Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Growing up in the 50s

Fine thread.

Even beats spider webbing!

I arrived in 1951. Mom kept a diary for the first two years of my existence. It is gratifying to see that all of the evidence of my future brilliance was fully documented. It is also interesting to see the things that my folks did before my arrival in opposition to the lives that I saw them lead following it - not that they were wild and crazy or anything like that, just more spontaneous. It also reveals a way of life in general that was changing even as I became old enough to witness life around me. When I look back on my formative years, I see people who were much more attuned to living in the present and accepting things as they happened rather than the way people today are much more concerned about the future than the present and spend way too much time, money, effort, and worry about heading off all sorts of events that will either probably never occur or which are inevitable and nothing can be done about anyway.

Viva la Hamms Bear.

From the land of sky blue water....

I was born in 1980 but I had chores and responsibilities and we played outside all summer long. Had to get good grades and answered to my parents if we didn't do things right. I shake my head at how some kids my age turned out and how angry i am that i have to pay for their ridiculous behavior and their parents' schitty raising of them.

I Don't see any of this going back to the way my parents describe their childhood unless a collapse comes.

To be honest I can't decide whether to root for or against such a collapse...

At least Tiger has normal male hormones!

I remover going to Princess Drive in, carhops on skates.

LOL. I remember when my Dad go his first portable radio and it had a label of "Transistor Radio" stamped right on it. It was a big deal.

went to the drive-in too. parked just as far back in the back as possible. fewer redlights to look at.

somebody always managed to drive away with a speaker in the door.

no carhops on skates, missed that little luxury.

but killin' rabbits on the side of the road after the movie was fun.

Got our first television in the Summer after my dad passed away in 1955. I received my first real gun in 1954, a Marlin 39A Mountie. Our family car that I remember was a 1947 Ford which got traded in on a four-door 1951 flat-head Ford. Next was a 1955 two door Ford that was replaced in 1957 with a two door hardtop Chevrolet, I think a 283 ci V-8 with our first automatic transmission. Wish I still had that one. It is the car I drove to get my drivers license in 1960. That’s when the world changed.

First kiss 1949-50

In the 50's and 60's, roads were improving and time and money were more available so people started hitting the highways for long trips. The hot selling cars were yachts. The mark of a good road car was a huge trunk for lots of luggage. I remember Fred and Ethel Mertz advertising one, can't remember what model. As Fred put it, "Look at that trunk. You can put a bowling alley in there."







I had this one except mine had 4 doors. Same color, though.

That 58 chevy was one of my favorites growing up. I remember when our next door neighbor (grandpa Chitwood) bought one. It was so different from the 1957 chevy style.

"One piece at a time
And it didn't cost me a dime"

Every other commercial was a cigarette commercial.

Every adult and lots of kids smoked.

Not many overweight people back then. Not much talk about diets.
I remember when a neighbor kid bought a car for fifty dollars and drove it to California from Minnesota.

I was born in 1950. It was a good time to be a kid.
In a way, I feel sorry for kids today. They sit inside all day and play video games on computers. Or they spend many hour texting on the $800 Iphones that mommy bought them.

We didn't have computers or Iphones or air conditioning. In the summer we would stay outside all day, riding bicycles, playing baseball.
When I was 11 years old, at sunset about 9 of us kids would get together and play kick the can, for hours. Damn that was fun.

We played kick the can too. It was fun