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Baby Boom!
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Play me!
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My 1958 Pontiac Chieftain
Oldies but Goodies...the Boomer Age
Come cruisin' with me down memory lane......
My name is Sherry, and I was born in 1948. I liked those times. I remember those times as peaceful, lazy, and slow. We didn't have color television, or VCRs, or PCs, or microwaves, or CD players, or even cassettes. We didn't have SUVs, or Gameboy, or Playstation. What we DID have was peace. We learned to work a little harder for the things we got, and probably appreciated it more because of that. For every modern convenience, in my mind at least, there is a price. We didn't have Columbine, or bombings, or skyjackings.
Remember the first televisions? Big and bulky, and black and white, and weren't they grand! Remember some of the old shows?" I Love Lucy", "The Honeymooners"," Have Gun Will Travel", "The Rebel", "Ben Casey"? And who could forget "Skye King"?
In comparison, we now have "Friends", "Frasier", "ER", and of course, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"? "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (which I must confess I love), and the newest beat-your-fellow-citizen, "Survivor".
I have often asked people, "If you could go back to those days, would you give up all the microwaves, PCs, big screen television, and CD players?" Most people say no. I say yes. Those were golden, magic, peaceful days, days of innocence and freedom. Not just because we were kids that let our parents worry about tomorrow, but because we felt secure with tomorrow, knowing that it would be much the same as today. We didn't have to worry about students shooting other students, just the occasional scuffle in the halls, or the very rare auto accident from someone taking on Dead Man's Curve.
Remember the music? WLS, KAAY, listening at night, when the signal was clearest, with the covers over your head so your parents wouldn't hear and come yell at you to get to sleep. We were the dawn of Rock and Roll, the forerunners of Rap. I am including links on this page to some really cool midi sites, if you want the real thing, download Napster at your own risk.
Remember the Good Humor Man? Chasing him up the street clutching your money in your hand? The bell on the cart he drove, and those wonderful orange-flavored push- things... And milkmen, and the smell of the A&P? When your shoes didn't cost over a hundred bucks, and you ran the soles off your Keds and then caught hell from your folks because they "weren't made of money"? Penny candy? Black Jack Gum? The fifties were magic, all right.
I turned 12 in 1960. New things were happening, and I was at the age to be impressed very much by it. This was the time of brotherhood and Peace, and for the first time, people began to notice the youth of America. The Age of Aquarius. Peace and love, LSD and pot,Bell bottoms, wild colors and wilder music. Jimi Hendrex. Janis Joplin......and Vietnam.
Send e-mail!
Click on Felix
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http://www.fiftiesweb.com/fifties.htm (this is the first place you should go, a really fabulous site!)
Photos of the 40s, 50s and 60s.
You MUST visit this one!
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Don's Triumph
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Midi and Lyrics Links
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Classic Cars
Remember the old cars? The Fraziers, the Nash, the Henry J? They were huge, heavy, and they were gas hogs,definitely not "energy efficient!" Very few had air conditioning, so you had to drive with the windows down in the summertime, with your hair blowing in your face, and if you were lucky and lived in a rural area, you got to smell the fresh-cut hay and the hot tar of the road. There were few modern conveniences,no cup holders, or digital thermometers, but weren't they wonderful? In this section I will try to include as many links to Classic cars as I can ferret out. Enjoy the ride.
This one is just classifieds, but very complete.
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Memory Box
 Five cent CokesPenny candyBlack Jack GumSaddle shoesDucktailsRolled up jeansEdselsI Love LucyBaby pink lipstickSlinkysHowdy DoodyBaby Moon hubcapsFuzzy dice on your rearview mirror |
Timeline
1950s
19501
American Bandstand made it's debut with a young Dick Clark, as did the Today show. Liz Taylor married Nicky Hilton, a marriage predict would last "forever."United Feature Syndicate began distributing "Peanuts", which would become a beloved classic. Ralph J. Bunche became the first black man to win the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the conflict between the Arabs and the Israelis. An attempt was made to assassinate President Harry Truman. The development of the first hydrogen bomb was ordered by the President.
1951
Colored margarine was legalized in Illinois; it had been banned as being an imitator of butter. Until then it was sold with small packets of coloring that had to be mixed into the white margarine, which looked a lot like lard. Milton Berle signed a 30 year contract with NBC,the longest contract ever heard of at that time. Color TV was broadcast, but not for the general public; no one owned color sets at the time. The AMA approved fluorides in drinking water to prevent tooth decay. The NAACP blasted the show "Amos 'n Andy as a degrading portrayal of blacks. President Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur and ordered him to come home. Truman was cursed, threatened, and some thought he should be impeached. It was years later that the news was released that MacArthur had intended (and was going to do it against specific orders) to spread a wall of cobalt between North and South Korea. This would have been utterly disastrous for the country, and eventually for the world.
1952
The first issue of Playboy was distributed with Marilyn Monroe as the centerfold. The movie "high Noon came out and so did the Mills Brothers rendition of "Glow Worm."
1953
Ex-GI George Jorgenson went to Sweden and returned as Christine, the first sex-change in the country. Hand Williams dies, as does Josef Stalin. The New York Yankees won the World Series for the fifth time in a row, their 16th championship game. The world's tallest mountain, Mt.Everest was climbed for the first time. The Korean Conflict ended, 55,000 killed and 102,000 wounded.
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