I was born in the 1980's so the only knowledge I have of the 1950's is what I have read in text books and the TV's shows I have watched from that era. Obviously I know there were problems, i.e. civil rights issues, coming out of wars and getting ready to go into other wars. But aside from the issues, what was America like back then? I have often wished I was alive during that period. It seems like America was so new and full of life. Family values were strong, communities were also strong, technology was advancing, and it just seemed like a great time to be alive. Almost like America peaked in the 50's in a lot of ways.

So please share your experiences so us younger generations can learn what it was really like.

Thanks in advance!

------------------

quote Originally posted by DeLorean00: Almost like America peaked in the 50's in a lot of ways.

My thoughts too.
I was born in 1960.
I watched the 50's die.
But I was too young to mourn it.

~World Events~

1950:
President Truman approved the production of the hydrogen bomb
North Korean forces invaded South Korea, precipitating war
Assassination attempt against Truman, by Puerto Rican nationalists, fails.

1951:
Rosenbergs found guilty of espionage, and later (1953) executed
General Douglas McArthur fired for insubordination
Transcontinental TV arrives in United States.

1952:
Last racial and ethnic barriers to immigration to U.S. removed
First hydrogen bomb test, at Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific
China begins forced collectivization.

1953:
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin dies
Dwight Eisenhower becomes U.S. President
Korean War ends in truce.

1954:
Nautilus, first atomic-powered sub, launched
Landmark Supreme Court decision bans school segregation
Senator Joseph McCarthy's televised hearings into alleged Communist influence in the army backfire, and he is condemned by Senate.

1955:
U.S. agreed to train South Vietnamese army
Refusal of Rosa Parks to move to the back of a bus leads to Montgomery bus boycott
Rise of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to national prominence
The author of these lines and future Mountain Times Managing Editor (James Thompson) born

1956:
101 Southern congressman (including all of North Carolina's) call for massive resistance to desegregation
Work on U.S. interstate highway system begins
First transatlantic telephone cable goes into service
Soviets crush freedom fighters in Hungary.

1957:
Eisenhower uses federal troops to desegregate schools in Little Rock, Arkansas
Soviet satellite Sputnik circles Earth.

1958:
Explorer I, first U.S. satellite, launched
First domestic jet airline service starts between New York and Miami
Mao Tse Tung starts "Great Leap Forward" in China.

1959:
Alaska and Hawaii admitted as the 49th and 50th states in the United States of America
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev toured the U.S.
Fidel Castro comes to power in Cuba.

[This message has been edited by Boondawg (edited 05-29-2011).]

Great post Boondawg. Man what a time to be alive.

quote Originally posted by DeLorean00: I was born in the 1980's so the only knowledge I have of the 1950's is what I have read in text books and the TV's shows I have watched from that era. Obviously I know there were problems, i.e. civil rights issues, coming out of wars and getting ready to go into other wars. But aside from the issues, what was America like back then? I have often wished I was alive during that period. It seems like America was so new and full of life. Family values were strong, communities were also strong, technology was advancing, and it just seemed like a great time to be alive. Almost like America peaked in the 50's in a lot of ways. So please share your experiences so us younger generations can learn what it was really like. Thanks in advance!

I was born in 53 and do remember parts of it but you can't measure the quality of life through the eyes of anyone under about 12. My dad and I talked several times about the idea that things were better or simpler back then and he said it wasn't. The same struggles, pains and good existed back then. Employment was up and down. People had affairs, got divorced, raises good and bad children, murders, etc. etc.

His only comments were that the media and politicians made it sound like things are worse today or that it was better then but he felt things were generally the same. He also pointed out civil rights as a long time coming. He was still somewhat a chauvinist though.

I agree with him on the media and politics. Many parents today are so afraid of something bad happening to their kids that the pack them in Nerf. Bad things do happen but I can't say it's any worse than before. Statistically, it might be but I question that.

[This message has been edited by TK (edited 05-29-2011).]

quote Originally posted by TK: I was born in 53 and do remember parts of it but you can't measure the quality of life through the eyes of anyone under about 12. My dad and I talked several times about the idea that things were better or simpler back then and he said it wasn't. The same struggles, pains and good existed back then. Employment was up and down. People had affairs, got divorced, raises good and bad children, murders, etc. etc. His only comments were that the media and politicians made it sound like things are worse today or that it was better then but he felt things were generally the same. He also pointed out civil rights as a long time coming. He was still somewhat a chauvinist though. I agree with him on the media and politics. Many parents today to so afraid of something bad happening to their kids that the pack them in Nerf.

Thank you TK. See that is why I started this tread. I often assumed things were possibly as bad, but just not reported the same. However I do feel as a society we have been in a downward slide for quite some time.

Since WW II was over for only five years in 1950, I remember Walter Cronkite's TV show about the war every Sunday I think. B&W TV if you had the funds to buy one. I think we got a TV 1954 or 55. The duck & cover exercizes at school in case of nuclear war.

You walked to elementary school, walked home for lunch then back for afternoon classes. Or once I got my bike, ride to school back and forth. No school cafeteria, or you packed a "brown bag" lunch.

Definitely a simpler time to grow up.

quote Originally posted by Old Lar: Since WW II was over for only five years in 1950, I remember Walter Cronkite's TV show about the war every Sunday I think. B&W TV if you had the funds to buy one. I think we got a TV 1954 or 55. The duck & cover exercizes at school in case of nuclear war. You walked to elementary school, walked home for lunch then back for afternoon classes. Or once I got my bike, ride to school back and forth. No school cafeteria, or you packed a "brown bag" lunch. Definitely a simpler time to grow up.

Wow, in comparison when I was in high school we had 10 foot high fences with barbwire on top surrounding the school. Campus monitors that wouldn't let you even walk to the front of the campus. And video cameras watching every move.

You mean Happy Days wasn't a documentary?
(notice Fonzie isn't wearing a leather jacket. In the first season he didn't have one, because it made him look "too tough")

quote Originally posted by Formula88: You mean Happy Days wasn't a documentary? (notice Fonzie isn't wearing a leather jacket. In the first season he didn't have one, because it made him look "too tough")

LoL, Too tough.

I was 12 in 1950 and remember my Uncle Jake being recalled into the Marines. He got to Korea just in time to be sent to the East Coast of Korea and the Chosin Reservoir where he was captured and spent 30 months in a Chinese POW camp. This, after making the Saipan and Iwo Jima landings in WWII.

My Uncle Howard went to Korea in 1952 and was wounded, came home in 1953, bought a '53 Chevy and married a sweet girl from Brenham, TX. For me, the Korean War defined the '50s decade. I remember many of the things Old Lar mentioned about walking to school and I felt rich when my brother gave me a new Schwinn bike in 1950. I missed walking home from school with my buddies and gathering pecans from people's front yards for my grandma to make pies. I began walking home again to be with my Buds.

The draft was on and so many men went to Korea but Europe got their share of about half a million men because we had to face down the Soviet threat. We had a few of the duck and cover drills as well. My Mom bought a B&W TV in 1953 but the programming was boring to me so I continued to read. The trans America high speed cable network sent programming from New York and LA and TV stations in Houston didn't get the cable until 1953 so we could watch live TV. That was interesting to say the least because of all the bloopers.

I bought a used '57 Corvette for about $3000 if memory serves me right and finished the decade as an electrician/geophysical assembler and reupped into the Army in 1960.

We had teachers that would be sent to jail today for fondling female students, coaches who slapped or grabbed boys genitals in gym class, teachers who didn't know their subjects but all in all, I think the vast majority of our teachers were very, very dedicated, able men and women who made a difference in young people's lives.

I remember when Stalin died, the King of England's passing and Princess Elizabeth assuming the throne, Sputnik, Explorer One, the establishment of NASA and the original seven(I think there were seven)astronauts and the death of Grissom and another astronaut in the Mercury capsule at Cape Canaveral. The astronauts were celebrities and all were the best of the best.

Was it a simpler time? In some ways, yes but we had the Communist threat that kind of lurked in the back of our minds. I remember that everyone was shocked and alarmed when the Soviets exploded their first hydrogen bomb. We were relieved when the Rosenbergs were executed for passing secrets to the Soviets that helped them make the bomb. Everyone was glued to the radio and TV during the 1952 political conventions and cheerred when Eisenhower was selected to be the Republican favorite. He ran on the campaign promise that "...if elected, I will go to Korea..." He didn't say he would end the war but only said that he would go to Korea and he did go. Adlai Stevnson was called an "egg head" but Texans voted for him anyway. I think the percentage of voters in Texas who went to the polls was 67%.

This is a superficial look at the 1950s but remember that when you are 73, someone will ask you about the '80s so keep good notes.

quote Originally posted by starlightcoupe: This is a superficial look at the 1950s but remember that when you are 73, someone will ask you about the '80s so keep good notes.

Some things are remembered better then others.
Was there any good tail around?

quote Originally posted by starlightcoupe: This is a superficial look at the 1950s but remember that when you are 73, someone will ask you about the '80s so keep good notes.

Thank you starlightcoupe. I really enjoyed your post. Reading through your words, I could almost imagine myself in your shoes. I really appreciate you taking the time to share that with us.

As for remembering the 80's, I am doing my best to continue to live in the 80's. In my house I have a museum set up with 80's items. Even today, I enjoy sharing my 80's items with people and explaining how they worked or what they did to people who don't remember them. One of my favorite things to collect are classic computers and old analog cameras.

I graduated from high school in 1960. It’s great to remember the good times like the movie/T-V series “Happy Days” but that’s not the way I remember it. I grew up in a poor family with five kids in a semi-rural area near Moline, Illinois.

My father was a coal miner before I was born but worked as a bench molder in a cast iron foundry during the time I lived there.. We had a large garden and grew much of our own food, lots of potatoes which were part of every evening meal.

Diseases were much more common then. My older brother contracted polio and a neighbor lady died of diphtheria. I think all the kids had mumps and chicken pox at one time or another

Things did improve for us over the years, an indoor toilet and running water were huge life style changers. I remember when we got our own telephone, a two-party line. I was in high school before we got our first TV. Our furnace went from a coal fired unit (that had to be “banked” at night and ashes shaken down) to a fuel oil unit and finally gas fired central heat furnace and a real water heater. I didn’t know anyone who had home air conditioning.

There are probably others here that had an entirely different experience growing up in the 50's but what I remember is lots of hard work and scraping by with very little of things we now take for granted.

quote Originally posted by spark1: I graduated from high school in 1960. It’s great to remember the good times like the movie/T-V series “Happy Days” but that’s not the way I remember it. I grew up in a poor family with five kids in a semi-rural area near Moline, Illinois. My father was a coal miner before I was born but worked as a bench molder in a cast iron foundry during the time I lived there.. We had a large garden and grew much of our own food, lots of potatoes which were part of every evening meal. Diseases were much more common then. My older brother contracted polio and a neighbor lady died of diphtheria. I think all the kids had mumps and chicken pox at one time or another Things did improve for us over the years, an indoor toilet and running water were huge life style changers. I remember when we got our own telephone, a two-party line. I was in high school before we got our first TV. Our furnace went from a coal fired unit (that had to be “banked” at night and ashes shaken down) to a fuel oil unit and finally gas fired central heat furnace and a real water heater. I didn’t know anyone who had home air conditioning. There are probably others here that had an entirely different experience growing up in the 50's but what I remember is lots of hard work and scraping by with very little of things we now take for granted.

Interesting. It must be amazing to be you. You have gone from those conditions to modern life. You really can appreciate modern conveniences in our day to day lives. I was watching the show "How the states got their shapes" and they said the until the 1950's central air conditioning was not common in any homes. But after the 1950's air conditioning became more common, this led to major cities being but in areas that before would have been to hot to live in. Like Tucson and even Las Vagas. Before AC people just avoided areas that were too hot.

the 50's were black&white both on the few tv channels
and in real life

I was born in 1950 Detroit
started school in 1954
my family summered there and wintered in miami
so I got to attend both the north's integrated school and the southern racist system
and travel twice a year on the pre-interstate roads in the deep south
right as the first courts ruled no more
but it took ten full years for the first black kids to get in a school I was at

yes the world looked different then
family values were very different
beating the wife and or kids was normal
drunk driving was not a big deal

sure we had tec like tv with 2 or 3 channels
but tuning was a pain
and they ate tubes
we had a fancy early projector tv it caught on fire

the 50's attitude style and feel lasted to about 63-4
then the real 60's kicked in full color

quote Originally posted by ray b: the 50's were black&white both on the few tv channels and in real life I was born in 1950 Detroit started school in 1954 my family summered there and wintered in miami so I got to attend both the north's integrated school and the southern racist system and travel twice a year on the pre-interstate roads in the deep south right as the first courts ruled no more but it took ten full years for the first black kids to get in a school I was at yes the world looked different then family values were very different beating the wife and or kids was normal drunk driving was not a big deal sure we had tec like tv with 2 or 3 channels but tuning was a pain and they ate tubes we had a fancy early projector tv it caught on fire the 50's attitude style and feel lasted to about 63-4 then the real 60's kicked in full color

So you had a unique chance to experience both northern and southern US. It was very much two different worlds back then wasn't it?

Born in 47.
I remember the first 45's.
Teen age girls asking me to come to their house when I was 8 to practice dancing.
Levis and t-shirts all year round in SOCAL, even at night.
$15 used cars, no insurance needed.
Hanging out at Perris Hill Park, hoping that Stinky Lou or Freeholie would ask me to go up the hill for a romp.
Femininity still wasn't a dirty word.
Patty and Sharlet Howard.
Never thought much about what Boonie posted, too many parties and party girls.
Fonzie was lame!

quote Originally posted by partfiero: Born in 47. I remember the first 45's. Teen age girls asking me to come to their house when I was 8 to practice dancing. Levis and t-shirts all year round in SOCAL, even at night. $15 used cars, no insurance needed. Hanging out at Perris Hill Park, hoping that Stinky Lou or Freeholie would ask me to go up the hill for a romp. Femininity still wasn't a dirty word. Patty and Sharlet Howard. Never thought much about what Boonie posted, too many parties and party girls. Fonzie was lame!

So for you it was a great time to be young? I can't say that I am not jealous.

quote Originally posted by DeLorean00: So for you it was a great time to be young? I can't say that I am not jealous.

Eight kids, $hit poor and living in the projects still didn't take the fun out of it.
Went through the sixties just having a ball every day, then hit the road block(Marriage).
Even most of my teachers were cool!
Once in the sixth grade I was having a problem with a bully.
Asked my teacher what I should do about it, he said to kick his butt!
I did, next day he wrote Fu** You Kenny on the classroom door, teacher recognized his writing and made him scrub it off, and then made him sit in a trash can the rest of that day.

quote Originally posted by partfiero: Eight kids, $hit poor and living in the projects still didn't take the fun out of it. Went through the sixties just having a ball every day, then hit the road block(Marriage). Even most of my teachers were cool! Once in the sixth grade I was having a problem with a bully. Asked my teacher what I should do about it, he said to kick his butt! I did, next day he wrote Fu** You Kenny on the classroom door, teacher recognized his writing and made him scrub it off, and then made him sit in a trash can the rest of that day.

AWESOME!! Sit in a trash can. LoL

quote Originally posted by DeLorean00: Thank you TK. See that is why I started this tread. I often assumed things were possibly as bad, but just not reported the same. However I do feel as a society we have been in a downward slide for quite some time.

Or they are still as good.

Okay.

This is officially recognized by me as the coolest thread on PFF. Wow. I want more to chime in!

quote Originally posted by theBDub: Okay. This is officially recognized by me as the coolest thread on PFF. Wow. I want more to chime in!

Awesome, another young guy that thinks like me.

Let's see...
I was born in '57, so I really don't remember much about the 50s.
The one thing that stands out is when Kennedy was shot in '63, when I was six. Up until that time, I had a really carefree outlook. (Like a 6 year old has anything to worry about.) After that, it seems like we, as a society, lost our innocence. In the years after, we had Bobby Kennedy and MLK.
I do remember the Duck and Cover drills, during the Cuban missile crisis, but I was really too young to understand. I remember my dad bringing home cases of canned water and stacking them under the basement stairs. I guess that was going to be the fallout shelter.

Our house had varnished hardwood floors. Carpet was considered a luxury.
We had central heat, but no A/C. I remember my dad bringing home a huge window unit when I was about 5, and installing it in the dining room. It would actually cool most of the house (all except the bedrooms) but, even then, it cost a fortune to run.
We didn't get our first microwave until the late '70s.

I still remember our first color TV. Got it in '67, I believe. We waited until they were available with rectangular screens. (The first color TVs actually had round picture tubes. They put frames around them that were flat on the top and bottom, but the sides were still curved.) We had three channels for the three networks; ABC, CBS, and NBC, and one PBS station that didn't come in too well.
The first UHF station was channel 17, which evolved into what became TBS. (UHF stations were... magical. Used that little bitty loop antenna instead of rabbit ears.)
NOBODY had cable until the late 70s.
I remember watching the astronauts walk on the moon, on live TV. Still have the pics that I snapped from the screen. (I was thinking that they were Polaroids, but I could be mistaken.)

When I was a kid, I rode my bicycle everywhere. I'd stay gone for hours. Rode for miles. My parents didn't worry as long as I was home in time for supper (or before dark.)

I remember Viet Nam. Or at least hearing about it. I was too young to go. They actually did away with Selective Service registration just before I turned 18. The requirement was reinstated a while later, but there was a group of people who were exempt. To this day, I have never been registered. I have mixed feelings about it, but it is what it is.

In terms of people... It seems like people were more trusting, but also more trustworthy.
It's sort of difficult to explain, but I meet people and trust them (or occasionally not, as the case may be) but society at large seems to be more... cold.
(This might be due to the fact that I live near, and work in, Atlanta.)

I remember when corporations, especially utilities and banks, were more personable, and people were still people and not just numbers.
It seems like, in the 80s or early 90s, corporate America lost its conscience, and everything became all about the "Almighty Dollar". Then again, it may be due to the fact of where I was in my career at the time.

I think that the internet has made a bigger change than anything else, however. We have information about anything available to us with just few keystrokes.
OTOH, it's hard to maintain a good attitude with the constant bombardment of bad news, moments after it happens. (As always, "If it bleeds, it leads.")

I'm not sure if society has changed, or whether we just hear about the bad things more frequently. It's certainly not as simple as it used to be.

Jeez... I just realized that I got very long winded.

Raydar,

I read every word. Thanks for your input. You touched on something huge. You said people were more trusting, and people were more trustworthy. This I think is the single biggest thing we have lost as a society. Nowadays no one trust anyone else, maybe for good reason, maybe not. But this is a huge problem with parents. Almost every parent is now so paranoid about their kids getting molested or abducted that they don't feel safe letting their kids out of their sight. So gone are the days of taking off for hours on end and just showing up for supper. At least in lots of households. Sad really.

[This message has been edited by DeLorean00 (edited 05-30-2011).]

The thing is, I'm not sure that people are any more evil than they ever were (or even a larger percentage of the whole.)
It's just that the perception is there, due to the media, and the web.

People are certainly more paranoid. The innocence is gone.

quote Originally posted by Raydar: The thing is, I'm not sure that people are any more evil than they ever were (or even a larger percentage of the whole.) It's just that the perception is there, due to the media, and the web. People are certainly more paranoid. The innocence is gone.

Agree. I heard on the radio that child abductions haven't really changed all that much over the years. Its just now the second it happens everyone in the state/country knows about it.

I was born in 1954, and as a small child, lived in Pensacola, FL.
The only places that had A/C were big department stores.
The gas station attendant offered to check your oil, the pump had a little glass bubble with beads in it where you could see the fuel flow and it made a “ding, ding” sound as it pumped.
Each house had only one telephone, it had a dial, was indestructible and you rented it from THE phone company.
TV was an event, not something that stayed on all day.
Florida was filled with “tourist traps” some of which had booths in which you could change the film in you camera, in the dark; and when you returned to the parking lot, you would find that they had placed an advertising bumper sticker on your car.
Your teacher knew your parents and your parents knew the preacher.
The milkman left milk on the doorstep and picked up the empties.
Airplanes had propellers.
FM radio was for classical music and stereos were for rich people.

[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 05-30-2011).]

I was born in 47. The 50's are becoming a very distant memory - First memories are when I lived in Lockport near a large coal pile and playing on the coal pile sliding down it. Also in Lockport I think around the 1st grade I played hookey most everyday and rode the public buses all over Lockport by myself (free for kids then). TV's were small, black & white, with only 3 channels but when we watched TV there was always something on that we liked: Amos and Andy, Davey Crockett, Jack Benny, The Mickey Mouse Club, Sea Hunt, Phil Silvers, Ed Sullivan, I Love Lucy, Jackie Gleason, Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, Wagontrain. And the list goes on. I get over 200 channels now and only watch a handfull of shows on occasion.
We got a color TV in 64. I can recall the family Model T on the farm we lived for awhile, I remember going to the show and seeing The Blob when it came out in 58. I also saw the 3 Stoogies when they came to Buffalo in the 50's, my brother and I playing along the Niagara River in a big ships superstructure before the Interstate was built along it, we knew the years and makes of all the cars on the road then especially my dad's new 57 Chevy and then later a 59 Chevy wagon. I remember my mom cutting off the heads off chickens getting supper ready, the hand water pump in the kitchen, the outhouse was not a fun place, having to prime the cistern water pump often, water barrels that caught the rain water for watering the garden, playing cowboys and Indians in the fields, swimming in the Erie Canal, BB guns, the Scwhinn bicycle at xmas and the Cape Canaveral play set I got one year (I think I could still have fun with that now), I recall my dad shooting our dog to put her out of her misery because she had been run over by a car in front of our house on the road, I recall riding my bike miles wthe store to get a coke, going to the 1 room school I attended 4th grade in. We lived with the thought that the atom bomb could be used against us at any moment.

[This message has been edited by Larryh86GT (edited 05-31-2011).]

quote Originally posted by Old Lar: Since WW II was over for only five years in 1950, I remember Walter Cronkite's TV show about the war every Sunday I think. B&W TV if you had the funds to buy one. I think we got a TV 1954 or 55. The duck & cover exercizes at school in case of nuclear war. You walked to elementary school, walked home for lunch then back for afternoon classes. Or once I got my bike, ride to school back and forth. No school cafeteria, or you packed a "brown bag" lunch. Definitely a simpler time to grow up.

About the same for me in the early 60s. But to a really young kid its always a 'simple life' as we are ( normally ) insulated from the realities of the world for the most part.

I remember hiding under my desk too....

quote Originally posted by Boondawg: Some things are remembered better then others. Was there any good tail around?

Yes, a girl named Ophelia, aka "Oh-Feel-a-Me" showed me a few moves in the back seat of my Mom's '54 Ford. The Pill wasn't available until 1960 and when she became pregnant, she named a boy in 12th grade as the Daddy. Dodged the bullet with that one.

We moved from the country with no electricity, running water, etc to town but we still didn't have hot water. I remember my Mom heating water on the stove to wash clothes and for our baths. We had a wringer washing machine and huge wash tubs with rinse and bleach. She and I would hang the clothes on lines outside and pray that the birds didn't poop on them or a sudden shower wouldn't wash them again.

The now common ranch style house must be cooled but the old bungalows we lived in had high ceilings and large porches plus the home builders didn't take down all the trees so AC wasn't needed even in Southeast Texas. My Grandma's house seemed like a cool cave after mowing her lawn with a push reel mower. She'd give me lemonade as my reward and old lady Moy just gave me thanks when I cut her lawn.

I think that next to "the bomb" my biggest fear in the 1950s was polio until the Salk vaccine. The pictures of people in an "Iron Lung" breathing device were terrifying to a preteen and teen. After the bomb, encephalitus was feared in The South because it literally cooked your brain and left people in a state similar to the early stages of Alzheimer's.

People were more trusting--my Grandma never locked her doors when she went out even in a city of 100,000 people. Blacks were segregated from whites and I remember the separate water fountains, schools, buses and clearly remember the Supreme Court "Brown versus Board of Education" decision of 1954 and how many Southerners thought it was the end of the world. Grandma died not long after the decision but began locking her doors because she thought "The Negroes would move in next door." She must be turning in her grave because 660 Lee Street in Beaumont was occupied by a black family from 1974 until the house was demolished a few years later because of termite damage. An odd thing about Grandma--her mother was a Mulatto but she could "pass for white. Segregation indeed was a peculiar institution.

Memories of Oh-Feel-a-Me and being a soda jerk at Madings Drug are my best memories as well as joining the Army. I liked the Army of the 1950s because it was a vestige of The Old Army and the many great soldiers I served with. It later became something that I never liked. I should have joined the Marines instead.

Personally, I like the comforts and some of the conveniences of today but I miss the trust of the 1950s. Sorry for two posts, Delorean but the other excellent posters brought back some memories.

quote Originally posted by DeLorean00: Raydar, I read every word. Thanks for your input. You touched on something huge. You said people were more trusting, and people were more trustworthy. This I think is the single biggest thing we have lost as a society. Nowadays no one trust anyone else, maybe for good reason, maybe not. But this is a huge problem with parents. Almost every parent is now so paranoid about their kids getting molested or abducted that they don't feel safe letting their kids out of their sight. So gone are the days of taking off for hours on end and just showing up for supper. At least in lots of households. Sad really.

I think that is anecdotal. I can't say people are any less trustworthy today. I am around trustworthy people all day and rarely wonder if the next one won't be. Sure, they pop up but I just can't agree it was better any time in the past. Maybe for some people that is true.

Right now, I can't imagine anyone wanting to know "what it was like" growing up in the 90's. I just can't imagine anyone in the future really curious about it. Is that how y'all felt? Did you feel like every new invention or innovation was just part of things, like they are now, or did you recognize how big some inventions were?

To clarify that, I mean... Right now, I feel like all these iPods and gadgets are just part of the technological world we live in, and I no longer get blown away when something better comes out. When big things like color TV and stereos started getting more common, did you recognize how big that was or was it just "part of the world" you lived in?

quote Originally posted by theBDub: Right now, I can't imagine anyone wanting to know "what it was like" growing up in the 90's. I just can't imagine anyone in the future really curious about it. Is that how y'all felt? Did you feel like every new invention or innovation was just part of things, like they are now, or did you recognize how big some inventions were? To clarify that, I mean... Right now, I feel like all these iPods and gadgets are just part of the technological world we live in, and I no longer get blown away when something better comes out. When big things like color TV and stereos started getting more common, did you recognize how big that was or was it just "part of the world" you lived in?

In 30 years, there will be fond memories of something. its hard to point special things out as you are living them.

quote Originally posted by theBDub: Right now, I can't imagine anyone wanting to know "what it was like" growing up in the 90's. I just can't imagine anyone in the future really curious about it. Is that how y'all felt? Did you feel like every new invention or innovation was just part of things, like they are now, or did you recognize how big some inventions were? To clarify that, I mean... Right now, I feel like all these iPods and gadgets are just part of the technological world we live in, and I no longer get blown away when something better comes out. When big things like color TV and stereos started getting more common, did you recognize how big that was or was it just "part of the world" you lived in?

"The Future" was filled with hopes and dreams. Every new product was touted as a big step into the future. People were still talking about the 1939 World's Fair. We really believed that we would, someday, be living like George Jetson.

They promised me a flying car. I'm still waiting.

[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 05-30-2011).]

quote Originally posted by starlightcoupe: I remember when Stalin died, the King of England's passing and Princess Elizabeth assuming the throne, Sputnik, Explorer One, the establishment of NASA and the original seven(I think there were seven)astronauts and the death of Grissom and another astronaut in the Mercury capsule at Cape Canaveral. The astronauts were celebrities and all were the best of the best.

Not to nitpick, but a quick correction on Grissom's death.
Three astronauts died during a routine test at the launch pad of Apollo I on Jan. 27, 1967.

Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom
Ed White
Roger Chaffee

Gus Grissom, one of the original Merucry 7 astronauts, was the second American to fly in space, and the first to fly into space twice.
Ed White was the first American to walk in space during Gemini 4.
Roger Chaffee was one of the capsule communicators (CAPCOM) for Ed White's Gemini 4 mission. Apollo I would have been his first space flight.

quote Originally posted by Nurb432: In 30 years, there will be fond memories of something. .

I doubt it.
What will we say; "Remember when terrorism changed everything we did and said?"

Pretend "American Graffiti" is the idealized view of the 50's.
What movie is the idealized 90's or 2000?
See what I mean?

[This message has been edited by Boondawg (edited 05-30-2011).]

I wonder how much of the "changing times" is due to the times themselves, or us.
We remember people being more trustworthy when we were young - but we were young and more trusting.
Do the times stay the same (sort of) and we just experience it more and find out the harsh realities of life?

quote Originally posted by Formula88: I wonder how much of the "changing times" is due to the times themselves, or us. We remember people being more trustworthy when we were young - but we were young and more trusting. Do the times stay the same (sort of) and we just experience it more and find out the harsh realities of life?

Very good point.
No sights for sore eyes.

quote Originally posted by Boondawg: I doubt it. What will we say; "Remember when terrorism changed everything we did and said?" Pretend "American Graffiti" is the idealized view of the 50's. What movie is the idealized 90's or 2000? See what I mean?

Give it a little while, i bet there will be movies and memories. Not all will be good ones of cousre.. Who would say WWII was a good memory? It was a fundamental memory for many tho..

Well, we do have that 'twitter' movie