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    Were the 50's Great?

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    Question Were the 50's Great?

    Post by Marc™ Tue Feb 19, 2013 12:59 am

    I saw at another message board once someone ask the question "Why Can't People Admit That the 1950's Were Great?" They ran down a list of things....like economic boom, patriotism, family values....that they reasoned as why that decade should be revered. Of course a bunch of people chimed in with a laundry list of reasons why the 1950s WEREN'T great. But it was an interesting discussion nonetheless. So....in your mind, what's your opinion of the 1950s? Based on what you saw (if you were were alive and remember it) or what you've spectated from history books and archive footage. Even if you disagree that the 50s were great, is there anything about it that stands out in your mind as positive or something that you wish was in effect today?
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by Shale Tue Feb 19, 2013 1:20 am

    I grew up in the '50s from six to sixteen mostly in St. Louis, then in the 'burbs, with summer trips to the family farm in Mississippi.

    It was a good time to be a kid, even poor kids in a rundown city neighborhood had fun getting dirty. In the rural south we had fun doing country things, playing in the woods, skinny dipping at the swimming hole, family dinner, making ice cream or having watermelon on the lawn then hosing down.

    There was no sphere of reference to anything different, that was just how it was. I did see segregation & racism in the South, but my school was integrated.

    Now the rebellions started in the '60s and even in high school that patriotism thing was starting to wear thin with many of us dissidents and we were thinking outside the Judeo/Christian box and going against family values. Probably just teen stuff but it grew into the counter culture.
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by Bluesmama Tue Feb 19, 2013 1:45 am

    I was only a little girl but had much older brothers. I remember a lot about it
    It was perhaps the most stable decade economically. I'd say that it was the last true period of innocence, even through the start of changes in the younger generation. "Music" started to take a controversial turn for the young (rock 'n' roll), and kids began to rebel against society. The Beat Generation was the first counter-culture. But it was a decade of hope. And I remember having a lot of fun as a small child.
    Fast-forward another 5 years, through doo-wop, Beach Boys, and hula-hoops ~ another good era ~ to 1965 and many things changed radically. I'm SO glad that I was a part of those two decades.
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by AtownPeep Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:53 am

    I don't feel bad I wasn't there to see it but I guess if you were a wealthy white male it was great.
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by Supernova Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:00 am

    AtownPeep wrote:I don't feel bad I wasn't there to see it but I guess if you were a wealthy white male it was great.

    My mother comes from the 50s, she always said I would've enjoyed the 60s.
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by wants2laugh Tue Feb 19, 2013 5:53 am

    My mom was poor in south philly, the daughter of an irish woman and italian man. the irish shunned her. even the whites were segregated by heritage then. However, she loved the era... she grew up on bandstand, during a time where boys respected girls, and new inventions were coming into homes--- even when they could not afford tvs/stereo, the neighbors would push theirs to the windows for all to enjoy.

    I kind of think that we all romanticize the time period that we grew up in though. I loved the 80s... the music, and the clothes-- the hair really needed to go... but it was a great time for me. so i imagine that ppl see the 50s that way.

    Bluesmama was right tho.. it was a time of innocence that was soon lost. Back then you wouldnt hear the word "hell" on TV... now you hear dick and pussy... and thanks to NYPD Blue, we have nudie shots.
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by Forgiveness Man Tue Feb 19, 2013 10:08 am

    Better than now.
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by CeCe Tue Feb 19, 2013 11:01 am

    It was the decade that brought us "commie panic". That probably did far more harm than good. Segregation, racism, sexism. Pass.
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by Nystyle709 Tue Feb 19, 2013 11:42 am

    AtownPeep wrote:I don't feel bad I wasn't there to see it but I guess if you were a wealthy white male it was great.

    Basically. What was so great about living in the era of Jim Crow?
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by JM130ELM Tue Feb 19, 2013 1:49 pm

    Not if you were black...
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by CeCe Tue Feb 19, 2013 1:52 pm

    JM130ELM wrote:Not if you were black...

    Or female. Or gay. Or non-religious...
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by Alan Smithee Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:37 pm

    I was just around for the last half of the decade but even if I don't remember much of it first hand the negatives still out weighed the positives.
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by Tony Marino Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:27 pm

    Elvis Presley!
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by Nhaiyel Tue Feb 19, 2013 5:57 pm

    Only if you were in a very select demographic; one that no one in my family was.
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by CatEyes10736 Tue Feb 19, 2013 9:25 pm

    Well I certainly wasn't around to give a real depiction of it. From the looks of it though, it seems like it would have been mostly pleasant to the people who fit into that that sunshiny suburban "Ozzy & Harriett" mode, but I'm sure more people didn't than did. My perception of that era is that it was repressed, chaffed and hypocritical.
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by CeCe Tue Feb 19, 2013 10:25 pm

    CatEyes10736 wrote:Well I certainly wasn't around to give a real depiction of it. From the looks of it though, it seems like it would have been mostly pleasant to the people who fit into that that sunshiny suburban "Ozzy & Harriett" mode, but I'm sure more people didn't than did. My perception of that era is that it was repressed, chaffed and hypocritical.

    Even they didn't in their real lives. Neither did Bing Crosby or any pretty much any other great "role model" during that time.
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by Chris Wed Feb 20, 2013 8:20 am

    Personally, I don't know anyone who was around at the time who longs for their return. Seems to me the fifties gets a nice little buffering by the way television depicted life at the time.
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    Question Re: Were the 50's Great?

    Post by CeCe Wed Feb 20, 2013 9:21 am

    Chris wrote:Personally, I don't know anyone who was around at the time who longs for their return. Seems to me the fifties gets a nice little buffering by the way television depicted life at the time.

    I think a lot of people probably equate the 50's with "Happy Days" which was a very sanitized version of the time.

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