The "50's"

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Happy Days first aired in 1974 and portrayed an idealized vision of life in the mid 50's. 

So, the program depicted an era that was only 20 years before current times (when aired).  When I was watching the show growing up, the "50's" seemed like eons in the past; yet, if a series that came out tomorrow depicted life in 1999, I would think that era is much closer in time to the present vs. the target era of Happy Days when it had aired.   There were no sock hops in 1999, nor very many other distinctive cultural iconic trends that I can readily think of.  I remembered it taking a number of days to download the Phil shows with Trey, but that's just a difference in degree vs. categorical difference (i.e. it wasn't an 8 track tape).

Is this a "trick" of the mind re: time as we age?  Or, were the 50's THAT "unique"?

Just came across this painting from 1914 that was on the cover of Life:  apparently it was how they imagined the 50's would be:

 

D5tqPvvWsAIIPzp.jpg

Every era is unique. I grew up in the 50s and 60s. Other than technology, the biggest difference between then and now was the amount of freedom we had as kids. No cell phones, but we could walk/bike all around town all day during non-school daylight hours, and our parents didn't know exactly where we were or what we were doing, nor did they worry about it - as long as we were home by dinner time. Of course, this was in the suburbs and we were white - not everybody got to have a happy childhood in the 50s.

The other big difference was space - there was a lot more room to move around, and a lot more nature. Yes, it was under attack and we didn't realize it, but it was easier to experience more of it.

I find it very difficult to live in this modern, crowded, fast-paced world.

I shoulda lived 10,000 years ago.

Sounds like America was Great. 

So basically the 50s were a great time to be alive if you were a middle class white person. Nice.

They were only about 50 years too early with that picture.

60's were a great time too - GREAT time- we were lucky

Every era is unique<<<

Yeah, but if someone threw a "90's party" and encouraged everyone to dress up in costumes, would you know what to wear???

Ateix 

 

Missing the  message?  . Yes he was white perhaps living in the suburbs..

 Does that make his observations and feelings irrelevant ?

To be clear, I also came from that background and strongly agree with his observations and feelings. As an old fart, a simpler life was quite likely at a better life

Obtuse rant but carry-on

You couldn't survive the 50's without a college degree and a high salary. 

But now everything is expensive and the working poor are a fucking drain on society. 

High density housing fucked everything up.

A lot of weird shit was going on in the 1950's. Deviants could do pretty much whatever they wanted.

 

The Police - Born In The 50's -- live in Hamburg '80


https://youtu.be/PFIPjjlGJmM

>>>>You couldn't survive the 50's without a college degree and a high salary >>>>

Quite possibly the dumbest thing you've ever posted.

Tell that to the millions returning home from war, you fucking nincompoop

Which wars were the most rewarding? 

...

1950s 2.jpg

1950s.jpg

I think the biggest thing was that the 50's were on the far side of the 60's and represented the "innocence" of an idealized time before the Vietnam War, hippies, drugs, assassinations, race riots, Nixon, etc. 

I don’t know about great but my fathers pay as a truck driver was enough to support our family without my mother having to work. They never bring up that part of making America great again, living wages, single income homes, a parent always parenting.

Hmmm

 

https://apple.news/ApEUsSEkNSyK162zFlHhZKQ

five kids old school family lltd 

~Click above pretty interesting debate and a crossover between conservatives and liberals 

“  Did women entering the workforce weaken families? “

POLL; How many Zoner families are single income?

1)

I remember when I moved to SF in the early 90's people were saying that the 90's were going to make the 60's look like the 50's. Well we all know that that didn't fucking happen. 

I would say each decade was unique until we turned the odometer into year 2000. I can't see any real distinction culturally between 2000 to 2010 and 2011 to today, but that could have to do with me getting old. 

The 50's were great for white males living in America. Not so much for everyone else. 

 

 

More to the point of the painting & another take about "perspective" regarding perception of eras in light of elapsed time:

The first radio episode of Gunsmoke aired in 1952.  The target content was about 1875 ... 77 years prior to the first airing.

1952 was 67 years in the past from 2019 ... placing Gunsmoke almost equidistant in time from the era of its target content and the present.

Was the "historical distance" of the 1870's era perceived / gauged similarly as that of the 1950's by those of us living in 2019?

Straining to change your strain?

>>>>Was the "historical distance" of the 1870's era perceived / gauged similarly as that of the 1950's by those of us living in 2019?

I heard a story on NPR recently talking about that "historical distance" in terms of technology.  The story discussed how there has been relatively few technological advances in the last few decades as compared to the late 1800s and early 1900s.   Certainly, information technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years as has some medical innovations.  But overall, we are still using the basic technology in our day-to-day lives that has been around since the early to mid-20th Century.

By comparison, the period between 1850 and 1930 involved truly revolutionary advancements in technology, including the automobile, airplanes, electricity, the assembly line, vaccines, refrigeration, telephones, steel structured buildings, and radio that fundamentally changed civilization and how people live their lives.

As far as Gunsmoke goes, that involved a period of time prior to the closure of the frontier in the American West around 1900.   That was a unique time and place in American history that just won't be repeated.

The whole neighborhood going out with picnic dinners, blankets and chairs to watch Sputnik fly overhead for the first time, learning to ride a bike, first listening to baseball (the L.A. Dodgers) on the radio (Vin Scully!!!), R&B and Rockabilly on the radio in the car, visiting Disneyland the year it opened, my parents (and so, us, too) hanging out in Venice Beach with the Beats... so many new things! But my parents were also involved in protesting HUAC and the beginnings of our involvement in the Vietnam war, working for peace/anti-nukes, hearing about what was going on in the South... there was work to be done.

As little kids we were exposed to all of that and more.

Are today's kids less exposed to everything? 

How 'bout your kid, Knotesau?

I think we did all that. 

You think so?

What haven't we done yet? 

What haven’t we done yet, that’s a pretty Bizzarre question

And who the heck is “we “

Maybe Slack and his kids have listened to R&B and baseball games on the radio.  Maybe they have even hung out with Beatniks on Venice Beach, but I don't see how they could have watched Sputnik or visited Disneyland the first year it was open.   Maybe Disney's "California Adventure" theme park, but not the original Magic Kingdom. 

My wife, myself and our son. 

I'm asking what you think we haven't experienced that everyone in the 50's experienced. 

We watched the space x rockets land on land. 

What do you think is so different about your Disneyland experience? 

Do you wear button down shirts and khaki pants while grilling in 100 degree heat?   

Why are you so argumentative slack?  It's not a competition. And asking someone what you haven't done makes no sense. how could anyone know what you haven't done?  Get it?

What am I arguing? 

>I'm asking what you think we haven't experienced that everyone in the 50's experienced. <

 

soda fountains, sock hops and letting your kids roam the neighborhood freely....

Seems like you believe that you and your family are no different than what judit went through in the 50s and you are expecting everyone else to fill in the blanks as to why or what is different. ...when it was your point and your question that you asked in the first place.  That's all. No biggie

Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers - Steven Pinker TED talk

https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_is_the_world_getting_better_or_w...

statistically, nationwide/worldwide, the world is very much the same today as it was in the 50's, including things like homicide rates.

all violent crime is waaaay down since the 70's and 80's. statistically, its even safer today to let your kids roam free than it was when many zoners were growing up in the 70's and 80's.

you know what has increased since the 70's? sensational 24 hour news coverage.

if you walked to school alone in the 70's or 80's, it is even safer today for your kids or grandkids than it was for you. 

might be something interesting for older, suburb dwelling type folks to consider that murder rates are lower today than they were before rap music or satanic heavy metal was even conceived of. 

>>>>>Seems like you believe that you and your family are no different than what judit went through in the 50s

Sure.

Yep.  Murder rates now are about half of that in the great crime wave of the 1970s, where it topped out at over 10 per 100,000 people:

murder rates.jpg

Although not shown on the chart, the murder rates during the early 1930s during the Great Depression were also very high and matched the worst levels of the 1970s.   

Going back further in time, the murder rate in 1800 was 20 per 100,000 people and in 1700, the rate was even higher at 30 per 100,000.

>>>>murder rates are lower today than they were before rap music or satanic heavy metal was even conceived of. 

Just a point of clarification: rap and satanic heavy metal both originated in 1970s (e.g. Black Sabbath, Sugar Hill Gang) when murder rates peaked.

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>>>>Was the "historical distance" of the 1870's era perceived / gauged similarly as that of the 1950's by those of us living in 2019?

I heard a story on NPR recently talking about that "historical distance" in terms of technology.  The story discussed how there has been relatively few technological advances in the last few decades as compared to the late 1800s and early 1900s.   Certainly, information technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years as has some medical innovations.  But overall, we are still using the basic technology in our day-to-day lives that has been around since the early to mid-20th Century.

By comparison, the period between 1850 and 1930 involved truly revolutionary advancements in technology, including the automobile, airplanes, electricity, the assembly line, vaccines, refrigeration, telephones, steel structured buildings, and radio that fundamentally changed civilization and how people live their lives.

As far as Gunsmoke goes, that involved a period of time prior to the closure of the frontier in the American West around 1900.   That was a unique time and place in American history that just won't be repeated.<<<

I see what you're getting at in terms of technological advances in recent times being more a reflection of "degree" vs. categorically new inventions.  Nukes and going into outer space / moon might be some of the few exceptions.   Not sure if being a matter of degree makes it seem like an era lasts longer vs. categorical changes serving as distinct nodes to mark the beginning or end of eras?   It's also interesting to look at the advent of the steam engine in the early 1800's as being a truly novel breakthrough that had almost no prior basis for comparison.   An interesting thing I noticed about Gunsmoke is how with the advent of color, it almost instantly became "modern" ... which I think is true for how most film / tv series are perceived.

 

>>>>going into outer space / moon might be some of the few exceptions.

That's one area where there has been very little relative progress in the past few decades.  Shit, we are still relying on 1960s Russian technology to get people up to the international space station.  You look back at the Jetsons and 60s sci-fi view of the future and 50+ years later, while we do have things like have Facetime apps and Star Trek style communicators and computers, we are sorely lacking on the flying cars, moon bases, and all the other futuristic shit we should have had by now.     

The Big Bang Theory is coming to an end.

we are sorely lacking on the flying cars, moon bases, and all the other futuristic shit we should have had by now<<<<

I agree about space exploration in general not really having taken any big leaps in the past few decades, but do believe "flying cars" are looming around the corner ... perhaps in 5-10 years.

I was born just 9 yrs after WW2 ended.    As I was learning of it growing up I always considered it in the far away past. So to answer the original question, I believe that is mostly prospective due to age.   15 yrs at age 6 seem a lot longer than at age 65.  That said, I also believe that changing technology has a lot to do with that perspective.  But I think more the age of the perceiver. At 11 yrs old, 20 yrs ago seemed like a very long time. Now? Recent past. 

 

On a side note, I listen to Classic Radio on XM.  Many of the science fiction shows of the 40's and 50's  had us roaming the universe by the 80's. 

 

 

People can travel in space if they want. I think people are volunteering. 

Crazy people with time for long trips. 

Interesting discussion if it’s “ safer” I think the murder rate is only one metric that could be applied

What’s the data on sexual assault and rape and other human to human crime

Course there can be no metric because that stuff never used to be known or reported

 

slacker .   let it go

You’re twisting your brain up into an unsolvable riddle

I’m sure you your wife and your son are awesome and are living life and experiencing life

 

But it’s both pointless and impossible to compare

that being said I’m glad I grew up when I did , where i did , and with whom I did

My brother in Biloxi Mississippi registering. black voters in 1964. On the freedom ride from Harvard University

for my mom being an activist- having a black student from East Palo Alto living in our house so he could go to Palo Alto high school and protesting the Vietnam War (  and having the FBI taking photos of us for doing so )

 

it was just a different time and place (Including the birth of the motherfucking grateful dead)

respect the past and enjoy the life you’re living

>>>let it go

 

What are you holding? 

Hope for you????

I was born just 9 yrs after WW2 ended.    As I was learning of it growing up I always considered it in the far away past. So to answer the original question, I believe that is mostly prospective due to age.   15 yrs at age 6 seem a lot longer than at age 65.  That said, I also believe that changing technology has a lot to do with that perspective.  But I think more the age of the perceiver. At 11 yrs old, 20 yrs ago seemed like a very long time. Now? Recent past. <<<<

I think you've identified what is likely the most significant factor re: perception.  I'm always fascinated as to how the first day of a newborn's life is essentially "infinite" (for all he or she knows) until one sleeps at least once or twice. 

On the other side of the equation, my dad was born in 1939 and is almost 80.  He's now acquired a perspective that allows him to "internalize" what an 80 year life span entails; allowing him to at least formulate an estimation of sorts in regard to assessing (in a relational sort of way) a lifespan of the same length that started 80 years prior to his birth 1859.

On a side note, I listen to Classic Radio on XM.  Many of the science fiction shows of the 40's and 50's  had us roaming the universe by the 80's<<<

Yeah, I'll bet most of those shows are also on the Old Time Radio app too!

Bump for coach slacker