The end of an era

August 9, 2024

I was born in 1948, so my childhood years were pretty much all in the 1950s. Unlike the decades before us, we weren’t suffering through a Great Depression or a World War. We had it pretty good in the 1950s.

In those days, we went to Mass every Sunday. Our shoes were polished Saturday night and lined up at the door for Sunday morning. We wore our best clothes on Sunday: Mom in a dress and Dad in a suit and tie. We girls and women wore gloves and a hat to church—the hat was mandatory—and if you didn’t have a hat, then you could pin a Kleenex on your head. Men had to remove their hats in church. We kids learned that if we were too sick to go to church, then we were too sick to go anywhere.

After Mass, we went home, and I would help my mom prepare dinner. My jobs were to chop up the turnips, set the table and dry the dishes. Around two o’clock, Mom would put dinner on the table: roast beef or pork, fresh vegetables, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, and, of course, dessert. We sat together as a family, engaged in conversation, had lots of laughs, and enjoyed our dinner. After dinner, Mom and I would do the dishes together and leave the kitchen shining.

Back then, girls weren’t allowed to wear slacks to school; only knee-length skirts or dresses were permitted–actually, the girls at my school had to wear a gray skirt and a blouse. The boys wore clean pants with belts, button-up shirts, and cardigans. No one wore jeans or T-shirts; in fact, we didn’t even have jeans! There were no holes or rips in our clothes, no underwear visible about the waistline, no cleavage, no green or pink hair, no Mohawks, no tattoos and very little makeup. There were no drugs! One day, while walking through the corridor with a classmate, she told me that some boy was in the principal’s office because he was caught with a “funny cigarette.” I had no idea what that meant. I never heard the “f” word until I was married and in my twenties.

The end of the 1950s was not only the end of a decade but also the end of an era. The 1960s brought drugs, hippies, flower children, see-through blouses and sit-ins. Nothing to really be proud of.

Many would say that the 1950s weren’t perfect, and that would be true. However, as I have lived through them, I would argue that they were one of the best decades ever!

Note: 1914-1918: WW1; 1929-1939: The Great Depression; 1939-1945: WW11