The Fifties

A reader recently sent me the following:

“Dear Dr. LeCrone,

Please pass this memory test on to those who grew up in the fifties- this is true nostalgia.”

In 1953 the U.S. population was less than 150 million, yet you knew more people then and knew them better.

The average annual salary was under $3,000, yet our parents could put some of it away for a rainy day and still live a decent life.

A loaf of bread cost about 15 cents, but it was safe for a five-year-old to skate to the store and buy one.

Prime-time television meant I Love Lucy, Ozzie and Harriet, Gunsmoke, and Lassie, so no one ever heard of ratings or filters.

We didn't have air-conditioning, so the windows stayed up and half a dozen mothers ran outside when you fell off your bike.

The only hazardous material you knew about was a patch of grassburrs around the light pole at the corner.

You loved to climb into a fresh bed because the sheets were dried on the clothesline.

People generally lived in the same hometown with their relatives so "child care" meant grandparents, aunts and uncles.

Parents were respected, their rules were law and children did not talk back.

TV was in black-and-white but all outdoors was in glorious color.

Your dad knew how to adjust everybody's carburetor and the dad next door knew how to adjust all the TV knobs.

Your grandma grew snap beans in the back yard and chickens behind the garage.

And just when you were about to do something really bad, chances were you'd run into your dad's high school coach, the nosy old lady from up the street, your little sister's piano teacher or somebody from church, all of whom knew your parents' phone number and your first name.

If the above experiences ring a bell then you can probably also still remember Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, Sky King, Little Lulu comics, The Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk as well as the sound of a reel mower on Saturday morning.
And, what about Simon Says, amateur shows at the local theater before the Saturday matinee, eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar, wax lips, and bubblegum cigars.

Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, “Yeah, I remember that!”

And was it really that long ago?