Looking at History through my eyes. - 1950s - age of (my) innocence

Karen Looks at History

I’ve wanted to look at recent history for a while, but I'm not sure how to approach it.  So, if this is good (hurray) and if it isn’t very good then come back in a few days!!

The 1950’s.

I was born in 1947, so I don’t have many memories until I was maybe five years old.

The 1950s were boom times for America.  The GIs returned from World War II and started families.  Almost every major town had a baby boom - of the “Baby Boomers” - and I was one of those.

The servicemen and women and that generation have been called “The Greatest Generation”.  My parents made it through the Great Depression and through World War II - and with peace in the world, they wanted to make the world a better place.

I was born in Cedar Rapids Iowa and my world was pretty small and pretty simple.  My family traveled to the Chicago area once or twice during the 1950s and to the Minneapolis area about the same amount.  I’m not sure when was the first time I spent in a hotel or motel - that was not something my family did. We stayed with family.  In Evanston and then Aurora Illinois we stayed with my Uncle Earl and his family, and in Bloomington Minnesota, we stayed with Uncle Howard and his family.  And, about the only place I stayed other than those two major road trips was in Maquoketa Iowa with my Aunt Leah and Uncle Nolan and family and probably about 7 or 8 years old, spent a week with them most summers.  

Cedar Rapids was booming.  We would take Sunday drives to see new houses and developments.  There were many new schools built at this time to accommodate the boomers.  

My neighbor and I played with our graders and trucks in the gravel at the end of his driveway.  I loved making highway clover-leaves as the big national interstate highway system was built. The concept of going from Maine to California without a stoplight was exhilarating.  (of course, that still isn’t possible as you do need gas, sleeping, and bathrooms periodically). We read the Cedar Rapids Gazette and every Sunday there was the Parade Magazine. One issue a year of Parade highlighted the scenic roads on the interstate highway system.  

The Gazette also posted pictures of the new cars being built in Detroit (no Japanese cars yet).  We were pretty loyal Chrysler cars - mostly Plymouths. By the mid to late 1950s, cars really changed.  The 1957 Chevy was an instant classic. And, the 1959 Cadillac had tail-fins and rocket-shaped tail-lights.  The older cars were mostly black and not very stylish, but these were pretty exciting and even sexy!!!  

Dwight Eisenhower was President from 1953 to 1961.  “I like Ike” was the slogan and my parents and family were very loyal Republicans.  Ike was the European commander during World War II and seemed to be a great leader. (Comment:  I read somewhere that at the end of the day, Eisenhower liked to have a clean desk. But, seemingly he opened his desk drawer and just pushed everything inside to get his clean desk.  There is an adage “A clean desk is the sign of a cluttered mind”. My desk gets cleaned maybe twice a year.)

Somehow I wasn’t shocked at the cold war and the space race.  Sputnik was launched in 1957 - and immediately the rest of the world got excited.  For some reason, that just wasn’t significant to me.  

True, the decade did have some controversies - McCarthyism - where there were Communists under every leaf!!  Seemingly half the Hollywood Stars were Communists - but I was pretty oblivious to all of that.  

There was the cold war - but to a seven or eight-year-old that wasn’t very important (especially as compared to building clover-leaf intersections in the dirt at the end of my neighbor's driveway).  I do remember Nikita Khrushchev coming to Iowa (to the Garst seed corn company). I also remember Krushchev pounding on the desk at the United Nations with his shoe.

Television was new (at least to most of us) in the 1950s.  Our neighbors got television first and I remember watching Highway Patrol with Brodrick Crawford.  I’m sure I thought it was all real. When we got television I watched Roy Rogers always corralling the bad guys in an hour!!  TV was mostly in black and white (and color TV was expensive). Generally about once a month, I stood in front of our TV with a mirror as my father manipulated the horizontal and vertical control options on the back.  At least once, we had to take a television bulb into the Valenski’s TV service shop to get a new one.  

And, of course, television was pretty tame - Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, Make Room for Daddy, and even I love Lucy.  (Lucy was a little strange to me as I didn’t know anybody from New York that lived in an apartment and where the man ran a night club show!!!)  

We watched baseball and Dizzy Dean singing Wabash Cannonball.  I remember (vaguely) watching the Yankee World Series in 1957 where Don Larson threw a perfect game. (I’m not sure how I watched because I was at school, during school hours as night baseball games just didn’t exist!!)

There were beatniks - but I didn’t know any.  

Everybody I knew was a Christian and went to Church - and we even sang Christian songs in school.

Ah yes, for a child, this was my age of innocence - but eventually time changes!!

Moving into the 1960s tomorrow!!

Karen