Growing up in the Fabulous Fifties

Mike's PlaceThe Fifties


Were you a kid in the Fifties or so ?

Everybody makes fun of our childhood!

Comedians joke. Grandkids snicker.

Twenty-something's shudder and say "Eeeew!"

But was our childhood really all that bad?

Judge for yourself:




In 1953 the Canadian population was much less than now.

Yet you knew more people then, and knew them better ...

And that was good.



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 .

And that was good.




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 ...

And that was good.



Prime-Time meant I Love Lucy, Ozzie and Harriet, Gunsmoke and Lassie .

So nobody ever heard of ratings or filters ...

And that was good.



We didn't have air-conditioning ...

So the windows stayed up and half a dozen mothers

ran outside when you fell off your bike.

And that was good.



Your teacher was either Miss Matthews or Mrs. Logan or Mr. Adkins ...

But not Ms Becky or Mr.Dan .

And that was good.



The only hazardous material you knew about .

Was a patch of grassburrs around the light pole at the corner .

And that was good.



You loved to climb into a fresh bed ...

Because sheets were dried on the clothesline ..

And that was good.



People generally lived in the same hometown with their relatives ...

So "child care" meant grandparents or aunts and uncles .

And that was good.

Parents were respected and their rules were law .

Children did not talk back .

and that was good.



TV was in black-and-white ...

But all outdoors was in glorious color ...

And that was certainly good.



Your Dad knew how to adjust everybody's carburetor .

And the Dad next door knew how to adjust all the TV knobs ..

And that was very good.



Your grandma grew snap beans in the back yard .

And chickens behind the garage .

And that was definitely good.



And just when you were about to do something really bad ...

Chances were you'd run into your Dad's high school coach ...

Or the nosy old lady from up the street .

Or your little sister's piano teacher ...

Or somebody from Church .

ALL of whom knew your parents' phone number .

And YOUR first name .

And even THAT was good! ~~~~~

REMEMBER ...



Send this on to someone who can still remember Nancy Drew,

The Hardy Boys, Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, Sky King,

Little Lulu comics, Brenda Starr, Howdy Doody and The Peanut Gallery,

The Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows, Nellie Belle, Roy and Dale,

Trigger and Buttermilk as well as the sound of a reel mower on Saturday morning,

and summers filled with bike rides, playing in cowboy land,

playing hide and seek and kick-the-can and Simon Says,

baseball games, amateur shows at the local theater before the Saturday matinee,

bowling and visits to the pool...

and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar,

and 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?