what was it like back in 1950`s in America???

[JimD 3,345]

We actually called them taps, when I was in jr high we would wear them just to make noise. My grandfather was a very outgoing person. he always wore taps on his shoes. He could tap dance, and sometimes when we were little he would just break out and do a little dance. Not like Fred Astaire, more like WC fields. 

Yeah, apair of wing tip shoes with taps, and levis so tight you couldn't sit down and you were just too cool

Do you remember buying your jeans a little too long in the leg so you could roll up a cuff on them?

 

[Anglo Traction 761]

Good to read your stories and recollections of the '50's in the U.S. I won't hijack or detract from the subject of Neil's Thread , only to say that I see so many similarities of situations,  morals, principles and values to my memories growing up in those years.

Having been born in '52' , I just about made it into this world after the end of Rationing (except for meat products) and so mainly aware of the later '50's.

 

The important thing is to record your memories in some form or other for your children etc. Trust me , they will thank you for it.  

 

I value dearly , my memories of time spent with my Maternal Grandparents. More so because my Grandfather spent his later years writing his memoirs. 

I now have his words (converted to Word Doc) of his life, family, events and experiences from 1895 (he was born in 1891) to 1985 (he died in 1992).

I read it very often and take great comfort from it.

[flyovrcntry 115]

Jim, we never cuffed our jeans but I do remember that I would not wear them if my socks would show at all. I also would not wear shorts.I swear I never wore a pair of shorts until I was in my 30's. I remember my mom getting me a pair of blue jean shorts with suspenders.I was only about 7-8 yo and I cried and said I won't wear them,and my mom said wait till your dad gets home.Well my dad was strict,but he never said a thing about it, I believe he didn't like them any more than me.
A funny story about my mom. She would never spank us, she would say wait till your daddy gets home.Well my folks divorced when I was in my 30's and mom re-married. I was visiting them one time and somehow that subject came up. Now I remember, we were looking through a photo album.Well there was a picture of me when I was maybe 8 yo , and I was standing by a propane tank in the back yard. I said,mom do you remember breaking my fishing rod over that tank and whipping me with it. Her husband said ,wait a minute you told me you never spanked any of your kids.LOL, butshe did, you see my dad had bought me a new rod and reel for 3.00.We lived by this old lake, and I got up in the morning and just took off fishing all day.Well it scared my mom because she could not find me. When I came home she was standing there with her hands on her hips just steaming. She broke my rod over that gas tank and wore my rear out. Now, I know a lot of people don't believe in spanking a child,it doesn't screw them up,just look at ,well wait a minute I'm sure there's some one out there that it had no negative affect on.

[shallowwatersailor 3,213]

I want to thank all that have shared their stories. I really enjoy the nostalgia, especially today after I went back to the middle school where I teach. The students seemed to have spent their four-day weekend playing video games and texting. They won't have memories like ours.

 

Thank goodness we didn't have "electronics" in our days. We would have been on the computer, probably reading and responding to a forum on garden tractors.

[Ken B 3,134]

My Father in law grew up thru the 50's and 60's. He loves to tell the stories from his drag racing days and of just how different things were back in the day. I love too hear his stories. When he was 13 yrs old (early 50's) his father bought a brand new Dodge sedan. My father in law at 13 learned to drive that car the instant they bought it. His father couldn't get a license due to having only one eye and partial blindness in the other due to War injuries. At 13 my father in law drove the family wherever they had to go so long as his Dad was in the car with him. He was never pulled over, try getting away with that these days. From his stories it sounds to me like the simple things back then were a big deal, such as a trip out to get ice cream or a swim in the lake on the weekend. Simple things that most people hardly get excited about these days. He tells me when the new model cars arrived on the dealer lots it was a BIG deal and that a bunch of people would show up just to get a look see as to what was new and exciting. One of my favorite stories is how as a young kid he and his buddies would sneak thru a broken part of the fence of the Danbury Fair (he lives a mile away from where the Fair Grounds was) and ride their bikes around this huge place until old man Leahy would chase them off.

In 1961 my father in law bought a brand new Ford Fairlane with every high performance option you could get. He took the car home the day it arrived and proceeded to take it apart to make it go faster. One day a cop shows up in his driveway requesting performance work be done on his squad car and that he would pay for the work out of his pocket. He explained that he asked around about who was the top Ford mechanic and tuner in town and everyone said take it to Joe Walko. Two days later when he picked up the car as he was backing out of my father in laws driveway he had this to say, if I can't catch yer ass the next time you run when I hit the lights for you to pull over I'll be back, and it won't be pretty. Father in Law still has that 61 Ford with only 2,000 miles on it and most of it from flat towing it to the track. It is MINT, he never registered that car. When he did flat tow it to the track, sneak it on the street or take it down to Moe's Shell or to do a few test runs over by where the Danbury Fair once was he would put a rear plate on it that said, "Lil Thunder" It hasn't been out of his garage since 68. (Personally, I'd love to see that car backed out of that garage and it's 427 once again make a Lil Thunder.) I can't imagine a cop showing up at someone's door too find out that the car that outran him when he hit the lights was nestled away in the garage. Instead of busting Joe he requested performance work on his squad car and paid Joe a good penny to boot! I guess something like that only happened in Danbury CT. Back then a big time racing town.

Joe isn't in the best of health these days. I can see how his eyes light up when he gets to talking about the good old days. I can tell quite easily it was a lot of fun growing up in the 50's (and the 60's) and when we get to chatting it is like I was there also. I go to his house almost every day, my son's bus lets him off there. I can tell its a good day when the door is open to his garage and the 50's or 60's music is cranked. When the Steve Miller is cranked you know its a real good day. For us guys that weren't around back then its easy to get an idea of what it was like, just ask someone in the family that was there what it was like, they love to go back..

[redidbull 54]

I am fortunate my Kids still enjoy Family time. My Daughter is pretty attached to her phone but doesn't let it keep her from doing things. Saturday me, my Wife, Dad, Daughter and her boyfriend and my Son all went to the brewery tour in town. We then hung out at the bar there for a while, and then we went to dinner where 2 of my Daughters friends met us. Her friends are like our Daughters. My Son ended up hanging out with her Friends that night. THAT is a memorable evening that I hope they remember. Lots of laughing. Sorry for the misdirection of the thread. When John mentioned his students I just wanted to share. Jim

[neil 2,408]

I have been watching a few TV programes recently & it was this that inspired me to ask the question of what it was like to live in the 1950`s

The programes that i have been watching were

American Restoration

Mike & Frank ( Those two picker guys  , i cant remember the name of the show)

Pawn stars

& other programmes

& what really fascinates me is that you some of you  guys in US dont ever seen to throw anything away ( thank God)   and when i look around some of those old barns that Mike & Frank visit ,i am amazed at the amount of stuff from the 50`s era that people had collected , & these antiques are now becoming real collectors item . 

 

Over here in UK  people are collecting old Americana  of the 50`s & i supose this is why Wheel horse tractors are also popoluar collectors items .

 

As a child we watched  movies that  depicted America during the 1950`s & it looked so much fun , while Britain sat in the dulldrems  & was quite depressing , well until along came the 60`s .

[Ken B 3,134]

Neil, Stevebo and myself hit this huge flea market in our area every Sunday. Vintage Americana SELLS. For big bucks most times as well. Some of the stuff I see is really nice and priced accordingly, some of it is crap and overpriced. Its funny how some of these TV shows help us and hurt us at the same time. They help us by preventing people from tossing this old stuff in the trash, they hurt us because most of this old stuff is now overpriced and out of reach of most of us.

 

Have you ever watched the TV show Happy Days or American Grafitti?

[neil 2,408]

Ken.

I cant say that i have heard of the programes American Graffitti , but i have heard of Happy Days with Arthur Fonzarelli        Heeey

I love to collect Vintage farm stuff & i have a few bits n Bobs that are quite old .

I have a wooden hand cart that was built by Morgan Sports cars before they built cars , its probbley about 100 years old .

 

Me & the Mrs was sitting having Breakfast this morning and were discussing what we remember as a child  & a few things that came up were  

Having the newspaper delivered to the house

Having  Unigate milk delivered to the door via an  an Orange electric Milk float

Having the green grocer come round the streets in his van selling groceries etc

The fish man used to come round in his small van on thursdays & sell fish from his wicker baskets.

The  Corona  fizzy pop man used to call on saturdays in his lorry  and sell lemonade & cream soda fizzy pop & we used to get  2 /bob for returning the empty bottles .

The fish & chip van used to come & park up at the bottom of the street & the whole neighborhood would be standing in a big long line about 20 or 30  people deep

Going to school in the Fog that was so thick that you couldnt see your hand if you held it out on front of you .

the parrafin man calling round the street & again the whole neighborhood would be queing down the street with a can in therir hand  waiting to fill up with Pink Parrafin for the oil heaters.

The coal man calling  carrying big sacks of coal & loading up the coal bunker .

 

I could go on for ages

[coldone 35]

Here is a clip from American graffiti.

 

Great movie but I dont have a clue if the 50s were like that or not.

[papaglide 542]

What a great topic! I remember the " civil defense drills" in school. Same thing here in NY, line up in the halls and kneel down with our arms over our heads. Saturday was shoe shine day. After cleaning our rooms in the morning my Dad would have my brother and I shine our shoes with polish, then leave them on a newspaper on the kitchen floor to dry. Our shoes would be good to go for church on Sunday and school for the rest of the week. And this was public school not parochial! Hardly anyone wore sneakers to school. I remember in junior high school bringing sneakers in my bookbag and changing my shoes in the classroom before school started just to look "cool" wearing sneakers!

[SALTYWRIGHT 859]

I DID NOT GROW UP IN THE 50'S I GREW UP BEFORE THAT. I WAS BORN IN 1929 AND GREW UP LIVING ON MY GRANDFATHER'S ISLAND. IT WAS ONE AC. IN SIZE AND WE WERE THE ONLY HOUSE THERE. I WENT TO SCHOOL BY BOAT AND THEN WALKED 1 MILE TO SCHOOL. IT WAS ROUGH IN THE WINTER. WE DID NOT HAVE ELECTRIC POWER ON THE ISLAND. I AM STILL OUT ON THE WATER MOST DAYS. I HAVE BEEN FROM MAINE TO FLA. ON THE WATER. I AM 84 AND STILL PLAY WITH MY TRACTORS AND MY GO FAST BOAT. I AM ALSO A HAM RADIO OPERATOR. (W1RGW) I GAVE UP MY MOTORCYCLE LAST YEAR. I GOT MY FIRST CAR (1929 NASH WITH WOODEN SPOKE WHEELS) WHEN I WAS 15 AND IT WAS WAR TIME SO THERE WAS GAS SHORTAGE AND WE ONLY GOT 3 GAL. A WEEK. MY NEXT CAR WAS A 1932 HUDSON. SINCE THEN I HAVE HAD OVER 80 CARS.

[Ed Kennell 37,469]

I was born in 1944 in a small town ,Wellersburg, in the Appalachian Mountains of Southern Pennsylvania.  So I was 6-16 years old during the 50's. Some of my memories are:

 

The one room school house.... grades 1 thru 8 in the same room with one teacher.  Eight rows of desks... one grade per row.  The first grade had approx. 6-8 students and the eighth grade had 1 or 2 students.  The Older students helped teach the younger students.

 

My Dad and Granddad farmed 26 acres during the summer and worked 3 hand dug coal mines  during the winter.  The mines were dug into the side of the mountain at approx. 10 degrees. We laid narrow guage track and used ponies to pull out the loaded coal cars.  The coal seam was 14-15 inches high. You would crawl into the seam dragging a chunk of wood and a wooden wedge .  After digging a ton of coal and pushing it out to the cars to be loaded, you would stand the precut chunk of wood on end and drive in the wedge to support the rock ceiling. All work was done with carbide lamps. 

 

Baseball was the primary sport played in school.  When the weather was warm enough, we combined our 1/2 hour lunch and 2 - 15 minute recesses into a I hour baseball game.  Some time in the early 50's we bought a TV with about a 10" round screen. It was the only TV in town , and all the kids came to watch the World Series.

 

We planted corn and oats on the farm to feed the ponies, that were also used to work the farm. We also kept a cow for milk, and a beef  and several hogs for butchering.

 

Hunting deer, turkey, grouse,  rabbits and squirrel also provided much of our  meat.  We also had a large garden that provided all our veggies. We kept honey bees and had apple (pressed our own cider), cherry and plum trees for our deserts..

 

As a young boy, I looked forward to leaving this hard work and went on to West Virginia University were I studied Mechanical Engineering and found  my way to Allis Chalmers Hydro turbine  Inc. in York Pa. where I worked for 45 years designing and testing Model Hydraulic Turbines for most of the large power plants in the US....Grand Coulee, Hoover, Raccoon Mt., Bonneville,etc.   I now realize  the years I spent in that one room school, the farm and coal mines were the best years of my life and prepared me for life better then any University.

 

Sorry for the rambling, but you asked for it !

[Ed Kennell 37,469]

Hey Neil, My work in the hydro turbine also took me to your side of the pond to hydro power stations in Austria,Germany, Switzerland, and a very interesting place in North East Wales called Festineog.   While driving from Heathrow to Festineog, I was amazed at how friendly your countrymen were as I passed them on the highway, They all waved and tooted their horns, and some even indicated by a hand gesture that I was #1.   Great people in Wales that knew how to eat,drink, and be merry.  I did notice a lot of them drove on the wrong side of the highway though...don't know if this was due to drinking all that dark ale  or just poor driving habits.