Life was good in the 50s despite frugality.

[Chipper Chat]

How did a family of 5 survive on my father's 40-hour a week wages? Today people (especially grandkids & even some DUers) are aghast that we lived such "horribly primitive lives without cell phones and 500-channel TVs and that we were even able to "make it" back then. Here's how we did it:
1. Job security. Dad earned good wages in a factory - where a strong union practically guaranteed that salaries would continue in case of a strike.
2. Mom stayed at home and ran the house. She gardened, cooked, canned things, and did all the wash (and a neighbor's wash for extra cash). She did seasonal clerking at Montgomery-Wards during the holidays to pay for "Santa's" presents for us.
3. Both of us junior-high boys had paper routes, plus I had a summer job pulling weeds in a local nursery while my brother flipped burgers in a diner. (Allowance from Pops not necessary).
4. Grandma & Grandpa had us over for dinner on Sunday $ one week night. (We never ate in restaurants - only a hotdog & rootbeer at the A&W one a week.)
5. I had only 3 shirts - I wore one to school Mon & Tues, the second Wed & Thurs. and the remaining one on Friday & Sat. Our "Sunday clothes" were for church and special occasions only.
But we did not consider ourselves "poor." Dad bought our 6 room house in 1950 for $5,500 (it is now on the market for $69,000). Our mental state was helped by being physically active (walking 2 mi to school, biking, swimming, and neighborhood sports). We appreciated and were taught to respect the environment. We were happy except for worrying about girl friends, acne, and the Soviet Union.
It is not my intention to glamourize life "back then," but I fear the republican revolution has made this type of life almost extinct. Maybe a savior like Al Gore in '08 could change this.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. I'm old enough to remember this life

and it was good.

[TayTay]

8. Unless you were:

African American and wanted to go to a good school,
A Woman and wanted to do something else besides be a nurse or teacher,
A migrant worker picking fruit and vegetables for next to nothing.

And it was great except for:
Tailer gunner Joe McCarthy and his witch hunt for communists

Yeah, you could raise a family for less money than today. But I wouldn't go back for anything on earth.

[Catherine Vincent]

20. In other words, life was good back then...

especially if you were a white male

[Carni]

117. Some things never change apparently eom

[we can do it]

31. Nurse or teacher? I remember my kindergarten teacher....

...asking what we wanted to be when we grew up. I said "an astronaut". She said "You'll have to be a nurse or teacher". After school I stormed home and called my grandma and told her what had happened. She told me to tell that teacher that I could be anything I wanted to be. So I marched in the next afternoon and with my arms folded across my chest and told her " MY grandma said I can be anything I want to be and I am going to be an astronaut." ......She said well, then I guess it would be ok. She also had to be convinced that girls could like cars (they DO drive) and that we could be interested in building things, too. Shoo, I bet she was glad to see me go to first grade.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

52. Yes, life was good

I was a child. I had my mommy, my daddy, my house. My cat.

I didn't know who Joe McC. was and didn't give a flip. My biggest worry was polio.

We also didn't have worries that the high rise your daddy worked in could explode and fall down. Kids didn't mow other kids down in the hallways. I remember hearing about a murder in 1958 in NYC. It was BIG news. (I lived in the NY metro area.) I knew one child with divorced parents.

Would I go back? Let's see: election fraud; global warming; terroism; crooked administration; African Americans still have problems with getting a decent education; migrant workers still make next to nothing; the Christian Right carries on Joe's withch hunt, and women with children find themselves working two full-time jobs (at home and at work) in order to raise a family in a world that now demands two incomes.

I'd have to give it serious, serious thought.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

59. s/n't// ; s/fall down/become radioactive dust/

[TallahasseeGrannie]

60. um.. translation?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

63. ...

Erase "n't"; replace "fall down" with "become radioactive dust".

[TallahasseeGrannie]

66. Gotcha

but this was before that. The bomb had been invented and used, but we were the only ones who had it for a good long time. The fears about nuclear war were a sixties thing.

Frankly, I assumed for about thirty years I would die in a nuclear war. I never, ever pictured myself as an older person.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

91. Not true, all that "civil defense" crap was 1950s.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

93. I was born in 1950

We had lots of civil defense drills but they were for standard air raids. I don't know exactly when the Russians got the bomb, but I think it was fairly late into the fifties. The first real fear of atomic attack of the US was the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was in 7th grade and remember being so afraid (living near NYC) that I threw up at school.

After that, the A bomb drills started in earnest. That was in the very early sixties. Nuke fear set in. Good times were over.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

98. First successful atomic bomb was August 9, 1949-Plutonium.

First successful hydrogen bomb was NOvember 22, 1955


I can't imagine having to worry about the atomic bomb. I guess atmosphere of fear is something of the human race.

[Silverhair]

100. You need to clarify that. Those are dates for USSR.

At first read I thought you meant USA dates.

Also, the USSR exploded their first fusion device on August 12, 1953.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

118. I meant August 29, 1949

And the USSR exploded its first device on that day. http://www.coldwar.org/articles/40s/soviet_atomic_bomb_test.php3

[Silverhair]

120. Read exactly what you said.

You said: "First successful atomic bomb was August 9, 1949-Plutonium.

Without clarification, that means the first EVER. It was the first first for the USSR.

Your other date has two problems. It does not clarify the USSR so it too sounds like the first EVER. Also your date is wrong for Russia's first fusion device. Correct date is August 12, 1953.

http://www.zvis.com/nuclear/nukcal.shtml

[SemiCharmedQuark]

121. Well the topic was atomic scares in the 1950s, I figured people would know

that scares came from USSR and not the USA.

Also, I meant atomic bomb, not fusion bomb. Knock off the plutonium. And the date of the first atomic bomb in USSR was August 29,1949.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

90. Nah but they made it fun and cutesy with that "duck and cover" turtle.

Bert the turtle.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

94. We used to all trek down to the school basement

where we leaned up against the walls and covered our eyes with our arms. We lined up about five deep and invariable somebody farted. It was great fun. That was for standard bombs, though.

I think the school kind of figured A bomb drills were useless, because we would all die anyway, so those stopped. But the town would have these all city drills where you had to stop your car, get out and go into the nearest fall out shelter. Very, very creepy. With sirens and everything.

As a young child I saw a lot of war movies, which were standard fare for fifties TV and when I would see airplanes in the sky I'd run into the house in fear of bombs. I was only four or five then. But imagine how war affects kids... I'd only seen movies!

[erinlough]

65. I won't go back n/t

[zanne]

105. I wouldn't go back, either.

It's true that you could raise a family of seven on one factory worker's salary (My father did). He was a union steward. My parents owned their house and nobody went hungry or did without much of anything. The big difference is that most people lived like that. We didn't have friends who were better off to compare it to. If we were poor, who was going to tell us? But there were plenty of bad things, too. For one thing, lots of kids were abused, physically, emotionally and sexually. Nobody talked about it. Divorce was very rare and abused wives just stayed home and didn't talk about it. People had more kids than they could handle, because birth control was a big no-no. People with physical disabilities were discriminated against and ridiculed. I could go on, but you get the picture. No, I don't feel nostalgic for the 50's. Hell, I even hate "retro" furniture!

[itzamirakul]

126. EMMETT TILL....n/t

[BlueEyedSon]

2. It was a time in american history when your were almost guaranteed

that you would do better than your parents, your kids would do better than you, and probably their kids also.

That's not the case anymore.

The one-income thing and job security would be pretty kewl!

[Selatius]

12. The 1950s were a period of economic boom

The difference between the boom of the 1990s and the one in the 1950s was that wages across the board went up. In the 1990s, only the richest made advances. The rest remained largely stagnant. I'd say that was the effect of a flater tax code than in the 1950s. You had the wealthiest 1 percent in a tax rate of 90 percent. Today, that same top 1 percent pays a maximum of 35 percent. In many cases, they don't even pay that much because they've taken advantage of shelters and loopholes written into the tax code. Such is the nature of special interest money on politicians in both parties.

[BlueEyedSon]

17. the 90's were WAY better than now, the CEO's did get a 50% raise

last year!

Also: what you describe is not "flatter" taxation, it's more "progressive".

Flat tax is when everyone pays the same percent, regardless of income.

[MsTryska]

36. No he's saying it correctly....

he didn't say flat tax - he said the 90s had a flatter tax system than in the 50s.


as in in the 50s the richest 1% paid 90% of their income as taxes.


and in the 90s the richest 1% paid 35%...(altho i might have read that last bit wrong - i thought it was 39% then).


So really a gap of 15% to 35% is much less progressive, and flatter, than a range of 15% to 90%.

[Selatius]

38. Yes, you're right. It was 39%, not 35% today n/t

[BlueEyedSon]

39. yup, i read too fast, sorry!

[stopbush]

23. I guess I'm the exception that proves the rule.

The Clinton years were good for me. My salary in the 90s:

1991: $15k
92: $25k
93: $33k
94: $46k
95: $55k
96: $65k
97: $80k
99: $90k
00: $105k
01: $150k

May 01-Sept 04: Unemployed. Thanks, bush!

I'm now again gainfully employed, but all of my savings from the 90s were erased just surviving the first 3 years of bushco.


On edit: just saying that I don't consider myself one of the "only the very rich" who made out under Clinton.

[Selatius]

32. You did remarkably well

But it depends on how you define rich. In relative terms, a person who makes 150,000 has more in common with somebody making 25,000 than somebody who makes 10,000,000 or higher in total compensation.

[stopbush]

67. I define rich as liquidity, at least in regards to $.

A millionaire encumbered with debt can be poor as well. Of course, the real riches in life have nothing to do with money, but that's a different subject. I'm a firm believer in the saying "the lack of money is the source of all evil."

[BlueEyedSon]

41. Looks exactly like mine 8^(

Still one of the unemployed ones here, you in IT?

[stopbush]

62. No, marketing in the recording industry.

Too many shake-outs in multi-national conglomerate consolidations. I escaped for a while to an independent company and then got caught in the crosshairs over a non-compete clause in my contract when I made a move to another company after my contract ended. Spent a bunch of $ fighting it and won my freedom to work elsewhere, but by the time I could get back in the job hunt game the economy had worsened and the industry was in major layoff mode (which is why I said thanks to bush!).

I ended up moving into the non-profit sector. That meant about a year learning the lay of the land (at a crapola salary) before I hopped back into a concerted job hunt at the top of the non-profit ladder. I lucked out and landed a couple of job offers within a month and am now (knock on wood) pulling down 6 figures again. BTW - I still have about $30k in debt to dig myself out of, but I'm on a 12-month budget to do so.

[BlueEyedSon]

76. Wow, great story!

[pisle]

82. One major difference

is the amount of taxes paid by corporations in the 50's and the amount (if any) that corporations pay now. I read recently that during the 50's, corporations were responsible for nearly 60% of the country's tax revenue, and that now that figure is around 12%. Not sure if that's totally correct, but it makes a lot of sense if it's true.

Go figure.

[stopbush]

3. I was born in 54 in Ohio - family of 8. I can well remember

those times. My story is strikingly similar to yours...and I would NEVER give up today to return to those times. The rampant racism and commie baiting of those times alone takes the gild off the lily.

[patdem]

14. Yes..the liberals want to go back because of the strong unions..and

one worker families..and the reight wing wants to go back because of 'whites only' divisions! Seems we want to go back...but for different reasons! :hi:

[Canuckistanian]

4. My dad designed his own house

Then he hired some contractors to build it and then worked as a laborer for the contractors.

I don't think you could do that today.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. I'm designing/building my own house.

... while we (family of five) live on in a single-wide on the property.

It CAN be done.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. IMHO it was good BECAUSE of frugality

Our family embraced a more frugal lifestyle. (we didn't have a choice on frugality, but it's working for us)

No TV, no mortgage, no car loans. No crap.

I highly recommend the book "your money or your life".

[SoCalDem]

30. People lived like the people around them

Everyone you knew was in the "same boat".. No one felt "richer" than anyone else..By the time the boomers were in high school it started to change.. Kids who never "felt" poor, now actually rubbed shoulders with the "upper-crusty" kids, and of course the merchandising of America was in full swing by then, so we all HAD TO HAVE (insert anything here)..

Our adolescence was the "old way"..but our teens ushered in the "new way"...

The sheer size of our generation made that change inevitable..

(we didn;t ask to be born..:P..)

[we can do it]

33. Great book. I am debt free now....

It feels so good to not owe anyone - pay as you go....always pay more than the minimum payment, pay ahead even a few cents each month on your mortgage and you will save......Don't let the bastards own you. Having a mortgage payment for tax purposes is just plain STUPID. You only get a small portion (your tax rate) back...this does not make sense unless your are the BANK.

[lumberjack_jeff]

34. Kudos to you!

The "good debt" rationalization is very insidious.

On paper, debt can be made to look prudent. It rarely is, in part because of the psychological effect of access to free money.

[we can do it]

42. Thanks...it just took a plan and diligence anyone can do it.

No kidding about "good" debt - my neighbor (he's been in this neighborhood 20 years at least) keeps listening to this "financial planner" and decided to re-mortgage his home - interest ONLY (YIKES) to send his one daughter to the "Fame" school in NYC. I am worried for them if (and when) interest rates spike up.

[Ishoutandscream2]

53. congrats to you. I'm working on paying my mortgage off, too

Study my amortization tables and plan. Put everything I can over principle.

Again, congrats, and hopefully in about 10 years, I won't have a house payment. That sounds like a long time, but I will still be relatively young (54).

[we can do it]

114. Thats great - I know you can do it you put your mind to it.

It seemed like for me the closer I got the more determined I got - it all snowballed. Hope it works as well for you! Good Luck, you got my positive thoughts.

:toast:

[OldLeftieLawyer]

6. This reminds me

The other day, I was looking through my closets. Just looking, maybe thinking of the upcoming change of seasons, packing things away, getting out winter stuff.

And I suddenly remembered being a kid (we're about the same age, Chipper), and having just a few outfits that I rotated and wore in different combinations, as did all my friends. We swapped clothes, too.

It was just enough. A new pair of shoes was an occasion, and they were real treasures, shown off, cared for, and admired.

Now, I have so much, I look around, and I wonder why I ever thought I needed so much.

I have a great friend who has the best rule: every day, she gets rid of one thing, whether it's a book to give to the library, a shirt to go into the Goodwill bag, or something just dumped into the trash.

My new rule.

Thanks for reminding me of a simpler time.

(But I will NEVER give up DSW - http://www.dswshoe.com/)

[Vanje]

7. Life was not so good for a southern black man who wanted to vote

or eat at Woolworths lunch counter, or date outside of his race.

It was probably pretty tough being an out homosexual too.

[efhmc]

13. Or southern black woman either.

[Vanje]

18. Exactly

[erinlough]

69. Or a northern white woman who didn't

want to stay home and raise kids, garden, and can. I wouldn't take then for now for anything. Plus if a woman didn't want to carry out an unwanted pregnancy she could die in a back alley somewhere. Ah...the great 50's.

[Hardrada]

78. or Northern working class Catholic woman

Choices: Have 8+ kids or become nun.

[efhmc]

88. Agreed, please see #11. I just wanted to add the other sex to this post.

[MountainLaurel]

92. Or have your baby taken from you

And signed away into adoption by your father because you were a teenage mother, and then told the child was stillborn. (The dark side of the Baby Boom: a thriving marketplace for white infants for infertile couples.) Of course, because of the joys of twilight sleep births that gave women hallucinations and left babies sleeping for days after birth, you wouldn't know the difference. (This happened to my grandfather's cousin; I found the story on a site where the woman's daughter was looking for her older sister.

This was also the era when sexual activity as a teenager (particularly if you were poor or a minority), interracial dating, or any host of other things could get you labeled as feeble-minded or a deviant and get you committed.

Yep, them's the good ol' days.

[Chipper Chat]

28. I can comment on that too.

The prejudice against gays wasnt as bad as it is now (thanks to Bush's so-called protect marriage amendment and the Falwells, Alan Keyes & John Rockers of the world). I remember two really "fruity" guys in the 8th grade, but we didnt dislike them. They werent taunted and isolated like out-homo kids are now. I guess we were more accepting of difference.
A black family lived across the alley from us. My dad took the man fishing all the time. They were accepted as equal neighbors. Our HS had a "Negro" cheerleader. Our somewhat liberal town just didnt know prejudice. (Maybe my little 13,00-folk Indiana burg was an exception to the rule).

[ovidsen]

9. Close enough

Which means I'm old enough to remember the 50s, too. It wasn't idyllic. There was that mess in Korea, that drunk Joe McCarthy, and the Sputnik surprise, but I'm not complaining. I actually liked the paper route. And the dishwasher job.
:7

[efhmc]

11. I grew up as a white girl in east Texas. Not so good for females with

ambitions outside the home and African Americans.

[Medical Speaking]

15. 50"s

I was very young but life was good we all had supper together.
And Sunday dinner brought all our family's together.
But it all changed when I went to Viet-Nam and it has not been the same since. I will call the 50"s a simple but good years.

[jackster]

16. Trouble is

the rethugs want to bring back those things in the 50's that are abhorent - no civil rights for women, minorities, gays, etc., inability to be open about who and what you are, the straight-laced relgiousity, and so forth.

The things that you spoke about and the standards and way of like of many of us in the middle class during those times may never be seen again.

[BlueEyedSon]

19. They want to bring back the 1850's

[mestup]

22. Put the white male back "in charge." That's how the right sees it.

The right longs for those simpler times, too. They cast around for an explanation and decide things were just simply better then. But "better then" means reversing rights for most women, children, and minorities.

[AValdoux]

21. I wasn't alive in the fifties

Born 1963. I do agree with you though. I think this theory that every generation has to do better than the last is delusional and unrealistic. To me this is one of the issues that effects outsourcing more than any other. Companies are moving thier jobs overseas because we have unrealistic goals for prosperity. Americans have a hard time believing that someone can be happy without the 4,000 sqft house & $40k vehicle with unlimited credit to purchase whatever the kids say they "need". An engineer with a family in India can live happily on $25K per year. It is no longer about sweatshops and exploitation, it might be about our excessive materialism. It seems to be how we show love to our kids


AValdoux

[MamaBear]

24. We didn't think we needed as much ...

We didn't think we needed so much ... and there was less stuff. I was very young in the '50s, but I remember each family had one TV (if any); one telephone (considered a necessity, but many of us were of "party lines" -- a private line was a luxury and in rural areas not available); one car; one record player/stereo. Maybe a second radio. I remember my aunts and uncles rolling their eyes at our transistor radios; they thought we were really spoiled.

There were no $100 sneakers (sorry, athletic shoes) to buy.

America has always been good at consumerism, but I think it wasn't until the 60s and 70s that it just exploded. Americans now tend to be gadget junkies, which is why we are now here on this forum reading each other's thoughts.

Some of the frugality was enforced by the fact that credit was harder to get, and many families didn't have an "account" except maybe with the doctor or at a couple of local stores.

I think an argument could be made that credit cards have turned us into spendthrifts. A little financial discipline probably would do us all a lot of good.

Also, in the 50s, didn't just about everybody have some money saved?

However, also during that period, CEO pay was a much smaller multiplier of worker salaries .. something like 5 or 6. Now it's much higher. Did I see a figure like 430 lately?

[calmblueocean]

25. Funny how Repub. "free markets" and "family values" wrecked a way of life.

Unions were one of the things that made this kind of life possible, and now their backs have been broken by NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, WTO and other so called "free trade" agreements. What's so "free" about losing your job? We have multinational corporations, but unions aren't allowed to organize multinationally.

I'm jealous that my own parents grew up in the world you described, Chipper, and that I may never get to experience a world like that for myself. (Although I did have the paper route. :))

Also, why has housing become so insanely expensive in this country? Take a look at some of the homes Sears sold through their catalog from 1927-1932. They're big, beautiful homes, and Sears would do all the construction for around $2100 in 1932. According to The Inflation Calculator, what cost $2100 in 1932 would cost $25,517.18 in 2005.

Can you imagine getting a new home that size today for $25,517.18?

[triguy46]

26. Selective nostalgia.

I lived through the 50s and my memories do not quite fit the "Father Knows Best" or "Ozzie and harriet" standard. I do think what has changed
is the out of control consumerism that is now de riguer.

It wasn't so hot for african americans, women, gays for sure, non-conformists of any type. In fact, my feelings of the 50s is the psychologic pressure to conform, conform, conform.

[phylny]

83. Not only conform, but pay a heavy price for things that aren't "taboo"

anymore.

In the very late 50s, my mom stayed at home and answered the door one day. It was a man selling something, but she wasn't able to open the door to him because the door opened out, and he would have had to step down a few steps. She opened the jalousie windows on the door instead and told him she wasn't interested.

About an hour later, a woman on the next block was raped by this "salesman." It was a scandal and her husband ended up leaving her because she was "tainted" and he couldn't stand the thought of someone else having been with her.

Fun time, the 50s. Think of how much we've changed (and in many ways, for the better!)

[TallahasseeGrannie]

106. Sad story... and very little support, I'm sure

My college roommate was raped, ironically, at our 30th college reunion. She was walking from the Convention Center through the parking lot.

It broke up her marriage for what I guess were the same reasons. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[triguy46]

111. We had a divorced mom with two kids move in across the street

and we were not allowed to go over there, she being tainted and all.

[acmavm]

27. Oh yes, the Cleaver lifestyle. I remember it well. For other people.

For some of us it was hardly the way you described it.

But it would have been nice I guess.

[Dees]

29. Screw iPod..you know what we had?

[Cleita]

35. It was like that for white people.

My teen years were in the fifties. It wasn't so hot for women who didn't fit the mold like your mother. A friend of mine, who was being raised by a single mother along with her siblings, were dirt poor. Dad had abandoned them and mom had to try to make do with women's wages and working as many jobs as she could handle.

It wasn't so hot for colored people, both African American and other ethnicities. They usually weren't allowed to join the unions or get the better paying jobs. They stood back and watched as immigrants from Europe did get those union jobs.

It's true that the poor were able to get some sort of housing. There was no homelessness to speak of that wasn't voluntary back then, but the children of the ethnic poor often went hungry because there was very little social welfare back then. The war on poverty didn't start until the sixties.

White people seldom saw the grinding poverty because they lived in their own neighborhoods, and their children attended schools there on the other side of town. People of color could not buy houses in those neighborhoods even if they were rich. I was in high school before I ever met another black child in school. She was the only one there. The nuns explained she was an experiment to see how it would work out and if they would allow more black children in the school in the future.

I'm sure you didn't mean it, but I get offended when I see posts like this. It's the same ploy that talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh uses to suck people in to his white supremacist shit. He starts out about how things should be, the picket fence, unlocked doors, just like back then. What he leaves unsaid is that this is when everything was ruled by whites and colored people knew their place.

The fifties were not utopia for anyone else but the white majority. If you get a chance pick up a copy of the old fifties Sci-Fi movie, "When Worlds Collide". The story revolves around a race to build a space ship that can only hold one hundred people to save the human race before another planet hits earth and annihilates it.

The humans selected are young couples, 50 males and 50 females. At the end they decide to take a dog with them. So all those couples are all white. It's like no one else on earth is worth saving but white people. But they do save one dog. This tells without words what the fifties was like and whom it was good for.

[erinlough]

74. Powerful post, and my feelings exactly.

[rinsd]

37. The good wages were due in part to a artificially smaller labor market...

...in other words minorities and women were a small part of the workforce in no small part due to discrimination.

[triguy46]

40. We were not a service economy then...

We were primarily a manufacturing economy. When we evolved into a fast food and pawn shop economy, wages tanked.

[rinsd]

44. Exactly....

A manufacturing economy with an artificially decreased labor pool = higher wages.

I'm not saying things would have been rough but it would not have been as good as it was.

[Jim Warren]

85. the ONLY manufacturing economy.........

Europe and Japan were wiped out. The US war machinery shifted to make everything the world needed and the rebuild was our market for 20 years.

[WI_DEM]

43. Sounds good and alot simpler back them

I'm afraid that families have grown apart for various reasons. Too many of us don't have dinner together. We spend evenings away from each other. There are marvelous things about the technology of today but we have lost some of the innocence of the past too.

[stopbush]

70. Hey! My family has dinner together every night and I still hate

bush! :)

[Skidmore]

45. We were poor and didn't own a home, but

I remember things being less hectic and complicated. People were less full of themselves and not preoccupied with their "issues". It was not glamorous then, but people seemed more rooted daily living then they are now. Now everyone is trying to be rich and famous.

[BeTheChange]

46. Ive been thinking about this alot lately..

We went to look at a house the other day and although the house was a good size, 1800 sq ft, the bedrooms were all very small. The shared living spaces were huge tho. The house backed up to 40 of acres of national old growth forest, which there was a path through, to a bay on the Puget Sound.

It was on a gravel road with just 2 other houses on it.. an acre.. my kids could have a freaking blast growing up. Plus it was reasonably priced. Reasonably priced enough that we could exist on one wage.. and even if we both lost our jobs, we could exist, in a pinch, on 10 bucks an hour if we could make it at our current position for 3-5 years.

It struck me that to live in that house, not a 400k McMansion, we would have to pursue a very different lives then most americans. We wouldnt have rooms with computers and tvs to send our kids too.. their rooms would have only been big enough for sleeping. They would have had to interact with us, interact with a book or go outside and atleast interact with nature, not a tv set.

We could have made blackberry jam and cobbler from the natural property line they drew.. my kids could have made forts in the forest and poked at the jellyfish that washed up on the community beach. It all sounds too simple to actually work out.

I think frugality and actually living life is highly underrated in today's society.

[elfin]

47. We have come a long way on civil liberties, tolerance

and women's reproductive rights (for the time being) - but could definitely go "back" to more self sufficiency and less rampant comsumerism.


When I see today's kids with EVERYTHING under the sun, moon and stars, I recoil at the waste. A daughter of a friend of mine is pregnant with their first child. They are not wealthy by a long shot - she has picked out a $1500 nursey "set."

We had a hand-me-down crib and high chair and a "you paint it" dresser for $15 from Sears.

[Nikia]

48. American whites nuclear families prospered at the expense of others

The others were, blacks and other minorities, who were delegated to jobs whites preferred not to do. They had no choice because discrimination was permitted.
The others who were suffering were those in Europe and Asia who had suffered lots of damage to their infastructure and the deaths of millions. Although that was not our fault, American companies were able to compete globally with little to no competitiion.
Of course, many of the adults alive in the fifties had suffered economically in the decades earlier with the Depression and rationing during WWII. This is why they were frugal.

[SoCalDem]

50. The credit card beast did not rear its ugly head until the 70's

Back then a few chi-chi stores offeres credit to a few deserving customers, but MOST people paid cash for everything except a car and a house.
A "normal" house payment back then? $80-200 a MONTH
a NORMAL CAR PAYMENT? $45-100 a month (3 year financing)

[TallahasseeGrannie]

55. Good point.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

58. No, I don't think that is true.

I am sitting here now with a man who is my dear friend from "up north" and is here for a family reunion. He was my teacher, mentor, and first boss when I got out of college. He is black and grew up in the same small NJ town I did. He tells me that there certainly was evidence in our town of racism. He, himself, was the first black teacher in our school. But while he had ten siblings and no extra money, his memories are equally positive regarding the lack of violence, threat of terrorism, and the general much less materialistic impulses of our 1950's kin. His family owned their house and they worked hard. He also mentions being excited by the work of Dr. King and feeling that the future was very bright for his people.

I'm not going to tell you that life was hunky dory for everybody all the time. But the concept that white families prospered at the expense of others is simply unfair and I personally believe unfounded and a rather incendiary thing to say. White people in the world are not the enemy. We are people like anyone else. And if we, as Democrats, put this message out there then we deserve to lose elections.

I don't buy it.

[kskiska]

49. I was a war baby and grew up totally in the 50s

Looking back, I think it was a much better environment for kids than today. We lived in a new $5,000 (at most) 4-room Cape Cod in a suburban Connecticut post-war housing neighborhood. We didn't have a new car till 1958. My dad had a ’39 Pontiac he painted up two-tone. My mother cooked every night. Kids were rarely taken out to eat at a nice restaurant (wasteful). There was no fast food. When we did go out it would be to a hot dog stand near the beach. There were no malls. Everyone went downtown on Friday nights, the only night stores were open till 9:00. My parents went out to the movies (double feature) once or twice a week while my grandmother babysat. Adults didn't drag their kids around at night. Kids had an early bedtime, and a teenage babysitter would be hired to watch them if a family member wasn't available. I babysat for 50 cents an hour. We didn't even go on vacations till I was about 10 – we drove to Provincetown every summer after that, before the interstates were completed, and gas was sometimes 15 cents a gallon.

Sure, there were lots of things going on politically, but we kids didn't understand most of it at the time. We even thought the air raid drills at school were fun and a diversion from classes.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

54. I had a similar life

I didn't figure out the "bomb" threat until the 60's. One other big improvement on my life today was that we lived in a town. The suburban sprawl had not yet begun in earnest. We walked everywhere: school, church, downtown, grocery store, library. We played outside anywhere we wanted until the streetlights came on. I knew two fat people. We ate out once a month at Howard Johnson. There was no such thing as fast food! Our milk, eggs, bread and baked goods were deliverd to our door. The world closed down at 6 and on Sundays, except during the holiday season the downtown stores were open until 9. TV was a family activity.

It all pretty much came to a screeching halt on November 22, 1963.

[kskiska]

56. Right. 11/22/63 was the end of it all.

Even before then, though, malls began to spring up - mostly outdoor malls in my area. The interstates made it easier to travel. TV also changed things a lot, though early TV was a mishmash of silly game shows, kids shows, sit-coms, live drama, and great documentaries.

We didn't have schoolbuses. The school was one mile from my house and I walked or rode my bike. If I went home for lunch, that meant 4 miles a day in all sorts of weather. If I was lucky, a neighbor with a station wagon full of kids would pick me up along the way.

[Faygo Kid]

57. Yep, you're right. And thank God for the Beatles.

They came along at a desperate time, didn't they? Good timing.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

61. If they hadn't come along

we would have had to invent them!

[itzamirakul]

127. Yes, the Beatles were wonderful. They were the first caucasion group

to openly mimic the black musical sound and in the beginning they were naive enough to admit that they styled themselves after the great black rhythm and blues artists of the time. Shortly after arriving here in the good old USA, they were "schooled" in the manner of how to acknowledge their musical output. Like Elvis, they suddenly dropped any acknowledgment of the influence and out and out assimilation of the black musical world and claimed that they learned their stuff from the heavens. Yes, the Beatles certainly brought us in to today.

BTW, I am a native-born New Yorker, raised in Cleveland, Ohio from 1943....I remember Alan "MoonDog" Freed who had a 'ROCK AND ROLL ' black music program on radio from midnight to early morning BEFORE Elvis and the Beatles. The term ROCK AND ROLL began in the black neighborhood also, bus was acquisioned by white garage bands in the late 70's

[cmd]

51. A little good, a little bad

The 50's hold no special place in life for me. I was lucky enough to grow up in a family filled with love. Love didn't always pay the bills. I remember having to go to "town" to get government commodities many times when we were down and out.

My brothers and sisters and I had a happy childhood because we made it that way. There were lots of things other kids had that we didn't, but we made do.

I felt really sorry for the one girl in my class whose parents were divorced. People, both children and adults, whispered about her behind her back. Two of my friends didn't have fathers. They had died in the war.

Mom worked from morning to night washing clothes in a wringer washer, hanging them on a line to dry, gardening, canning, cleaning, cooking. Dad was frequently laid off or unable to work because of the weather. When that happened he was able to catch up on the farm work. We hauled corn, raspberries, apples, peaches to "town" and set up a produce stand on the tailgate of our station wagon. We got by.

We kids had our daily chores. My brother and I carried water up a steep hill summer and winter. I watched the younger kids. Larry carried in coal for the furnace.

I was still a lucky one. I got to go to college in the 60's. I think I was one of two in my senior class who graduated with a degree. Thank you, federal government, for the chance to borrow money for a teaching degree. I only had to pay half of it back.

Yes, I had a happy childhood. However, I would not go back to the fifties for an amount of money.

[IntravenousDemilo]

64. Yeah, unless you were gay.

The '50s were a horrible time for homosexuals. You could be thrown in jail or worse. It's still pretty nasty, but not like then.

It was also a culturally stifling time, very white-bread, very puritanical. Nor was it a particularly great time to be black, pre-Civil Rights Act. And women were expected to be calm little wifeys and very little else.

I don't know why anyone would want to go back to that, unless they could be a rich, white, heterosexual male.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

68. Read this book:

"Alan Turing: The Enigma" by Andrew Hodges.

One of the greatest mathematicians of all time. Essentially, the inventor of the modern computer. Also, helped decipher Nazi radio messages in WW2.

The British government's gratitude? Harassment and forced hormone treatment that eventually led him to suicide.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

71. But there weren't any gay people back then!

Seriously, I am talking about my first ten years. I had never heard of, nor would have believed, that such a thing existed. Pre puberty at its finest. I didn't figure out the facts of life until I was 11.

I'm talking my life here, not life in general. I had two parents, we weren't rich. The war was over. Polio was beat. The future was bright.

My mother was as far from a calm little wifey as you'd ever want to see. I didn't know any Mrs. Cleaver clones. The women in our neighborhood were very real people. Were they frustrated doctors, lawyers, bankers? Maybe. I don't know. I was a kid! They were great with cookies, cool aide, and hugs.

[sandnsea]

79. Maybe folks are voting for Ike

I've been wondering if that's why some older folks vote Republican, they keep thinking they're going to bring back Ike and the 50's. Maybe when those of us who were kids in the 60's get into our 50's, the nostalgia will change and so will the politics. Our vision was harmony and justice and equality, not quite the same status quo as the 50's offered.

[Susang]

80. Or female or black

That people believe that those were the golden age of America is absolutely astounding to me.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

84. I don't believe it was the golden age

for America. But it was my golden age.

[Karenina]

97. And that's all that matters.

:hug:

[TallahasseeGrannie]

107. I am assuming

you are being sarcastic?

All my posts on this topic are just about my own memories, which I have been clear are memories of childhood.

I did not have a perfect childhood, but it's mine. And when it comes to my own memories, yes, you are right. That's all that matters.

Now, in regards to more altruistic endeavors, I see these days as neither better nor worse than the past. There are many horrible things now, there were horrible things then. We'd just come out of a war that killed millions, and here we are again on the brink. There are aspects of those days I think we could do well to resurrect, particularly in the environmental area. Every age has its challenges. How the equation pans out depends entirely on which side of the equal side you are.

[Karenina]

110. I'm a bit shocked and hurt by your assumption...

Please do forgive me for sincerely identifying with your perspective and
affording me the benefit of the doubt... :freak:

"How the equation pans out depends entirely on which side of the equal side you are."

Indeed it does. Kudos for that tidbit of truth. :wow:

[Susang]

102. That's a completely different thing

Everyone is entitled to their own personal "golden age". It's not like you're trying to use the government to legislate a return to your childhood; you're obviously more intelligent than that. Unfortunately, many people are not as smart and believe it is possible to turn back time.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

104. I'd turn back time .

I could pick and choose...a few from column A, a few from B.

But we can't.

[Karenina]

99. It was oh-so-lovely.

I integrated the South Shore Elementary School, having spent my pre-school years in an international community that reflected the population of my family (where I grew up EVERYBODY'S dad was a shrink or medical professional, moms were a mixed-bag of artists, educators, businesswomen, cupcake-bakers and kid-herders) to then confront water fountain "problems," restrictions on where I would be welcome, the N-word, some teachers who were less than thrilled about my intellectual abilities and presence in their classrooms, "duck and cover," having to crouch on the floorboards of the car with a blanket thrown over me to get past the gatehouse when a playdate was scheduled, being thrown out of my ballet class after going up on point (Miss K. conceded I was her best student but when she realized how serious I was about it told my mom the Negro body was NOT appropriate for classical dance and she didn't want me to be hurt as I gave her so much JOY with my enthusiasm)
UND SO FICKEN WEITER UND SOFORT.

Ah yes, and that's just a sampling of the 50's...

Dark, "bad" hair...

[newspeak]

72. well, let's see

My mother and my aunts all worked while still raising families in the fifties--mom had no place to go, however, when she was abused. See spousal abuse wasn't a main topic back then. And racism? Don't get me started.

[Coyote_Bandit]

73. There were some rural areas in the 50's

that did not have access to electric power. As a result they had outdoor plumbing which not only required the use of an outhouse but also pumping and carrying water for household and personal use.

I had some family members who were older and lived in a remote area that did not have access to electric power until the mid 1960's. I can remember as a wee little kid visiting and having to go trek out to the outhouse in the dark - all the while wondering what creepy crawly things were just beyond sight. They didn't have access to electric power because they lived in an area that was sparsely populated and rugged. There was very little incentive for utilities to incur the expense of making power available in such places.

Much of rural America does not remember the 1950's in quite the same way that the rest of the country does.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

86. Yes, we used

to visit my granddaddy Sam who lived in Jackson Co., FL. They had an outhouse and it was populated with the hugest most enormous "palmetto bugs" (think 4-H roaches) you've ever seen. Especially at night. And you could hear the bull gators roaring in the river. Granddaddy had trouble keeping dogs in those days.

[Enraged_Ape]

75. If you don't count racism/sexism/homophobia, etc., I agree

Believe it or not, there actually was a time in this country where a milkman or janitor could support an entire family on that one income.

Although I didn't grow up in the '50s, my dad taught at a junior college and was able to build a house and send his kids to college out of state, paying out-of-state tuition. NO ONE can do that now. NO ONE.

Right now, my wife and I are BOTH contemplating second jobs (which I've already done, hated, and will probably have to go back to). We don't even have any kids. It's just what we have to do to survive.

George Walker Bush is trying as hard as possible to turn this country into a nation of struggling, scramble-for-every-scrap-of-food slaves, in a short a time as possible. It's amazing how well he's succeeding. But, then, he has a lot of help.

[jane_pippin]

77. Unless you were married to a guy who beat the crap out of you, then

had you committed for being "crazy" when you tried to divorce him. (That's what happened to one of my relatives).
I see what you're getting at, but as others have pointed out on this thread, life wasn't always so rosy for people who weren't white males. (Wasn't always rosy for them either.) There were good things about the era, of course, but I'd be hesitant to go backwards as some of our Republican friends seem bent on doing. It's better to learn from the past (its good and bad parts) and make progress.

(I know you said you didn't want to glamourize the era, and I don't think you are, but I do think leaving out other aspects of the decade is a little unfair.)

[Hardrada]

81. In the 1950's, there was low income housing in urban centers.

Not any more.

Also the in the small towns I grew up in no one ever got murdered. No one ever had to this day. (The little Norse-American towns ridiculed by G. Keillor were marvelously peaceable and no one kept you from learning anything either).

[jonnyblitz]

87. I guess it isn't just wingnuts who pine for the 50's

I can't believe I am reading this on a progressive site. seriously.

god bless McCarthyism and segretation and bland conformity. :sarcasm:

[TallahasseeGrannie]

95. Well, first of all... some of us

have a few years on us, and what you are listening to is nostalgia. And nostalgia is always rose-colored.

Certainly I enjoy today's advances, particularly technology and more opportunities all around, more diversity.

But there were some elements like terrorism, school shootings, etc., that we didn't deal with.

And I definitely think we were more environmentlly "green" with much less consumption, less driving, fewer cars, healthier diets and more exercise via walking. Fat people were few and far between and fat is an enormous problem now. A debilitating problem.

I'm a bit amused by the various responses to this thread. Some people who lived through the years and had a rough time of it for various reasons say they wouldn't go back. There was no bland conformity... no more than today. I think a lot of people who didn't live in those times look at TV, movies, photographs..black and white...the perfect family...and believe the Madison Ave. view of life in those days. The 50's weren't the Stepford Years!

[SemiCharmedQuark]

89. My grandfather beat the crap out of his kids and cheated on his wife.

And she had to accept it because that is what wives did then. Wives were expected to stay home. My grandma couldn't even leave the asshole because people didn't want to hire a woman with kids. They faced open racism and it was considered OK. Women were expected to serve men.

This fantasy land fifties was only great for a few.

[Shakespeare]

96. The economy and tax structure was totally, completely different then.

THAT is why things seemed so damn rosy back then (and I'm not even going to touch on social issues, as so many others have already done so eloquently). I don't agree that they were rosy, but I do want to make the point that the economy and government structure made the growth of a middle class much easier than it does now.

The rich were taxed as they SHOULD be now.

We had a strong infrastructure thanks to the New Deal.

The wage to rent/mortgage ratio was much better than it is now, same with wage to car price.

There's a reason most families could afford to have mom stay at home, and being virtuous and frugal had very little to do with it.

[Silverhair]

101. I like my air conditioning, sattelite internet, home computer,

cell phone, and the other goodies of modern civilization.

[Solly Mack]

103. The Way We Never Were

sigh

[misanthrope]

112. That's a great book...

...by Dr. Stephanie Coontz that sits on my desk right now. The sociological analysis of "the nostalgia trap" and the reality of existence in earlier America is revelatory of the things we think are time-honored about families and the direction toward which we perceive society as moving.

I would recommend it highly to anyone interested in this thread.

There are things about the '50s I love, especially in the arts and architecture and it may be my favorite decade of the 20th Century in a lot of regards, but there's no way I would want to turn the clock back.

From this vantage point, we get to glean what was best about then and rebuke the rest. That seems much better.

[Solly Mack]

113. A great book, I agree

:hi:

[Lorien]

108. I grew up in the '70's with a single mom, and we had a similar lifestyle

(sans the married parents-my dad still sent some child support). I had five shirts and two pairs of pants, plus a dress. We got most of our cloths from the salvation army.We also didn't go to restaurants (except on birthdays) and had a float from A&W every few weeks. We not only didn't have cable, but for most of my childhood we didn't have a television (I don't think I missed anything). Though we had our share of troubles, I still would have rather spent my childhood then than now.You almost never see kids playing outside; the media keeps everyone afraid with reports of pedophiles, murderers, terrorism, etc. Plus consumerism as our life's goal is a soul killer.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

109. It was like every other era--good stuff and bad stuff

It was a good time to be a white middle-class child, but in my present status as middle-aged single woman, I'm glad to be living now. Unlike some of my older relatives in the 1950s, I'm not expected to live with my parents, just because I'm single. I don't have to dress in "old lady" clothes. I am considered a full adult in the eyes of the law.

I've had the best of both worlds.

[ultraist]

115. Oh, ya, the Glory Days!

Lynchings went on regularly in the US until 1965

[fleabert]

116. unless you weren't white

or were female and wanted to make your own decisions about your reprodutive future, economic future, education, marriage

or were GLBT

or were mentally ill

the list goes on and on...

i am glad you had a great childhood, but many did not during the same time period. Same as today.

[omega minimo]

119. Women were invisible:"Family of 5: Dad, Mom, 2 JrHi boys"-- where's Sis?

:shrug:

"a family of 5....Both of us junior-high boys had paper routes, plus I had a summer job pulling weeds in a local nursery while my brother flipped burgers in a diner....being physically active (walking 2 mi to school, biking, swimming, and neighborhood sports)....taught to respect the environment.....worrying about girl friends, acne, and the Soviet Union."

Is there any chance the 5th member of the family was a girl?

IF: If so, this tendency to present the (white) male point of view as "normal" is one of the problems with the era you remember.

[porphyrian]

122. Well, unless you were black. Or thought to be a communist. - n/t

[expatriate]

123. May I point out that you were a KID then?

Kids aren't all that astute about the reality of their family life - if they have a good time, if they feel secure, they remember it as adults as being all "okay". My mother gets nostalgic about the Great Depression, for Christ's sake - but talk to HER mother, who was an adult with children at the time, and you get a completely different story of desperation and fear that something would happen that would destroy the family budget and result in ruination - something like illness, injury or even a garment being ruined in the wash. Things were that desperate.

Has it occurred to you just how terribly hard your mother worked? You say "Mom stayed at home and ran the house. She gardened, cooked, canned things, and did all the wash (and a neighbor's wash for extra cash). She did seasonal clerking at Montgomery-Wards during the holidays to pay for "Santa's" presents for us."

So not only did your mother do all the housework, cooking, laundry, but she also gardened and canned? Ever can anything? In an un-airconditioned house in the summer? It looks "fun" in the old timey pictures, but it's tedious, hard, hot work. Gardening too. Lots of it is backbreaking and tiring. Your mother was probably doing this to make ends meet. Did she have a dryer (not at all likely in the 1950's), or was she lugging that wet laundry out to the line - not only her own family's but washing she took in as well (also, probably to try to make ends meet)? I bet she had to iron everything too. Then she took a job at Christmastime to make sure everyone had presents, as if she didn't already have enough to do.

It sounds like your mother probably just worked all the damn time. I wonder if her memories of those golden years are as fond as yours, or if they're just a cloud of aching feet, aching back, tiredness and wishing she could just stop for a while. I bet she wouldn't have done half that stuff, taking in wash and canning food, if your Dad's salary was truly enough to keep you all afloat. I can't imagine any woman doing some other family's laundry for any reason other than a desperate need for cash, particularly in those days of hanging clothing on the line, and ironing endlessly.

And your mother was lucky - she was married to a breadwinner. I'm assuming since you have such good memories, that domestic violence wasn't part of your home life - so you mother wasn't trapped with nowhere to go, as women in abusive situations were in the 1950's. Women could actually be committed to mental institutions by their husbands in the 1950's, very easily. A woman who was divorced was considered "not nice" and had a hell of a time getting a job - and was considered fair game by many men.

You might have found it a halcyon era in your life, but consider those hours of work your mother put in before deciding that all that simplicity and Ozzie and Harriet stuff was so groovy. Sure, it would be great if people could survive on less now, and weren't so consumer oriented - but the 1950's weren't any great enlightened and golden time, with McCarthyism, lynchings, segregation, accepted racism, homophobia, few jobs for women, places in the US where "a man's home is his castle and his wife and children are his property" (Louisiana law actually upheld this belief) and plenty of poverty in places like the Deep South, Appalachia, Indian reservations and inner cities.

Not that it's any greater now, but it's time to stop listening to Back In The Fifties Tonight.

[Chipper Chat]

124. I'm glad I am not a bitter person like you.

Since you ripped my post to shreds and presume to know my mother better than I do, I can only assume you are a vindictive person without much respect for other Duers' posts. If your intention was to belittle me and hurt my feelings, well congratulations because you succeeded. If only you had read the entire post you would have discovered that I was not glorifying the 50s, but simply answering another DUer's post and reminiscing a little.
So just go take a flying leap, OK? You didnt have to ruin my day with your hateful and hurtful reply. I hope you dont treat your friends like this.
And for your information my mother considers the 50s the happiest time of her life. She enjoyed every minute of her "backbreaking work" (and kept her figure too).
One last thing: I dont spend every evening listening to 45s of Roy Orbison and Elvis. 2005 has been the best year of my life.

[expatriate]

125. In no way was my reply meant to be hateful and hurtful

and if you'll look into past posts of mine here at DU, you will see that I am not hateful or hurtful. If you were hurt by my reply, I do apologize. It was my intent to point out the fact that you are reminiscing about the fifties from the point of a child, and I used the example of your mother's possible experience to make that point - just as I pointed out that my own mother's nostalgia for the Great Depression was in direct opposition to her mother's experiences in the same time period.

If your mother enjoyed her lifestyle, more power to her. I do know from experience that life in the fifties, for many women, was pretty much endless housework, without many of the labor saving devices available today. I've run a farm and put down as many as 1000 jars of canned food a year, and it's darned hard work, as is gardening on the level to substantially supply food for a family. Many women in the 1950's, including my own mother, stayed in abusive marriages because there was literally nowhere else for them to go. Many women had literally no opportunity to make a decent living or to live on their own. If your mileage varied, that's fine - but you should't get in a huff when someone mentions that things might not have been rosy for all Americans during the fifties.

I do have to say, if my response ruined your day, you must have a very stress free and happy life. Many other people on this thread pointed out exactly what I did - that in no way was the 1950's a halcyon time for all people in America, and that your memories of that era are probably tempered in a positive direction because you were a child then, and have a child's memories.

I don't notice you telling anyone else to take a flying leap, even though some people here have mentioned that they can't believe they're seeing your post on a progressive board, and many others have pointed out that the "let's return to the values of the Fifties" is often a neo-con talking point. Perhaps you should check the name of the forum - general discussion? If you just wanted to reminisce, why put it in general discussion? Apparently you don't want to hear another opinion, so why offer this up for discussion?

Consider yourself blessed if something like my response on a discussion forum ruins your day. I'm watching my kid die by inches at the moment, slowly and horribly. I really have no patience for someone who wails because someone didn't agree with them on a message board. Why don't you grow that thick skin that is often suggested here on DU - or if you can't take discussion of something you post, try the lounge.

[Coventina]

128. There never was, and likely will never be, a "Golden Age"

At times, the situations of various segments of a population will benefit, but there is always those who suffer.

The OP had every good intention in making this post. But unfortunately, those who did NOT benefit from the society of the 1950s will (rightly) take offense.