Boy, I chewed that Bazooka until my teeth practically fell out. I also bought bubble gum with baseball cards which we collected and put in the spokes of our bikes. This was more in the 40s instead of the 50s for my age group.
I'm old enough to have just caught the tail end of these things, and the contraption required to wear them. One more thing you had to get straight before you left the house in the 50's.
Although I mostly agree with the description of how it was, it was different from the child's point of view. "... a grade school-aged child may have walked to school by herself or gone out to play in the neighborhood on the weekends with no adult supervision. Parents trusted their children to keep themselves safe, instead of hovering over them in a protective manner." "What did we get ourselves into having all these kids? I hope they go outside and leave us in peace and quiet." "Instead of an egalitarian family style in which everyone gets a vote, parents during this time were directive. For example, instead of talking out a teen's curfew, the 1950s parent would have given his decision and made it final." Voting? If you didn't follow the rules they might not let you sleep there and eat their food. "Physical punishments such as spanking were common forms of discipline during this time." Much worse were the looks. Disgust: "Is this child really one of our offspring?" Intimidation: "If you do that again the punishment will be so bad we can't say it out loud." .
Raising Kids In 1950s Households Vs. Today's Charles Rosemond 2013 "When I was a child, back in the Parenting Stone Age (a.k.a. the Parentocentric Era), your parents were the most important people in the family. They paid the bills, bought your clothes, prepared the food you ate, took care of you when you were sick, drove you to where you needed to be, tucked you in, and kissed you good night. They were essential". "Your parents acted like they were bigger than you were too, like they knew what they were doing and didn't need your help making decisions. In fact, your opinion really didn't matter much. When they spoke to you, they didn't bend down, grab their knees, and ask for your cooperation in a wheedling tone". "Your mom and dad paid more attention to one another than they paid to you. You didn't think about that at all. It was just the way it was. But looking back, you sure are glad you weren't the center of the family universe. You were a satellite, orbiting around their solid presence". "They bought you very little, so you appreciated everything you had. And you took care of it. When your bike broke, you figured out how to fix it. Or your dad fixed it. In either case, you understood you weren't getting a new one, not any time soon". (More)
That is a nice article. Exactly what is was like, perhaps carried a little to the extreme, at our house. The TV ads, like the one about Kraft cheese, where the kids refuse to eat until the cheese is rolled out, would have been unimaginable behavior. I got the impression the parenting methods we experienced as kids were just carried down from generation to generation. The Depression was obviously a big influence on our grandparents, and WWII on our parents. I probably would have tried to be just like my parents in raising kids, but it would have seemed disingenuous in the 70's.
As a rule kids sat in the backseat of the car. My Dad never had a pickup. It wasn't for safety, because safety hadn't been born yet. It was for separation. We were cargo....but we didn't mind....all we noticed was "Car Go"! Later, as an adult, I thought a good idea would have been to have the radio in the back seat (with ear phones). But that would have defeated the purpose, which was control.
Vinyl Philosophy.... In Car Vinyl Record Players "The thought of an in car record player seems almost laughable today, and yet when they came out they were probably the hot new car audio item! Bumpy roads must have been a nightmare, but as far as I know they didn't last long and were replaced by the much more practical and convenient cassette tape player". Here are a few examples of the Car Radio/Record Players...
The 1950's don't seem that far back because of my vivid memories of the period. I was 14 in 1950 and 23 in 1959. Plenty to remember!
1952 Day In The Life Of A 1950's Small Town A 1952 documentary showing small town 50's America from morning to evening. Many kinds of people doing many kinds of work, and then bowling. 1952, B/W.
Around Jan. 15th, the city would pick-up the trees that residents dumped at designated spots in their blocks. The pre-teen set would make tree forts to wrestle, and just play grab ass. Then it was off to other blocks, loot their trees, and bring them back to enlarge your own fort. This led to a lot of unpleasantness -- to put it mildly. The blocks with the most trees were those in which resided attractive teenaged girls who were unwitting magnets for teenaged boys throughout the neighborhood. The teenaged boys would help the pre-teens in those blocks loot and defend from being looted. My block had only two attractive teen girls, sisters, as a matter of fact, and both were snooty. So we had the smallest tree fort in the 'hood.
Mom and her two sisters gave Toni permanents to each other at Nana's house. Took the better part of an afternoon. Why did people put up with such torture? Nana would pitch-in to help but never succumbed to the treatment herself as it was said that she had naturally curly hair that always fell into soft waves. That Toni chemical made Nana's living room smell like an outhouse. You'd think that by the 50s the chemists at Toni would've come up with a pleasant aroma for their torture fluid.
I used to pull my wagon around and collect soda bottles on the road side to turn them in for the deposit. Remember the shopping carts full of empty bottles lined up in the grocery stores? I could never understand why anyone would just toss money out the car window.