50s America, an Exception rather than the Rule?

[Strike For The South]

The 50s are oft looked back on today as a time when America had "real" values and a "solid" foundation. In fact much of Americas "culture" war today centers, in large part to a harkening back to this time but consider this

More homes were bought in 1946-56 than from 1800-1946 COMBINED, clearly a new thing
Suburbs, keeping up with the "jonses" as an exstension of new found home ownership, the breakdown of the "white" ethnic urban enclaves
A lower age at which Americans married and a higher childbirth rate
An explosion of Church membership
The American dream packged and decisminated to the masses through sitcoms like "Leave it to Beaver" further reinforcing "the idea"

As you see the very things Americans who look back at this time take as "the Real Deal" were really an abaration in US history

What say you?

[gaelic cowboy]

Pretty much agree with you there Strike I suppose it's down to Europe being devastated that allowed 50s Americans to have such a good life even in bog standard factory work.

My dad left for England in the fifties to work on the buildings and roads, rebuilding what Adolf knocked basically, he was a typical Irish emigrant of the time in UK. Fifties Ireland was and it basically lasted until about the early 1990s.

[Centurion1]

there are also a lot of problems with the fifties. while everyone sees them as being awesome and america's golden age and often looks nostalgically upon them i wouldnt want to be a woman or a minority or even worse a female minority. however as a white male i would absolutely adore the time.

[Fisherking]

And what the heck would you bunch of wiper-snappers know!

I was there!

Ozzy & Harriet, Father Knows Best, & the Donna Reed Show were what set the TV family programs, but every thing else was a Western.

Hop-along Cassidy, Roy Rogers, Cheyenne, Maverick, Gun Smoke, and on and on and on.

Comedies were Amos & Andy, Laurel & Hardy, The Three Stooges, The Dead End Kids, and The Little Rascals.

After school was the Mickey Mouse Club.

The reason all those houses were sold then was because people weren’t building them themselves.

They were built in almost assembly-line fashion by people moving out of city apartment and they sold for about $3,000.

$10,000 was a fortune. 6 large paper sacks of groceries cost $5. Bread and eggs cost a nickel.

A hamburger was a nickel and a hamburger deluxe was a dime and that was with fries and a coke. The movies cost a nickel too.

I lived in the country on a farm as did about 70% of Americans. The nearest town had a population of about 500.

It had three grocery stores, three gas stations, two liquor stores, two cafés, two hardware stores, two farm implement companies selling tractors and combines, Hotel, Post Office, Train Depot, Pharmacy/Drug store with soda fountain, Movie Theater, Dr. Clinic, a fish monger, and a cotton gin.

There was a Baptist Church at one end of town and a Methodist Church at the other. There was the school just outside town with grades 1-12.

It was a thriving community. Naturally it was in the south and I can tell you more about that when I have time. There are some darker points but that is what I will leave you with at the moment.

[gaelic cowboy]

And what the heck would you bunch of wiper-snappers know!

I was there!

Ozzy & Harriet, Father Knows Best, & the Donna Reed Show were what set the TV family programs, but every thing else was a Western.

Hop-along Cassidy, Roy Rogers, Cheyenne, Maverick, Gun Smoke, and on and on and on.

Comedies were Amos & Andy, Laurel & Hardy, The Three Stooges, The Dead End Kids, and The Little Rascals.

After school was the Mickey Mouse Club.

The reason all those houses were sold then was because people weren’t building them themselves.

They were built in almost assembly-line fashion by people moving out of city apartment and they sold for about $3,000.

$10,000 was a fortune. 6 large paper sacks of groceries cost $5. Bread and eggs cost a nickel.

A hamburger was a nickel and a hamburger deluxe was a dime and that was with fries and a coke. The movies cost a nickel too.

I lived in the country on a farm as did about 70% of Americans. The nearest town had a population of about 500.

It had three grocery stores, three gas stations, two liquor stores, two cafés, two hardware stores, two farm implement companies selling tractors and combines, Hotel, Post Office, Train Depot, Pharmacy/Drug store with soda fountain, Movie Theater, Dr. Clinic, a fish monger, and a cotton gin.

There was a Baptist Church at one end of town and a Methodist Church at the other. There was the school just outside town with grades 1-12.

It was a thriving community. Naturally it was in the south and I can tell you more about that when I have time. There are some darker points but that is what I will leave you with at the moment.

Ha you should talk to my dad then.

No electircity no runnig water 12 children in the family 2 died young an they all bar one left school at about 13 then off to England to work on the roads (50s america sounds like heaven compared)

[Fisherking]

The danger of recounting history is that views change and what may have been acceptable than is no longer the case.

Understand History has to be done with a suspension of modern ideals and judgments. Those values can be added at a later time but it serves no good purpose to place current judgments on how things were in the past.

The world view was different and that was on all sides.

There was also a Bank, City Hall, Fire Station, Jail and other businesses I have not detailed. The American Legion Hall held dances and almost ever man in the area was a member. Those who weren’t were usually accepted there anyway.

There were rivalries between people but over all most seemed happy enough.

This was the town. There was no real black side or white side because there were very few blacks who lived there. They mostly lived on the farms.

If someone worked for a farmer, the farmer was expected to provide him with a place to live, be that laborer black or white. There was not much difference in living conditions and you couldn’t tell from looking at a house who might live there.

These were nothing great. Most had no running water, indoor plumbing, and many lacked electricity sometimes by choice. The poorer farmers lived the same way.

They were what was referred to as shotgun shacks, as you could shoot a shotgun through from the front door and out the back.

If anyone has ever seen the house Elvis Presley was born in, in Tupelo Mississippi, they were roughly the same.

The upkeep of the houses was the job of the tenant with materials the job of the farmer so you can imagine the varying conditions.

The farm where I was born was of such size and age to be termed a Plantation and that was part of the name of the place.

Most of the people working on the farm were black and they were families who had lived there for generations.

It had its own Cotton Gin, General Store/Gas Station, Blacksmith, and Repair Shop. Much of the work was still done with mules and it was sad when they were replaced with more tractors.

Money was not the very first priority of such a place. It was that everyone made a good living and then looking after the profits.

There were several widows who lived there and were more or less looked after for the rest of their lives. But so far as I knew it was just how things worked. There was a bond between the land and those who worked it, from boss to laborer.

Black & White Societies were divided by law which meant “in town”. It wasn’t quite so simple in the country.

Other than the “Big House” the two best, and largest houses belonged to the Ginner and the Blacksmith. One was black and the other white. Both were nice houses even by today’s standard and still standing the last time I looked at Google Earth.

The man with the most kids got the larger house.

It is not to say that there was no predigest or bigotry because there was. By and large, it came form outside, us country folk not knowing any better than to associate with lower classes just did what we did, and those lower classes were not moving to cities to seek other employment or getting in fights or engaging in any of the activities one might expect from the oppressed.

Again, not an excuse but just how things were. To understand the picture you have to understand a basic lack of desire by most people of that time for change.