An ode to the 1950's
The 1950's. Post-WWII America. Supposedly the Golden Age of the so-called "greatest Generation", as dubbed by Tom Brokaw. A time of glamour, guts, and new-found prosperity. The Nazis had been beaten into bloody submission, and we were supposedly the ones who turned the tide of the bloodiest war in recent history. Martinis has just become popular, Elvis was king of Rock'n'Roll, and the only known enemy to the American Dream were those damn communists in the Soviet Union. The golden age of radio broadcast was beginning to give way to the new medium of television, the automobile was in higher demand than ever before, and the utopian vision was being realized by many in this new place called "suburbia". Truly, there was never a better time to call yourself an American.
Too bad it was just one big facade.
Underneath this call exterior were people who felt trapt by the expectiations of everyday society. Women being chocked by a lack of passion from being stuck at home all day as a "homemaker". Men being expected to be the rock of the family. The protector. The bread-winner. Father was supposed to know best in those days. When the husband came home, the wife was to have dinner hot and ready for all to eat. It was expected that cookouts were the norm during the summer months, whenever there was a free moment, and that was the only time the man was in charge of the cooking.
Anything outside of these supposed "norms" was considered suspect. Strange. We just didn't want to go to Europe. We didn't want to become writers, poets, songwriters. That was weird! And who wanted to be weird back in the 1950's? No, being out of the ordinary was uncooth, to say the least. Yet, there was still alcoholism, drug use (to a lesser extent), suicides, infidelities, robberies. Jim Crow was considered the norm, even by the Catholic Church. High school jocks played chicken with their dad's car over some girl who probably didn't want either of them.
Out of this ideal decade in American history, this shangri-la created from Henry Ford's dream of every American owning one of his Model T cars, out of this great white lie, came a nation of people, both young and middle-aged, gasping for air. Wanting something to shake them up and make them feel alive once again! Did they know what it was that they wanted? Had they any clue at all? No. They mearly wanted some kind of break from the duldrums of their pathetic, boring, hum-drum existence.
What they got was the 1960's, but that's a topic for another time.
Modern-day Hollywood has done a lot of work recently to pull back the curtain on this Wizard of Oz that was the 50's. Movies such as Mona Lisa Smile, Good Night and Good Luck, The Hours and Pleasantville have done much to unmask most of the ugliness that was that WASP haven of a decade from a standpoint of social commentary. It makes us sick to even think we could operate that way as a nation, let alone as human beings. Yet, what we fail to realize more often than not is the price we paid for having turned that decade on its head so quickly with the following 20 years. Infrastructure was at its peak in the 50's. The economy showed few, if any, signs of being in trouble. Jobs were plentiful, schools were unmatched by any other nation, and the idea of terrorism was unheard of.
True, you were often bound by the expectations that society had of you. Your goals, dreams, and ambitions, all thrown out the door if you wanted to play it safe and get by in the world. The number of complete 180's we have gone through in the time since is enough to make a persons head spin right off of their neck, and I haven't even lived through it. It is sad, however, to hear that there are still people that I am actually good friends with that still live in this type of trapped life, where their parents dictate what they do, and not they themselves. The older me would have volunteered to give them a swift kick in the ass so as to move them forward in their lives. The new me knows that such a gesture would never be heeded, and would most likely backfire. This bit of knowledge is what troubles me more than any American history book could ever teach me.
Too bad it was just one big facade.
Underneath this call exterior were people who felt trapt by the expectiations of everyday society. Women being chocked by a lack of passion from being stuck at home all day as a "homemaker". Men being expected to be the rock of the family. The protector. The bread-winner. Father was supposed to know best in those days. When the husband came home, the wife was to have dinner hot and ready for all to eat. It was expected that cookouts were the norm during the summer months, whenever there was a free moment, and that was the only time the man was in charge of the cooking.
Anything outside of these supposed "norms" was considered suspect. Strange. We just didn't want to go to Europe. We didn't want to become writers, poets, songwriters. That was weird! And who wanted to be weird back in the 1950's? No, being out of the ordinary was uncooth, to say the least. Yet, there was still alcoholism, drug use (to a lesser extent), suicides, infidelities, robberies. Jim Crow was considered the norm, even by the Catholic Church. High school jocks played chicken with their dad's car over some girl who probably didn't want either of them.
Out of this ideal decade in American history, this shangri-la created from Henry Ford's dream of every American owning one of his Model T cars, out of this great white lie, came a nation of people, both young and middle-aged, gasping for air. Wanting something to shake them up and make them feel alive once again! Did they know what it was that they wanted? Had they any clue at all? No. They mearly wanted some kind of break from the duldrums of their pathetic, boring, hum-drum existence.
What they got was the 1960's, but that's a topic for another time.
Modern-day Hollywood has done a lot of work recently to pull back the curtain on this Wizard of Oz that was the 50's. Movies such as Mona Lisa Smile, Good Night and Good Luck, The Hours and Pleasantville have done much to unmask most of the ugliness that was that WASP haven of a decade from a standpoint of social commentary. It makes us sick to even think we could operate that way as a nation, let alone as human beings. Yet, what we fail to realize more often than not is the price we paid for having turned that decade on its head so quickly with the following 20 years. Infrastructure was at its peak in the 50's. The economy showed few, if any, signs of being in trouble. Jobs were plentiful, schools were unmatched by any other nation, and the idea of terrorism was unheard of.
True, you were often bound by the expectations that society had of you. Your goals, dreams, and ambitions, all thrown out the door if you wanted to play it safe and get by in the world. The number of complete 180's we have gone through in the time since is enough to make a persons head spin right off of their neck, and I haven't even lived through it. It is sad, however, to hear that there are still people that I am actually good friends with that still live in this type of trapped life, where their parents dictate what they do, and not they themselves. The older me would have volunteered to give them a swift kick in the ass so as to move them forward in their lives. The new me knows that such a gesture would never be heeded, and would most likely backfire. This bit of knowledge is what troubles me more than any American history book could ever teach me.