Memories of the Fifties

@ossobucotemp,

He specialized in movies when VHS was the rage.

@edgarblythe,

I was born in late 1941.
What a year.
The fifties were often wonderful for me, and, later, a few times horrible, the start of harder and harder for the three of us.

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The rockers of the 50s could all actually sing but, basically, they needed to give up on rock and roll the day after the big airplane crash in 59, it sort of went downhill fast after that.

Don't believe me? Consider the way Arthur Alexander sings the following basically pretty song and the way the fricking talentless beatles butcher it:

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DDT! They sprayed it everywhere. They used to aerial spray the woods behind my house and I remember the smell of the forest afterwards and sound of the chemicals dripping from the treetops. The apple orchard up the road sprayed several times a season and the runoff just went into a brook...which just went into a reservoir. At home we had our hand-pumped Flit sprayer for flies, wasps, and mosquitoes.

I remember the old VW's like the one in the vid with a split rear window and semaphore turn signals. VWs were so unusual that owners would wave when meeting each other on the road.

Ike — he's got a good reputation now but at the time he was criticized for playing golf all the time. A kid's joke went, "Hey, did you hear about the Eisenhower doll? Wind it up and it doesn't do anything for eight years!"

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@hightor,

Today we don't need no steenking DDT because we have Roundup. Smile

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@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

In 1964 it all started to go to hell.

For many it was when things started to get better - civil rights, the start of the end of lynchings, just two examples.

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Using DDT as an area pesticide for crops was questionable but for simply protecting human habitats there was no down side. DDT was a legitimate candidate for greatest thing the white man ever invented. They had bed bugs wiped out of the US, polio and malaria all but wiped off the planet, lice and typhus all but wiped off the planet, and that was too good for them...

The 100+ million lives lost to malaria since they banned DDT make Rachel Carson the greatesgt mass murderer in the history of the world.

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@gungasnake,

Quote:

The 100+ million lives lost to malaria since they banned DDT make Rachel Carson the greatesgt mass murderer in the history of the world.

This is bullshit.

I'm not going to respond in any depth because I respect the OP's desire for this thread to remain non-political.

Roberta wrote:

I was hoping that this thread would spark some childhood memories and be a fun and nostalgic place to be.

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@hightor,

hightor wrote:

I'm not going to respond in any depth because I respect the OP's desire for this thread to remain non-political.

Surely any singing of the praises of a past time must be deeply political with a small 'p', if it ignores or brushes over the bad things that also happened? Nostalgic or rose tinted hankering for the past that ignores e.g. lynching, routine abuse, (in my country) capital punishment, is by its very nature political.

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@centrox,

Oh you're right about politics with a small "p". I remember on another forum the admins decided to declare political discussion "off limits" — someone pointed out that restricting speech was in itself a political act.

Sure, I can point out bad things that happened and maybe make a barbed comment. But I'm not going to get into a serious political argument with someone else and attempt to expose faulty his logic or introduce tons of factual data to support my case.

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@centrox,

centrox wrote:

Finn dAbuzz wrote:
In 1964 it all started to go to hell.

For many it was when things started to get better - civil rights, the start of the end of lynchings, just two examples.

True and I have absolutely no criticism for or regrets about the Civil Rights movement, and certainly not the end of lynchings.

I was writing, in part, from a personal viewpoint of which you can hardly know much if anything at all.

As for the historical viewpoint, I don't think too many people consider the escalation of the Vietnam War as part of a Golden Age of Justice.

Terrible things happen in every decade. It's the way of the world. My memories of the period are quite fond: Howdy Doody, Roy Rogers, Cowboys and Indians, bike hikes, sandlot baseball and football games and a thousand others. I see no reason why I should taint memories of my innocent years with the experience I have today.

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One of my favorite spots in the 40s and into the 50s was the local drug store, with its food counter, magazine racks, candy. And, yes, drugs. It smelled of penny candy on entering. The black ceiling fans kept the air moving and cool. I often went in there on my way home, because it was across the street from my school. I bought my comics there, mostly. Once, from curiosity, I picked up a pack of Sen-Sen. The clerk took it back. "I don't think you want that," he said.

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Good memories, no TV, but lots of good films to watch, interesting radio programs, being with friends and doing a lot together whatever in the cold winter or having fun during the summer. Hard work at school.

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@edgarblythe,

edgarblythe wrote:

One of my favorite spots in the 40s and into the 50s was the local drug store, with its food counter, magazine racks, candy. And, yes, drugs. It smelled of penny candy on entering. The black ceiling fans kept the air moving and cool. I often went in there on my way home, because it was across the street from my school. I bought my comics there, mostly. Once, from curiosity, I picked up a pack of Sen-Sen. The clerk took it back. "I don't think you want that," he said.

In my neck of the woods, it was the Stationary Store: No drugs other than cigarettes but everything else. My mother would send me there from time to time to buy her a pack of smokes. The owner had no problem selling them to a kid.

It's where I bought my comics and I remember buying my first Marvel mags. It was like walking through a doorway into a whole new world. I actually owned Spiderman #1 and a great many other early comics. I scrupulously preserved them (for love rather than fortune), but when I was 16, my mother decided I didn't need them and gave them to my little cousins. By the time I could get to my Aunt's house to retrieve them, the little brats had destroyed 90% of them by using them to set a fire in which to melt plastic army men.

I actually tried Sen-Sen once: The clerk was right.

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Sen-Sen was a type of breath freshener originally marketed as a "breath perfume" in the late 19th century by the T. B. Dunn Company and then produced by F&F Foods until the product's discontinuation in July 2013. Sen-Sen bore a strong resemblance to Vigroids, a liquorice sweet made by Ernest Jackson & Company, Ltd. (Wikipedia)

We had Vigroids in the UK, some kids used to dare each other to suck them, however they had a slightly different name back then, (up to 2010!!!!) Now off the market.

Then...

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/d9/cc/5f/d9cc5fec4c3e7d0809a144aeee47fa51.jpg

Later...

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/315cpBX9i1L.jpg

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The music of Les Paul and Mary Ford! Les Paul's multi-tracking was revolutionary. They called it "The Sound" and it was instantly recognizable. It was used on lots commercials — god, I did a search and came up with this one for Robert Hall, a discount clothing store in the tri-state area around metropolitan NYC. I haven't heard this in over fifty years but it's been in my head the whole time.

Les Paul was a fine jazz guitarist and lots of people were disappointed when he went into this commercial pop style. But as he explained it he could earn as much in one night doing this stuff than he could in a week playing jazz. He lived a long time though and spent the later years of his life playing jazz on Monday nights at the Irridium in NYC.

Anyone remember the jingle for "Castro Convertible"?

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@hightor,

One story of Les Paul has always stood out for me. He finished one record with the guitar lick, Shave and a Haircut, and left off the two bits. Disc jockeys were waiting for that and when it didn't come got pretty upset. So he had some records pressed with the two bits on it and had them sent out to disc jockeys.

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Adds for Volvo trucks

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=reklam+1950+talet&&view=detail&mid=3814BD781778CBB9A5CC3814BD781778CBB9A5CC&rvsmid=DABA2D61DF77B0CB1E2BDABA2D61DF77B0CB1E2B&fsscr=-1320&FORM=VDMCNR

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@hightor,

Quote:

I'm not going to respond in any depth....

Translation into plain English: "I lack the intellectual wherewithal and base of knowledge to reply to this in any sort of depth, so I'll stick with the ad hominems..."

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@gungasnake,

Where did I use an ad hominem? I just don't want to turn this thread into another political argument as they never get settled anyway.

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Memories of the Fifties

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