If You Grew Up In The 1950s, You Remember These

Fifty things every kid who grew up in the 1950s remembers. From the milkman at the back door before sunrise to the night the whole street walked outside to look for Sputnik, from Duck and Cover and the Polio Pioneers to the Saturday matinee, the coonskin cap, the drive-in in your pajamas and the one rule every kid lived by: be home when the streetlights come on. The party line in the hall, the prize at the bottom of the cereal box, walking to school alone at six years old, the purple copies, clapping the erasers. The day the television arrived, the test pattern, your father on the roof turning the antenna, the Mickey Mouse Club, ten-cent comic books and supper at six. The nickel pack of baseball cards, the barber's board, bottle money, the screen door, the ice cream truck, the way-back of the station wagon, Disneyland's opening day, Halloween popcorn balls, the aluminum Christmas tree, Elvis on Ed Sullivan, the transistor radio and the hula hoop. This is a full hour of baby boomer nostalgia, built from real period film and photographs, for anyone who grew up in 1950s America or heard about it at every family dinner. Calm narration, no clickbait, just one childhood walked from the first morning to the last summer. Settle in. This is a full hour back on your old block. Which one took you straight back? Tell us in the comments, along with the name of your street and your town. Subscribe to Curbside America for more of everyday life in the 1950s and 1960s, and share this with a brother, sister or old friend who was on that block with you. CHAPTERS 0:00 Before Sunrise 7:28 The Schoolhouse 15:53 After School 23:22 Saturday 30:48 Summer 38:58 October 47:28 December 54:37 Growing Up 1:01:00 Home SOURCES AND CREDITS Film footage: Prelinger Archives via the Internet Archive (public domain): Barbers (ca. 1959-1960); Bully (1952); Cindy Goes to a Party (1955); Date With Your Family (1950); Dating: Do's and Don'ts (1949); Day of Thanksgiving (1951); Dining Together (ca. 1951); Duck and Cover (1951); Dynamic American City (Part I) (ca. 1956); Eat for Health (1954); Family Life (1949); Freedom Highway (Part I) (1956); Good Eating Habits (1951); Good Table Manners (1951); Have I Told You Lately That I Love You? (1958); Health: Your Posture (1953); Holiday for Bill (Part I) (1951); Holiday for Bill (Part II) (1951); How Quiet Helps at School (1953); Immunization (2nd Ed) (1955); Joan Avoids a Cold (1947); Let's Be Good Citizens at School (1953); Midwest Holiday (Part I) (1952); Midwest Holiday (Part II) (1952); Mother Takes a Holiday (Part I) (1952); Mother Takes a Holiday (Part II) (1952); News Magazine of the Screen (Vol. 7, Issue 6) (1957/02/00); Our Changing Family Life (1957); Our Home Town: Doylestown, PA. (1954); Our Home Town: Levittown, Pa. (1954); Pathe News Christmas with Their Cameramen and Crews 'Round the World (1950); Pharmacist (1946); School Rules: How They Help Us (1953); Shopping Can Be Fun: A New Concept in Merchandising (1957); Sleep for Health (1950); Sniffles and Sneezes (1955); Story of Television (1956); Television Remote Control (Tuner) (ca. 1961); Tippy, Our Town Dog (1951); Tomorrow's Drivers (1954); Town and the Telephone (ca. late 1950s); What About School Spirit? (1958); Why Study Science? (1955); Young Man's Fancy (Part I) (1952); Your Thrift Habits (1948). Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, public domain or CC0, including works by CBS, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the National Film Board of Canada, the Provincial Archives of Alberta, the Nationaal Archief (Anefo) and the Library of Congress. Music: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.... Tracks: Heartwarming, Wholesome, Americana, The Entertainer, Maple Leaf Rag, Gymnopedie No. 1, Gymnopedie No. 3. Facts drawn from contemporary newspaper reporting and public histories (U.S. Census Bureau, March of Dimes, UNICEF USA, NASA, the Smithsonian). Narration uses a synthetic voice. Cards, timelines and illustrations are original artwork made for this channel. #1950s #nostalgia #babyboomers