Posted by:
pollythinks
(
)
Date: March 16, 2017 07:12PM
Thanks for all the reminders, friends. The "50ies" were my days. (I graduated from high school in 1953.)
We lived in a "average" Los Angeles, CA., neighborhood. 2 bdrms, one bath, and an added-on lean-to" uses as another bdroom. My bdrm's window looked into my brother's lean-to bdrm (and visa-versa).
WWII was a very scary event to live through (even though we lived so far from the action). We had stamp books issued to us, needed to buy gasoline, and many food items. We saved the fat of meat to give to the butcher (for war explosives needed in the war).
We raised vegetables and animals to help manage rationed foods, and traded some valuable eggs with neighbors for their car-gas rations (many didn't have a car in those days--they walked, or rode public transportation.
We had one car. We raised chickens for eggs and meat, and rabbits for meat and fur--which was sold to pay for their food. We had a "victory" garden in the back yard, a fruit tree, and 2 avocado trees. These assets were traded for car gasoline stamps, and other rationed items (like butter, sugar, and fat).
The "ice-man" drove down the street once a day (as many people used a non-refrigerated box to keep their perishable food in).
A big candy bar was a nickle, but smaller candy was only 1 or 2 cents.
When I grew up and worked, I would get a .02-.03-cent raise. And yes, women who worked made far less than men. (The reasoning given for this was because women were supposed to stay home to take care of the kids, and because both parents working meant woman didn't "need" the same income as a man who was supporting his whole family.
I got paid a quarter an hour for baby-sitting--if I was lucky.
Much safer to walk anywhere in those days. Evident crooks and deviates got arrested and put in jail. (Still, deviates could be a problem for little girls, and one had to watch out for such men.)
One--segregated--public swimming pool for the whole big neighborhood, in a park about a mile away (which we had to walk to). Whites on one side of this pool, blacks on the other, and the "deep" area in the middle divided these spaces. In the same park, there was a service-men's recreation center.
We locked our front and back screen doors, but a convenient hole appeared next to the lock so one could stick their finger inside to unlock it.
We lived near a train station, with a empty lot between it and our house. This meant that "bums" who rode the freight trains would drop off near our house, and them "bum" the neighborhood for food. (Yes, that's what they were called then). My mother would make a peanut-butter and bread sandwich for them, and give them an orange. Due to her generosity, our address was carved into the bums' wood campfire in the lot behind the house (the other side of which was a train station.
Six children, a mother and father. My father wasn't drafted because of the number of children he had, and the fact that he worked for the railroad. Therefore, he was available to be the neighborhood official watch officer (making sure lights were turned off and black shades pulled down on our block, during air-raids).
These days featured a scary war (WWII), safer living, criminals who were recognized, arrested, and jailed; and most people strove to live a good "Christian" life (love one-another, help each other, and treat each other civilly). (Of course, L.A. wasn't as crowed an area to live, as was so for N.Y. residents.)
Yes, the 50ies had a lot of good to admire. But, as was mentioned, medical care was not as available or good (I had a friend who died of kidney failure, as I almost did, but our great Jewish clinic Dr. managed to save my kidneys and life without penicillin (which had not yet been invented).
And so on, and so forth. It is my believe that the 50ies helped pave the wave for a good future to be able to exist. People, as a whole, did seem more wholesome then (and didn't have to fight porn magazines and pervert TV shows). Indeed, TV wasn't even available (or affordable) for some time, until around the time I got married (1957), at which time there were VERY few channels from which to choose, very small screens (12"X12"?), and black and white only. (The first TV I saw was that of a very rich "uncle", the screen of which was about 6" square.) Wrestling shows were a regular for night-time viewing, and Lawrence Welk(sp?), the "Bubble" man and his orchestra. These ended by 9-10 pm., when the set left on displayed an "adjustment" circle, to adjust the picture on your set.
Now, my kids are encouraging me to write a biographical history of those days. (We'll see.) I seem to be old enough now to belong to the "old" days.
(Sorry to bend your "ear" so long.)
Polly