2 Papa & The 1960s
This is a very interesting article I found if you want to know how 2 mama and 2 papa lived “in the old days.” See my notes in parenthesis.
9 signs you were born in the 1950s
7/13/2020
You’re definitely of a certain age if you ducked and covered and frequented five and dimes. How vividly do you remember these classic TV shows, iconic toys and political turning points?
1. You went to five and dimes
Forget the Dollar Store — you shopped at Woolworth’s. You bought candy, nuts, toy soldiers, makeup, hair clips, balloons, handkerchiefs — whatever childhood treasure you could afford with your precious nickels.
And after shopping, you sidled up to the lunch counter for the most delicious sandwich and fountain soda you’ve ever had. Try getting THAT at Wal-Mart.
(Yep, 2mama and I shopped there and that sandwich and fountain soda cost 10 cents and 5 cents respectively!)
2. You knew a lot of teen brides
Your 18-year-old sister might have been the first, but she definitely wasn’t the last teen bride you were close to. You had cousins, neighbors, and classmates who graduated high school and tied the knot within weeks. (Heck, maybe it was even you.) It seems unthinkable these days, when the average age of newlywed women is around 27, but between 1950 and 1960, first-time wives averaged about 20 years old. And you know what? It seems like most of those people are still married.
(2mama was 18 when she got married. Korie too!)
3. The Bomb was the scariest thing, ever
Putin’s got nothing on Khrushchev. You know — you were there for the bad ol’ days of the Cold War, when the fear of Russia, communism, and all-out atomic Armageddon permeated your everyday life.
You probably remember your parents talking about Joe McCarthy and Sputnik, and you definitely remember duck and cover drills in school — as if hiding under your desk would protect you from nuclear fallout. Decades later, it seems almost silly…or does it?
(I remember my dad showing me Sputnik as it traveled across the night sky. It was the Russian putting the 1st space craft in space. We all thought they were going to put missiles up there next and were worried that they were going to destroy America with nuclear bombs. My dad even had a fallout shelter buried in our back yard. It had six fold down beds in it and we had food and water stored in it. We didn’t have water bottles in those days, so we hauled water from the sink down there every six months or so. If a nuclear bomb was dropped somewhere else in the nation, so we weren’t vaporized, we would go into the shelter and stay as long as we could, hoping that the radioactive fallout would have dissipated by the time we came out. The fallout could kill people too. Fortunately, we never had to use it. But, I did have some good campouts with my friends in there!)
4. You watched Ed Sullivan
Every Sunday night, you flipped on your parents’ (brand new!) black-and-white TV, cozied up on the couch with your family, and settled in for an hour of sheer, unadulterated entertainment, a.k.a The Ed Sullivan Show.
You loved the excitement of it all — the comedy, the groundbreaking musical acts (The Beatles, for pete’s sake!), and even Señor Wences. In fact, today, you can imitate Sullivan’s distinctive “really good sheeew” accent without thinking twice.
Of course, as years passed, you also watched Smothers Brothers, Shindig!, American Bandstand, and even Sonny and Cher, but nothing quite compared to Sullivan. S’allright? S’allright.
(We watched all of the above. Every Sunday night it was Ed Sullivan. 2mama and I both misunderstood what Ed said the name of the band was, and we told our parents they were The Beagles. I found out I was wrong when I went to Jr. High the next day and I was corrected by all my friends. 2 mama found out she was wrong when she got on the bus to go to school. Very embarrassing! ☺ 2 mama actually missed the performance because her sister, Jessica, was born that night, February 9, 1964)
5. You played with unfussy, iconic toys
Every time your grandson’s teddy bear starts flashing lights and singing, you cringe. That’s because you know good toys should be simpler — starting points for activity and imagination — like the toys you grew up with: hula hoops, Play Doh, Mr. Potato Head, Etch-a-Sketch, and Lincoln Logs.
But take heart, Nana. There is hope. That American Girl doll is basically a pricier Chatty Cathy, and your granddaughter still wants an Easy Bake Oven. (Trust us.)
(2mama had a Chatty Cathy and an Easy Bake Oven! In fact, her Chatty Cathy is still on a bookcase in our house, but I hear it scared you when you were little. Lol. True confession–I played with my sisters Easy Bake Oven. ☺)
6. You listened to radio, and bought music on 45s
Whether it was Murray the K, Cousin Brucie, or good ol’ Dick Clark, radio DJs were your prophets of rock and roll. And when they endorsed the new Beatles or Ricky Nelson single, you didn’t wait for it to magically appear on your phone. Nope.
You went to the store and bought a 45 for $0.75 a pop. Then, you brought it home, played it to death, and stored it in your cool carrying case so — God forbid — it didn’t get scratched. Even today, the sound of skipped needles make you shiver a little inside.
Yelp!
(We had small record players where we could hear music in semi-private (really, not much privacy in those days as everything was shared), but we also had a big one in the living room for the whole family to sit around and enjoy the latest music or comedy record. Yes, those were a thing. Comedians “performed” on a record and, mostly the “old” folks would have company over to listen and laugh.)
7. Your food was real food, except when it wasn’t
On one hand, you grew up eating fresh, from-the-earth meals: You remember what strawberries are supposed to taste like and won’t settle for anything but honest-to-god ice cream (none of this “frozen dairy product” baloney).
(True. Our moms cooked three meals a day and snacks were usually homemade cookies or cakes, but occasionally we got to go get a coke float or ice cream cone.)
Who knows? Your family’s milk might have even come from the milkman; in 1963 about 30% of U.S. homes received glass-bottle delivery. (2 mama remembers milk at their backdoor.)
On the other hand, you also came of age during the glory days of processed food. TV dinners, canned soda, and boxed cake mixes were part of your everyday diet, and — gasp! — you ate margarine because butter had the wrong kind of fat. (Whoops.)
Nowadays, you attempt to stick to real food. But try as you might, when Hamburger Helper calls, something deep within you must answer.
(We did all of the above. At my house (2 papa), we ate a lot of Hamburger Helper. TV dinners were popular. They got the name because all the commercials showing people eating on foldup trays while they watched TV. They were in aluminum pans with aluminum tops and heated up in the oven. There was no such thing as a microwave. When microwave became a thing, when we were in college, the TV dinners were then put in cardboard boxes since you couldn’t put aluminum in a microwave. To this day, I still call frozen dinners, TV dinners.)
8. Everyone smoked. Everyone.
No, seriously. Your family smoked at the dinner table. At the supermarket. At work. (Can you imagine your coworkers lighting up today? Holy moly.)
In fact, when the surgeon general issued the Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health in 1964, more than half of American men and over one-third of women were habitual smokers.
How could they resist? You vividly remember ads with athletes, movie stars, and doctors — doctors! — encouraging you to take a drag. Heck, all the cool guys wore a pack of Luckies in their shirt sleeves (“LSMFT: Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco”). And even though it seems like everyone quit around 1992, get this: About 14% of Americans still smoke.
(I heard that commercial about LSMFT used in a jingle so many times, that I went around singing it. You couldn’t get it out of your head! 2 mama said her mom smoked until she was 15 and it’s so strange to think about it today, but it was commonplace back then. Not everything from the past was better!)
9. You remember where you were when…
- Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper’s plane went down
- JFK was shot
- The Beatles debuted on Ed Sullivan
- MLK was shot
- RFK was shot (just two months later)
- We landed on the moon
You can describe each occasion in detail, down to the shoes you wore that day. And you know the only modern event to rival any of them was 9/11.
(The shoes I was wearing were brown leather moccasins with fringe—no socks. When Mamaw Jo would ask me where my socks were, I would say: “They match my gloves!” 2 mama was in Dallas just after JFK was shot. Her uncles took all the cousins down to the place he was shot and it was lined with flowers for miles. She remembers that after they saw the site, they got to get root beer floats.)
I hope this was interesting to you. It was to me! One day you’ll read things about the early 2000’s and it will bring back lots of great memories.
