1950 Family Date, Dinner In A 1950's Home

[redirish28]

Run time: 10:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8kJzBJrOkU   Posted on YouTube: December 08, 2007 By YouTube Member: 2thepast Views on YouTube: 50629   Posted on DU: October 10, 2010 By DU Member: redirish28 Views on DU: 2327

 
I guess family dinner needed to be taught by good propaganda films.

[MineralMan]

1. Those old fifties films like that one are quaint, but the tradition

of the family meal has all but disappeared. I grew up in the 50s, and that film more or less represents the meals our family ate every evening. Without the narrator, of course, but the process and behavior was about the same. It was a good time for everyone...every evening. Discussion of the day's events went around the table, and plans for other activities were discussed. Never politics. Never anything troubling.

The television set was not on, and that rule lasted well into the 1960s. That was my family, but I saw examples of the same basic thing among my friends' and girlfriends' families, when I was invited there. It was pretty much the same in all the households I visited.

Yes, it seems quaint today, and the sexism that was shown in that film was certainly there. But, the basic fundamentals of what was in that film was the basic structure in households all across the country. It seems a pity that some of that doesn't exist as much today.

[redirish28]

4. Did it ever REALLY exist other than hollywood films and TV shows?

[wtmusic]

6. Never, but it was some kind of ideal you were supposed to aspire to.

At least it was non-denominational. In that respect I fear we've gone backwards.

[MineralMan]

14. Actually, it did exist. We weren't all dressed up like in that film,

but it happened every evening. You had to have a really good excuse not to eat dinner with the family when I was a kid.

[vanbean]

36. MineralMan is right. My family was the same. Yes, it did exist. Also,

going out to dinner was a big deal. Everyone was dressed up in their best clothes. It was the same at the airports. Even if you weren't one of the passengers, if you were at the airport, you were dressed up. It seems so funny now, but that is the way it was.

[drm604]

21. Sure.

We didn't get dressed up or anything but yeah, dinner was ready at 5:00 or 5:30 and we all sat down to eat together, and I'm talking about the 60s and 70s. Is that strange? I don't have a family of my own, but I guess I was under the impression that a lot of people still do that. How do most families eat now?

[wtmusic]

24. My family was the same way

Dad came home at 6:10, we sat down to eat at 6:15 (to this day, that's when I start wanting something to eat).

Nowadays we try to have dinner together but it's more difficult. A lot of it has to do with outside influences on my kids - coaches schedule practice for 6PM, choir rehearsal starts at 6:30 PM, etc.

That time is not "reserved" for dinner anymore.

[HarveyDarkey]

15. I grew up in the fifties

and I never saw anything remotely resembling that. What planet do you live on?

[MineralMan]

19. I can only report on my own experience and my own family.

Are you calling me a liar?

[HarveyDarkey]

29. I'm not calling anyone a liar

i don't recall typing "you're a liar". I'm also recalling my experiences. Mine were different than yours obviously.
Should be end of story, unless you'd like to continue with a worthless argument.

[Kurovski]

2. No cocktails?!

Fuck that shit!

And mom...I got news for you...pops stops in at the Randolph street Station mens room for a quick draw on a nicely tamped pipe one stall over before boarding the 5:08.

[wtmusic]

3. "Women of the family owe it to the men to look relaxed, rested."

OMFG. Gotta love the sixties for turning that upside down.

[Kurovski]

8. A couple of cocktails would have helped.

Where are the cocktails? It's barbaric!

[otohara]

18. Exactly - 50's Were The Cocktail Era

and the ciggies - smoking was part of dinner too.

[MineralMan]

20. Not in my family. No drinking. No smoking.

Not every family was the same.

[CONN]

31. Daughter is expcted to slave in Kitchen

while son does his homework and hangs with dad before dinner.

Glad those days are gone!

[Enrique]

33. and in the garden

you see how many flowers in that centerpiece, that's a lot of work.

[mzteris]

5. oh wow...

Mother & Daughter "owe it to the men" to keep themselves looking attractive.

The son studies after school - the daughter does kitchen work.

They only had meat and potatoes on the plate. Where are the veggies??

Father and son should "compliment Mother and Daughter so they will continue pleasing you"....

:wow:

[Kurovski]

7. Well, sure.

Gosh, that's just simple psk...psyh...psychology! Gee, don't you WANT to be treated all nice and stuff? Ya wouldn't want a fella to say the roast smelled like a fart, or nothin like that...wouldja? Garsh!! I'm so danged confused!

[Warpy]

9. Good gawd, and the fundies think it was really like that

and where was Father's cocktail? I mean the first of many as going home generally meant getting slightly smashed, "contracts to look over" or not.

Funny how Brother got to study while Sister had to work. Odd how Mom had to dress to the nines, heels, pearls and all, while doing donkey work in a hot, steamy kitchen. Dad wanted fancy dress, Dad could spring for dinner out, at least in the world I grew up in.

These "hygiene films," as they were called, were nauseating sexist garbage back then and time has not improved them.

I vaguely remember my mother commenting on newspaper advice columns (written by men, of course) admonishing wives to dress up for hubby when he came home at night. Her comments were abrupt, pungent, and extremely rude.

No wonder we rebelled in the 60s.

[Enrique]

12. contracts my ass

gay porn in that briefcase!

[Kurovski]

26. Guuurl! You tell'em.

[Zen Democrat]

10. The Fifties came and went. It wasn't as great as many seem to remember.

I'll take now over then in a nano.

[wtmusic]

13. The late 50s were great for white people.

Wars with 100x as many casualties as Iraq/Afghanistan were over. Economy booming.

[Warpy]

17. White MEN, maybe

Women were ghettoized in suburbs, usually without transportation, legal and social appendages and unpaid servants. Jobs were restricted, so that if the marriage was dangerous, she really couldn't escape and manage to feed her children. There was only barrier birth control available and nothing but back alley abortion unless a woman had a very sympathetic doctor who would risk everything for her. Marital rape was not only legal, it was expected. Marital battery was tolerated as long as it didn't break bones.

The 50s SUCKED every way but economically.

[wtmusic]

22. It didn't suck in the context of the time

My mom was an MD in the 50s. She faced a lot of obstacles, but also received (maybe surprisingly) a lot of encouragement from male doctors who realized what she was up against.

Compared to the 40s, she felt like the sky was the limit.

[Enrique]

11. the boys greet dad as though they were genuinely glad to see him

:rofl:

[Kurovski]

28. I know. That one was an LOL here too.

"But I thought drama class was just for the girls!"

Perhaps the boys were disappointed that father had "Champ" and not "Leg Parade" stashed in between his briefs?

[redirish28]

16. What I find really funny is that "Son" and "Daughter" are probably 18 months

apart birth wise... you know ones 15 or 16 the other 15 or 15 and all of a sudden you have this little 4 year old running in called junior! Where he come from? AND where was he all day while mom slaved over the hot stove?

[CTyankee]

23. This film made me sad. I had always wanted this kind of family and thought I was weird

because I didn't have it. We had all the makings for it, mother, dad, daughter, son. We were certainly solidly middle class. We sat down for dinner every night. But things often got out of hand when mother and daddy had their friends over for after dinner drinks. Daddy morose and never satisfied with son and mother morose because daddy was morose. Anger and fighting after guests left. All the yelling. I'm still convinced that my brother would have not been an alcoholic himself if he hadn't been the subject of so much abuse due to my father's drinking...

[msongs]

25. just about every family in our neighborhood ate dinner together . .many kids today are tyrants lol

expect everyone to cater to and cave into them at the slightest whim or desire so they can do what they want when the want it. the rest of that movie is pretty much bogus tho

[Crowman1979]

27. I like the MST3k version better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV4GsIe7Kvw

[Devil_Fish]

34. That was awesome. NT

[northoftheborder]

30. the fifties - I grew up then

It was a very simple time. In many ways our family epitomized the "typical". Daddy worked, Mother stayed home. We all ate dinner together, seldom ate out. Mother sewed hers and my clothes. Daddy brought work home to do at night, and read the paper. My brother and I washed the dishes and had some other chores, but not many. We had no household help. My mother did not "dress up" for dinner, we did not have cocktails, nor cigarettes, and I didn't know anyone who's family was much different in their life style. We had one car, Daddy rode the bus, or took the car, depending on who needed it most. We had television, but we watched it only in the evening, after homework. My parents were stay at homers, went out rarely, and seldom entertained. I think of us as being middle-class, and average, in many ways.

But, in other ways, we were atypical. My mother was the one who paid all the bills, shopped for major household items. She also was the family "handyperson", not my father, who was intellectually brilliant, but technically challenged! Also, I, as a girl was just as much encouraged and pushed toward excelling in academics, going to college, and having a career as was my brother. Most of my friends saw themselves as going to college mainly to find a husband, and then having a family and being a homemaker as the life of choice.

Then the sixties happened, and the whole world changed and blew up the fifties! A lot of good things came out of both decades.

[Kablooie]

32. Tea Party world.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

35. Wow. Just.... Wow.

For 10 minutes I was transported to the Cleaver Bizarro World. I imagine this is just exactly how teabaggers remember the 50s