This was how it was in the USA in the 50's

[Wally]

I came across this well written article that I thought some might would enjoy reading it. I was a youngster in the 50's and it was most interesting to me. For us of us in their 60's and older, the last sentence should prove to be quite surprising.


Sometimes we idealize the United States from the 1950s. What was common in the 1950s that would horrify us now?

The 1950s were a time of prosperity for the US. Poverty and crime were at all time lows. It was a time when national unity was at one of it’s strongest points. It was far from idyllic however. As too who would be horrified by what that depends on how old you are and what your background was. Massive changes have occurred since the 50s.

Racism was the norm all over the world until the 50s. That was when the civil rights movement really began and when Whites in the US took a long hard look at the way minorities were treated and realized it was wrong. Changes were begun in the 50s but it would take until the 70s before racism was generally ended among Whites. The 80s were the time when I saw the lowest levels of racism in my lifetime. In the 1950s racism was still alive and well. Seperate doors and eating establishments existed. Coloured doors existed in not just the South but in areas outside the South.

Protestantism was very dominate and rather strict. Catholics were often treated like 2nd class citizens and Jews suffered open prejudice. Muslims were essentially unheard of what few there were kept rather quiet.

It was a time of innocence but also a time when being an unwed mother was a huge shame and got a girl shunned in her community. Divorce was legal but also scandalous. People who were divorced were often considered defective or low lifes. A divorcee was viewed as a sort of ****. Abortion was illegal but in high demand among teenage girls who trusted the wrong boy and got pregnant. Birth control consisted of mostly rubbers and was not legally available to teens. Backroom abortions killed thousands of teenage girls every year. Suicide was also a huge shame. It still happened but it was usually covered up as suicide was considered a great embarrassment to the survivors. Open gays were rare and generally beaten up on a regular basis.

Fist fights were not unusual in the 50s. In fact they didn’t start becoming uncommon until the 90s. Men and boys were expected to know how to use their firsts and be willing to use them until they reached their 50s. Even then many men still continued to get in occasional fist fights. A guy who wouldn’t fight was shunned by the community as a coward and suspected of being gay.

Safety until the 70s was an afterthought. Workplace deaths were common and car wrecks were an epidemic. Few cars even had seatbelts. Kids often played in the spacious back seats of cars or sat in their unbuckled mother’s lap in the front seat. Roads were nowhere near as good. Ike launched the Federal highway program in the 50s. Until then there was no Interstates. Instead roads like Highway 66 connected the country. These were a route through a series of state highways that often had hair pin turns, unbanked turns, iffy road signs, potholes, many were not even paved. Dirt roads were very common in the 50s still, especially once outside major cities and population centers. A lot of highways had no center stripe and few had guardrails.

Beating a confession out of a suspect was still the norm. Prisons were brutal places where guards and or inmate trustees (in that day trustees were armed prisoners who in exchange for privileges like extra food and better accommodations would do the dirty work for the guards) carried clubs and used them on a frequent basis. People with a record were shunned heavily. Enforcement was very subjective. Cops knew everyone in their community and looking the other way was normal for locals but strangers faced a myriad of hazards going through small towns where law enforcement often saw them as victims to be fleeced. Most people still lived in the same communities they were born in, though people migrating started in earnest during the 50s. Economic opportunities drew people all over the country and this was creating a lot of tension with locals as their communities would double in size in as little as 5 years sometimes.

Hispanics were a tiny percentage of the population. Almost negligible and most Hispanics in the US were of Cuban or Puerto Rican descent. Waves of migrant workers first started coming to the US and the first Illegals began to appear. The US was 90% White. There were only 15 million Blacks in the country and 3 million Hispanics and 300,000 Asians.

It was normal to buy a new car with cash. In fact most people didn’t finance much of anything. People saved up and bought houses with cash. Cars with cash. People rarely had insurance of any kind. It was used for emergencies only if anyone had it.

Health care was just about to advance light years, the 1950s marked and explosion in knowledge and waves of changes in health care. However lobotomies were still being performed in the 50s, insane asylums were nightmare places and hospitals were transforming into the kind of hospital we know today. Ambulances were strictly transport. The drivers min wage workers who knew little or nothing about health care and their job was simply to load em up and get em too the hospital as fast as they could. Many hospitals didn’t even have an ER yet. Trauma centers wouldn’t come about for another 20 years or so. People were still coming down with things like polio and iron lungs were still in use though the Polio vaccine began to erase Polio from the US during the 50s. It was however not at all uncommon to meet Polio survivors who were on crutches, in wheel chairs or otherwise permanently injured by their bout with Polio.

Dress codes were rather strict. Skirts above the knee were scandalous and showing a bare navel was super rare even in bathing suits. Guys with hair below their collar super rare. Beards were what convicts and sailors grew. Normal men almost never had a beard.

Efforts to eliminate wife beating had been going on since the 20s, but folks looked away still as late as the 50s and it was fairly common in many American subcultures. There was little legal recourse. The normal way it was handled was relatives of the lady took care of things.

Pregnant women often drank alcohol as nobody knew about alcohol’s effects on pregnancy yet. Drugs were often administered with little or no trials. It was massive drug disasters in the 40s and 50s that brought about our system of drug trials.

Child molesters were rare and usually just buried in an unmarked grave rather than prosecuted. So children were allowed to roam about and play where they wished. The entire neighborhood or community looked out for and after the children in their area.

Neighbors knew each other and people were out and about in their neighborhoods. Somebody from the 50s driving through a modern neighborhood would think it was a ghost town. Phones were what rich people had. In many areas they were still party lines where any conversation you had could be heard by anyone who picked up their phone at that time. TVs were expensive and few people owned them. Instead most people had a radio. Though by the late 50s TV became rather common for middle class families, but the poor still usually didn’t own a TV or phone.

Sports were normal, everyone played them as a kid and many adults did as well.

Few men didn’t know how to work on their car or did not do most of the constant maintenance cars of that period needed themselves. When you went to a gas station an attendant came out and pumped your gas for you, washed your windshield, checked your fluids and sometimes air pressure. Nobody pumped their own gas.

There were no ATMs. Banks were 9–5 but you could often float a check for a little extra cash at a grocery store. Though they too were generally closed by 7pm. After 8 pm there wasn’t much of anything open except bars, restaurants and theaters. If you were low on gas at 10pm you just didn’t go anywhere until morning as there were no gas stations open that late and you couldn’t just gas up at a station that was closed.

Anybody could walk in and buy a gun. At least anybody of age and kids could go in and buy something like a .22 rifle without questions. In rural areas it wasn’t unusual to see a pack of kids walking down a road all carrying rifles, as they were out shooting targets or hunting small game.

All men served a stint in the US military unless they were rejected. There was a universal draft still in effect and you could get a college exemption or go do your stint in the military before you were drafted but you were going into the military one way or another before you turned 25. Though exemptions were not difficult to get for people with money.

There was no welfare. No food stamps, no disability, social security was what elderly widows collected. Men worked until they died or had enough saved up to retire. Though most people had savings and being able to save in the 50s was considerably easier. Few people carried the kind of debt we do today and credit cards were just started to show up.

Multi-generational families living together was extremely common. The 50s was when young couples first started getting their own places too live. Housing combined with rapid growth in wages and opportunity first made owning a home affordable for a young couple. Subdivisions boomed and the first malls started opening up.

Everyone smoked, something close to 60% of the US population and about the only places you couldn’t smoke were if there was a hazard such as next to gas tanks.

Really old people were uncommon. The average American lived to their mid 50s and few lived past 65. 80 year olds were uncommon and only a rare few saw 90.

[bmortell]

seems like humans just adapt to anything and have no clue what there supposed to be doing. like deer have been doin the same stuff for a million years and we are extremely different every 100 years.

[trebor44]

Yep, that's the way it was and then some. AND in some places very little has changed, overt has become covert!

[nvbirdman]

Tattoos were confined to sailors and a few other servicemen, and the one percent bikers, and NO women had them.

[Froogal]

I am a 1951 model myself. I know the average age expectancy was not what it is today, but still, I knew quite a few folks who made it to well past 80.

[sparky45]

I agree Froogal; numerous folks made it into their 80's; almost all of my family did. BTW, I'm 73 and hope I don't outlive my mind and body.

[Froogal]

I agree Froogal; numerous folks made it into their 80's; almost all of my family did. BTW, I'm 73 and hope I don't outlive my mind and body.

I hear you! If my body outlives my mind, please, just shoot me.

[Traffer]

I have lots of stories and observations ...no time now...marking post to come back later.

[blackthorn]

Just an observation---The folks that were "in charge" leading up to the 50's were born in the period from the late 1800's up through about 1939 (or so). These folks had a much lower life expectancy than those of us born in the late 30's and beyond. These folks benefited from the rapid increases in the things that made our quality of life what it has been. There were many things to lament about yesteryear, but in terms of quality of life we are much better off now than then. I have posted this before but I think it bears repeating---In a nutshell---Those who pine for the long-ago, should think of the outhouse at 40 below!

[Froogal]

Just an observation---The folks that were "in charge" leading up to the 50's were born in the period from the late 1800's up through about 1939 (or so). These folks had a much lower life expectancy than those of us born in the late 30's and beyond. These folks benefited from the rapid increases in the things that made our quality of life what it has been. There were many things to lament about yesteryear, but in terms of quality of life we are much better off now than then. I have posted this before but I think it bears repeating---In a nutshell---Those who pine for the long-ago, should think of the outhouse at 40 below!

I agree on the outhouse, and I'm also happy that I no longer have to cut firewood to stay warm, but I also feel that we have come a little too far with electronics technology.

[Walks]

I thought the banks were open 0900-1500 Mon-Thurs. And until 1800 on Friday's. That didn't change until the early 1980's.

[Tom W.]

I remember "commodities" when I was a kid in Pennsylvania... The cheese would plug you up like glue, and we traded the powdered milk to the local farmer for fresh milk. He mixed the powdered stuff for his new calves...

[375supermag]

Hi...
I am only 64 but I can remember using the out house at my grandparents farm house.
I remember using the outside pump to get water and no heat if the woodstove wasn't kept burning.
Granddad still had a couple of draft horse's when I was very young. Somewhere there is a photograph of me standing beside him and his Grey Percherons.
I still remember calling the operator to get connected to my cousin's phone. All I had to tell the operator was my Uncle's name and she would connect us.
I also remember my grandmother on my mother's side of the family getting ice deliveries for the ice box. I guess I was about 4 or 5 when she got her first refrigerator. I think it was a Kelvinator.

I also remember when my father bought his first gas lawn mower. He used an old reel type push mower for years when I was a kid. I still remember him sharpening the reel out in the garage. He didn't own a single power tool, either...he had hand drills and about 15 different hand saws. I wish I had them but my mother sold almost all his things after he died in 1968.
I remember when we got our first television back in the early '60s. A big upright box with a red cloth covering over the speaker made by Sylvania. My grandmother bought one identical at the same time. Very small picture, out of focus most of the time and constantly had interference that was referred to as "snow" in the picture. Two stations, one on the VHF side and one UHF. Both went off the air around midnight and played a test pattern either at night or in the early morning.

[firefly1957]

Pretty good post a couple points could be argued by small degrees but the entire thing is very close might even be spot on in some parts of the country as moving could mean a lot of changes as mentioned in a way about people tending to stay put. Gun control laws had been passed in many places but only enforced when a black tried to buy or carry a gun . Until 1969 even a kid could order a rifle C.OD. though the mail if he had the money a friend got a Italian Carcano in 1967 . It was years later we discovered the artery model he got had a 15" barrel and was not legal to even own the way he got it! Child molesting was probably more common then known however most of it ended with the molester just disappearing so they had fewer victims!
No welfare but families took care of their own a illegitimate child may be shipped to another area with family and raised as if parents died Infirm elderly would be taken in along with disabled .
Safety on that i will defer to Jeff Foxworthy warning labels may just be why we have so many idiots with us today!

[William Yanda]

What is the source of that article, please?

[abunaitoo]

I was born in the late 50's.
I remember some of these things.
On this rock, we didn't have many of them, and still have many of them today.
Everything started to go down hill when Americans no longer understood "Shame"
When we forgot what "Honor" is.
How many people, today, even know what "bastard" really means.
They know it's bad, but don't know why.
Country has lost it's morals.
It's sad.

[Wally]

What is the source of that article, please?

It was from a guy on an open forum about all sorts of topics....I saw it a thought it would be a good one on Cast Boolits. I recall in 1974---I was a young man ... I walked into a Coast to Coast store -----plunked down $159 for a Ruger Supeblackhawk....no forms, no questions asked. When I was 12 I used to buy .22 Long rifle ammo at Gambles.... now. with all our gun lawns/regulations/restrictions----we now are so much worse off... we also have lost so much of our freedoms. We have a 2nd amendment that clearly states the peoples rights pertaining to gun ownership, shall not be infringed. Yet public officials who swear to up uphold the constitution routinely violate it--- In one article, about the Bill of Rights, states plainly that those rights are not given to us (the people) from our government---they are unalienable rights given to us by our Creator...ie God and that no one can take them away.

[EDG]

I will touch on something that made a huge difference in life in this country.
Up to 1900 heat and power was produced by burning firewood and coal.
Ships, locomotives, homes etc all burned some solid fuels.
In 1901 the world changed and many people got left behind because they did not or could not keep up with a changing world.
On Jan 10, 1901 the Spindletop gusher blew in and its production literally doubled US oil production.
Within another year or so 5 additional wells at Spindletop doubled the oil output of the entire planet.
We essentially went from a wood and coal burning country to ships, trains, power generation and home heating being made easier by oil and other petroleum products.
Coincidentally the airplane and the automobile arrived at exactly the same time as the fuel source gasoline. Within about 20 to 25 years millions of draft horses went to slaughter and rendering plants as farmers switched over to tractors. We developed natural gas and LP gas for heating.

I grew up knowing old folks that complained about the Great Depression as if it existed right up to their deaths in the 1960s to 1980s. The real truth is the world changed a lot due to Spindletop and other events. Those people that were too old and lived a subsistence living without a paychecks had no good way to keep up with the change. To take advantage of all the new oil fueled technology you needed a cash paying job. Many rural people had no specialized trade or business skills, had little to no education nor understood the advantages of job skills. Those folks got left behind. For them the Great Depression did last until they died.

History of oil production in the USA.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mcrfpus2&f=a

[RogerDat]

I came across this well written article that I thought some might would enjoy reading it. I was a youngster in the 50's and it was most interesting to me. For us of us in their 60's and older, the last sentence should prove to be quite surprising.


Sometimes we idealize the United States from the 1950s. What was common in the 1950s that would horrify us now?.........

It was normal to buy a new car with cash. In fact most people didn’t finance much of anything. People saved up and bought houses with cash. Cars with cash. People rarely had insurance of any kind. It was used for emergencies only if anyone had it.

Health care was just about to advance light years, the 1950s marked and explosion in knowledge and waves of changes in health care. However lobotomies were still being performed in the 50s, insane asylums were nightmare places and hospitals were transforming into the kind of hospital we know today. Ambulances were strictly transport. The drivers min wage workers who knew little or nothing about health care and their job was simply to load em up and get em too the hospital as fast as they could. Many hospitals didn’t even have an ER yet. Trauma centers wouldn’t come about for another 20 years or so. People were still coming down with things like polio and iron lungs were still in use though the Polio vaccine began to erase Polio from the US during the 50s. It was however not at all uncommon to meet Polio survivors who were on crutches, in wheel chairs or otherwise permanently injured by their bout with Polio.

Child molesters were rare and usually just buried in an unmarked grave rather than prosecuted. So children were allowed to roam about and play where they wished. The entire neighborhood or community looked out for and after the children in their area.


Few men didn’t know how to work on their car or did not do most of the constant maintenance cars of that period needed themselves.....

There was no welfare. No food stamps, no disability, social security was what elderly widows collected. Men worked until they died or had enough saved up to retire. Though most people had savings and being able to save in the 50s was considerably easier. Few people carried the kind of debt we do today and credit cards were just started to show up.....



Food stamps were a depression era program, it was revived by Kennedy in the early 60's https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe50s/money_09.html Partly to fight hunger and partly because farmers were producing a large surplus and food stamps act to expand the market for farm products and prop up prices.

Health insurance became popular in the 30's and post WW2 it was a commonly negotiated item in union contracts because unlike wages insurance wasn't subject to any income tax. So it was a tax free form of compensation. https://www.bcbsm.com/index/about-us/our-company/our-history.html

Racial conflict was still going strong into the 70's I can still recall that many gas stations in the south while they removed the "colored" signs over the extra drinking fountain and/or bathroom still had them. The Black Panther Party was organized in the 60's and continued into the 70's originally focused on history ignoring black participation but also in opposition to unarmed blacks being shot by police. Still something of an issue today.

Child molesters were not especially rare, and since I can recall some being prosecuted I would sort of doubt the idea that they were just executed. What is different today is the stories of a child molester anyplace is national news story. Back then they were mostly treated as fairly local news. I only know of ones that happened in Michigan. Maybe an especially horrible offense in Toledo or Chicago might get mentioned but it would be rare that a molester would get end to end coverage no matter where in the country it took place. Today that sort of coverage is fairly common.

There were more out of wedlock births during the Eisenhower administration than there were after the invention of the birth control pill and the free love era of hippies in the late 60's. Homes for unwed mothers where girls would go to have a baby far from home often with a cover story of visiting a distant relative were not uncommon. Sexual activity changed when penicillin made syphilis and gonorrhea curable, and the pill allowed women to have sex with the prevention of pregnancy in their hands. Interestingly a handful of modern pilot programs that provided free birth control found that abortions dropped by over 80% in the group that had the option to participate. The programs were viewed as "promoting" unmarried sex by some and some objected to certain forms of birth control in a program that allowed the women to select any form. So they were defunded.

I know more people COULD work on their cars but wages were such that many I think would pay to have work done on the car in order to preserve leisure time. Or as my brother in law put it not too long ago "I can pick up 4 hours of overtime and pay a guy to wire in those garage lights easier than I can do it myself" Cars did get harder to work on going through the 70's and 80's that is for sure. Practically needed a plumbers union card and computer science degree just to properly swear at them by the 90's Nearly every gas station had a service bay and a mechanic or two. Which got me thinking when did those service bays get converted to convenience stores? Because I can recall at one point the self-serve gas station and gas station convenience stores started to replace the service stations with mechanics.

[Traffer]

My dad was born in 1904. He told lots of stories about his life. He said to me "boy you should have lived in my time, you would have loved it."
I have lived in houses where the primary source of heat was wood. Even some where the only source was wood. My grandpa had me out in the garage splitting kindling all day long when I was 6. To this day I love to cut firewood. I also love to get up in the morning, stir the coals, stoke up the stove and put on some good pan coffee. That is living.

[Tenbender]

Thanks Wally

[Elkins45]

The draft wasn’t universal in the 50’s. After WW2 the military shrank so much that they had to reinstate the draft to gear up for Korea. After it wound down the military didn’t have room for everybody even if they had wanted to mandate it. One of my uncles was born in 1936 and neither went to college nor joined the military.

[MaryB]

Born 1960 so I grew up through a large part of this... I remember my dad beating the **** out of an uncle on moms side after he touched one of my sisters... messed him up bad and when he got out of the hospital he disappeared... if anyone asked where he went they got told to shut up...

I liked government cheese! It was made in the town I lived in and stored in a cold warehouse my mom worked for. If a case was dropped and broke open they had to write it off. If the cheese box inside the case was undamaged employees took them home. We had that stuff in the fridge all the time!

I miss full service gas, heck the station in town is now unmanned and totally automated!

[Elkins45]

Born 1960 so I grew up through a large part of this... I remember my dad beating the **** out of an uncle on moms side after he touched one of my sisters... messed him up bad and when he got out of the hospital he disappeared... if anyone asked where he went they got told to shut up...

I liked government cheese! It was made in the town I lived in and stored in a cold warehouse my mom worked for. If a case was dropped and broke open they had to write it off. If the cheese box inside the case was undamaged employees took them home. We had that stuff in the fridge all the time!

I miss full service gas, heck the station in town is now unmanned and totally automated!

There was a guy in our county that signed his entire extended family up for the commodity handouts and he sold the cheese for $5 a brick. My dad usually bought a couple of bricks a month for us. It made the best grilled cheese sandwiches ever. I remember mom bought a cheese slicer and we used it so much I had to repair the cutting wire with a guitar string.

[mold maker]

It was better cheese than what was at the grocery.

[popper]

Gas, sugar, tires, nylons, housing all rationed. String and Al foil balls you trade in for ratio cards. Mom stitched up the holes in the knees of the jeans - it was NOT a badge of wealth then. She made your clothes and often hers. You had an amour or a narrow and shallow closet as you didn't have a lot of clothes. Heating was coal or oil, eventually propane or gas. You made what you had work and last - no throw a-ways.

[William Yanda]

"Health insurance became popular in the 30's and post WW2 it was a commonly negotiated item in union contracts because unlike wages insurance wasn't subject to any income tax. So it was a tax free form of compensation. https://www.bcbsm.com/index/about-us...r-history.html"


Health insurance as compensation grew phenomenally during a period when wages were controlled and employers were desperate for more help-think WWII. This is one discrepancy that makes me leery of the whole article. I realize that everyone does not have the same experience-who can speak for a whole country across a decade in time? I smell an agenda on the part of the writer, I am just not sure of what it is.

[William Yanda]

The draft wasn’t universal in the 50’s. After WW2 the military shrank so much that they had to reinstate the draft to gear up for Korea. After it wound down the military didn’t have room for everybody even if they had wanted to mandate it. One of my uncles was born in 1936 and neither went to college nor joined the military.

This is another disconnect from fact. However, the percentage of the male population with military experience was much greater then.

[bob208]

there was not a lawyer on every corner wanting to sue if you got a paper cut. another thing if you did cut or smash your finger you wrapped it up in a paper towel and hopped no one saw how stupid you were, not look for a lawyer to sue.

[Chainsaw.]

Far to young to remember the 50s, that was when Dad was a kid. Me, I’ll take the 80s, and not the neon 80s, no, give me the feathered hair, old pick ups, weekends at the lake 80s.

[lightman]

I was born in the late 50's and I remember some of this. Mom stayed at home, raised the kids, cooked and kept house. Families only had 1 car. You didn't lock your houses or your car. Houses didn't have air conditioning. Doctors, Teachers and Policemen were respected. This was in the South. I'm probably forgetting a few things.

[Idaho45guy]

I was born in the late 50's.
I remember some of these things.
On this rock, we didn't have many of them, and still have many of them today.
Everything started to go down hill when Americans no longer understood "Shame"
When we forgot what "Honor" is.
How many people, today, even know what "bastard" really means.
They know it's bad, but don't know why.
Country has lost it's morals.
It's sad.

Quoted for truth...

I think 99% of the problems we face today can be traced back to most Americans turning their backs on God. We've had three or so generations of Americans being told that they are special and more important than their fellow man. We have become a nation of selfish, ignorant, lazy, self-entitled snowflakes who value leisure and pleasure above all else.

It truly is sad.

[Wally]

Quoted for truth...

I think 99% of the problems we face today can be traced back to most Americans turning their backs on God. We've had three or so generations of Americans being told that they are special and more important than their fellow man. We have become a nation of selfish, ignorant, lazy, self-entitled snowflakes who value leisure and pleasure above all else.

It truly is sad.

It would be hard to come up with an argument against your eloquent statement. Sadly many highly educated lost their faith. When a society loses faith they also lose morality. We have a crop of millennial's that don't want to get married, have children, & want to own a house. I have queried my nieces and nephews; they prefer to hang with friends and have an extended college dorm type of a life. None want a house, as they feel it requires too much upkeep and maintenance. The gals want a career; children would be too much to handle. The guys don't want to marry----their mindset is that the gals are too self-centered and most likely will just lead to a divorce. Most married couples with kids become religious again; it is a natural instinct.

[Rex]

Being born in 1942, on a farm in western Kansas,I remember all of that. We used coal oil for everything, light, cooking, heat and to treat minor wounds. On the farm we ate wild game, pheasants or ducks or rabbits year around. Dad never owned a hunting license and the only gun was a single shot shotgun. Kansas was "dry" but Dad had a 25 gallon stone crock in the cellar and we always had company stop by in the summer. The couple of times a year that our county road got bladed, the operator would also blade our half mile lane from the road to our house because he knew "Old Pat" had beer in the cellar.
I miss a lot of that, not the old out house though!

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Same here. Born in '42. Grew up in the 50's. Graduated H.S. in 1960. I think the article is pretty accurate.

[popper]

The people didn't live as long is bogus. Avg lifespan maybe a couple years different then. You worked hard and safe as if injured, out of luck. You inherited the family home/farm or payed rent. Houses were not cheap then, 1000 sq ft was a large one. Economy was pretty stalled until after WWII, then housing was a big industry. By 1900, most larger cities had piped water, sewers and 'indoor' plumbing. Cisterns and septic tanks for rural areas.

[Wally]

I looked it up from actual statistics.. http://www.demog.berkeley.edu/~andrew/1918/figure2.html

67 years for males and 73 for females...

[Freightman]

Cheap guns! you sure! I was born in 1939, according to S-S records started paying S-S in 1953 got married in 1960 and made 40.75 AN HOUR now figure how many Super Blackhaks you can buy. House rent was $55 a mo. car payment $35 then you had to eat and pay utilities no $$ left for guns. Then kids were born you have to feed and clothes them. Guns didn't come till much later. Doctor visits came out of your pocket, or you didn't go You went to work even if you didn't feel good as there was always someone willing to take the job. Good old days were rough in my experience yours may be different but I don't have to work now cause I worked then.:groner:

[Wally]

And you live in Texas....how can anyone ask for more than that! Stop and think..what if you lived in Illinois, New York or California (God forbid)?

[Elkins45]

"Health insurance became popular in the 30's and post WW2 it was a commonly negotiated item in union contracts because unlike wages insurance wasn't subject to any income tax. So it was a tax free form of compensation. https://www.bcbsm.com/index/about-us...r-history.html"


Health insurance as compensation grew phenomenally during a period when wages were controlled and employers were desperate for more help-think WWII. This is one discrepancy that makes me leery of the whole article. I realize that everyone does not have the same experience-who can speak for a whole country across a decade in time? I smell an agenda on the part of the writer, I am just not sure of what it is.

Health insurance was much cheaper in previous decades, even as far back as the late 1980's. When I was self-employed in 1987-1989 I purchased Blue Cross thru my car insurance agent for the grand sum for $25/month...but that was because what I was buying was health insurance, not health care. It was a major medical policy that basically only kicked in if you had a bad disease or accident. It didn't pay for routine visits or transgender surgery or all the stuff people expect it to cover today. When people say insurance has become unaffordable that's because it really isn't even the same thing as it used to be.

Oddly enough, my car insurance doesn't cover oil changes or tires.

[John Guedry]

My dad (1902 - 1977) once told me that people who talked about the " good old days " either had a bad memory or had never been there. He always brought up the outhouse on a cold rainy night. Also (important in the south) no A/C.

[sureYnot]

Outhouse and freedom vs a/c and slavery.

Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk

[snowwolfe]

Remember those days well as I am older than alot of you that posted. $.49 got you a cheeseburger, fries and a cherry coke at the local drug store. We drove to the farm to get our 1 gallon jugs refilled with fresh, non pasteurized non homogenized milk for $.75 a gallon. In the morning we would shake the jug to mix up the cream. I wouldn't consider them the good old days with the exception that all kids played outside and there was usually only one fat kid in each class room.

[popper]

4 major conflicts and 4 major plagues, they counted in the statistics? Gain of 10 from the 50s. You could drive on a date, pay for chow and still have change from 5$.

[Wally]

Here's more detail on the period....this is from another forum member:

I grew up in the 1950′s and remember it well.

The ever present threat of polio. You would see pictures of children in iron lungs in the newspaper or on posters in school or on TV news shows. And we would get gamma globulin shots to protect us from it if anyone in the school was diagnosed with polio (although it would have provided little protection).
The ever present threat of nuclear war with the USSR. There would be practice drills for hiding in the event of a nuclear attack. [Of course, today we have practice drills for hiding in the event of a school shooter.]
Measles, mumps and chicken pox were pretty much experienced by all children and a number of them were scarred or died from the experience.
Many people could not afford TVs and those who did had 10″ or 12″ black and white TVs. Color was only found in the homes of the rich and they were likely 12″ color TVs. (Most shows were not filmed in color until well into the 1960’s).
There were no cell phones, computers, internet, GPS navigation systems, or most other electronic devices we use routinely today.
Most electronic devices such as radios and TVs and audio equipment had vacuum tubes instead of transistors.
Music was all monophonic. Stereo only came out in the late 50’s or early 60’s.
Most cars had only manual transmissions. Automatic transmissions were for sissies.
Racial, religious and ethnic discrimination in housing, education, and many other aspects of life was quite common. For example, you could list your house for sale and say that it was not available to anyone of a specific religion or race or ethnic origin. You could even have deed restrictions forbidding future owners from selling to those you didn’t approve of.
Each family had a land line phone (if any phone at all). Only the rich had more than one line.
Air conditioning was rare and only found in homes of the rich and in movie theaters (which is one of the reasons we all went to the movies so often).
Pollution of the air and water was quite bad in most major cities and many rural areas had polluted waterways.
The interstate highway system was just being built. Most of us drove on two lane roads.
Cars typically only lasted about 4–5 years before they had to be scrapped. Tires (they weren’t radials back then) lasted about 20,000 miles.
Kids routinely walked a mile or more to school. Parents would rarely drive kids to school, even in bad weather, because most families had at most one car and the father would have already taken that to work.
On the other hand

Gasoline was about 15 cents per gallon
An ice cream cone cost 10 cents (12 cents for a double dip cone)
You could see a movie in a theater for 12 cents (often a double feature).
Cars had fins (at least in the last half of the 1950’s)

[georgerkahn]

An enjoyable article to read -- thanks for posting -- BUT I noted no mention of the families then eating home-cooked "from scratch" meals sitting at a table, together (and the following day's leftovers, if any); mom and dad spending TIME with their children as often/much as they could; and, the family going to (whatever denomination) church weekly!
georgerkahn

[snowwolfe]

Yea.....I really liked sniffing in coal dust every time I had to shovel coal into the furnace. And removing coal ashes was even more fun. Especially since we had to find a spot in the yard to dump the pile of cancer causing garbage so it could leach back into our well water. Even more fun was running out to the outhouse during a snow storm. Very few cars could make it to the 100,000 mile point without a rebuild. That is, if they were not rusted out by then.
Good old days? NOT.

[yeahbub]

Anybody remember "burning fluid" or "city gas"? That would be going back a ways. Burning fluid was a blend of alcohol and turpentine (byproducts of kiln-drying lumber) for lamps and was replaced with kerosene once Rockefeller figured out there was money to be made with this byproduct of refining oil for lubricants. Same with gasoline before internal combustion engines were common. There are old photos of lamps with the glass chimney all carboned up from the soot produced by the turpentine but it was the best anyone had back then. City gas was the gas piped to houses in town for cooking purposes produced by a plant in the city burning trash, wood or whatever fuel would produce the needed carbon monoxide in sufficient quantities. Remember the old movies in which the despondent person would put their head in the oven to commit suicide? This never made sense to me because natural gas, methane, is not precisely a poisonous gas but CO is, and cities produced it before natural gas became widely available. Imagine that, deliberately piping carbon monoxide into your house. Fascinating, the obscure and lost details that can be learned in conversation with the old folks who lived it.

[JoeJames]

My dad (1902 - 1977) once told me that people who talked about the " good old days " either had a bad memory or had never been there. He always brought up the outhouse on a cold rainy night. Also (important in the south) no A/C.Mostly grew up in Memphis. Kind of hot during the summer. Attic fan or box fan was it. Finally got A/C after we moved to Louisiana when I was 14. One thing that was a whole lot better: no child-proof packaging or tamper-proof packaging; did not have to spend so much time opening stuff.

[popper]

Got to slide down the coal chute once and cleaning the coal bin. Lots of fun. Freezer was a box the ice man put blocks into. Milk man picked up the old bottles. First TV in town was a 4" round tube and only one station. Color was a B&W with a color wheel in front of it. Friend had a Whizzer and I got (somehow) a worn out Solex.

[woodbutcher]

:-D Those were good times and bad.My Father lived through pretty much all of it.11-11--1896 was his birthday.He died 9-1994.He saw transportation go from horse and buggy to the space shuttle.Served in the trenches in WW1 along with his oldest Brother.Saw Haley`s Comet come and go twice.I came along in 1945.The 50`s and 60`s were also good and bad times.Dad had pretty much one job his whole life.House painter/wallpaper hanger for 50 some years before he retired.Education was much better when I went to school.First grade through 8th was a bit rough(Catholic school).The Nuns cut no slack(:smile:).But,you got a great education.
Learned a bunch from Dads friends(WW1 and WW2 and Korean veterans).A really great bunch of gentlemen and ladies.Miss them all.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[starmac]

Born in 58, so can't relate to much of the fifties, but much of the country was still a lot like that in the 60's and even in the 70's in rural towns, at least in Texas and New Mexico.
Heck here in Alaska, there is a lot of folks that can still relate too several parts of it, out houses, wood heat, etc. lol

Anybody remember counter checks, where I lived through the 70's there was no need to carry your check book, every place that accepted payment had a stack of counter checks, just sign your name to it.

[lightman]

Another thing I remember is that most people were more resistant to credit. Back then a workman was more likely to drive a vehicle with a different level accessory/trim package than his boss than they are now. Now days a working man is more likely to drive a truck with a King Ranch or Denali package than in the past. Or to go into debt for a larger nicer house.

[mold maker]

I remember the do it yourself or do without attitude. Home and auto repairs were common after work activities.
The Sat double feature and serials with a hotdog, drink, and popcorn, left change for a quarter. A cellophane pack of BBs was a penny. There were constant gas wars , and .13.8 was often the price.
There was a drink that we called the "three center" and most snacks were a nickel. A huge "Lotta Cola" and a 6" Moon Pie made many a 10c lunch. Lots of "penny" candy, and even a small paper bag called a penny poke.
Nobody I knew had more than one pair of shoes that fit. First order of business after school was to change into old clothes that usually had more hole than fabric. Unlike today it was embarrassing to wear worn or holey pants in public. Most everybody (girls and boys) had overalls with at least one strap held with a safety pin.
The Butcher, (every grocery had one) wore a stained white apron held with a huge brass safety pin, except for when he was stocking shelves, or running the register. You ordered a cut of meat and he cut it while you waited.
Hardware, grocery, and even gas stations, sold guns and ammo. Most families had a couple members that hunted and fished to supplement groceries.
Just like it was yesterday!

[country gent]

Also remember most cars trucks and tractors were 6 volt positive ground systems and also had generators not alternators if you drove in the cities a slow speeds the system might not charge and you had to charge it at home. Lawn mowers were a push type usually a reel mower of some sort powered by the operator.

[JoeJames]

Also remember most cars trucks and tractors were 6 volt positive ground systems and also had generators not alternators if you drove in the cities a slow speeds the system might not charge and you had to charge it at home. Lawn mowers were a push type usually a reel mower of some sort powered by the operator.yep, reel type push mower, and having it slam your breast bone when you went over a walnut or a gum ball. Wish I did not remember that.

[Idaho45guy]

Here's more detail on the period....this is from another forum member:

I grew up in the 1950′s and remember it well.

The ever present threat of polio. You would see pictures of children in iron lungs in the newspaper or on posters in school or on TV news shows. And we would get gamma globulin shots to protect us from it if anyone in the school was diagnosed with polio (although it would have provided little protection).
The ever present threat of nuclear war with the USSR. There would be practice drills for hiding in the event of a nuclear attack. [Of course, today we have practice drills for hiding in the event of a school shooter.]
Measles, mumps and chicken pox were pretty much experienced by all children and a number of them were scarred or died from the experience.
Many people could not afford TVs and those who did had 10″ or 12″ black and white TVs. Color was only found in the homes of the rich and they were likely 12″ color TVs. (Most shows were not filmed in color until well into the 1960’s).
There were no cell phones, computers, internet, GPS navigation systems, or most other electronic devices we use routinely today.
Most electronic devices such as radios and TVs and audio equipment had vacuum tubes instead of transistors.
Music was all monophonic. Stereo only came out in the late 50’s or early 60’s.
Most cars had only manual transmissions. Automatic transmissions were for sissies.
Racial, religious and ethnic discrimination in housing, education, and many other aspects of life was quite common. For example, you could list your house for sale and say that it was not available to anyone of a specific religion or race or ethnic origin. You could even have deed restrictions forbidding future owners from selling to those you didn’t approve of.
Each family had a land line phone (if any phone at all). Only the rich had more than one line.
Air conditioning was rare and only found in homes of the rich and in movie theaters (which is one of the reasons we all went to the movies so often).
Pollution of the air and water was quite bad in most major cities and many rural areas had polluted waterways.
The interstate highway system was just being built. Most of us drove on two lane roads.
Cars typically only lasted about 4–5 years before they had to be scrapped. Tires (they weren’t radials back then) lasted about 20,000 miles.
Kids routinely walked a mile or more to school. Parents would rarely drive kids to school, even in bad weather, because most families had at most one car and the father would have already taken that to work.
On the other hand

Gasoline was about 15 cents per gallon
An ice cream cone cost 10 cents (12 cents for a double dip cone)
You could see a movie in a theater for 12 cents (often a double feature).
Cars had fins (at least in the last half of the 1950’s)

Which is worse, Polio, measles, mumps. etc. which we eradicated, or cancer?

238221

And I really see no disadvantage to the other things highlighted. People were in better physical shape, had more sense of personal responsibility, and families were closer.

Kids are fatter and killing themselves at a much higher rate today.

238222

238223

[Elkins45]

Which is worse, Polio, measles, mumps. etc. which we eradicated, or cancer?

238221

And I really see no disadvantage to the other things highlighted. People were in better physical shape, had more sense of personal responsibility, and families were closer.

Kids are fatter and killing themselves at a much higher rate today.

238222

238223

Look at the scale on that cancer graph. You’re talking about an increase from 13 to 21 out of 10,000 kids. That’s a 0.08% increase. I would absolutely take that over the chance of polio. And those are instances, not deaths. This is a classic example of a graph that was intentionally drawn to be misleading by amplifying only the very top of the scale.

And what’s preferable about cars and tires that wore out more quickly?

[Pete44mag]

I remember in the late 60's I would put my .22 in its case grab a box of ammo and get on the bus to go to school. When I got to school I put my gun and ammo in my locker. After school I would go into the school basement where we had a 50 foot rifle and pistol range and shoot a match against a different school. After school I would get on the late bus and go home, no problem, no questions we were on the school rifle team. Can you imagine that this was on Long Island, New York? We would go duck hunting before school and some of the teachers that were interested would come out to the school parking lot to look at the shotguns we had. Things have really change here. Now if you can find a place to duck hunt in this area you are a very luck person and if you bring a gun near school you will either be shot by a SWAT team or spend a long time in jail! Some things were better then, some things are better now. I think we tend to forget the bad things then, and are constantly reminded of the bad things now. As Mom used to always say "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.". Looking back I think that in a lot of cases the grass is greener because we can no longer get on that side of the fence as much a we wish. Speaking of "Wishing" when we were kids, Mom would tell us to go out in the backyard and wish in one hand and pee in the other and see which one would get full first. Not too many people think that way any more or would tell there kids that!

[Rufus Krile]

Born in '47, I've seen most everything previously described. I DO note that the folks questioning/disparaging the common disappearance of child molesters tend to be from the more urban areas of the north. In Texas we tended to solve our own problems in a more direct manner. The ice deliveries that confound some of the younger here I find humorous, after spending one summer making these deliveries. Thought it'd be a good idea... cool you know... Doesn't always work out. Family was in the wholesale oil and gas business so I distinctly remember the price wars. Goodyear sent a couple sets of tires out in the mid-60's for the dealers to test. New fangled radial bias tires. When inflated to the listed pressures they still "looked" low so my father aired 'em up... to about 60psi... and then complained that they rode hard. Great uncle on my mother's side 'retired' when the oilfield hit in the '30's and ran a poker game out of his house 24/7. This was the old family homestead that'd been there since the 1860's and had no running water and, for a long time, no electricity. I think what bothered my mother and grandmother the most, tho', was that he didn't have an outhouse either. I loved that old man.

[bob208]

I was born 1950. it was hard work on the farm but it was honest. kids that were kept busy did not have time to get into trouble. we all carried pocket knives never any problems but then we were not sticking them into each other.

[gbehrman]

I was there thru the 50's and it didn't seem so bad. I am 75 now and looking forward with the way the country is today, I
am sorry for the young guys who are going to see this country deteriorate into a Socialist society where the tail wags the dog. Freedom is on the way out. I would redo the 50's if I could and enjoy the freedoms and the simpler life you could live then.