Weird and Wacky Facts About the 1950s
- Catherine Moscatt
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Although I am earnestly at work on this upcoming as yet unnamed anthology, I also have gone back and started editing Story of Hope….for the final time. I want it all to come together: the ambivalent ending, the unhealthy relationship with Mark, the building climax to the suicide attempts. Then I am going to approach agents and publishers relentlessly and I will never surrender (alright I had to throw a little Churchill in there). I’ve also been very active on Goodreads where I am listed as an author. I’ve been reviewing all the books I’ve read as something of a prelude for the longer book reviews in my anthology. For now let’s return to American History. To the person who messaged me yesterday saying the world needs more voices like mine? Well they wouldn’t exist without voices like yours.
1950’s saw the arrival of frozen TV dinners which families could eat while gathered around the TV. These dinners came on trays with compartments for meat, potatoes and vegetables. It allowed women to do other things besides cooking for their families.
The cone bra emerged which is frankly something I never understood but it has been worn by many sex symbols including my personal favorite, Marilyn Monroe. The cone bra is also known as the bullet bra. It has also been referred to as the “torpedo bra” I’ll say this as someone who is a DD size and appreciates beauty in other women: it is very distracting.
Children with high fevers were sometimes submerged in ice baths to get the fever down. This is interesting because when I was little (six? seven?) my little brother contracted a high fever (maybe 104?) This was very unusual because my brother and I never really ran fevers. I think I only got a fever for the flu and the first time I had co-vid. But my dad wasn’t home so my mom called the doctor. I was downstairs and I just remember my brother screaming as my mother put him in an ice bath which did help the fever. I guess they knew what they were doing in the fifties.
The polio vaccine was invented by Dr. Jonas Silk saving many lives but also catapulting a discussion that stretches on today about if the vaccine is responsible for autism (we’re not getting into that here). My great aunt whom I am very close to has polio has a little girl and had to be put in an iron lung. She said if her father had not exercised her legs properly she would not have been able to walk.
Girls wore dog collars on the top of their bobby socks. Apparently this was a way for girls to showcase their popularity.
While the girls were showcasing their legs and ankles, boys were trying to stuff as many people as they could get into a phone booth. Sounds like something modern boys might do with elevators.
The typical family of the 1950s consisted of a man being a breadwinner, a wife raising the children and an average of three children to a home. This was known as the “nuclear family” Since now more families moved to the suburbs, children were able to play outside more since the streets were less crowded.
At the beginning of the decade, one in ten homes had a TV. At the end of the decade, nine out ten homes had a TV.
The threat of nuclear war was very real in light of the Cold War with Russia. In schools, rather than practice active shooter drills as they do now, they would do “duck and cover” drills when children would get under their desks in the case of a nuclear bomb. I sincerely doubt it would have done a bit of good.
School sometimes cut days short for sporting events so children and their families could listen to it on the radio.
Comments