The 1950s

My favorite time.

[R1] Yeah, that's the ugly undercurrent to it all. But it seems that McCarthy was shamed out of existence by decent people. Where are those people now?

Watch "Far From Heaven," OP. You'll get over it.

[R3] True.

The Utopian undercurrent was due to the post war boom - America came out of the war with no damage on its own soil. It was able to take the technological advances, some of which was stolen from the Germans, and become a juggernaut economically.

It was a blip - an aberration based on the US advantage and so many other countries who went bankrupt and had to rebuild after the war. However, many Americans believe that time was when we were at our best - not necessarily. It was a fluke and not sustainable.

In the subsequent decades, many other nations have 'caught up' with us and surpassed us in living standards and technology. But many Americans can't accept that.

Oh - and this halcyon view of the 50's were byproducts of the first mass media - TV. It wasn't nearly like what we saw on TV, but everyone gets sucked into believing it.

There was prostitution, drugs, racial violence, rape, child molestation, legal racism and sexism. It was no utopia. Middle class white people like to refer back to it because they were young then and problems like I just mentioned weren't discussed - which makes it seem like it was better.

It wasn't.

I definitely seems like the most idealized decades.

But there was Perry Como...

Or see the Julianne Moore part of "The Hours."

I know an Eldergay who was a kid in the 50s. Years ago I asked him if it was like Leave It To Beaver, or Ozzie and Harriet and he said no. He said it was suffocating with everyone having to be perfect. It was all about rules and comportment and making your parents look good. He was once sent home from school because he wore a white dress shirt with blue dots. The teacher said the shirt was "garish" and inappropriate for a school environment. His mother got a lecture from his father for buying "such a shirt". He grew up in Indianapolis and moved to Canada when the war was coming to avoid the draft and has never been back.

[quote]The teacher said the shirt was "garish"

Hub-boy. Little did they know.

Doa--Daa--Day--Day

OP you would love the movie Carol.

R9, I was a small kid in the late 1950s, and it was great! My mother opened the door every day (eventually I had school) and let me and the dog out alone in Connecticut suburbs, and I did whatever I wanted. I was four-five. My parents were young and happy, we had a new house, and the neighbor kids were cool. It wasn't until the 1960s that my father couldn't hold a job because of alcoholism and he was always bent out of shape with hippies, Vietnam and everything else, all of us were unhappy.

I don't long for the 50s, and they will never come back...but it depends on your age and experiences. My older teenage brother also loved the 50s, he had a great time and liked many of the rules, formal manners and stuff, btw.

My parents grew up then. Mom was a child and Dad was a teen. They loved it and always say it was a magical time. I think everyone was just so grateful to be alive and have a roof over their heads and love after the intensity and pain of WWII that the simplest things created joy. Family was everything.

Typical school Public Service film.....