The Fifties by Joan Lainen

THE FIFTIES

Joan Lainen

Like faded photographs, the memories of our lifetime resurface to evoke a million emotions. Perhaps only a word or two bring forth something we've let slip into the recesses of our mind. Here are a few of the words and phrases of the '50's:

Joe and Marilyn James Dean
Ike and Nixon Willie Mays
Elvis Whitey Ford
Audrey Hepburn Natalie Wood
Kim Novak Grace Kelley
Black and white TV was brought into our homes by the new

New York to San Francisco cable, completed in 1951. This began our love for Uncle Miltie, Your Show of Shows and Ozzie and Harriet. We sat transfixed as I love Lucy began in 1953 and we hastily cleared our Swanson TV dinners to the kitchen, lest we miss a laugh or two.

It was said to be an era of the home movies and "never so much for so few". We still had black and white horror films but the popular musical comedies were in Technicolor. "singing In The Rain" is top entertainment to this day.

As for women, they stopped sewing their own dresses and left their "Little Boxes of Ticky Tac" in hat and gloves.

Hat and gloves were left behind for cruising though. The first practical automatic transmissions were in: candy apple red was THE color for any self respecting rod .. and we began to notice the increase in traffic on our new freeways and interstates. Many of us got our first driver's license and a fortunate few got their first car along with it.

AeroJet was testing solid rocket fuel. Livermore Labs opened in 1952 and we watched in innocence and awe the Nevada atomic tests. Have you forgotten we learned to "duck and cover"? We learned the AM radio frequencies of 640 and 1240 for civil defense messages. The 38th parallel came into news vernacular and the Mc Carthy hearings were broadcast daily.

As the '50s ended, the Giants moved to San Francisco, the coffee houses of the "beat generation" appeared, space flight began along with civil rights disturbances.

. . . and a nostalgic 'era of innocence' ended.

I wrote this piece to share at the class reunion of San Juan High School in Sacramento, California. Class of 1952. But I wanted to submit it to the extended readership of the website in hopes it would invoke a few memories from others.