Why do people think 1950's America was such a wonderful place?

Question

You mean before the Civil rights movement, the Equal Pay Act for women the legislation protecting children from sexual abuse and the days long before Human Rights.

The days when it was legal for a man to beat his wife and children.

The days when children wandered off unsupervised.

The days before health warnings on cigarettes and alcohol, the days before expiration dates on food, the days before bike helmet and seat belt laws.

The days when homosexuals were locked up for engaging in consensual sex.

The days when corporal punishment was commonplace in schools.

The days when bullying was not only a fact of life but considered a 'right of passage'.

The days when persons in authority were obeyed without question.

The days when all fit young men were forced to do military service...

The days when racial segregation was very common and heavily enforced

The days of the Cold War, when there were planes constantly patrolling the skies armed with nuclear bombs, ready to drop them at a moment's notice.

The days when abortion was illegal and young girls died from sticking broken glass bottles up themselves.

I could go on and on.............

Answer 1

Sentimentality. I'm with you, though.

Answer 2

Always interesting to see someone try to apply current mores and laws to a world 60 years in the past. Just a few thoughts:



'Legal to beat his wife and children'. Only in the Old Testament and the Koran.



'When children wandered off unsupervised'. Where they met other children, played, and then went safely home.



'Health warnings, expiration dates, etc'. We didn't need a federal nanny to look after us. We seem to have survived, even thrived.



'Homosexuals....consensual sex'. Heterosexuals were also locked up for consensual sex. Sexual mores were very different. Maybe even better than the laxness allowed today. Sex was considered part of a relationship, not a way to pass the time.



'Authority was obeyed without question'. If you really believe that, you are terribly misinformed.



'Fit young men........military service'. They were required to register for the draft, and possibly be chosen to serve. If they did not care to do so, there were many ways around the obligation. Most chose to serve.



'Cold war......nuclear bombs'. There were two hostile nations that also had nukes, and their avowed aim was to destroy our country. You seem to have missed that fact.



Just the highlights. I could go on and on.......

Answer 3

Your list is, unfortunately, somewhat off the mark, in that you assume that the subjects on your list are improvements. Some perhaps, but each one has arguments with some validity against the notion that things were better - for example, abortions (usually done with a coat hanger when done surreptitiously, were very few in number) -- also, there were 150million fewer people in the Country.

Those of us who were youngsters, teenagers, during those days remember the problems, but that was not the focus of daily life - the nation was far more homogenous then, and people held values in common. In any American town, the majority of kids went to church or synagogue regularly, and knew each other in that context outside school; the schools themselves actively promoted patriotism, and love of country. There was a greater sense of trust, generally; you could cash a check anywhere; you didn't have to pump your own gas, and when you went to the station, your windows would be washed, and your oil and tires checked while the pump was running. Jobs for young people during the summer were plentiful - segregation was not common in 50's, and that was the era when school segregation, common only in the south, began to crumble - the 50's were an era wherein the values of genuine compassion for one's fellow man gave birth to the civil rights movement - a movement led by clergy if you recall, and passed into legislation by the Republicans.

As to the draft - none of us cared - if you didn't have a clear sense of direction, it was a great way to go, and our country called, nothing else needed to be said - I personally know hundreds of men whose lives were transformed for the good by their military service. I also know hundreds who died defending their country. And dear child, there has never been an era when authority was obeyed without question - that is mythology - but to question authority, you must start from a solid philosophical base, not merely because some command inconveniences you from playing your gameboy.

Answer 4

The days when family meant sticking together no matter what. When children grew up with both their parents and didn't have to suffer through a divorce that was never their fault. When someone could work a full-time job and support a family, not both spouses. When children were raised by their parents, not some stranger because they both need to work now to keep food on the table. When people believed in having morals and crimes weren't committed in good neighborhoods. When people who weren't committing crimes could afford to live in good neighborhoods. When children could go out and play without the fear of some sick person abducting them. When people ate healthy because there was no fast food corporation. Yeah, I see your point. They must be insane for wanting those things.

Answer 5

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be, the sixties were a time of turbulence when teenagers having found their voice flexed their muscles and the counter-culture went mainstream. By contrast the fifties seem a peaceful decade, but they were the calm before the storm. What was being bottled up first began to show with the Civil Rights movement, with Elvis and rock and roll, and even with things like James Dean movies such as "Rebel without a cause". The cork burst out the bottle a few years later but that left the memory of the 50s as one of harmony and post-war growth.

Answer 6

It had it's drawbacks but so does any time, here's just some examples.

- Didn't have children carrying guns to school and school shootings weren't happening.

- There were very few obese children then.

- Sex and porn wasn't on or advertised on television.

- Alcohol and drugs weren't popular with the teenagers.

- A lot less peer pressure on kids then.

- Role models were good people then, not drug abusing, greedy, lying, cheating sports stars, celebrities or "gangsters."

- A lot less air, water, noise, and light pollution.

- Fewer people having a need to visit psychiatrist's or taking psychiatric medicines especially children.

- One spouse working could support a family comfortably, leaving one to raise the children correctly.

- Patience was still a virtue.

- Today, there are still U.S. planes patrolling our skies ready to drop a nuclear bomb. (I know one of the pilots)

- Today, besides the planes, there are many U.S. Navy and other countries ships and submarines constantly patrolling armed with nuclear missiles.

- There was only one other country with the bomb to worry about, today there are many nations with that power to worry about.

- Today we also worry about being attacked by terrorists with biological weapons.

- Mostly all products used by Americans were "Made in the U.S.A." in the 50's.

Answer 7

Most of your points are half-truths or simply unimportant. I grew up in the '50s, had plenty of beatings in school from teachers, had a step-dad that also beat hell out of me on a semi-frequent basis. In the small town where I lived there were homosexuals of both sexes, everyone knew who they were and nobody bothered them, nobody locked them up. They were treated the same as everyone else, though probably a lot of people weren't comfortable around them and didn't befriend them.



I don't know about racial segregation because there were no blacks in the town. Military service was no big deal. I never obeyed authority [at considerable cost to myself]. Yeah, a cold war was going on... but nobody bombed the twin towers nor anything of the kind.



Warnings weren't on cigarettes, true. I smoked then, continued to smoke after they put them on, still smoke. The warnings were absurd as a concept and I chose to live my life as I wished to live it, then and now. I hope when you get as old as I am you''re as robust and healty as I am, consuming as you probably do, junk foods as a major part of your lifestyle.



The 50s weren't great, weren't easy. Everyone worked hard, nobody much whined as they do now, and everyone in my home town I ever knew could read and write. When they graduated from high school they had a middling good education, so they were able to carry on intelligent conversations.



Probably that's what was best about living in the 1950s. Almost everyone was capable of intelligent discourse. I'm sorry that's been lost and replaced by the sort of romantic fantasies you've adopted for yourself and partially expressed above.

Answer 8

As some one who grew up during the 1950s in the USA, such was not as great as those who indulge in nostalgia seem to think it was.



I remember hiding under my desk during air raid drills (which would have done no good against the "bomb"...), the end of Korea and the preparations for Veit Nam, the Soviet menace always lurking in the shadow, polio scares, greasers and that Elvis guy that all the parents hated, etc.



We did know our neighbors and we didn't lock doors as often...



Mom started cooking frozen foods (instead of fresh)...



TV started happening (not for the better)...



planes lost their propellers and became jets (with the sonic boom)...

Answer 9

It was the decade that came after the horrors of the 1940's where America was involved in WW II. Those of us who grew up in the 1950's in the US really had it pretty well as compared with previous generations. TVs came into homes. Many more people were able to buy homes and as was mentioned above, we knew our neighbors and didn't have to lock our doors. All of what you mention above is true but to understand the 1950's, one must compare it with previous decades and also realize that the 60's were real years of turbulence.

Answer 10

We weren't so cynical and paranoid.



There was hope that our children would live better and longer then we did. That polio. mumps, rubella, smallpox and measles might be ended. That dental care was finally important and people paid attention to it.



That we finally started reaching for space and satellites might speed communication and watch the plante to find minerals the ecological problems.

Answer 11

Except the Americans who else thought US was a wonderful place in 1950?



Anyway maybe it was better than US today I believe.

Answer 12

maybe cos most tv shows make it look like a peaceful time... and plus information circulation was different back then... like nowadays we know everything that goes around the world... anything happens and it is all over the news, internet etc... whereas back then... stuff like that wasnt as reported... so it was kind of like ignorance is a bliss situation...