don't lie. It's not a "narrative." I prefer the facts--the ones I teach. The fact that people could work and gain access to home ownership at all in that time is proof enough: Most millennials will never have access to that no matter how hard they work. We've been able to save, but I have worked up to four jobs at a time, including two full-time jobs at a university, to save enough for a modest home.

In 1950, the tuition at UPenn was $600. It's $51, 464 today. $600 in 1950 is equivalent to around $6,138 today. So yeah...no.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2017 03:14PM by Loyalexmo.

Someone wants to take down the culture of the 1950's?

"Not today, Mother fucker."

First they came for the 1950's, then they came for the 2010's.

Ah, the 50s. Remember when there was open air atomic testing for that whole decade in Nevada? And the scientists waited to test bombs until the prevailing winds would blow the fallout toward Utah? And people would get up early to watch the magnificent mushroom clouds light the Western sky?

And remember what it was like to know lots of little kids who died of leukemia because they drank the milk from cows that ate the alfalfa covered with fallout? Even up to Northern Utah? And how the farmers had sheep die and lambs born with strange deformities? And the Southwestern Tribes who mined the uranium got sick and died while their kids played in the tailings?

Yeah, those were the good old days!

Yeah, we're still dealing with the uranium dust when the winds blow around here in the Corners. :/

trying to unwind progress is delisional. Fuck the 50's. For that matter... fuck the 60's. 70's, 80's, 90's etc.

The progresses we make as a society can not be undone. Think about ObamaCare. Some would love to see it die. Not only will it not die... those who oppose it can not replace it with anything "better." Funny thing that nostaligic folks are the ones who have enrolled and are benefitting from it.

Gay marriage is the other example. I dare ANYONE to to try to unring that bell. Hahahaha. Regression never works. Regressionists (religionists included) just modify the BS in thier pointy little heads to fit the changes.

Isn't it funny how progresive change is fought for, sticks, and eventually those idiots who fought it take credit for it??

The Absurdity of man.

HH =)

A few years ago there was a massive power outage in San Diego and we were without power for two days. During the evenings we cooked dinner over fires or on barbeques and camp stoves and sat in our yard or or neighbors' yards talking, playing music and basically hanging out. My son was home from college and he commented how easily the baby boomers slipped back into the no phone, no internet, no TV mode and how refreshing two days without internet and the usual distractions were. My wife and I tried to explain to him that where we grew up in rural areas when we were small kids, summer life was pretty much like that once the work day was over.

Thanks for all the reminders, friends. The "50ies" were my days. (I graduated from high school in 1953.)

We lived in a "average" Los Angeles, CA., neighborhood. 2 bdrms, one bath, and an added-on lean-to" uses as another bdroom. My bdrm's window looked into my brother's lean-to bdrm (and visa-versa).

WWII was a very scary event to live through (even though we lived so far from the action). We had stamp books issued to us, needed to buy gasoline, and many food items. We saved the fat of meat to give to the butcher (for war explosives needed in the war).

We raised vegetables and animals to help manage rationed foods, and traded some valuable eggs with neighbors for their car-gas rations (many didn't have a car in those days--they walked, or rode public transportation.

We had one car. We raised chickens for eggs and meat, and rabbits for meat and fur--which was sold to pay for their food. We had a "victory" garden in the back yard, a fruit tree, and 2 avocado trees. These assets were traded for car gasoline stamps, and other rationed items (like butter, sugar, and fat).

The "ice-man" drove down the street once a day (as many people used a non-refrigerated box to keep their perishable food in).

A big candy bar was a nickle, but smaller candy was only 1 or 2 cents.

When I grew up and worked, I would get a .02-.03-cent raise. And yes, women who worked made far less than men. (The reasoning given for this was because women were supposed to stay home to take care of the kids, and because both parents working meant woman didn't "need" the same income as a man who was supporting his whole family.

I got paid a quarter an hour for baby-sitting--if I was lucky.

Much safer to walk anywhere in those days. Evident crooks and deviates got arrested and put in jail. (Still, deviates could be a problem for little girls, and one had to watch out for such men.)

One--segregated--public swimming pool for the whole big neighborhood, in a park about a mile away (which we had to walk to). Whites on one side of this pool, blacks on the other, and the "deep" area in the middle divided these spaces. In the same park, there was a service-men's recreation center.

We locked our front and back screen doors, but a convenient hole appeared next to the lock so one could stick their finger inside to unlock it.

We lived near a train station, with a empty lot between it and our house. This meant that "bums" who rode the freight trains would drop off near our house, and them "bum" the neighborhood for food. (Yes, that's what they were called then). My mother would make a peanut-butter and bread sandwich for them, and give them an orange. Due to her generosity, our address was carved into the bums' wood campfire in the lot behind the house (the other side of which was a train station.

Six children, a mother and father. My father wasn't drafted because of the number of children he had, and the fact that he worked for the railroad. Therefore, he was available to be the neighborhood official watch officer (making sure lights were turned off and black shades pulled down on our block, during air-raids).

These days featured a scary war (WWII), safer living, criminals who were recognized, arrested, and jailed; and most people strove to live a good "Christian" life (love one-another, help each other, and treat each other civilly). (Of course, L.A. wasn't as crowed an area to live, as was so for N.Y. residents.)

Yes, the 50ies had a lot of good to admire. But, as was mentioned, medical care was not as available or good (I had a friend who died of kidney failure, as I almost did, but our great Jewish clinic Dr. managed to save my kidneys and life without penicillin (which had not yet been invented).

And so on, and so forth. It is my believe that the 50ies helped pave the wave for a good future to be able to exist. People, as a whole, did seem more wholesome then (and didn't have to fight porn magazines and pervert TV shows). Indeed, TV wasn't even available (or affordable) for some time, until around the time I got married (1957), at which time there were VERY few channels from which to choose, very small screens (12"X12"?), and black and white only. (The first TV I saw was that of a very rich "uncle", the screen of which was about 6" square.) Wrestling shows were a regular for night-time viewing, and Lawrence Welk(sp?), the "Bubble" man and his orchestra. These ended by 9-10 pm., when the set left on displayed an "adjustment" circle, to adjust the picture on your set.

Now, my kids are encouraging me to write a biographical history of those days. (We'll see.) I seem to be old enough now to belong to the "old" days.

(Sorry to bend your "ear" so long.)

Polly

I'm with your grandkids. Write. I'm enjoying already . . . .

Gee, didn't an apostle of the Lord say he wouldn't mind if "...every Negro had a Cadillac..."?

Yeah, the '50's were awesome.

I grew up in the 50's and it was truly a wonderful time for me and our family. We lived on a small farm and during the decade our house expanded from 3 rooms (1 bedroom) to 1640 square feet and 3 bedrooms. We never locked our doors and the keys to our 1 car were always left in the ignition. It was exciting for our family to get our first phonograph and television in this decade. We didn't have a lot of money, but our tastes were simple and we never wanted for anything. I had great boyhood friends and after school activities were spent playing sandlot football, basketball and baseball. Although the school bus was available, often I would ride my bike to and from elementary school and many times in junior high school or high school I would hitchhike home (a very common practice at the time). Our local LDS ward was not full of "bible punchers" (members obsessed with doctrine and rules),but the ward was comprised mostly of common people who would really do anything to help one another. I look back fondly on those years, but I realize things change and I am enjoying the journey through life.

Ahhh, when disabled children were still automatically institutionalized and segregation roamed free! Such lovely times!

Marital rape was legal and being gay wasn't! The magic! The wonder!

I wish the real estate prices had been suspended in time.

Houses were cheap. Dirt cheap, compared to what they sell for today.

The counter revolution wasn't happening yet. That changed so much of the cultural landscape, that the 1950's became barely recognizable by as early as the 60's.

It's all relative. People didn't make the kind of money then that they do now either.