Those were great days. You could ride your bike everywhere, even down alleys. It was a very safe world. Everyone on the block knew you. We always said hi to the seniors sitting on their front porch. My idol was Annette. The Mickey Mouse club and Lassie were my favorite show. I also loved the Lennon sisters. I sure do miss those days when people were kind and cared about each other. 😥
Except for the constant cold war threat of nuclear annihilation. Duck and cover and fall out shelters. Cuba missile crisis . Conalrad signal on the radio and TV-- was this a test or the real thing? We definitely had more stress than kids today. We were told the world could end any minute.
@Pamela Donnelson The life 1950s kids had may have been better than the life kids have today, but is the life kids in the Medieval Era had better than the life kids have today?
My mother redeemed 2 books of stamps for a stag antler handle German hunting knife for my 10th birthday. I used it for Boy Scouts and later as a young adult on wilderness trips. A few years back I left it at a knife shop to be cleaned and sharpened. When I went in to pick it up, they had to ask the owner where it was. He came out and asked for a photo ID. After shaking my hand, he smiled and told me it was in the safe. He said he wasn’t going to leave a $500 knife where anyone could get it. That knife is much more priceless than its monetary value.
My mom and pop bought me craftsman tools for my 16 Bday 1967. After all these years the ratchet gutty works wore out. Took it to Sears to see if they could rebuild it, they offered a replacement, turned them down. They rebuilt it and it still is in my Tool box.
@@cathleenhunzeker1344 I live in the free state of Tennessee and it's perfectly legal for kids to have and carry knives- just not at school like we used to do when I was a kid.
Good video. When I was a kid I had a paper route of 81 customers. The part that I remember most was in the cold dark winter months and my mom would show up on my paper route with hot chocolate. She was just checking on us to make sure we were ok and staying warm. My mom was the greatest. I also had a duck tail flat top about the time I became a teenager. I think it cost about 50 cents. Also played a lot of cowboys and Indians. That’s the way it was then.You couldn’t do that today without being called a racist A lot has changed since those days.
I had a Paper route I think in 69 or 70. I had it for about month because hardly no one came to the door when I went to collect. Then after all of that, the Wash. Post manager of my route tried to cheat me. My mother caught the cheat made him pay me, told him off and pretty much kicked him out of the house. I then quit. I didn't like the job anyway. I remember my father getting up at 5am before going to work to help me deliver the papers. Funny how you think back and appreciate stuff people do that didn't have to do.
Paper routes for kids were canceled when a boy was murdered while on his route. The newspaper switched to just adults with cars and you paid for your subscription at the newspaper office instead of paying the paper boys. You now can pay by mail or by direct deposit.
@@glennso47 What most likely happened was people decided that the opinions they disagreed with that were in the news section cut out half the subscribers and the paper died.
Another great video, I watch this with my Mom. 1954 Baby, you really did a good job, she also played Jacks, pic up sticks outside. She said all summer and into the fall you lived outside, and hated it when it was time to come in for the evening.👍❤️
Yes back then it was safe to be outside with your friends until it was almost dark. Nowdays its not safe for kids to play in their own front yards unless mom is out their watching. Very sad..kids are indoors now with video games getting fat. We ran and played and got exercise.
While we boys wouldn't play jacks. That was for girls. We did, however; play pickup sticks, and we built log cabins. This was pre Lagos. We also played Mumbly Peg using our pocket knives which we all carried, even in the 2nd grade.
What is so valuable about videos like this for those of us who grew up in the 50s is that the details of our culture and what we did, saw and how we lived is all preserved on video. With an excellent Narrator to walk us through the pleasant memories of our past that we have forgotten. Thank you Recollection Road Editors for the tireless research done to present the cultural history of the 1950s.
@@jimstoner6884 Jim Stoner, I grew up in State of Washington in the 1950s and there was No segregation in our schools or in Oregon schools or in California schools. Lot of the country did not have segregation, it was an entrenched problem in the South and was gradually corrected by law.America for the past decade has a huge problem of out of control crime in our large cities , homeless people and drug abuse effecting mostly minorities in the inner city. The number of deaths from crime and drug over doses in the last ten years is in the thousands. Times have changed and so have the problems, now we have Covid -19 to deal with.
@@fasx56 Are these videos only for the parts of the country that didn't have segregation? The wonderful 50s for those of you were in the right place? And stop listening to right wing propaganda. Violent crime has gone down by half in the last 30 years. I tried to link you to articles and FBI reports that confirm that but it wouldn't post. You can find the truth about that yourself if you want to.
@@fasx56 There was indeed segregation in California in those times, very strict covenants in most neighborhoods. Segregation was not just "gradually corrected by law." Integration was FOUGHT FOR by brave people, some of whom gave their lives for that cause. Every right we enjoy today was fought for, not just granted.
Wonderful memories. The pix remind me of my childhood, preserved. I tend to ignore the trollers, winers, and the rest of the agenda-driven who can always be counted upon to decry the childhoods of the rest of us. Thanks for a positive album of memories.
I have heard stories about my grandma's sewing. She made most of the family's clothes well into the 1970s. She kept up with all of the latest trends and the clothes she made blended right in with what everyone else was wearing.
@@jenniechurch5337 Well, yes, the 50s had many great qualities. However, if you were a woman back then, you were often denied credit simply because you were a woman, if both you and your husband were working, only HIS income would be counted when determining eligibility for a loan or other credit, you would only be hired for "women's jobs" -- nurses, secretaries, receptionists, waitresses, etc. AND you would be paid much less than men for the exact same work. You would be routinely passed up for promotion in favor of less qualified men -- simply because you were a woman. There was a lot more unfair discrimination in those days, based on gender, race, religious affiliation, where you lived -- a lot of prejudice and broad-brush painting. I am thankful we now have laws on the books that prohibit much of that, but it's just too bad that legislation was required to force fairness. Fairness should be practiced of one's own volition, because it's the right thing to do, the right way to treat people. It shouldn't have required laws to be passed, but it did.
@@jenniechurch5337 That's because those equal employment opportunity laws don't get properly enforced. Employers determined to unfairly discriminate find ways of skirting around them. Ultimately, fairness has to come from the moral conscience of the individual. A victim of discrimination can sue, of course, and quite often can win. But bias against women in the workplace persists because most women can't afford to bring a lawsuit, and the bosses know it. It's totally unjust, and the laws on the books are often ineffective due to poor enforcement, but at least those protective laws exist. They're still better than nothing at all. Also, gender discrimination -- or any other form of illegal and immoral discrimination -- is hard to prove. The employer almost has to come out and openly admit that that's why they've refused to hire or promote a qualified candidate or employee. Without a confession, discrimination is very difficult to prove, and that needs to change, too. Victims of it shouldn't have to jump through so many hoops to get these laws enforced, especially when it's so obvious they're being discriminated against. And that's why, to this day, women are still paid less than men for the exact same work -- because employers get around these laws and aren't held accountable. Still, there's less discrimination in the workplace than there once was, because some victims have won lawsuits against it -- the EEOC and the courts have done some enforcement -- and the employers are on notice that they can be forced to right the wrong if they refuse to do so of their own volition. And for some, it's enough to deter them from illegally discriminating in the first place Other employers act according to good conscience and good business and truly value good employees and respect and recognize legitimate qualifications. Those precious few base their workplace decisions on what's actually important, and would do so even if the fair chance laws didn't exist. It's just too bad they all don't do that. Imperfect world = imperfect justice.
I was born in 2008 and I am a victim of the evil society I’m growing up in. Constant cell phoning in times when we’re supposed to be living, everybody around me disrespecting God, no respect for people, dangerous men everywhere you go making it so we can’t play outside alone.. it makes me miss something that I never had. You’re lucky that you grew up in such a great era - I envy you.
I was born in 1950, and all of this is very familiar to us.. what is real important is that the family had no money.. in fact for the first 8 years of my life we didn't even have a bathroom, or even running water! So, you couldn't wake up in the morning , have your morning coffee, and enjoy the day. It was survival. We finally had an outhouse (to use) that our father built himself in 1955. If this happened today, our parents might be hauled off to prison! But! Commonplace in the mid-fifties!
Lots of out houses still around in the 50s and 60s and 70s. My grandmother had an outhouse and most of her neighbors. They were out in the sticks, no plumbing. Just electricity. The burned there own trash and got water from a well. All her kids were able to move away 1 by 1 and make it on there own. In the late 60s she left the house to move in with her son who had moved to another state. She had 5 kids. all but 1 left the state and all did ok.
Yep been there. I often wonder how females could do "it"! Boys don't much care but girls need their privacy. Outhouse. had to deal with the weather too. I mean IF you gotta go you gotta go! Even if there was a blizzard outside.
@@onecoolcat2478 Things started to get bad shortly before you were born. It began with the Vietnam war and kept getting worse, especially if you lived in certain areas. Glad you have good memories.
Born in 1949 & couldn’t agree more. My dad owned a Western Auto and I remember those Christmas’s so fondly. Lots of hard work setting up the displays and the disappointment of seeing the bike or toy I wanted sold.
Grew up in Manhattan. I recall the knife sharpner man walking with his grinder. My mom or I would go down stairs and he would set up shop outside our apartment building.
I grew up in a city also and we had the guy who sharpened knives and scissors and collected rags (and old umbrellas?) who would walk the streets. We also had the guys who would drive up the street in pickup trucks who sold produce and would call out "Veg-ta-BLES!" No one else ever drove pick up trucks.
This is exactly how I grew up. I remember licking the gold bond stamps, the fuller brush man, borrowing milk, the polio shot and the kids at school who had polio and wore metal braces. I loved the weekly reader. I played cowboys and Indians but I also played war with one side the Germans and Japanese and the other the Americans. I was born in 1951
Girls played kick the can too and we also smashed them with our feet which would wrap around the shoe and then we’d scrap them on the cement to make a loud scratching noise when we walked.
OMG, this was our world. I still have a scar on my arm from polio vaccine. There was a bell hung outside the back door for my mom to ring for us to come home. She could tell where you had been & who you were with by the mud on your sneakers or stain on your shirt, just like Sherlock Holmes.We had a chalkboard in the mud room with our chores for the week posted. Our allowance was determined by how well you did on that chart. Thank you for a good flashback.
Oh yeah, we had chores because everyone in the family cooperated for the benefit of the home. My grandchildren never heard of "chores" nor "respect your elders".
I would run to the town hobby shop the minute I got my 25 cent weekly allowance. I would buy a balsa wood airplane kit. BUT I had to wait a week to put it together. I had to wait for my next 25 cent weekly allowance to have the 10 cents to pay for a tube of glue.
Wonderful video. Brought back many pleasant memories. Yes, we kids did spend the majority of our time outside. No bike helmets, no shin or elbow guards. Lots of bruises & skinned knees & elbows. Guess what? We survived !
Each child had a US Govt. savings bond book, we might save .25 cents a week, This taught us the value of money and how to save. Also, fountain pens and ink wells were still used when I was young, you had to pass penmanship to earn the gift of a ballpoint pen from the teacher. Our teachers new and loved each one of us.
I grew up on the Mickey Mouse Club reruns on The Disney Channel in the 80s. I loved Annette and Cheryl the best. But more than that show, I loved Zorro. Still watch it! Guy Williams was so, so perfect in it!
At Woolworths you could get an ice-cream soda for 20 cents. Mom would send me to the corner Mom and Pop store for a qt. of milk and a loaf of bread (.25 and .10) Meat under $1.00 a pound was ordinary.
I'd completely forgotten about the Weekly Reader. We were also given National Geographic books to thumb through. Of course, I remember looking at pictures nearly naked indigenous people, amazed that I was allowed to do so. It felt slightly naughty at the time but I realize now that it broadened my horizons, teaching me about other cultures.
I think Raleigh cigarettes came with a stamp/coupon that you would collect , put in a book and redeem for some cheapo gifts. You could give yourself cancer in like two weeks if you were serious about collecting a large quantity of stamps.
Everything you showed was a poor kid's dream in the 50s. I didn't get to go shopping and pick out their favorite toy because there was no money for it. But they still found a lot of things to do cuz they did play outside and we love the summer because you can stay out real late
I was born in the '50's and remember going to the barber shop for a crew cut for 75 cents and then going to a small "end store" as we called it because it was located at the end of a string of stores! I would buy a 10 cent coke, 3 jaw breaker candies for a penny, and two loaves of Polly Anne white bread for Mom for 25 cents! Ah yes, this was in 1965!
I remember my mom buying many sewing patterns for the cute dresses and pants she made. I also remember the penny candies and cookies which are very hard to find now.
As I said to a cousin of mine about ten years ago- " I say nuts to the grandeur that was Greece and the glory that was Rome. We were born here at the middle of the American Century."
Growing up in the 1970s and 80s I experienced a lot of this, or have known about it. It was a better way, if you ask me. People knew their neighbors and weren't tracked by big corporations and governments everywhere they went. It was a homogenous society. If a kid took toy guns to a movie theater like that today, just about everyone would flip out.
There was also very little integration between the races. I didn't speak with a black kid until I went to college. We were pretty good friends but his pals told him not to befriend a white person, so he ignored me.There were no Mexican restaurants except in southern Texas. Chinese stayed in Chinatown. Most cities of any size had one. There were no other than white kids in the elementary schools. No one complained. We loved Joe Louis and Nat King Cole a few others, but there was very little mixing of the races.
So,I was born in 1963 in New Zealand, but we were so far behind the US that almost everything in this video about the US1950s was stuff we did in the late ‘60s & early ‘70s. We really did’t catch up to the modern world until the advent of cheap airfares in 1984. So strange that so much 1950s America was part of my life in the early1970s.
Great episode...my dad took me to Western Auto to buy a red Western Flyer after I showed him I could ride my neighbor buddy's bike, a very special memory. Rugs came rolled around a bamboo pole, and we would charge down hilly streets like knights of old as in popular movies. Speaking of which local movie house had Saturday matinees for kids, two movies with cartoons between them. Also had silly contests like who could still whistle after eating a few saltine crackers....dry mouth anyone? Kids invented their own amusements, adults not needed...until dinner time or cleaning scraped knees and elbows.
In Italy these things still survive! We bought the vorwek folletto via a door to door salesman, we have kids watching western movies, and the italian breakfast cakes still allow you to glue stamps and collect enough for prizes 😀
Omgosh! I remember everything in this video, except the polio shot. We went and were given a sugar cube with a drop of vaccine in it. Also we had books of "Top Value" stamps and "S&H Greenstamps". Mom saved and saved them and once or twice a year went to the redemption center to pick out something for the house or for us kids. I miss the 50's and 60's when I was a little kid.
You got the later Sabin oral vaccine, a few years after the Salk vaccine by injection. I had both. Cool picture of Elvis getting his vaccine. They should have shown this during Covid to persuade the "antivaxxers".
I remember Mom and Grandma buying soap powder with a cup and saucer or a washcloth inside of the box as a bonus for buying that brand. The prizes were certainly the influencing factor for which brand they would choose.
I was born i 1944. As a kid my Mom would peel my hands of the book I was reading every Saturday morning and send me out the door to meet up with friends, saying, "be sure and be home when the streetlights come on." A day long Adventure had begun!
I was born in ‘43. My sister worked at A&W, i worked at a local kids amusement park and babysat, dodging an occasional amorous father, from age 11. The most revealing thing either of us wore were short sleeves and Bermuda shorts, but for work we wore petal pushers (invented so they wouldn’t get caught in the bicycle chain.) or jeans rolled up to our mid calves. Our mother worked because she needed to feed us, and provide housing and clothing for us. She was not a single mom. All the kids i knew got their work permits as soon as they turned 15. The war was over, but trickle down didn’t work then, any more than it ever did. My mother had us make two skirts and two blouses in the summer. That was our school wardrobe along with what ever clothes still fit from the last year. No woman ever, wore high heels except for church on Sundays or work in an office, if she was very lucky. We wore hats to church. (I miss hats) Advertisements were just propaganda to convince us to keep up with fantom Joneses who apparently had lots of money to buy stuff they did not need. Much like today. The loss of values fantasy is always pretty funny to me. Sure, there were fantasy “values” like men make enough money so their wife can stay home. All men are created equal unless they are not white and women don’t count unless they are married and mothers, and then only if her husband gave her permission. Men are smart and therefor should make all decisions. Men choose who to marry and women who arn’t wearing an engagement ring by graduation are rejects or fair game if some man didn’t own them. And rape was still a legitimate way for a man to get a wife. Ya. Lots of “values”. Can’t say i miss the ‘50s or its “values”.
My mom purchased Encyclopedia Britannica set for me and my sisters. We used it as a tool to help us complete many class assignments without having to go to the Library and use their set. And every year the book of year was delivered to us by the same salesman!!!!
We couldn't afford it so we either went to the library or borrowed from a kind, more affluent neighbor. Britannica was great. They head famous experts write many of the articles.
I grew up then. I remember Mother ordering our little dresses from the Sears and Roebuck catalog or the JC Penney's catalog. Daddy had the car and Mother did not drive. But she would save her pennies and nickels and several times a year order my sister Jan and I dresses. Sometimes 2 sometimes 3 each. Oh how fun it was to get those dresses. My favorite was a red plaid dress with puff sleeves and a apron-like pinafore. The pinafore had three tulips in different plaids on a snow white apron that tied a BIG bow in the back. As a child I felt so pretty whenever Mother would let me wear it. She would wipe our shoes each night before we went to bed (bedtime was always 8pm) and we would help her gather our school things and put them together so the next morning would not be a mad house trying to find things. It is a habit I still do today when I have an appointment the next day, I ready all my clothes and anything I need to take the night before. Funny how habits one learns as a child carry over into adult (senior) hood. Mother always cooked our breakfast, made sure we brushed our teeth and got us out the door. We lived in Cleveland OH so there was no school bus for us at that time....everyone walked. We had no cafeteria so everyone came home for lunch. We walked (seriously) about 1.5 miles to school, walked home for a hot lunch Mother cooked, walked BACK to school and then BACK home in the afternoon. I lived in Little Italy so coming home was a treat. The smell of the Marinara sauce and the homemade breads and pastries was overwhelming. Everyone had wrought iron fencing and my sis and I would take a stick and swipe it across all those fences ALL the way home. How fun it was to be young. We did not know about Stranger Danger. We did not know about drugs. We really did not know there were bad adults. The only bad people were on Roy Rogers on the TV and Mother would assure us it was just pretend.
I was born in 1953 and dont have a vivid memory of some of this, except what carried over into the 60. My Brothers were older (4 and 8 years) so I was the baby!! LOL.. I got a lot of their "hand me down" things as they grew out of them. Of course, we all grew up in the same house together, so I knew about their life styles and adventures.
I was born in ‘55, and I vividly remember stores being closed every Sunday. That was in keeping with what were called “Blue Laws”, and it wasn’t just on Main St as was said here. It was State wide for ALL places of business.
I remember the polio sugar cube. Not any injection. We stood in line at our public schools to partake. When I had a family and our daughter was going to get the polio vaccine my brother-in-law, a Family Practice Physician told me to have her get the injection first then the oral form later. Safer and better immunity. We all loved cap guns!!
For every set of Britannica's sold, twenty sets of World Book Encyclopedias were sold! Go to any Estate sale of a 90 year-old! My parents splurged for college-oriented Americana's which my sister and I nearly wore-out in school for research, especially in Junior High School. You could get World Books with Green Stamps or partly with Green Stamps, so LOTS of people did. Remember DuMont System TVs? (PAL System?) MUCH sharper and clearer and Hop-A-Long Cassidy Show was on UHF (only) DuMont TV channels. They'd receive normal TV channels or you could get a convertor box. One of our best friend's (my Auntie Joy) had a 35" DuMont TV and it WAS Black & White instead of pale blue and dark grey and rounded corners in 1957!
To Recollection Road, these are great ideas for memories from the 50's, but... lots of these pertained to 'town kids'. Country kids had a whole other way to play and stay busy.
3:25>. My mom's hometown was Mayberry like.Perhaps a little larger. On Sundays, the town was pretty much shut down. The drug store was open for a couple of hours, but that was it. Same thing with a corner mini market gas station. We had blue chip and s & h green stamps. My first bike was a red Schwinn.
*My grandmother got me a 'Red Western Flyer' in '62 and it was 'the coolest thing EVER!' for an 8-yr. boy* ( *She got at least 3 'Pedal Cars' for me when younger...one was was 'Fire Truck' w/a bell in front and real wooden ladders on the sides...a 'Ice Cream' three-wheeler w/a lid that opened and closed on the rear bin...and a 'Car' type pedal* ) *'Gramma' loved me to bits!* *Parents?* *Don't ask...you won't like the answers and neither do I* ____________ ( *Always had 'Lil Bastards' stealing everything I had one time or another...bikes and pedal-cars were a LOT of dollars even then* )
Doctors must return to house calls. It was simple. Call the doctor. Go to see him/her. Pay the fee in cash. It was affordable then. But insurance companies and crooked lawyers destroyed our medical care systems. Shame. Shame. I believe it will return to the old ways, for there will be no insurance companies very soon as well as no financial system.
1962. My doc had one nurse, they did everything. First come first served $5.00. When I was pregnant he said that will be $ 50.00 COD. included all office visits, labs and delivery. 5 years later he took my son's tonsils out. Another 10 bucks. Simple times. He lived well. Malpractice insurance did not eat him up. He probably did not have it or need it. Everyone knew he did his best.
Favorite Mouseketeer was Don Agrati, later went by the name Don Grady and was in My Three Sons TV series. I was 10 y.o. and stood in line for his autograph at Disneyland, when he asked my name I turned red and almost died of embarrassment and awkwardness, I was so enamored
On Saturday morning we’d have breakfast, watch a cartoon, and assemble the neighbourhood gang on our bikes. Our backpacks held a lunch bag, bottle of pop, first aid kit (like all good soldiers), and as many candy bars as we could carry. Then we’d all head off on another all day adventure. Our parents had no idea where we were. We had no idea where we were going. No cell phones or GPS trackers in those days. If you got a puncture you fixed it and carried on. Most days we were back, starving, sunburned and tired, for dinner. Then it was a hot bath, painful scrub behind the ears, black bathtub ring, and fresh pyjamas to get ready for bed. Maybe, if we were good, we’d be allowed to watch TV for an hour. Often didn’t see the end of the program. Woke up the next morning to get ready for church. Chicken or pot roast for big Sunday dinner. Those were definitely the good old days.
I was born in 1946 my father came home from the Navy from serving and fighting in WWII in the South Pacific. Yes drive in movies and drive in food was great. Yes I remembered everything, we bought World Book Encyclopedia they had more pictures and appealed to grade school kids. I watched those shows and I had a cap gun and holster and I was a girl. I loved Annette. Yes the Christmas catalogs was the best thing ever.
I enjoyed all those things, too -- in an era without the internet, without cell phones, without all the overly complicated, user UNfriendly technology we have, today. Automobiles were simpler to operate, though maybe not as safe. I was taught defensive driving early on, as safety behind the wheel was considered the responsibility of every driver. We got along just fine without all the computerized bells and whistles they put on our vehicles today that make them much more expensive to purchase and repair, and much more confusing with user manuals that are well over an inch thick, convoluted and poorly written with ambiguous illustrations, not to mention today's driving laws which have become so many and expressed so vaguely as to be overwhelming and impossible to memorize. Yes, I was warned not to talk to strangers or get into strange cars -- there was crime back then, too, but not on the wholesale scale of today. And if you broke the law, there were REAL consequences. Today, criminals get away with just about everything. I do long for those simpler times. They weren't perfect. I wasn't fond, as an elementary school kid, of getting painful polio shots and boosters, or of having that ridiculous tine test done to determine whether or not I had TB, yet I know we were very fortunate to have dodged the polio bullet and to have that vaccine so that adults and kids no longer had to live in fear of getting it simply because they chose to enjoy a crowded swimming pool on a hot summer day. Compared to today's society and culture, there are a lot positive things that can be remembered about that era. Some negatives, too. Nothing is one-hundred-percent. I was born in 1950. I'm approaching 72, and it boggles my mind that my childhood was that long ago.
Annette Funicello was my idol as I am also Annette. Saturday morning was my favorite part of the week. TV was devoted to kids during that time. All the protagonists were cowboys with honor. Roy Roger's and Dale Evan's, Hopalong Cassidy, Cisco Kid, Lone Ranger, all were heroes helping those in trouble. Too bad it didn't last.
I have the same memories... and my dad also served in the Pacific Theater... the encyclopedia, delicious drive in food, s&h green stamps, tube tvs... remember finding the burnt out tube?... life was slower... someone commented "I don't live I the past, I cherish it !"
I can honestly say I had a great childhood, at the time I didn't know how lucky and happy I was, Thank God for those happy times, today I look around and all I see is a distorted world, I don't know how much longer I'll be around but I feel sorry for the children, my apologies.
Don’t apologize man we had Fun and no computers or cell phones and we had our parents and they listened to us and would explain things to us if we didn’t understand something and we all went to Sunday School And church we had respect for our elders and were polite and had manners and talked correctly! It was Super!
I wish I was born 20years earlier. Just watching how bad things are getting on a daily basis is sad . I appreciate what you said about not realizing how good things really were. So sad for kids these days, no innocence, no childhood. They're exposed to everything by the time they're ten years old.
The other great day was when the flyer for Tab books came. You could choose two or three books for ten cents (the thick books were 25), and a week later a big brown box would arrive in class with everyone's books. Big excitement and a half-hour reading break would follow. Like protein and broccoli for the brain instead of the absolute junk food on the internet.
Yep, I loved Weekly Reader...and it was exciting to get Summer Weekly Reader in the mailbox each week! I may still have one that was about "Middle Aged You in the 21st Century" and it made some pretty accurate predictions that have happened!
@@JOHN----DOE Yeah! I loved ordering books at school too...I always tried to order too many books and my parents would make me choose like 3 or 4 books at a time...and then the day finally arrived at school and we got our new books!!!!! Great times!!!
In the Northeast winter the best Christmas gift was a Flexible Flyer sled. We'd spend the entire day sledding down the big hill by our school. Not a grownup in sight back then. We'd only go home for lunch or dinnertime.
And boy was it dangerous. First, sled down the hill dodging trees on your stomach. Then, sitting. Then, standing. A miracle no one got killed. Such fun.
I grew up in Massachusetts , on a 160 acre farm. I remember having three different Flexible Flyers. The first one was really old. It was on the tall side, and most of the lettering was worn off, but it was rugged. The runners didn't curve back up to the top of the sled, like the next two. One was low and short, and the other was just a low, but longer. There was a hill behind the house, with a rutted, rocky wagon road that went to the top where a number of hay fields were. We would drag our sleds up to the top and slide down. The road must have been somewhere between a quarter and a half mile long. We had a blast. Every so often, because of all the rocks on that road, a runner would break, and I'd sling the sled onto my back and walk to a gas station almost a mile away and have it brazed.
Those days seem so long ago. It was a different world back then. We had a close family and now almost all of them are gone. I'm one of the few ones that's still alive. Time marches on.
@@shirleysmith8072 I'd like to believe that but unfortunately I believe in "Quantum Entanglement of Soul" rather than a specific Deity. If you notice we've discovered a shitpot full of "exo-planets" and this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. yeah it would be nice if things turned out as you believe.
If okay'd neighborhood kids could play in a backyard or the street. Someone's mother calling from the front door or the streetlights turning on was the signal to go home.
Not better, just different. It's the one you know. I'm 71 and yes there was a lot to be grateful for. However, today's youth are just experiencing their lives while forming their own memories. Somehow, I think they'll feel the same as you down the road. We'll never know.
I think it was thanks to Davy Crockett and Danial Boone shows that I fell in love with the mountains and the outdoors. The Lone Ranger taught me right from wrong.
I cherished the values taught by the Lone Ranger so much that I named my son Clayton after Clayton Moore, the actor who portrayed the Lone Ranger. My son is almost 39 now and has an autographed picture of Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels (Tonto) displayed prominently in his home.
Remember when Johnny Horton sang "We fired our muskets and really gave 'em..W-E-L-L" and that was pushing the limits of decency?! Whenever I hear "You can't live in the past", I simply reply "I don't live in the past, I cherish it."
@@ronaldkulas5748 One thing I remember about the Jimmie Dean show on TV is how he would occasionally pick his nose and then look at it. Yes, I remember "Everyone knew it was the end of the line for Big John.....".
I remember all that ,and I feel sad that kids today don’t go outside to play all day long . Now they sit inside watching a screen all day or playing videos on a screen all day
It's not safe for kids to play outside because of predators. I grew up and we played outside. By the time my daughter was 5 or 6 it was the early 80s and around that time Adam Walsh was kidnapped and murdered and it was all over the news. I was scared to have my daughter play beyond my front door with her friends. When my grandkids were little around 5 years ago they played in the front yard with an adult (usually my daughter or me the grandma) constantly watching them play. As a kid we played up and down the street all day long and came in for dinner. I wouldn't want to be a kid now.
It’s sad that the child predators/traffickers/ drug salespeople (as opposed to the Fuller brush salesman) have contributed to this way of like for our kids. To say nothing of the nut jobs who don’t think anything of shooting up any kind of local stores.
@@QueenSnowPea In the book Freakonomics the author show that according to FBI statistics there were more child abductions in the 1950's than in the 2000's. They theorize that the hysteria over this issue is due to the 24 hour news cycle that depending on the national broadcast of local news stories. Back in the 50's if a child was abducted in Texas it was only in the Texas newspapers. s Someone in Illinois didn't feel threatened. Now you hear all of the local stories and it sounds like it's all happening in your 'backyard'. But it isn't. Also, today many of the so-called abductions are due to claims for child custody in divorces.
Thanks!
Those were great days. You could ride your bike everywhere, even down alleys. It was a very safe world. Everyone on the block knew you. We always said hi to the seniors sitting on their front porch. My idol was Annette. The Mickey Mouse club and Lassie were my favorite show. I also loved the Lennon sisters. I sure do miss those days when people were kind and cared about each other. 😥
Spin and Marty!
Yeah, when you left the door of your house unlocked.
When I was 5 or 6, I remember going into my closet and solemnly saying out loud, "I love Annette". It seemed necessary at the time. :-)
@@alandunlap4106 I still say it!
My favorite TV shows were Rocky & Bullwinkle, and The Soupy Sales Show. You could learn a lot from them. Just before those there was The Honeymooners.
We had such a good active life back then much better than the kids have today. It was such an innocent time.
My kids look back on the 80s as a time of innocence! In our nostalgia we forget that the times weren't innocent, we were.
Except for the constant cold war threat of nuclear annihilation. Duck and cover and fall out shelters. Cuba missile crisis . Conalrad signal on the radio and TV-- was this a test or the real thing? We definitely had more stress than kids today. We were told the world could end any minute.
@Pamela Donnelson
The life 1950s kids had may have been better than the life kids have today, but is the life kids in the Medieval Era had better than the life kids have today?
@Pamela Donnelson
Can you please answer my question? I promise we’re not going to get into an argument, if that’s why you ignored my previous reply.
Medieval era…😂
My mother redeemed 2 books of stamps for a stag antler handle German hunting knife for my 10th birthday. I used it for Boy Scouts and later as a young adult on wilderness trips. A few years back I left it at a knife shop to be cleaned and sharpened. When I went in to pick it up, they had to ask the owner where it was. He came out and asked for a photo ID. After shaking my hand, he smiled and told me it was in the safe. He said he wasn’t going to leave a $500 knife where anyone could get it. That knife is much more priceless than its monetary value.
My mom and pop bought me craftsman tools for my 16 Bday 1967. After all these years the ratchet gutty works wore out. Took it to Sears to see if they could rebuild it, they offered a replacement, turned them down. They rebuilt it and it still is in my Tool box.
can you imagine the legal hassle if a mom today gave a 10year old a real knife of any sort ??
They didn't have photo IDs back then.
@@leftylou6070 1955 driver's license in
Nevada did
California did in 1960
@@cathleenhunzeker1344 I live in the free state of Tennessee and it's perfectly legal for kids to have and carry knives- just not at school like we used to do when I was a kid.
Good video. When I was a kid I had a paper route of 81 customers. The part that I remember most was in the cold dark winter months and my mom would show up on my paper route with hot chocolate. She was just checking on us to make sure we were ok and staying warm. My mom was the greatest.
I also had a duck tail flat top about the time I became a teenager. I think it cost about 50 cents.
Also played a lot of cowboys and Indians. That’s the way it was then.You couldn’t do that today without being called a racist A lot has changed since those days.
I had a Paper route I think in 69 or 70. I had it for about month because hardly no one came to the door when I went to collect. Then after all of that, the Wash. Post manager of my route tried to cheat me. My mother caught the cheat made him pay me, told him off and pretty much kicked him out of the house. I then quit. I didn't like the job anyway. I remember my father getting up at 5am before going to work to help me deliver the papers. Funny how you think back and appreciate stuff people do that didn't have to do.
Paper routes for kids were canceled when a boy was murdered while on his route. The newspaper switched to just adults with cars and you paid for your subscription at the newspaper office instead of paying the paper boys. You now can pay by mail or by direct deposit.
@@matrox Yea, trying to collect was difficult. The downside of the job. But learning to beg for money made me into the politician I am today. 😉
@@matrox You quit, because you were a lazy, no good liberal punk, selling "Fake Newspapers"
@@glennso47 What most likely happened was people decided that the opinions they disagreed with that were in the news section cut out half the subscribers and the paper died.
Another great video, I watch this with my Mom. 1954 Baby, you really did a good job, she also played Jacks, pic up sticks outside. She said all summer and into the fall you lived outside, and hated it when it was time to come in for the evening.👍❤️
I'm a 1954 baby too! Oh how I long for those days!
Yes back then it was safe to be outside with your friends until it was almost dark. Nowdays its not safe for kids to play in their own front yards unless mom is out their watching. Very sad..kids are indoors now with video games getting fat. We ran and played and got exercise.
Does anyone remember Betsy McCall from McCall's magazine?
While we boys wouldn't play jacks. That was for girls. We did, however; play pickup sticks, and we built log cabins. This was pre Lagos. We also played Mumbly Peg using our pocket knives which we all carried, even in the 2nd grade.
I grew up in the 80s. This made me cry a little, sad over what we missed but really sad over what today's kids are missing.
What is so valuable about videos like this for those of us who grew up in the 50s is that the details of our culture and what we did, saw and how we lived is all preserved on video. With an excellent Narrator to walk us through the pleasant memories of our past that we have forgotten. Thank you Recollection Road Editors for the tireless research done to present the cultural history of the 1950s.
They seem to have conveniently forgotten the evil segregation the 50s were famous for.
@@jimstoner6884 Jim Stoner, I grew up in State of Washington in the 1950s and there was No segregation in our schools or in Oregon schools or in California schools. Lot of the country did not have segregation, it was an entrenched problem in the South and was gradually corrected by law.America for the past decade has a huge problem of out of control crime in our large cities , homeless people and drug abuse effecting mostly minorities in the inner city. The number of deaths from crime and drug over doses in the last ten years is in the thousands. Times have changed and so have the problems, now we have Covid -19 to deal with.
@@fasx56 Are these videos only for the parts of the country that didn't have segregation? The wonderful 50s for those of you were in the right place?
And stop listening to right wing propaganda. Violent crime has gone down by half in the last 30 years. I tried to link you to articles and FBI reports that confirm that but it wouldn't post. You can find the truth about that yourself if you want to.
@@fasx56 There was indeed segregation in California in those times, very strict covenants in most neighborhoods. Segregation was not just "gradually corrected by law." Integration was FOUGHT FOR by brave people, some of whom gave their lives for that cause. Every right we enjoy today was fought for, not just granted.
Wonderful memories. The pix remind me of my childhood, preserved.
I tend to ignore the trollers, winers, and the rest of the agenda-driven who can always be counted upon to decry the childhoods of the rest of us. Thanks for a positive album of memories.
When the Fuller Brush Man knocked on the door, my little brother would yell, It's the "Full of Brushes Man!!" 😁
That's funny. And even though my mother couldn't afford to buy much.....he'd leave a complimentary brush each and every time.
I have heard stories about my grandma's sewing. She made most of the family's clothes well into the 1970s. She kept up with all of the latest trends and the clothes she made blended right in with what everyone else was wearing.
I was born in 1948 - growing up during the 1950's - great times. Take me back !
The 50s was the best decade in history as far as I'm concerned. It seems like a hundred years ago, but I still have the memories.
I wish I could have grown up in the 50's or to have been a housewife in those times!
@@jenniechurch5337 Well, yes, the 50s had many great qualities. However, if you were a woman back then, you were often denied credit simply because you were a woman, if both you and your husband were working, only HIS income would be counted when determining eligibility for a loan or other credit, you would only be hired for "women's jobs" -- nurses, secretaries, receptionists, waitresses, etc. AND you would be paid much less than men for the exact same work. You would be routinely passed up for promotion in favor of less qualified men -- simply because you were a woman. There was a lot more unfair discrimination in those days, based on gender, race, religious affiliation, where you lived -- a lot of prejudice and broad-brush painting. I am thankful we now have laws on the books that prohibit much of that, but it's just too bad that legislation was required to force fairness. Fairness should be practiced of one's own volition, because it's the right thing to do, the right way to treat people. It shouldn't have required laws to be passed, but it did.
@@jrnfw4060 and still to this day
..men get paid more, for the exact same job! 🙄
@@jenniechurch5337 That's because those equal employment opportunity laws don't get properly enforced. Employers determined to unfairly discriminate find ways of skirting around them.
Ultimately, fairness has to come from the moral conscience of the individual. A victim of discrimination can sue, of course, and quite often can win. But bias against women in the workplace persists because most women can't afford to bring a lawsuit, and the bosses know it. It's totally unjust, and the laws on the books are often ineffective due to poor enforcement, but at least those protective laws exist. They're still better than nothing at all.
Also, gender discrimination -- or any other form of illegal and immoral discrimination -- is hard to prove. The employer almost has to come out and openly admit that that's why they've refused to hire or promote a qualified candidate or employee. Without a confession, discrimination is very difficult to prove, and that needs to change, too. Victims of it shouldn't have to jump through so many hoops to get these laws enforced, especially when it's so obvious they're being discriminated against.
And that's why, to this day, women are still paid less than men for the exact same work -- because employers get around these laws and aren't held accountable.
Still, there's less discrimination in the workplace than there once was, because some victims have won lawsuits against it -- the EEOC and the courts have done some enforcement -- and the employers are on notice that they can be forced to right the wrong if they refuse to do so of their own volition. And for some, it's enough to deter them from illegally discriminating in the first place
Other employers act according to good conscience and good business and truly value good employees and respect and recognize legitimate qualifications. Those precious few base their workplace decisions on what's actually important, and would do so even if the fair chance laws didn't exist. It's just too bad they all don't do that. Imperfect world = imperfect justice.
I was born in 2008 and I am a victim of the evil society I’m growing up in. Constant cell phoning in times when we’re supposed to be living, everybody around me disrespecting God, no respect for people, dangerous men everywhere you go making it so we can’t play outside alone.. it makes me miss something that I never had. You’re lucky that you grew up in such a great era - I envy you.
Good memories of a great life. Thanks.
I was born in 1950, and all of this is very familiar to us.. what is real important is that the family had no money.. in fact for the first 8 years of my life we didn't even have a bathroom, or even running water! So, you couldn't wake up in the morning , have your morning coffee, and enjoy the day. It was survival. We finally had an outhouse (to use) that our father built himself in 1955. If this happened today, our parents might be hauled off to prison! But! Commonplace in the mid-fifties!
Lots of out houses still around in the 50s and 60s and 70s. My grandmother had an outhouse and most of her neighbors. They were out in the sticks, no plumbing. Just electricity. The burned there own trash and got water from a well. All her kids were able to move away 1 by 1 and make it on there own. In the late 60s she left the house to move in with her son who had moved to another state. She had 5 kids. all but 1 left the state and all did ok.
Yep been there. I often wonder how females could do "it"! Boys don't much care but girls need their privacy. Outhouse. had to deal with the weather too. I mean IF you gotta go you gotta go! Even if there was a blizzard outside.
Such great memories. I loved my childhood.
CLEAVER household on Leave It to BEAVER were rich folks to our family...
Yep, anybody who could were her pearls when vacuuming, was rich, lol.
Thanks RR❤
I was born in 1948. I have so many wonderful memories. I feel really bad for children today. They have no idea what they are missing.
I was born in 1948 also. What month were you born? For me June 22 nd. I was also born at 3:25 am.
@@willie6185 January 22nd! It was a Thursday and just before 7:30 pm. It's been ages since I looked at that document. 😊
I'm 52 and SO grateful I was one of the last generations to have an old school childhood. I too feel bad for children these days
@@onecoolcat2478 Things started to get bad shortly before you were born. It began with the Vietnam war and kept getting worse, especially if you lived in certain areas. Glad you have good memories.
Born in 1949 & couldn’t agree more. My dad owned a Western Auto and I remember those Christmas’s so fondly. Lots of hard work setting up the displays and the disappointment of seeing the bike or toy I wanted sold.
Grew up in Manhattan. I recall the knife sharpner man walking with his grinder. My mom or I would go down stairs and he would set up shop outside our apartment building.
I grew up in a city also and we had the guy who sharpened knives and scissors and collected rags (and old umbrellas?) who would walk the streets. We also had the guys who would drive up the street in pickup trucks who sold produce and would call out "Veg-ta-BLES!" No one else ever drove pick up trucks.
Ours had a green trunk and rang a bell. In the suburbs.
This is exactly how I grew up. I remember licking the gold bond stamps, the fuller brush man, borrowing milk, the polio shot and the kids at school who had polio and wore metal braces. I loved the weekly reader. I played cowboys and Indians but I also played war with one side the Germans and Japanese and the other the Americans. I was born in 1951
Girls played kick the can too and we also smashed them with our feet which would wrap around the shoe and then we’d scrap them on the cement to make a loud scratching noise when we walked.
OMG, this was our world. I still have a scar on my arm from polio vaccine. There was a bell hung outside the back door for my mom to ring for us to come home. She could tell where you had been & who you were with by the mud on your sneakers or stain on your shirt, just like Sherlock Holmes.We had a chalkboard in the mud room with our chores for the week posted. Our allowance was determined by how well you did on that chart. Thank you for a good flashback.
Oh yeah, we had chores because everyone in the family cooperated for the benefit of the home. My grandchildren never heard of "chores" nor "respect your elders".
I would run to the town hobby shop the minute I got my 25 cent weekly allowance. I would buy a balsa wood airplane kit. BUT I had to wait a week to put it together. I had to wait for my next 25 cent weekly allowance to have the 10 cents to pay for a tube of glue.
Thanks again for putting a much needed smile on my face :)
My mom had Polio as a child she's 87
Wonderful video. Brought back many pleasant memories. Yes, we kids did spend the majority of our time outside. No bike helmets, no shin or elbow guards. Lots of bruises & skinned knees & elbows. Guess what? We survived !
Hop along Cassidy, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, the Cisco kid, etc were just a few our cowboy heroes.
It is so tragic, the tumult that is happening in Miss Evans's birthplace today.
Each child had a US Govt. savings bond book, we might save .25 cents a week, This taught us the value of money and how to save. Also, fountain pens and ink wells were still used when I was young, you had to pass penmanship to earn the gift of a ballpoint pen from the teacher. Our teachers new and loved each one of us.
Anyone remember the weekly Helms Bakery truck and those incredible smells that wafted out when the back door was opened??
I grew up on the Mickey Mouse Club reruns on The Disney Channel in the 80s. I loved Annette and Cheryl the best. But more than that show, I loved Zorro. Still watch it! Guy Williams was so, so perfect in it!
One of the door-to-door sales companies was Jewel Tea!
Oh yeah, and Charles Chips.
Saturday at the movies..admission was 25 cents. Soda was 12 cents and a box of popcorn cost 15 cents.
At Woolworths you could get an ice-cream soda for 20 cents. Mom would send me to the corner Mom and Pop store for a qt. of milk and a loaf of bread (.25 and .10) Meat under $1.00 a pound was ordinary.
My sister would take two of those tall popcorn cups, knock out the bottoms and wear them like cowboy boots.
I'd completely forgotten about the Weekly Reader. We were also given National Geographic books to thumb through. Of course, I remember looking at pictures nearly naked indigenous people, amazed that I was allowed to do so. It felt slightly naughty at the time but I realize now that it broadened my horizons, teaching me about other cultures.
I never heard of gold bond stamps. We has S&H green stamps.
Same here. S&H Green Stamps were everywhere, and then we also had Plaid Stamps at the A&P Supermarkets.
I think Raleigh cigarettes came with a stamp/coupon that you would collect , put in a book and redeem for some cheapo gifts. You could give yourself cancer in like two weeks if you were serious about collecting a large quantity of stamps.
Love this channel
I remember quite a bit of this.
Everything you showed was a poor kid's dream in the 50s. I didn't get to go shopping and pick out their favorite toy because there was no money for it. But they still found a lot of things to do cuz they did play outside and we love the summer because you can stay out real late
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES
I was Born 1943 and remember most of this. Thanks for the Memories.
Now the only exercise kids do is scroll their cell phones
Games we played outside: Red Rover, Crack the Whip, Flying Dutchmen, & King of the Mountain. & we girls played Kick the Can too!
MY PERSONAL FAVORITE...THE "A&W ROOT BEER STAND"❣️🤗
I was born in the '50's and remember going to the barber shop for a crew cut for 75 cents and then going to a small "end store" as we called it because it was located at the end of a string of stores! I would buy a 10 cent coke, 3 jaw breaker candies for a penny, and two loaves of Polly Anne white bread for Mom for 25 cents!
Ah yes, this was in 1965!
I remember my mom buying many sewing patterns for the cute dresses and pants she made. I also remember the penny candies and cookies which are very hard to find now.
As I said to a cousin of mine about ten years ago- " I say nuts to the grandeur that was Greece and the glory that was Rome. We were born here at the middle of the American Century."
Makes me nostalgic for a time I never knew. I was definitely born in the wrong era :(
I would love to travel back in time then stay there.
I wish I was born during that time, everything seemed much more simple
Growing up in the 1970s and 80s I experienced a lot of this, or have known about it. It was a better way, if you ask me. People knew their neighbors and weren't tracked by big corporations and governments everywhere they went. It was a homogenous society. If a kid took toy guns to a movie theater like that today, just about everyone would flip out.
There was also very little integration between the races. I didn't speak with a black kid until I went to college. We were pretty good friends but his pals told him not to befriend a white person, so he ignored me.There were no Mexican restaurants except in southern Texas. Chinese stayed in Chinatown. Most cities of any size had one. There were no other than white kids in the elementary schools. No one complained. We loved Joe Louis and Nat King Cole a few others, but there was very little mixing of the races.
I had a heavy metal cap pistol that looked like a real revolver. You wouldn't want to carry it today.
Mom sewed our clothes, knitted sweaters………. I loved growing up then. Glad I’m old
So,I was born in 1963 in New Zealand, but we were so far behind the US that almost everything in this video about the US1950s was stuff we did in the late ‘60s & early ‘70s. We really did’t catch up to the modern world until the advent of cheap airfares in 1984. So strange that so much 1950s America was part of my life in the early1970s.
Great 👍 video thanks man appreciate so much I miss those days
Great episode...my dad took me to Western Auto to buy a red Western Flyer after I showed him I could ride my neighbor buddy's bike, a very special memory. Rugs came rolled around a bamboo pole, and we would charge down hilly streets like knights of old as in popular movies.
Speaking of which local movie house had Saturday matinees for kids, two movies with cartoons between them. Also had silly contests like who could still whistle after eating a few saltine crackers....dry mouth anyone?
Kids invented their own amusements, adults not needed...until dinner time or cleaning scraped knees and elbows.
In Italy these things still survive! We bought the vorwek folletto via a door to door salesman, we have kids watching western movies, and the italian breakfast cakes still allow you to glue stamps and collect enough for prizes 😀
Omgosh! I remember everything in this video, except the polio shot. We went and were given a sugar cube with a drop of vaccine in it. Also we had books of "Top Value" stamps and "S&H Greenstamps". Mom saved and saved them and once or twice a year went to the redemption center to pick out something for the house or for us kids. I miss the 50's and 60's when I was a little kid.
You got the later Sabin oral vaccine, a few years after the Salk vaccine by injection. I had both. Cool picture of Elvis getting his vaccine. They should have shown this during Covid to persuade the "antivaxxers".
I remember Mom and Grandma buying soap powder with a cup and saucer or a washcloth inside of the box as a bonus for buying that brand. The prizes were certainly the influencing factor for which brand they would choose.
I was born i 1944. As a kid my Mom would peel my hands of the book I was reading every Saturday morning and send me out the door to meet up with friends, saying, "be sure and be home when the streetlights come on." A day long Adventure had begun!
I was born in ‘43. My sister worked at A&W, i worked at a local kids amusement park and babysat, dodging an occasional amorous father, from age 11. The most revealing thing either of us wore were short sleeves and Bermuda shorts, but for work we wore petal pushers (invented so they wouldn’t get caught in the bicycle chain.) or jeans rolled up to our mid calves. Our mother worked because she needed to feed us, and provide housing and clothing for us. She was not a single mom.
All the kids i knew got their work permits as soon as they turned 15. The war was over, but trickle down didn’t work then, any more than it ever did. My mother had us make two skirts and two blouses in the summer. That was our school wardrobe along with what ever clothes still fit from the last year. No woman ever, wore high heels except for church on Sundays or work in an office, if she was very lucky. We wore hats to church. (I miss hats)
Advertisements were just propaganda to convince us to keep up with fantom Joneses who apparently had lots of money to buy stuff they did not need. Much like today.
The loss of values fantasy is always pretty funny to me. Sure, there were fantasy “values” like men make enough money so their wife can stay home. All men are created equal unless they are not white and women don’t count unless they are married and mothers, and then only if her husband gave her permission. Men are smart and therefor should make all decisions. Men choose who to marry and women who arn’t wearing an engagement ring by graduation are rejects or fair game if some man didn’t own them. And rape was still a legitimate way for a man to get a wife. Ya. Lots of “values”. Can’t say i miss the ‘50s or its “values”.
My mom purchased Encyclopedia Britannica set for me and my sisters. We used it as a tool to help us complete many class assignments without having to go to the Library and use their set. And every year the book of year was delivered to us by the same salesman!!!!
We couldn't afford it so we either went to the library or borrowed from a kind, more affluent neighbor. Britannica was great. They head famous experts write many of the articles.
I grew up then. I remember Mother ordering our little dresses from the Sears and Roebuck catalog or the JC Penney's catalog. Daddy had the car and Mother did not drive. But she would save her pennies and nickels and several times a year order my sister Jan and I dresses. Sometimes 2 sometimes 3 each. Oh how fun it was to get those dresses. My favorite was a red plaid dress with puff sleeves and a apron-like pinafore. The pinafore had three tulips in different plaids on a snow white apron that tied a BIG bow in the back. As a child I felt so pretty whenever Mother would let me wear it. She would wipe our shoes each night before we went to bed (bedtime was always 8pm) and we would help her gather our school things and put them together so the next morning would not be a mad house trying to find things. It is a habit I still do today when I have an appointment the next day, I ready all my clothes and anything I need to take the night before. Funny how habits one learns as a child carry over into adult (senior) hood. Mother always cooked our breakfast, made sure we brushed our teeth and got us out the door. We lived in Cleveland OH so there was no school bus for us at that time....everyone walked. We had no cafeteria so everyone came home for lunch. We walked (seriously) about 1.5 miles to school, walked home for a hot lunch Mother cooked, walked BACK to school and then BACK home in the afternoon. I lived in Little Italy so coming home was a treat. The smell of the Marinara sauce and the homemade breads and pastries was overwhelming. Everyone had wrought iron fencing and my sis and I would take a stick and swipe it across all those fences ALL the way home. How fun it was to be young. We did not know about Stranger Danger. We did not know about drugs. We really did not know there were bad adults. The only bad people were on Roy Rogers on the TV and Mother would assure us it was just pretend.
I am 69 today and I remember the 50's like it was yesterday.
Cool, I read weekly Reader in the 5 th grade in 1985 😀
I was born in 1953 and dont have a vivid memory of some of this, except what carried over into the 60. My Brothers were older (4 and 8 years) so I was the baby!! LOL.. I got a lot of their "hand me down" things as they grew out of them. Of course, we all grew up in the same house together, so I knew about their life styles and adventures.
I was born in ‘55, and I vividly remember stores being closed every Sunday. That was in keeping with what were called “Blue Laws”, and it wasn’t just on Main St as was said here. It was State wide for ALL places of business.
I remember the polio sugar cube. Not any injection. We stood in line at our public schools to partake. When I had a family and our daughter was going to get the polio vaccine my brother-in-law, a Family Practice Physician told me to have her get the injection first then the oral form later. Safer and better immunity. We all loved cap guns!!
Bobby Burgess (Bobby from Mouseketeers) is still is active in dancing and teaches at his own dance studio.
back when I was a kid during the summer holidays I very rarely wore shoes, the bottoms of our feel were like thick leather in strength.
Cheers.
For every set of Britannica's sold, twenty sets of World Book Encyclopedias were sold! Go to any Estate sale of a 90 year-old! My parents splurged for college-oriented Americana's which my sister and I nearly wore-out in school for research, especially in Junior High School. You could get World Books with Green Stamps or partly with Green Stamps, so LOTS of people did. Remember DuMont System TVs? (PAL System?) MUCH sharper and clearer and Hop-A-Long Cassidy Show was on UHF (only) DuMont TV channels. They'd receive normal TV channels or you could get a convertor box. One of our best friend's (my Auntie Joy) had a 35" DuMont TV and it WAS Black & White instead of pale blue and dark grey and rounded corners in 1957!
A lot of outdoors playtime and very few overweight kids, unlike the youth of today!
Overweight kids today has everything to do with what they are being fed...the high carb Standard American Diet (SAD).
To Recollection Road, these are great ideas for memories from the 50's, but... lots of these pertained to 'town kids'. Country kids had a whole other way to play and stay busy.
learned to sew at 13 made alot of my jumpers / shirts farmer jeans won 2nd place outta 12
3:25>. My mom's hometown was Mayberry like.Perhaps a little larger. On Sundays, the town was pretty much shut down. The drug store was open for a couple of hours, but that was it. Same thing with a corner mini market gas station. We had blue chip and s & h green stamps. My first bike was a red Schwinn.
Before my time, but it looks like a nice decade to have grown up in.
*My grandmother got me a 'Red Western Flyer' in '62 and it was 'the coolest thing EVER!' for an 8-yr. boy*
( *She got at least 3 'Pedal Cars' for me when younger...one was was 'Fire Truck' w/a bell in front and real wooden ladders on the sides...a 'Ice Cream' three-wheeler w/a lid that opened and closed on the rear bin...and a 'Car' type pedal* )
*'Gramma' loved me to bits!*
*Parents?* *Don't ask...you won't like the answers and neither do I*
____________
( *Always had 'Lil Bastards' stealing everything I had one time or another...bikes and pedal-cars were a LOT of dollars even then* )
I went to the 1950s for vacation
it was pretty cool
I remember all of these things.
At that time nobody was thinking about cancer, skin cancer and all was smooth.
When I look your video I agree that the 50-ies vhere super
Class of ‘53 here! Some of these I actually forgot about so it was kind of sad when I saw them. So many little things I took for granted back then. 🥲
Doctors must return to house calls. It was simple. Call the doctor. Go to see him/her. Pay the fee in cash. It was affordable then. But insurance companies and crooked lawyers destroyed our medical care systems. Shame. Shame.
I believe it will return to the old ways, for there will be no insurance companies very soon as well as no financial system.
1962. My doc had one nurse, they did everything. First come first served $5.00. When I was pregnant he said that will be $ 50.00 COD. included all office visits, labs and delivery. 5 years later he took my son's tonsils out. Another 10 bucks. Simple times. He lived well. Malpractice insurance did not eat him up. He probably did not have it or need it. Everyone knew he did his best.
Remember the one room school? The engineers don't wave from the trains anymore, not like they did back in 1954
One kid means of transportation you missed was the pedal car.
Favorite Mouseketeer was Don Agrati, later went by the name Don Grady and was in My Three Sons TV series. I was 10 y.o. and stood in line for his autograph at Disneyland, when he asked my name I turned red and almost died of embarrassment and awkwardness, I was so enamored
On Saturday morning we’d have breakfast, watch a cartoon, and assemble the neighbourhood gang on our bikes. Our backpacks held a lunch bag, bottle of pop, first aid kit (like all good soldiers), and as many candy bars as we could carry. Then we’d all head off on another all day adventure. Our parents had no idea where we were. We had no idea where we were going. No cell phones or GPS trackers in those days. If you got a puncture you fixed it and carried on. Most days we were back, starving, sunburned and tired, for dinner. Then it was a hot bath, painful scrub behind the ears, black bathtub ring, and fresh pyjamas to get ready for bed. Maybe, if we were good, we’d be allowed to watch TV for an hour. Often didn’t see the end of the program. Woke up the next morning to get ready for church. Chicken or pot roast for big Sunday dinner. Those were definitely the good old days.
GREAT OLD DAYS! IM 76 NOW IN 2023,AND IF I COULD GO BACK TO THE 50’S AND 60’S I WOULD STAY THERE! NOW THE WORLD IS A COMPLETE DISASTER.
Simpliar times, better times!
We did all this in the 60s to
He always gave us kids a free comb
My departed father sold Fuller Brushes and sold dishes as well.
Oh Yeah departed Mom bought my first set of tools and wrenches as I went off to college using Stamps!
I was born in 1946 my father came home from the Navy from serving and fighting in WWII in the South Pacific. Yes drive in movies and drive in food was great. Yes I remembered everything, we bought World Book Encyclopedia they had more pictures and appealed to grade school kids. I watched those shows and I had a cap gun and holster and I was a girl. I loved Annette. Yes the Christmas catalogs was the best thing ever.
I enjoyed all those things, too -- in an era without the internet, without cell phones, without all the overly complicated, user UNfriendly technology we have, today.
Automobiles were simpler to operate, though maybe not as safe. I was taught defensive driving early on, as safety behind the wheel was considered the responsibility of every driver. We got along just fine without all the computerized bells and whistles they put on our vehicles today that make them much more expensive to purchase and repair, and much more confusing with user manuals that are well over an inch thick, convoluted and poorly written with ambiguous illustrations, not to mention today's driving laws which have become so many and expressed so vaguely as to be overwhelming and impossible to memorize.
Yes, I was warned not to talk to strangers or get into strange cars -- there was crime back then, too, but not on the wholesale scale of today. And if you broke the law, there were REAL consequences. Today, criminals get away with just about everything.
I do long for those simpler times. They weren't perfect. I wasn't fond, as an elementary school kid, of getting painful polio shots and boosters, or of having that ridiculous tine test done to determine whether or not I had TB, yet I know we were very fortunate to have dodged the polio bullet and to have that vaccine so that adults and kids no longer had to live in fear of getting it simply because they chose to enjoy a crowded swimming pool on a hot summer day.
Compared to today's society and culture, there are a lot positive things that can be remembered about that era. Some negatives, too. Nothing is one-hundred-percent.
I was born in 1950. I'm approaching 72, and it boggles my mind that my childhood was that long ago.
Annette Funicello was my idol as I am also Annette. Saturday morning was my favorite part of the week. TV was devoted to kids during that time. All the protagonists were cowboys with honor. Roy Roger's and Dale Evan's, Hopalong Cassidy, Cisco Kid, Lone Ranger, all were heroes helping those in trouble. Too bad it didn't last.
@@annettepora8091 Yes I watched all the same shows, the good guys always won and they were the heroes. They were great times to grow up in.
I have the same memories... and my dad also served in the Pacific Theater... the encyclopedia, delicious drive in food, s&h green stamps, tube tvs... remember finding the burnt out tube?... life was slower... someone commented "I don't live I the past, I cherish it !"
How about show «”Annie Oakley” ?
I can honestly say I had a great childhood, at the time I didn't know how lucky and happy I was, Thank God for those happy times, today I look around and all I see is a distorted world, I don't know how much longer I'll be around but I feel sorry for the children, my apologies.
Don’t apologize man we had Fun and no computers or cell phones and we had our parents and they listened to us and would explain things to us if we didn’t understand something and we all went to Sunday School And church we had respect for our elders and were polite and had manners and talked correctly! It was Super!
Yes, the world has gone rapidly downhill. Crazy evil times now.
I wish I was born 20years earlier. Just watching how bad things are getting on a daily basis is sad . I appreciate what you said about not realizing how good things really were. So sad for kids these days, no innocence, no childhood. They're exposed to everything by the time they're ten years old.
@@jefftuttrup2596 Try earlier than 10 they’re Brats fast in Oregon!
I agree Lucca. I was an Air Force child. I had a safe and happy childhood all over the US and Europe. treasured memories
As a sixties kid, I loved Weekly Reader day!
I'm a '70s kid, and I also loved the Weekly Reader; I was glad when my parents let me subscribe to it and have it delivered to our home.
The other great day was when the flyer for Tab books came. You could choose two or three books for ten cents (the thick books were 25), and a week later a big brown box would arrive in class with everyone's books. Big excitement and a half-hour reading break would follow. Like protein and broccoli for the brain instead of the absolute junk food on the internet.
Yep, I loved Weekly Reader...and it was exciting to get Summer Weekly Reader in the mailbox each week! I may still have one that was about "Middle Aged You in the 21st Century" and it made some pretty accurate predictions that have happened!
@@BrodyJoeandBriars Wow!
@@JOHN----DOE Yeah! I loved ordering books at school too...I always tried to order too many books and my parents would make me choose like 3 or 4 books at a time...and then the day finally arrived at school and we got our new books!!!!! Great times!!!
Brings back many good memories. I'd do it all over again.
In a heart beat. For me.
@@Bigskyguy56 Same here
It brings back many good memories too but I would not do it over again for any amount of money.
@@dlb4299 I was born in 1941.
Me too
Oh, my goodness, the little girl saluting the flag looks just like I did back then! This part actually made me a little teary. Good job!
the age of innocence, Marquita. I didn't even know what a Vagina was until I was around 14yo. today we're having kids at that age.
My 85+ Dad still watches Gunsmoke everyday lol
Awesome 👌🏼
I am 70 and "Gunsmoke" is a t.v. life saver!
Matt Dillon would kill a guy in the opening credits every week. !!!
Me too!
I'm much younger than eighty five and i watch 'my little margie' every chance i get. Love it....
In the Northeast winter the best Christmas gift was a Flexible Flyer sled. We'd spend the entire day sledding down the big hill by our school. Not a grownup in sight back then. We'd only go home for lunch or dinnertime.
Amen! those were the days!
Amen, indeed!
Where I lived they closed off some streets.
And boy was it dangerous. First, sled down the hill dodging trees on your stomach. Then, sitting. Then, standing. A miracle no one got killed. Such fun.
I grew up in Massachusetts , on a 160 acre farm. I remember having three different Flexible Flyers. The first one was really old. It was on the tall side, and most of the lettering was worn off, but it was rugged. The runners didn't curve back up to the top of the sled, like the next two. One was low and short, and the other was just a low, but longer. There was a hill behind the house, with a rutted, rocky wagon road that went to the top where a number of hay fields were. We would drag our sleds up to the top and slide down. The road must have been somewhere between a quarter and a half mile long. We had a blast. Every so often, because of all the rocks on that road, a runner would break, and I'd sling the sled onto my back and walk to a gas station almost a mile away and have it brazed.
Those days seem so long ago. It was a different world back then. We had a close family and now almost all of them are gone. I'm one of the few ones that's still alive. Time marches on.
Sad but true those days are gone.
I am also, and i want to live.
We will see Our Loved Ones Again in Paradise!😇😇😇😇😇💖💞💖
@@shirleysmith8072 I highly doubt it.
@@shirleysmith8072 I'd like to believe that but unfortunately I believe in "Quantum Entanglement of Soul" rather than a specific Deity. If you notice we've discovered a shitpot full of "exo-planets" and this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. yeah it would be nice if things turned out as you believe.
If okay'd neighborhood kids could play in a backyard or the street. Someone's mother calling from the front door or the streetlights turning on was the signal to go home.
Born in 1950, this was a trip back in time. Thank You
I was born in 195o and remember the Christmas wish book from Sears store.and transto radio s i had one.
Same here👍😁🙏🏼WOW! MEMORY LANE.
I have tears streaming down my face...how I miss those times. Not always good, but better than today for sure. What I wouldn't give to go back....
my parents told me 50s 60s are the best years of your life.dont waste them you're never get them back...
Not better, just different. It's the one you know. I'm 71 and yes there was a lot to be grateful for. However, today's youth are just experiencing their lives while forming their own memories. Somehow, I think they'll feel the same as you down the road. We'll never know.
I doubt it.@@bobbyd6680
I think it was thanks to Davy Crockett and Danial Boone shows that I fell in love with the mountains and the outdoors. The Lone Ranger taught me right from wrong.
"I don't know his name, but he gave me this" (a silver bullet)
I cherished the values taught by the Lone Ranger so much that I named my son Clayton after Clayton Moore, the actor who portrayed the Lone Ranger. My son is almost 39 now and has an autographed picture of Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels (Tonto) displayed prominently in his home.
And Paladin..."Have Gun--Will Travel"!
Remember when Johnny Horton sang "We fired our muskets and really gave 'em..W-E-L-L" and that was pushing the limits of decency?! Whenever I hear "You can't live in the past", I simply reply "I don't live in the past, I cherish it."
I remember it well. How about, "Big, bad John" by Jimmy Dean. I think I was in 3rd grade.
@@ronaldkulas5748 One thing I remember about the Jimmie Dean show on TV is how he would occasionally pick his nose and then look at it. Yes, I remember "Everyone knew it was the end of the line for Big John.....".
Ohmygosh we knew every word to that song. And they began a running down the Mississippi to the gulf of Mexico yes
I think that was a #1 song in 1959, the next year he did Sink The Bismarck, another huge hit.
@@TheOtherBill I remember both 'The Battle of New Orleans' and 'Sink The Bismarck' rendered by Johnny Horton. (Don't figure out my age. LOLOLOLOL).
I remember all that ,and I feel sad that kids today don’t go outside to play all day long . Now they sit inside watching a screen all day or playing videos on a screen all day
When I was a kid my mom said get outside! If I didn't she would make a job for me!
It's not safe for kids to play outside because of predators. I grew up and we played outside. By the time my daughter was 5 or 6 it was the early 80s and around that time Adam Walsh was kidnapped and murdered and it was all over the news. I was scared to have my daughter play beyond my front door with her friends. When my grandkids were little around 5 years ago they played in the front yard with an adult (usually my daughter or me the grandma) constantly watching them play. As a kid we played up and down the street all day long and came in for dinner. I wouldn't want to be a kid now.
It’s sad that the child predators/traffickers/ drug salespeople (as opposed to the Fuller brush salesman) have contributed to this way of like for our kids. To say nothing of the nut jobs who don’t think anything of shooting up any kind of local stores.
We played outside. Of we played games they were board games on front porches, so we talked to each. (This was usually when weather was HOT! 😃
@@QueenSnowPea In the book Freakonomics the author show that according to FBI statistics there were more child abductions in the 1950's than in the 2000's. They theorize that the hysteria over this issue is due to the 24 hour news cycle that depending on the national broadcast of local news stories. Back in the 50's if a child was abducted in Texas it was only in the Texas newspapers. s
Someone in Illinois didn't feel threatened. Now you hear all of the local stories and it sounds like it's all happening in your 'backyard'. But it isn't. Also, today many of the so-called abductions are due to claims for child custody in divorces.
I love the way you narrate your videos. Crystal clear voice. Never rushed or overly excited.😊
The voice is AI generated ….. (fake). Still a great channel but a little disappointing
Wrong. I'm the narrator and I'm 100% human.@@sonhuynh8222