It was a wonderful time to grow up. We didn't have the pervasive news of everything so we lived in ignorant bliss most of the time. Yes, there were the 'duck and cover' drills but we didn't realize the gravity of the issue. There was family, community, and faith. All so long ago.

Wouldn't trade growing up in the 50's for anything, it was a simpler time where people respected each other and did their best to get along.

Yep. same here.

I was born in '53. It was a very good time to grow up but somehow, it looks like we blew it! We let the devil in the door and what we have now is a nearly irreconcilable tragedy. That could also be God's plan.

Back in the days when doing the Hokey Pokey was quality kid entertainment.

The old lady with the apron reminds me of my Grandma.

Married my highschool sweetheart in 1957. i was wearing Air Force blue.
First winter for that Wisconsin girl with no snow on the ground. Langley and Shaw Air bases.
She really liked meeting new people from other parts of the country. We all were broke as hell.

I was born in 53 also. It was nice back then. They weren’t cramming all the gay and racial cshit down our throats.

Peddle pushers.Standing up in the back seat of a 54 Ford.

We will never have the beautiful automobiles
again like there was in the 50s.

Here you go Bow!

A very wise man, now deceased once told me that, “TV ruined America”.

I had a football, baseball, bat, glove, bicycle, BB gun, B&W TV, record player, and great best friends. There were vast cow pastures at both ends of our block, and 9-10 Y/O kids hunting blackbirds and catching frogs was perfectly normal.

If we got into a school grounds fight and got/gave a shiner, so be it. We didn't "need" counseling, anger management, or sue each other. A day later we combatants were friends again and choosing up sides for a street baseball game.

SCREW all the PC CRAP we deal with and all the social media torturing kids do to each other now.

No outward displays of gays, drugs, or gangs, we could play guns pretend to shoot each other and no one paid any attention.

Thats how my kids are growing up.

Remember when we got a TV. We didnt watch it like people do today. We had TV time when the family settled down at the end of the day to watch a show. That was the only time it was turned on.Only 3 channels to pick from.It was family time at the end of the day.Look what it has become.

That old lady was everybody in that era’s grandmother.

B

Great film clip - brings back memories!

AND, there isn't a single I-Phone in the pictures!!!!! No Facebook, no Twitter, no distractions.

Did you skip the 60’s?

Nobody got their tits in an uproar about this...


Boy in middle with Cap Gun:


Fast Draw Cowboys:


Ads in Comic Books:

It was the '50s. We were kids. We couldn't conceive what it was like for out parents childhood. Our grandparents, searching for any kind of job any where. Those fortune enough to have a job worried every day about losing it. Having to kow tow to owners or managers, humiliating them selves daily to keep that job led to many of the laws passed in the 60s &70s.

I do agree that the '50s were a great time to grow up. I was born October 1942. I had my 16th birthday in a hunting camp on the Uncompahgre Plateau, Colorado. I think it would be hard for some of you younger guys to appreciate just how great the hunting was in the '50s for mule deer and how many there were.

This kind of says it all.

i remember the fifties. i was 12 in 1960, and the world was a-changin.

if time could have stood still, it would have been a fairly decent time to do so.

but alas, time has a way of marchin' on.

i did a lot of marchin' in 1970.

plenty of woods in the 50's.

Watched the movie Hud again last night. Reminds me of my boyhood. Small towns were a community back then, maybe so even now in some places. I remember there wasn't any really big worries or stress, not like the media today stirring things up. Some things from the movie really struck home: the cars, going to the movies, something to eat afterwards in the downtown cafe, the Winchester lever actions used to shoot the cattle, and on and on. How times have changed.

Everyone remembers the good parts and forgets the bad parts.

Like Polio.

We all got measles and chickenpox and some other things are better now too, but as a whole then was a much better time to be a child. We played outside not in front of a video screen. We could be boys and the girls were girls, no PC bullchit and a host of other things that are not so good in the 2000's

lot's of appalachian poverty back in the fifties. and untreatable disease too.

lot's of technology that had been thought of, but not developed.

lot's of small farmers, with small equipment that was expensive.

onward and upward is about the only alternative left to us.

We used to go for a ride on Sunday afternoon and would always stop for an ice cream cone.

Born in 1956,America was a great place at that time and much different than today.The kids today will never know what they don't know.I wish I could revisit those times again.

It went to hell when the Beatles came here to America

1964? chevy 2 door coupes in 62 & 63 models. 4 speed in the SS models.

I agree,that's started the change.

I think most of you fellas are remembering the 60's.

Not the 50's.

No bigger change in my life than between the 50s and 60s.

could be.

i do remember the 1958 chevy's bel aires with the 348 automatics.

only later did the 327 ci 4 barrels with either mechanical or hydraulic lifters come along.

much argumentation remains over whether the 1955 chevy or the 1957 chevy was the better?

much independence in the 50's before the regulations really set in full speed.

First half of the '60s was not much different than the 50's then between the Vietnam war and the civil rights movenent things began to change.

Born in 55. Remember Ike and the Kennedy Nixon race. Started learning to drive a tractor when I was 5. Cousins were important people to you then. Treehouse. Kid on the farm next to you. Good times. Dad expected me to take both my brothers places when I got old enough. No regrets. A better life.

Thanks Okie......the kids doing the Hokey Pokey really brought back some memories.

A snot nosed kid in WY sometime around 1957

I started the 1st grade in '52, northeast Calif., money-wise we were ok, Dad ran cattle with one full time hand. The county was supported by logging and lumber mills mostly and their kids were not that fortunate. Most of the girls wore dresses made from chicken feed sacks, almost all the kids brought their lunch in a lard pail, often consisting of two pieces of white bread with a thin layer of lard or bacon grease as a spread, and nothing else but school milk, (5 cents maybe?) for a few days after their Dad's payday. We all had horrible teeth, and most kids only bathed once on the weekend. Even though I was better off than most the kids, I don't remember it fondly. But my friends, that is and remains, rural America to this day. But, better to be poor in America than anywhere else in the world, by a long shot.

Born in 1950........What a difference from today. Although back then the old folks were talking about how different the 1950's were from their childhood. Which it was... So I guess it's all a matter of perspective based on your birth year.

our local churches, baptists, methodists, & pentacostel mostly only had two preacher services a month.

the preachers worked for their real pay, and served as church pastors as a calling.

usually sunday school four times a month, preaching twice a month.

but times change, and economics changes also.

dinner on the grounds maybe once a year.

when in a rural area, things are different.

i don't think our local police chief, at county hq's, that is the county seat

even wore a uniform with one star.

now mutiple stars are deriguor.

are we safer now than then?

Born in 1951. Great fun being a kid growing up in a small Vermont college town. Get on your bike and ride to the football game with your friends. Walk across town in sub-zero cold for an evening hockey game. Just be home when you said you would so nobody worried. Ten years old, stop at the corner gas station with a dollar for a box of .22 LR. The owner knew it was OK to sell them to you because your old man said so one day when he stopped in for gas. Going hunting with your best friend after school? Carry your rifle with your books when you walk to school. Put it in your locker for the day. Be responsible; don’t take it out and show it off. Not the ‘50s, but a true story anyway: Deer season when I was 12; the old man and his hunting buddy and I head out in the 1963 Ford Falcon station wagon listening to the news of how the Dallas police will move Lee Harvey Oswald to a different jail later that day. The old man says, “Somebody oughta take care of that sunofabitch.” A few hours later when we shook off the snow and warmed up the Falcon, the radio told us that Jack Ruby had done just that! November of 1963 was when the world changed for me.

Another'n born in 53. Grew up on a farm with the closet town barely over 3,000 population. 60 miles to the nearest big city, population 30k? The neighbors in those days used to get together at a recently closed rural school for potluck and cards a few times a year. Most of the kids were cousins so it got a little rowdy at times.

I can't believe some of you are still eating solid food.

The 50's were before my time, but my father had a lot of older cars on our place, one of which was a 1952 Pontiac Star Chief. Kind of unique. Pop the hood and you found an in-line/straight 8 engine. First and only straight 8 motor I've ever seen.

Also had a 1949 DeSoto, 1960 Buick LeSabre, 1964 Stepside Chevy pickup (283 ci, 3 on the column). Don't recall the engine displacements of the first two. That '64 pickup was the first vehicle I ever drove.

A '47 Boomer here. Yes, the 50s were great for us kids, but we were blind to the problems our parents were going through. No jobs, scarce housing, few commodities, the remnants of rationing still being felt. Then there were the diseases...mumps that sterilized us boys, measles that deafened or killed, rheumatic fever that ruined hearts, polio that ruined whole bodies, pneumonia, influenza, tuberculosis, malaria, and many more. They still used ether and chloroform as anesthetics, and both made you violently ill upon awakening.

,....walked 8 miles to school and back every day in 4' of snow,.....uphill both ways.

We had a 48 Dodge for a long time in the fifties!

'52 & '54 Chevy, TV was B&W. So was right and wrong. Ed Sullivan, Popeye and the Roadrunner. My fishing rod was 5' steel with a Pfluger level wind and 20# black braid. Mile and a half to school on my hooves early on and the brother and I were on our own until the folks got home from work. Now and then dad would stop on the way home, catch a couple of bass for dinner.

Different time, good times.

Another 53 model here. Tons of memories.

Our Dr. making house calls.

My friend up the street getting a Superman suit complete with cape. His dive off the top of the basement steps didn't go well. He wore a plaster turban for 6 weeks.

Same friend & I caught the garage on fire while playing with matches. The police & fire chief both sitting in your living room with the parents isn't forgettable.

We played a block or so from home for hours without worry, well except that little fire thing.

We had a frog on a leash. A year later we found the frog with the string still tied around its back leg.

Westerns on TV. Every night, every channel you could watch a western.

Cereal and cartoons on Saturday morning, ‘56 Plymouth Savoy (3 on the column), tray of pizza for $1.00, Ed Sullivan and Bonanza on Sunday night, Testors glue and Revell models, the Ice Cream man, flipping cards, baseball glove on the handlebars, mercurochrome....the 50’s were great.

We didn’t have no diversity yet, it was nice!

Close your eyes, cross your fingers and say this three times..." Turn back, turn back, oh time in it`s flight, and make me a boy again, just for tonight".

Works for me every Christmas Eve.

Did you fly June Bugs on a long strand of thread?

Did you catch lightning bugs in a jar?

Did you get a Fanner 50 for Christmas?

All this is well and good, but don't forget we're responsible for all the country's ills. I heard. Somewhere.

No minorities were used in making this film......

Thanks to a bunch of you who could vote in 64 ........
Not saying anyone in particular.
And not dropping manhole covers .


LBJ and his great society programs have really fugged up this nation.....

Biggest root cause of all the bullschit dominoe effect we have from it today.....

So basically alot of conservative voter apathy back then and Liberal Socialist Democrat activism for the jigaboo vote. SCREWED this nation...

How many times have people seen on here other users saying they was card carrying Democrat voters back then.
And now profess to be conservstive.

IDGAF to hear about the different Democrat party back then.
Far as I'm concerned if you voted Democrat back and profess union this and union that as the pretext. Then that makes you a plank laying member of the bullschitt going on today.

1964 this nation was lost when LBJ won the election.......
Everything else up to this day is a result of him being elected.....

Think about it... And then bow your heads in shame if you or people you know or are related too voted for LBJ......




Mike drop...............

your commentary is exactly the case.

it happened, and a lot of folks turned against big gov't, big time.

and that made us close to terriorists in our own country.

not to mention the inflation that resulted.

yes, i'm still mad as hell.

but life goes on.

I voted for Goldwater in 64. Really sorry that didn't work out so well.

It was in the 50's when the 1st McDonalds opened in Boise. Mom took us down for a 'famous' 10 cent burger. It was dry and boring, almost as bad as their 'famous' burgers today that I won't eat.

You really have to have lived through that slice of time to fully appreciate it. I was born in '39, so most of the men who influenced us were veterans; family, friends, teachers, scout leaders, bosses; most served (one in the Luftwaffe). We had great respect for them, still do.

Coming of age, we wanted to follow in their footsteps. We were also told that it was our duty to serve, and without an honorable discharge we'd have a tough time finding a decent job. When I graduated from HS in 1956, the main options were go to college if you had the money, enlist if you didn't. I joined the USAF, two days out of HS.

By 1960 when I got out things had changed. Looking for a job it was "Why didn't you go to college, were you too stupid"? The old respect for military service had waned. It was the beginning of the '60s culture, and all that brought. I knocked around for awhile, then decided to beat them at their own game, so I pursued college with a vengeance. I'm not going to brag about my academic record, but if I ran for office it would be front and center, not like Obama's. I earned mine. Was it worthwhile? I suppose so. I've had a decent life, but no fortune or fame.

The point is, you have to play the hand you were dealt, and the times you find yourself in at each stage of your life play a big part.

Just my $0.02.

Paul

Somebody say "old jalopies"?

Lots of people didnt vote for him because of his Jewish ancestors.
Even though he himself followed one of the spin off christain religions.
He has been credited with the intial rebirth/ resurgance of the conservative movement.
Reagan followed to an extent some of his positions.



But people voted for LBJ the Darkie lover insted and this is where we are today.
The great welfare and benefit society for Liberal Socialist Democrat voters as a way of life.
It's also what illegal aliens are to Liberal Socialist Democrats.
Illegal voters and millions more potential voters dependant on them and their great society programs.
Mutha fugging Liberal Socialist Democrats couldn't give a fugg about a bunch of illegal aliens "suffering".
All they wanta do is get em here, get em on welfare, and get their votes.

All at the expense of working and retired tax paying citizens.

LBJ,s "great society scheme" is winning more every day, every week, every month, every year, every fugging decade.

I was born in "37 and joined the USAF in 1956. I know exactly what you are talking about. My favorite high school history teacher came home from the War with a plate in his skull.

LBJ the darkie lover! I like that!

I had the mumps in both cheeks at a young age (pre-school). That was a miserable experience. I think the risk of going sterile is for those who get it later in life (maybe post puberty?). Also had the chicken pox, but I was so young, don't remember that. Mom said all of us kids got it at the same time and I was still in diapers. The vaccines for these diseases already existed, but I was young enough not to have been vaccinated when I came down with them. Don't think I ever had measles though.

[/quote]
Lots of people didnt vote for him because of his Jewish ancestors.
Even though he himself followed one of the spin off christain religions.
He has been credited with the intial rebirth/ resurgance of the conservative movement.
Reagan followed to an extent some of his positions.



But people voted for LBJ the Darkie lover insted and this is where we are today.
The great welfare and benefit society for Liberal Socialist Democrat voters as a way of life.
It's also what illegal aliens are to Liberal Socialist Democrats.
Illegal voters and millions more potential voters dependant on them and their great society programs.
Mutha fugging Liberal Socialist Democrats couldn't give a fugg about a bunch of illegal aliens "suffering".
All they wanta do is get em here, get em on welfare, and get their votes.

All at the expense of working and retired tax paying citizens.

LBJ,s "great society scheme" is winning more every day, every week, every month, every year, every fugging decade.
[/quote]

yes, it might have been the high=water mark in this country.

i was advised rather directly some 20 years ago that the walls were down, and get ready for it.

actually, it all began under johnson pretty much.

his reign of terror pissed me off on several accounts.

but we have survived, and things appear to be going global (in a sense).

there's two economic philosophies appearing to be coming into more direct conflict with each other?

Was born in the late 30's, finished school in early 50's. Quit a part time job to work full time (and took a 10% pay cut to do so). Married in 1958, still with her. Wasn't until I was older I realized what we didn't have although I was better off than some as an only child for 12 years until there was a whoops brother. We really couldn't afford to get married so we struggled like a lot of our friends. Bought a house for what now seems like a ridiculously low price but for which we struggled to pay for a lot of years. Was given my first gun when I was 12. It lived in my bedroom closet with ammo on the dresser. In those days seeing a deer in this area was a rarity. Both ducks and geese were sparse. All of these are now quite common.

Lots of woodchucks around then, now they are non-existent. Some say this is because of the coyotes we now have, but have never seen a scientific study to support this.

As others have said it kind of depends on your perspective. All in all I feel as though we have lived through some of the best times. Others will disagree.

Jim

Great times but the children of today have learned nothing about it.

Good to read the comments of our senior members born in the 30s. Thanks for sharing. Hope to read more from you.

tongue in cheek: history, what history?

we're all living in the now.

I was born in '56,..so I don't have very many memories of anything before the early 60's. I was in the second grade when Kennedy was killed. A first grader told me about it as my class was leaving the gym and his class was coming in.

We were both very small children but both of us knew that it was a significant event.

Looking back, the 60's was a crazy time. I didn't realize just *how* crazy because I hadn't been around long enough to compare it to any other time.

The war in Vietnam started popping pretty good when I was in the 4th grade, or so and it didn't wind down until I was Junior in High school. From 4th grade to a Junior in high school is a long time when you're a kid. It seemed like the Vietnam war had been going on forever and was going to continue to go on forever.

The crux of the national news on TV was the war in Vietnam for years,..every night.

I registered for the draft late in my junior year of high school. I recall being happy about the fact that I wasn't going to get drafted when they ended it. But I was too young and ignorant to understand how happy I should actually be about it.

I remember the first draft lottery, my number was 354.

Grandpaw and me about 1958 or 59. Atascosa co Texas. . Im a ‘56 model. I think his old tractor was a Case. Someone here may recognize it for sure. I remember when this pic was made. We rode up to the highway to get the mail. About a 2 mile round trip. Kinda funny! Im older now than he is in this photo!

I was born in 1944.We lived near a small airport.I remember bi-planes and tri-planes flying around.Never saw a black person until we moved to town.If you swore you got your mouth washed out with soap.All men were addressed Sir or Mr.All ladies Misses or Miss.When your father asked you to do something ,you said yes sir.No adults were ever called by their first name alone.Mr.Jones,Mrs Jones,Aunt Jane,Uncle Bill.Except Grandma and Grandpa who were Granny and Gramps.We went to Church every Sunday no exceptions.We believed in God and no one told us we could not pray.School mornings were started out with the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer.I spent summers at Gramps farm and was driving a tractor a 6 years old.Gramps had Belgian and Percheron work horses that as a little kid looked like giants.We had loaded guns in the house and knew enough to not touch them.On the other hand out at the farm I was allowed to shoot any gun I could handle at 6 years of age.We knew what directions you could shoot safely,cause Gramps said you shoot one of my animals I will hide you(Meant a good ass whoopin ).As a kid we were outside all day.Only inside if it was raining.Never locked our doors or had windows shut in the summer.Keys were left in the car ,which was not locked.Gramps house did not get electricity until the mid fifties,but his barn had it ever since i could remember.There was a radio in the milk house that only had the ag report and weather on except when the Braves had a baseball game.Pretty sad how things turned out with all the PC bullchit .Kids can`t even point their fingers at each other and say bang.I am glad I was born when I was and lived the good free life that we will never see again.Huntz

I was born in 1960 but grew up with my aunts & uncles who on Mom’s side of the family’s were all born in the 50’s.
So I have lots of memories from them talking about growing up in the 50’s. They are all gone now, so I’ve really enjoyed reading all the posts on this thread.

Thalidomide was some really nasty stuff. Some German drug company people needed hanging over that one. It was almost like what they'd done to the Jews 15 years earlier. My brother was born in '44 at a navy hospital in GA. He was missing 1 leg. He was born before Thalidomide but Mom had a lot of morning sickness problems and the navy doctors kept pumping different sedatives into her without really knowing what they were doing. It's entirely possible that one of them caused the problem.

Christmas 1955. I'm the well armed fella on the right.

Good pictures everyone!

Hey Jim! What’s absolutely amazing about my pic is mom probably took it with her old brownie and she didn’t cut anyone’s head off!!!!!!!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.

I miss her! 😊

Gawd almighty. Back when you had to wait a week or more to see how your pictures turned out!


I remember we used to drop them off at the drug store to be developed.


If you did not remember to bring your empty bottle to town with you.........no bottle of 7UP!

I think he nailed it. Just like MTV ruined rock music.

I was born right smack in the middle of the 50s, but I was a very aware and astute lil schitt. I remember very well how tightly knit families were and how they had so little...a three-bedroom house and six kids, a car in the driveway, and maybe a radio. They'd faint if they saw the material schitt we all think we have to have these days.

I remember the tail end of the "days of normal." I'd have to say it was about 1965. I also have to recognize that what I think of as "normal" was not normal at all to those who were born in the late 1800s, of whom I knew a few. When I tell kids these days our great grandmother would snatch the PS3 away from you and throw it in the trash and then rip off your head and schitt down your neck for trying to tell her Call of Duty is very normal stuff, they cannot comprehend it. I'm not so sure I've ever seen "normal," but I am double-damned sure that kids who grew up from the 80s and on have no freekin idea what normal is. May as well talk to a fencepost.

"There's nothing wrong with the world I grew up in!"

Junkies will tell you there's nothing wrong with shooting heroin.

Same difference.

Heh!


Thems fighting words!

There was always three or four sodie water bottles under the front seat in the old sedan that no one had ever heard of. No one knew where they came from. And no business would take them for the deposit ( they hadn’t heard of em either!!!)..

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Did you get that here son??

They could always tell the difference between one you drank and brought back and one you found in the ditch.






I grew up in the 80's and we did pretty well.

RC Cola & Grape Nehi ruled when I was a wee fart in the early 60’s.

Bicycle, BB gun, baseball and comic books, cub/boy scouts and saying the pledge. Unfortunately we also had polio (mild case, luckily), and the cold war.
I tell my grandkids about the old days and they say, "no electronics?".

Born in '43. Virtually everyone's dad and uncles had served overseas. Grew up around guns, hunting and fishing on 45 acres of mostly wooded land in Rhode Island. Our clothing was mostly handed down from relatives, even though my dad had a good income from running heavy equipment--that's just how things were done then. Dad and uncles built their own houses; the basis for ours began life as a chicken coup. Dug our own wells. Repaired our own cars and equipment.

Started working a full time job running heavy equipment when I was 13, during summers off from school. Learned to drive on a Model B Ford pickup and bought my first car, a '49 Ford, with money I earned myself, when I was 15. Drafted and then sent to Vietnam (1/67-2/68).

Republicans and Democrats could get along and treat each other with respect; the 2 parties were much different when I was growing up in the '40's and '50's. No matter which party was in power, people all pulled together and we were truly united. Communism, through infiltration of our education system, government, unions and the movie business, brought our country down to what remains of it today.

I was 21 months of age when the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor. And Hanco was right about the Beatles! Bastids should have been hung when they stepped off the airplane!!

Mine was 44. My brother was 365 and he only had 1 leg. Identity theft was tempting.

I'm a 49 model myself! My lottery # was 4f

I was born in the 1950's and my early years were much like your's.

We lived a much more sheltered life compared to kids of equal ages today, as nearly unlimited access to nearly anything wasn't just a few keystrokes away for us. When I talk to my kids about using the library to do research and a typewriter to put my thoughts on paper, they look at me like I'm a dinosaur. They don't understand how we got anything done with such archaic tools.

Country kids were expected to be responsible from an early age, doing chores before and after school. A lot of people lived on small acreages where they grew a garden and raised livestock. Older people were generally respected and families and friends looked after each other. I can clearly recall helping several neighbors cut, split, and stack firewood every year from 1966/67 thru 1976/77. We also helped several elderly couples by placing hay bales around their granite block foundations for insulation against the cold and then covering the bales with black construction plastic to keep the bales dry when the snow melted or it rained. In the Spring we'd go back, take the bales to the garden, break them up, and till them into the seed beds. Those people were proud and didn't want charity, so they regularly gave us eggs and vegetables that they grew.

I remember that my Father thought that the Country was going to hell when JFK was elected 'cause he thought that JFK was all image and no substance. He was a big fan of Eisenhower and felt that Ike was a nearly polar opposite of JFK and that too many people bought into the whole Camelot thing and that somehow the Kennedy glamour and money was going to rub off on them. If he'd lived to see BHO get elected, I think that he would have felt that the BHO was also more image than substance.

‘1950 version here. Draft #14 but I had signed an NROTC contract the Friday before. Got to spend 21 years in.

Remember the Fanner 50 ads, etc on TV ?

I remember the Miller Highlife commercials

I was born in 1944, so I really did grow up in the 50’s. I have good and bad memories.

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

Cow pasture baseball. Use discretion when sliding.

My older brother had an artificial leg. When the neighborhood kids got together for a pasture football game, you didn't want to get tackled by him. He didn't tackle. He'd just stick out that leg and trip you. DANG that hurt. It was literally getting whacked on the shins by a club.

Best thing for you guys growing up in the 50s was you can say you remember when I was born later on in the decade.


Helluva an honor heh ? 🤔🤦🏼‍♂️

In 1951 admission to the local movie theater for those under 13 y/o was $0.13. Ten cents admission and 3 cents tax.

In the late 50's in Boise, the Saturday matinee was .25 for a double feature and cartoon. That got you in the door and they'd keep running the 2 movies over and over. You could stay all day and watch them both over and over if you wanted to.

You mean you guys didn't bring a shotgun to grade school and keep it in your unlocked locker so that you could go hunting after school? Didn't much care for the sixth grade, but school was closer to the railroad tracks with the rabbits and pheasants along the ditches.
The down side of growing up then was that you were like a piece of raw meat and prime age when the Viet Nam war hit. I was 1A or 2S and it wasn't a tough decision. The Tet Offensive or University of Wisconsin.

i would have to agree i was born in 53 also and living in the country, i remember mostly the 60`s early 70`s when me and my brother hunted ,target shot our guns , fished, rode dirt bikes,snowmobiles ,beer parties in fields cops didn`t say much, in most any place we wanted too,no one cared much. we raised alot of hell and people just said those boys will grow up and be just fine. we did still go to church every Sunday with mom or all hell was raised so hang-overs ,black eyes ,we were clean up , hair comb and quiet in church ,Mom ruled on Sunday A.M. . in church when everyone shook hands in peace , brother and i gave each other the peace sign only once and when we got in the car Mom was pissed and all hell was raised,Dad thought it was funny and he caught hell too. ya i remember 60`s and 70`s in todays world i would still be in jail ! man we had some fun booze ,women ,fast cars,motor bikes all for the sake of fun.

Our neighbor boy was born with no arms and legs so we always took him with us to play sandlot baseball . . . we used him as first base.

i was over in the corner in my version of that dance, being deathly afraid of girls at the time.
i do remember buying my first revolver and shotgun from a gun store at about age 11, and walking back home with them through the center of town. And the 70bucks my dad paid for that winchester 94 30.30.
and a 57 chevy was much better than a 58, if for no other reason that little lever to open the glove box in the center of the dash made an excellent beer bottle opener. I found that out in the 60's.
all adults were mr, mrs. etc, or you got the crap slapped out of you. adults took no disrespect.
I was relatively poor at the time, but didn't know it, as my mother having really been poor always made sure food on the table.
ran unsupervised all over not just the town, but the county on motor scooters. armed, too.
later, in 65 i lived in a real life american grafitti, drivein, the whole thing. it was a year later when the coffins started coming home. choice was either college or someplace called vietnam.
My world i think changed when that piece of caca lbj was elected.
and the 50's was pretty much before free love, nice girls just didn't do that. or at least i never knew any.
I remember walking my first girl friend in the snow to the movies. worked up enough courage to put my arm around her, didn't know what to do then. Damn arm nearly fell off.
I started working at about age 8, dad said i didn't need an allowance at that age.
I miss those days. But i still eat solid food.
and we have a annual luncheon for all those graduating from the local high school 50 years or more in the past.
probably over 500 people attend now, and you get to see all your old friends again from multiple years.

Mention has been made of '57 Chevys. I once read where there are a number of them running around that never saw the inside of a Chevy plant. It seems that some engineers from GM hated to see them die, so they made some up privately (on some frame from Chrysler, I think), forming the sheet metal on wooden forms, and selling them as low-milage used cars.

That was an old joke in the 50s...

Remember the Twist by Chubby Checker??

Yes it was. And do you remember the words to "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" from the 50s?"

yup, but not pc today. We substituted "tiger" but that didn't make much sense because they don't speak english.

Eeny, meeny, miney, moe,
Catch a n*gger by the toe,
If he hollers, let him go,
eeny, meeny, miney, moe.

Used to choose who was "it".

If the teacher was watching or within earshot we'd substitute monkey for what got caught by the toe.

Eney, meeny, miney, moe
Catch a n*gger by the toe
If he hollers, make him pay
Fifty dollars every day
My mommy told me
to chose the very best one
You dirty, dish rag you.

Hmm, that's a variation I hadn't heard. We did have the last set of lines but those were only added if you didn't like the person who got picked or didn't want them on your team. You could add a series of extra verses until they finally picked someone you wanted on your team.

Fifty dollars every day?! Good lord, that's a fortune...

Didn't grow up in the '50's. This is the version I remember:

Eney, meeny, miney, moe
Catch a monkey by his toe
If he hollers, make him pay
Fifty dollars every day
My momma told me pick this one

This is pretty cool

we used My mother told me to pick the very best one, peach plum bubble gum

Born in ‘51. The pledge and the Lord’s Prayer every morning at school. Cub Scout meeting was across the street from the school, in the Piney Woods. Brownies met in the school cafeteria. We knew and loved the lunch ladies and they would give you extra mashed potatoes and gravy. In music class we sung the Marine Corps Hymn. We walked or rode bikes to school and left them in a rack without locks. We played outside until the streetlights came on, then headed home. A hobo would pass through town occasionally. He would be offered work but only stay a few weeks and move on. Mr Jones would load up his ancient mule pulled wagon and deliver loads of cow manure across town for mom’s yard. The mailman and milkman were friends of ours. Everyone had a charge account at the butcher. The icehouse had the coldest Black Diamonds you ever tasted. Mom rented a frozen food locker and we would share a pig with a neighbor or two and keep the meat there. We had no freezer back then, barely ice cubes. From an ice tray.

I could go on but I’m now imagining how many folks are saying ‘ice tray?’ What’s that?

Exactly! . . .kinda like tossing the bat and catching it one handed on the handle, then going hand over had to see who chooses first.

No,that is way cool!

Two of my favorites . . . an Avanti and 409 Chevy Impala

Right there with you.

Mom used to make us kids Koolaide favored ice cubes in the summer.

In the spring, Mom would cut off my cotton long underwear and make what today would be called boxer briefs out of them. I was mortified to have anyone see them when I would change at the pool.

I would hide one pair of the cotton long johns so that I could wear them to church to keep those damned wool pants from driving me nuts during the (endless) service.