Imagine you've been sent back to 1957. Eisenhower's in the White House,

[raccoon]

all's right with the world (well, that's the offical version.).

What would you like best about the time? What would you miss most about the present?

For me, best-the economy. What I'd miss most, air conditioning.

[JohnnyLib2]

1. Well--

Elizabeth Taylor in her 20s....
Not realizing what the Draft would do to many of us....
Expectations of a good future once one went to college....


Sighhhhhhhh.

[rurallib]

2. Well, for me, this is an exercise in memory

if you were white, there were lots of good things.
This was still at a time when people seemed more involved in the community and cities and towns had town centers. We had a downtown area and that was where almost all the shopping was done. Ergo to shop, you had to go where everybody else went.
We did have air conditioning back then, most businesses.

What I would miss most from the present is reliable (and less polluting) cars. Just discussing with my SIL yesterday how much fun it was to try to start a car at -20 with those old batteries that had the power of today's D-cell.
And boy, if you lived in a medium sized town on up, there would be days when you could chew the air. And it stunk to high heaven.

[femmocrat]

3. The best thing that I remember was....

our parents sent us out the door after breakfast and didn't expect us home until dinnertime. If we were hungry, we ran in the house and made our own sandwich. If our parents wanted us, Mom would yell out the door and 20 kids would tell us our "mom was calling" us.

If a kid did something "bad", the neighbors would tell his/her parents. Neighborhoods were much safer then. People really did watch out for each other. Of course, those were the days when one income could give a family a middle-class lifestyle and moms were home during the day.

Halcyon days in so many ways.

[raccoon]

4. Young Du'ers, you can check in here too. I know you don't remember it, but you can

use your imagination.

[Art_from_Ark]

13. I'm a whippersnapper

I don't remember anything about the '50s, but I remember the '60s.

My image of the '50s comes from Leave It To Beaver, the Mickey Mouse Club, Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley, LOL.

I'm probably not the kind of guy who would have fit in in the '50s. But the advantages may have included a viable downtown area (which still existed even in the '60s in my hometown), a letter could be mailed for 3 cents and an older house (in my hometown) could be bought for $5000 or less. A kid with a paper route who knew coins could have a reasonable expectation of finding some fairly valuable coins at face value. Matinee movies were cheap, as was a day at the swimming pool.

What would I miss? Music and TV shows from the '60s. I don't know if I would miss modern conveniences, since I grew up in a house that was furnished in late-'40s, early '50s style, and that was OK with me.

[TheMightyFavog]

5. This:

Henry Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette, Joe Adcock beat the Yankoffs in 7 games!

/If I could go back in time, I'd off Ted Turner before he bought the Braves.
//That way Atlanta would be stuck with a subpar team, not us.

[Skittles]

6. best - no Walmart, Fox News, reality TV or Twitter

I'd miss microwaves though

[carlyhippy]

7. I would like the economy, and how Pleasantville-ish everyone was

on the down side, I would miss:
cd's
computers
internet
microwave ovens
glass cooktop stoves
color tv
pvr and cable
cell phones
fm radio
electric hair straighteners
dishwashers (or did they have them back then?)

BUT...a life without all this stuff in some way seems like it would be simpler and I guess that wouldn't be all bad, either.

[texanwitch]

8. I was around but I was to young to remember anything.

I was 4 years old.

Had a great childhood, the freedom we had.

Leave in the morning and come back before dark.

I would rather have my childhood then any computer.

[krispos42]

9. Sophia Loren

She's 23... I have a chance!!!!!! :woohoo:


I also get to invent the Slap-Chop and the can opener that cuts sideways through the seal of a can (I love that can opener) and I'll use my millions in profits to woo her.

[elleng]

10. Definitely, air conditioning!

That's just about when one was installed in my room!!!

Eisenhower Recession! Thanks for the memory! Was in jr. high, and remember writing 'recession' on my calendar, upon hearing about it in the news!

http://www.advisorperspectives.com/newsletters09/Dan_Fuss_and_the_Eisenhower_Recession_Redux.php

http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/vance/1958/03/recession.htm

[Sebastian Doyle]

11. I'd just enjoy the whole idea

of a Republican president who believed in taxing the rich and hated the Military Industrial Complex. Now it seems that even Democratic presidents can't seem to do either one. :evilfrown:

[jobycom]

12. I'd miss desegregation and casual sex.

I'd like Ralph Yarborough in the Senate and Elvis, I guess. All in all, it wouldn't be my favorite era to return to.

[HEyHEY]

14. The evolution of rock n' roll, man. Imagine seeing Buddy Holly and such live?

What I would miss most? I suppose getting news on time and ease of travel and information. For instance, back then, if you wanted to know about a university or something, you'd have to write a letter requesting info.

[csziggy]

15. In 57 I was five so I don't remember much but for girls it sucked

I do remember how I hated the early 60s. As a girl, I had to wear dresses most of the time. As soon as I was considered old enough, I had to wear stockings, even to school. Panty hose had not yet been invented, so that meant a girdle or a garter belt - and not the sexy kind of garter belt. "Good" girls were not supposed to use tampons and self adhesive pads had not been invented so there was a special belt to hold those fat, obnoxious, smelling things.

As late as 1966, girls were not supposed to wear pants on the street - my sister wanted to drop out of her first college because she was not allowed to wear pants on campus or in the public areas of the dorms. And shorts were not allowed at all.

Girls were not allowed to do certain things. We could not take shop class or drafting - two courses I really wanted to take. Girls had to learn to sew, cook, iron, launder, decorate their houses and so on. Even if we were in the college prep group, we were supposed to only go to college to find a good husband who would earn lots of money to support us.

Many people thought girls should not go to college because it would give us "ideas". Mom was thought strange because she did not insist that we wear makeup all the time or try to look like fashion magazine models. Instead she insisted that all four of her daughters should attend college, not to get a husband but to be prepared to support ourselves so we would have choices in our lives.

Frankly if someone wanted to send me back to 1957, I would rather shoot myself. Women have come a long way and I would never go back.

[sarge43]

18. Second that. I was 14 in 57. You nailed it.

If a young woman did get into college she could get a lib arts degree aka "I'm just marking time until I get married" or a RN or an elementary teaching cert. A MD or engineering degree? :rofl:

Don't miss it at all.

[csziggy]

30. Even though I grew up with great role models, it was still obviously difficult

To break into a profession. Dad was an engineer and I think I might have been good at it. But the one algebra teacher in high school did not think girls should take advanced math. Since my oldest sister had proven him very wrong (she was a certified genius and won every math and science award offered) he resented the rest of us. I did not have the drive to push past him. Plus, like I said, I was not allowed to sign up for drafting. I would have been great at drafting - I had already played at Dad's drafting table, knew the tools, and have a talent for drawing layouts and, understanding plans.

I grew up with a grandmother and great aunts who were college graduates or had post high school training. Most of their women friends were also and many were college professors. One was a doctor and it was family lore about her struggle to get admitted to medical school in the early 1900s. Grandmother's winter house parties for her Northern friends were a great place to learn that women did not have to stay in the home, even if they got married. And for us, marriage was not automatically assumed.

Mom followed her family tradition for women who did not get married as soon as they were old enough - four of her aunts got nursing degrees. Mom actually got a scholarship to college but in the late thirties she could not afford to go even with the assistance. She got a scholarship to nursing school and was allowed to work to help pay her expenses. She meet Dad five years after she got out of nursing school and had spent years in the Navy Nurse Corps.

[elleng]

20. I recall no feelings of 'repression' as you describe;

Dad always wanted me to study law, etc. NYC suburbs different, I guess.

[csziggy]

31. The pressure was not from my parents - it was from the society

But maybe growing up in a small Southern town made a big difference.

[raccoon]

23. I could identify with most of the things you said, except in my family it was expected that

girls would go to college. You were supposed to become a teacher, or maybe nurse or secretary, just to "have something to fall back on."

I regret that I had very little vocational guidance. And of course, many professions weren't open to women then. They might be open legally, but a woman would have to fight tooth and toenail to get into them.

[csziggy]

33. Guidance counseling was a joke

My high school counselor only called me in after my SATs came back - the scores were much higher than my grades would have indicated I should have gotten. Otherwise, they did not care.

The guidance counseling in college was schizoid - I was either told how to fast track my degree or what I needed to take to prepare for my Masters and Doctorate. I just wanted to get the heck out since my dream was not a college oriented one.

Not one counselor ever asked me what I wanted - they just decided what I should do and told me about it. At least the testing showed I would have been a shitty nurse or teacher, so they did not try to shoehorn me into those jobs.

[Stoic]

16. I'd go visit my one year old self. n/t

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. I'd like to tell him, "Keep an eye on that actor Reagan, because he's gonna make the Military

Industrial Complex a type of religion and fuck the country over in more ways than even the most creative person could ever imagine".

[NewJeffCT]

26. If only we knew

Reagan begat Bush and the modern day Anti-American Republican Party. If only he had bowed out gracefully after losing to Ford in '76... would George HW Bush have beaten Carter in 1980? And, even if Bush had won in 1980, he was certainly had far less charisma & charm than Reagan.

[Tikki]

19. Ronald Reagan and the other corporate shills working

for Corporations like GE were already planning the takeover of America.
The crappy GE products that our parents brought home as safety awards should
have been a BIG red flag about the future of development and manufacturing in the U. S. future.

Workers and their Unions were already under heavy attack and it really wasn't the
best of times. It was the beginning of the slide down. And it WAS republicans. Believe me.



Tikki

[Auggie]

21. Best: Job/financial security

Not much worry about your company being downsized or having your job outsourced. Pensions were secure, for the most part. There's much to be said for the simplicity in which things worked, too.

Guess it's ironic what I'd miss most is the World Wide Web.

[joeybee12]

22. Best? I Love Lucy would still be first-run...worst?

no color tv, microwaves, cell phones, internet.

[Heidi]

24. Manual typewriters, innocence, Polaroid cameras, a decent wage, my parents in their youth.

I'd miss Call Me Wesley (born in '66), our goddaughters (now 18 and nearly 16), my seven-year-old nephew, The Wiley and Excellent Boy Cat Named Ginger. I wouldn't miss a lot of stuff, mainly my iPhone, laptop, and mp3s. And DVDs.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

27. I. Am. Older. Than. Call. Me. Wesley?

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Heidi]

36. Don't cry, CPD.

Crying distorts the face and makes one look older. :rofl:

P.S. I'm older than CMW, too.

[NewJeffCT]

25. In 1957, my marriage would not be legal in some states

as my wife is not white. I'd also miss the fact that the workplace is far more diverse now than it was then - women were rare beyond secretaries and clerks, and management was almost exclusively white men. While management is still mostly white men, there are a lot more women & minorities now. The same with sports - there were still only a handful of African American players in baseball in 1957 - the Red Sox had still not broken the color barrier in 1957.

On the good side, the US was in a position of financial strength because we were such a big creditor nation, so not hearing Republic whining about debts & deficits would be nice.

[csziggy]

35. Yeah, it was not a good time for women and minorities

Pretty much the people who think of it as a good time to live are white men. It may have been good for them since they got all the breaks, but damn I would not want to go back.

As for the US being stronger financially, maybe if the Republicans had not been in charge more than half of the time since 1957 the country would be better off. Workers could earn enough to live on, health care might be more accessible, maybe we'd have been involved in fewer wars, maybe we'd have pursued alternative energy policies.

What I would like to be able to do is go back and tell Eisenhower to make his statement warning about the military industrial complex MUCH MORE powerful. But I doubt it would have done any good.

[Doeed]

28. Not a hard choice

Best would be a brand new 1957 Chevy Nomad, and me pioneering the personal computer and inventing the Internet.

I would miss all the high tech gadgets the most.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

29. Bide time until morning Nov 22, 1963 in Dallas.

Make a crazy scene near JFK, warn him not to go to Dealey Plaza.

And no, I'm not 100% sure offing Oswald would do the trick.

If somehow I survive, get back to Brazil and warn President Goulart about the military coup 4 months hence.

[Bucky]

32. Would having a generation blame JFK instead of LBJ for Vietnam do any good?

I doubt it. If you save Kennedy, all you do is rob later generations of a hero (probably two, as you'd be saving Robert's life I suspect)

[Orangepeel]

34. I'd miss my career

I'm imagining I would have my mother's life, rather than being independently wealthy or one of the relatively few female professionals. My mother's a wonderful, sweet woman, but I don't want the life she lived (and, she's white and heterosexual, so it was better for her than for many others).

Regardless, I wouldn't like wearing a girdle or any of the other repressive Pleasantville aspects of 1950s life.

[raccoon]

39. Having to wear a girdle in a Southern summer, with no AC should qualify as

cruel and unusual punishment.

BTDT!

[Touchdown]

37. Afraid my mother is falling for me, and my Dad is a wimp, bullied by

Biff, sothey will not get together and make me so I can play guitar like Eddie Van Halen and ride in Doc Bown's cool car!

[NewJeffCT]

38. Dude, your mom was hot back in the day, though

And, just dress up as Darth Vader and surprise your dad with a stern warning to get him to stand up to Biff...