In another thread regarding what fictional character you might like to be someone said Richie Cunningham as it would be fun to have grown up in the 50's and I replied that it wasn't such fun and it was a naive stifled world...which got me to thinking...what did we have then that we don't have now and what do we have now that we didn't have then...so for all of you growing up in the 50's, jump in here and add to the list I'm starting just to see what things were really like 50 years ago...

What We Had
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The McCarthy Witch Hunt
Segregation
Corner Drugstores with soda fountains
Black & White TV's' with rabbit ears and only 3 or 4 channels
Corded Phones
Elvis

What We Didn't Have
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Color TV's (and no flat screen, plasma, or HD)
Cable and Satellite TV with hundreds of channels
Cell Phones
Remote Phones (hell we were glued to one spot to talk on the phone)
Personal Computers
Shopping Malls
Indian, Thai, and Japanese Restuarants
Digital Cameras
Brittany Spears

Feel free to jump in here, all you old farts :-) and add to the list to jog our memories and show these young whippersnappers just how good they've got it...this ought to be fun...:-)

PS - And, oh, yeah, when I was as young as half the guys here I had to walk ten miles in the snow just to get to school...:-)
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Uphill both ways!

Do you remember when?

All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?

It took five minutes for the TV warm up?

Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?

Nobody owned a purebred dog?

When a quarter was a decent allowance?

You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?

Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?

All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had
their hair done every day and wore high heels?

You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without
asking, all for free, every time?
And you didn't pay for air? And, you got trading stamps to boot?

Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the
box?

It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner
at a real restaurant with your parents?

They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . . and they
did?

When a 57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise,
peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady?

No one ever asked where the car keys were
because they were always in the car,
in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?

Lying on your back in the grass with your friends
and saying things like, "That cloud looks like a "

and playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the
game?

Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because
no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?

And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once,
you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace,
and share it with the children of today?

When being sent to the principal's office was nothing
compared to the fate that awaited the student at home?

Basically we were in fear for our lives,
but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc.
Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat!
But we survived because their love was greater than the threat.

Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy,
Howdy Dowdy and the Peanut Gallery,
the Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows,
Nellie Bell, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk.

As well as summers filled with bike rides, baseball games,
Hula Hoops, bowling and visits to the pool,
and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar.
Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that"?

To remember what a double dog dare is, read on.
And remember that the perfect age is somewhere between
old enough to know better and too young to care.

How many of these do you remember?

Candy cigarettes

Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside
Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles

Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes

Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum

Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers

Newsreels before the movie
P.F. Fliers

Telephone numbers with a word prefix...(Raymond 4-601).
Party lines

Peashooters
Howdy Dowdy

45 RPM records

Green Stamps
Hi-Fi's

Metal ice cubes trays with levers
Mimeograph paper
Beanie and Cecil

Roller-skate keys
Cork pop guns
Drive ins

Studebakers

Washtub wringers
The Fuller Brush Man
Reel-To-Reel tape recorders
Tinkertoys

Erector Sets
The Fort Apache Play Set
Lincoln Logs

15 cent McDonald hamburgers

5 cent packs of baseball cards -
with that awful pink slab of bubble gum
Penny candy
35 cent a gallon gasoline

Jiffy Pop popcorn

Do you remember a time when...

Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"?
Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"?
"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest?
Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?

It wasn't odd to have two or three "Best Friends"?

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties"?

Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?

A foot of snow was a dream come true?

Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action
figures?

"Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense?
Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?
War was a card game?

Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?
Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived!!!!!!!
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in eight feet of snow.:-)
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Having a jack-knife and playing mumbly peg.
All the kids in the neighborhood outside at night playing "kick the can and spud".
Your mom yelling out the backdoor for you to come home for dinner.
Having a train set, Lionel and then HO.

In the 60s.
Slot cars
Superballs
Dunkin Imperial yoyo
Pinball machines
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Ah,,,I remember a lot of that, but don't forget to make comparisons...I want to see what you all think is different about the world then and now...sort of a "what we had then that's gone" and "what "we have now that we didn't have then"...:-)
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Well, I remember lighting off fireworks on the 4th to celebrate the country's birthday. I guess that's pretty much banned in most cities today.

I remember riding bikes, mini-bikes, and later motorcycles - all without wearing a helmet. Is that still allowed?

I recall getting into fights where knives and guns weren't used. Nobody got seriously hurt. Now I hear the drive-by has sorta replaced that.

I remember getting toy guns as Christmas presents. Do we still have toy guns? Seems like I don't see any kids playing with them today.

I remember when the holiday season was called Christmas, and spring break was called Easter Vacation.

Things change.
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NoZero...
Fantastic prose..
You really LIVED it!
:-)
Families had dinner together

THE STROLL....My first dance...with Pam Terrell...

Following the ice wagons

Salvage men with horse drawn carts...
Not that old..
Big city...Elizabeth NJ..Mravalag Manor.

Snow was left on the streets. Snow chains were used in the winter.

Kids could grab the bumper of a passing car and slide along the road

paddle ball

jumpin out of HIGH SWINGING swings

Nuclear war drills

SALK POLIO VACCINE...sugar cubes as we lined up

Kennedy assassination

rolled up - cuffed bluejeans

listening to records before you bought them...in a booth....

Beach boys Little Deuce Coupe...My first Record Album that I bought

Pay phone booths...OAK framing, WESTERN ELECTRIC made every part for the telephone...even the screws and nuts....That is some POWER

Party lines on the phone

Tom
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You got to watch???


:-)


Ron
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How about do you remember:

Your first transistor radio.

Watching The Wonderful World of Disney and Ed Sullivan on Sunday night.

Bonanza and other westerns on TV.

Seeing your first TV show in color.

Public parks with staffs and free equipment.

Walking to school.

School lockers without locks.

Only one car per family.

Only one TV per family.

Going to the movies which started with cartoons and had 2 feature films with an intermission in between.

Board games.

Jukeboxes that played 45's.

Cars without air conditioning.

Using snow shovels.

Zones instead of zip codes.

Cars with bench seats and manual shifters on the steering column.

Cars without seat belts.

Bicycles without multiple gears.

Looking for 4 leaf clovers.
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My first LPs were mono.

Chemistry sets.

The original Chuck Taylor Converse tennis shoes.

Very few high school girls sports teams.

Very few high school boys sports teams.

Your mom could bake birthday treats for your classroom.

Chalkboards and cleaning erasers.

Nobody thought much about a bunch of kids playing together after dark in the neighborhood.
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One thing that hasn't changed is High School football on Friday Night still rules! It just now instead of one high school in town there is 3 or 4.

How many people remember hanging out in "teen" centers where there was nothing but black lights and florescent paint? Now we have Starbucks.

Remember when "fun" on Sunday was skipping Sunday School and going fishing? Wait. My bad. It still is fun.
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Who'd have thought thirty years ago we'd be sitting here drinking Chateau du Chasselais?
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Listening to Jean Shepherd on the radio

Lookin at comic books with a flashlight cause I was supposed to be asleep

Is he here yet? Is he here yet? Christmas eve. God LOVE my DAD..for putting together soooo many things...

Seeing how far away you could get a radio station because of the BOUNCE.
I'm in the New York area...Chicago was VERY cool to get on the radio
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Cub Scouts and Brownies (and later Boy and Girl Scouts) wearing their uniforms at school. (do they still HAVE uniforms?)
Cub Scouts being given a pocket knife, and proudly wearing it attached to their belt AT SCHOOL.

Going outdoors in the morning in the summer time, and just having to "be home before the street lights come on." Whoever's house you were at around lunchtime is who's Mom would give you lunch.

Walking or riding bikes "downtown" with your friends -- at 8 or 9 years old.

Thinking Police Officers were the living embodiment of God himself.

Building a crystal radio set

If you "mouthed off" to an adult, that adult would smack you upside the head, and then call your mother and send you home to "get a real spanking."

Going to the Barber Shop (not a stylist) for a trim or even a Crew Cut.

Not being eligible for the School Bus unless you lived more than 1.5 miles from the school.

Never addressing an adult without "Mr.", "Mrs." or "Miss" attached to their name, and always saying "please" and "thank you".
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OK, so I am not 55+ yet, however, I have always been a little pre-mature:-) in my ways. I thought it fitting to have a vehicle from that era to spur some memories. This was my high school car, I restored it once then. It has been in the family longer than me. Next restore will be frame off after I liquidate some other assets, hopefully next summer! The plates are a hybrid of my last name and the 400 small block fuel consumption!

Anyway, great topic......
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Damn...that was the first car my father bought for my mother after he taught her how to drive...is that a '55 or '57? Bel Air?
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Ahhh the cars... Ford Falcon is the first memorable one for my Dad.

One car in the family
Taking buses to get around. Sometimes taking buses to visit relatives ~ 50 miles away..
Tom
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Double Nickle, sort goes with the post listing. I think this was considered a "Salesman Special" as the original car came without a back seat, vinyl floors and three on the column. I put the back seat in for high school. Boys have needs you know!

Kinda funny, I drove my Grandma's Ford Falcon into Prospect Lake on a fishing trip with my Grandpa :-) I was 3ish and was pretending to drive, released parking brake and rolled down the hill into the water. My Grandpa was pretty awsome, we towed the car home, drained / changed all fluids and it ran just fine. Always smelled a little off though. He never yelled at me or nuthin :-) I only wish I could have the kind of patience with children. I sure miss him.
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Grandmas and Granpas are special.
I miss my Nana
:-)
tom
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