Lost in the Fifties

[Bonafide Bob]

All the older folks should remember some of the things in this clip.
 Enjoy
  Bob

http://safeshare.tv/w/FEDEwZHZXu

[Gliderjohn]

I was born in 55 but still remember almost all the stuff shown since much of it carried over into the 60s.
GliderJohn

[blackcat]

Yeah, a lot of those things merged into the 60's and 70's. I used to occasionally eat at an Automat up into the late 70's. The food wasn't very good but I liked looking at the art deco era machines.

[Lannis]

Just yesterday.

Lannis

[Penderic]

Certain shapes are buried into our memories...

[Klaus]

Just yesterday.

Lannis

RIGHT !!!

 

Jeez, are we THAT old ???

 

[Lannis]

RIGHT !!!

 

Jeez, are we THAT old ???

 

Things have changed pretty fast, but not as fast as times in the past.

A man born, say, in 1870 and lived until 1955 would have been grown up with no automobiles, airplanes, electricity, telephones, movies .... rode a horse and buggy or train to get anywhere when he was a boy, and could ride a jet airliner when he was an old man.   By 1955 most people had or had access to ALL that stuff.

People in my county in Central Virginia in 1870 lived basically like an English peasant farmer of 1370 ... same farm tools, same plumbing in the house (none), cooked on a fireplace.    By the 1950s they had electricity, tractors, telephones, trucks ... a whole different life.

I used to talk to a lady down the road born in 1890 who lived to be 103.   I asked her once "Mrs. Jones, what's the biggest change you've seen in your life in the way people live?"    She didn't hesitate.   She said "Electricity.   When I was a young woman, a woman would work herself to death all day long, washing clothes, building fires to cook, getting in wood, hauling water.   Now, all that work is done by electricity .... "

But tell that to young people today and will they believe you?    They won't even believe what I used to have to do to make a "long-distance" call from our party line ....

Lannis

[Gliderjohn]

My father lived from 1904 to 1995. When I think that he was born just seven months after the first airplane flight and still got to watch man step on to the moon, amazing! Yes, electricity has to rank right up there.
GliderJohn

[ohiorider]

Thanks for posting the link. Lots of memories!

I was born in 1943 (damn .... makes me 72!)   My two older brothers, born in the early 1930s, now deceased, taught me lots of the good stuff.  Explained why their control line model planes required coil, condenser, timing advance and retard, oh, and points.  I was from the 'glo-plug' generation.  They weren't.  Their tired old Ohlson and Rice .23 pulled many a control-liner aloft, and also brought most of them in pretty hard!

A lead smelter in the basement, so they could cast lead soldiers?  Sure!  No harm in fumes from bubbling lead.

Oldest brother showed me how Dad's 1948 Chrysler with Fluid Drive could be shifted so it could beat at least one other slush box, a Buick of the same vintage with Dynaflo.  Of course, good old dad wondered why the Chrysler went through a couple of trannys, but seemed to recover when my brother was off to the military in 1950.  The younger of my two older brothers found the straight eight Pontiac's HydraMatic much more rugged than the Fluid Drive, and try though he must've, it was unbustable!

[Bonafide Bob]

Thanks for posting the link. Lots of memories!

I was born in 1943 (damn .... makes me 72!)   

 Same age as me, I celebrated my 72nd birthday and 60 years riding motorcycles recently.
 

[AJ Huff]

The 1950s. Mom tells me it was the best of times. The Golden Age. Gag.

-AJ

[Lannis]

The 1950s. Mom tells me it was the best of times. The Golden Age. Gag.

-AJ

Whole lot of things back then were better than they are now.   Not everything, but a lot of things ....

Lannis

[AJ Huff]

Whole lot of things back then were better than they are now.   Not everything, but a lot of things ....

Lannis

Gag.

-AJ

[Lannis]

Gag.

-AJ

Very expressive, though not very enlightening.   

All theoretical, since time doesn't flow that way .....

Lannis

[Chuck in Indiana]

Grandmother lived with us. She'd walked to Indiana in a covered wagon train. She used to laugh at TV shows that showed people riding in the wagons. Didn't happen.. too rough. She was very bright, but ultra conservative and ruled with an iron hand, "children are to be seen and not heard" so I tried to avoid her and missed many of her stories. What a life, though.. from a covered wagon to a jet in one lifetime. Died at 94.

[Penderic]

Amazing.

Going west in the 1850's!

There was a group that retraced the Canadian wagon trains out west and another group that tried to homestead with only historic implements. No thank you! Very unhealthy and tedious from what I saw.

Meanwhile, back to the future!

[Penderic]

Sky King was a great show! 

I also liked "Have Gun Will Travel".

Gun prices back in the 50's were reasonable too.

 

[lschultz]

Yep those were the days. I would like to step back in time.

[Arizona Wayne]

Same age as me, I celebrated my 72nd birthday and 60 years riding motorcycles recently.
 

Glad to hear some others here are my age.   I turn 72 in August.  Been riding MCs since I was 20.  Couldn't get 1 'till I got out of the house on my own.  My 1st car was a $100 straight 8 Pontiac w/a Hydramatic tranny. 

[Chuck in Indiana]

Kirby Grant and Penny!

Sky King

That's a Cessna 310, he started out in a Cessna "Bamboo Bomber". I was 15 when we got TV and that was one of my favorite shows.
How time flies!

mike

Yep, early 310 with the straight tip tanks. 55? I've flown a Bamboo Bomber. Surprised at what a nice flier it is.. other than the single engine performance, of course. 

[jknight611]

Thanks Bob, I remember most of the items, & I am just a kid! 

Ever see Sky King miss with the things he dropped from Songbird's storm window? 

[Arizona Wayne]

Whole lot of things back then were better than they are now.   Not everything, but a lot of things ....

Lannis

I agree, at least in my 72 years on this planet so far.  At the time I was a newspaper boy in Spokane, Wa.   Back then 95% of this country was on the same page politically, at least out West.  Nothing like things are now.

[nc43bsa]

Oldest brother showed me how Dad's 1948 Chrysler with Fluid Drive could be shifted so it could beat at least one other slush box, a Buick of the same vintage with Dynaflo.  Of course, good old dad wondered why the Chrysler went through a couple of trannys, but seemed to recover when my brother was off to the military in 1950.  The younger of my two older brothers found the straight eight Pontiac's HydraMatic much more rugged than the Fluid Drive, and try though he must've, it was unbustable!

A professor I had in college told me he had an early 50's Pontiac, with the HydraMatic, as a young college student.  His favorite trick was to drive down the street on the edge of campus at 35 mph, throw it into reverse, and stomp the gas pedal.  Claimed he did it for years and apparently never hurt the tranny.  Wore out lots of tires, though.

He said the HydraMatic was originally designed for a GM army tank.

[Bill N]

Yep, early 310 with the straight tip tanks. 55? I've flown a Bamboo Bomber. Surprised at what a nice flier it is.. other than the single engine performance, of course. 

My favorite on TV. Probably influenced me to become a professional pilot However Penny was the star form me and my first love.
Pilot Bill

[Bonafide Bob]

Glad to hear some others here are my age.   I turn 72 in August.  Been riding MCs since I was 20.  Couldn't get 1 'till I got out of the house on my own.  My 1st car was a $100 straight 8 Pontiac w/a Hydramatic tranny. 

 My Dad and older Brother both rode motorcycles so it was just a natural thing for me to do. One of my first bikes was a 1948 Harley 125cc, my first car was a 1953 Ford.
  When I was racing MC's my Dad was my biggest fan, he never missed a race.
 Bob

[Bonafide Bob]

Thanks Bob, I remember most of the items, & I am just a kid! 

Ever see Sky King miss with the things he dropped from Songbird's storm window?

  I don't know about you just being a kid. ;-)

[Lannis]

   Back then 95% of this country was on the same page politically, at least out West.  Nothing like things are now.

Well, I'm not necessarily saying that's a good thing.   Just because a lot of people say it doesn't mean it's right.   We get that today, with people saying that if you don't agree with them "you'll be on the wrong side of history".   I don't care about that.

Do a higher percentage of people today have to lock their doors compared to 1950?    If they do, then in one very important sense, times were better in the 1950s ....

Lannis

[Penderic]

hmmm. Before Heavy Metal, Grunge and Disco.  Devo was OK though

 

[Sasquatch Jim]

 What's so old about the stuff in the video?  It all looked like current events to me.

[Moto]

Thanks for posting that. It seems like I remember more from TV and popular culture than from my own life back then. Can't be true, can it?

Never did order those Sea Monkeys, dang it.