It Was The 50s and I Was A Kid, What Did I Know…

Front Porch (1)

It was the 50s, life was good. But I was a kid, what did I know…

I remember my mother waiting until supper was finished before contentedly sitting down herself, to enjoy a cup of tea and bite to eat. I grew up naively thinking that all mothers had the same routine; set, serve, clear, then eat. It was the 50s, and I was a kid, what did I know…

We never took a family vacation. However,  we were active as a family, bonding with simple, valuable, family activities: evening rides in our spacious Chevy station wagon for ice cream and hot dogs or to check out the wonderful countryside, fishing at local ponds, watching family television shows, playing games around the kitchen table, even venturing 40 miles to Boston for a baseball game.

We were part of a ‘blue collar’ community and’ living the dream’, it seemed. It was the 50s and I was a kid, what did I know…

june-n-stephen-1957

I watched ‘Three Stooges’ reruns and my father would scoff, “you’ll grow up stupid, watching that stuff”.  We watched Friday Night Fights together on a black ‘n white picture screen and listened on the radio when a Swede knocked out Floyd Patterson for the heavyweight crown.  I didn’t grow up ‘stupid’, nor did I become a tough guy.  The Stooges taught me how great laughter is and I learned nothing from boxing, except the cigar commercials caught my attention.  I would be tempted.  It was the 50’s and tobacco was still king. What did I know…

Annette Funicello, the prettiest Mouseketeer, surely saw me in the crowd at her K-Mart autograph appearance.  I had a crush on her, every boy did, I’m sure she winked at me.  But she never answered my fan letter.  Maybe it got lost.  It was the 50s, I felt heartbreak for the first time.

Big malls didn’t exist in the 50s. Neither did video games, but we had imaginations, enthusiasm and bicycles to take us places; museums, play fields, or downtown for stuff. Several of us went together for moral support when it came time to buy our first jockstraps for school sports.  It was the 50s, we were all kids, navigating our way…

The 50s was an exciting time for new fads, new music and new dangers.  Hula hoops became an instant craze and Elvis became an instant hit.  Parents worried about rock ‘n roll and morals while the government worried about a dictator named Castro. I worried about pimples.

mother-1951            dad-1957

Sitting on our front porch in the 50s, I would calculate my age by the year 2000.  Wow, that seemed old, I thought.  But that was a long road to travel and would take forever to get there.  With certainty, it came and went. I was so young when it did. At least, looking back now, it seemed I was.

The 50s were relatively calm and peaceful. The 60s were just around the corner. What possibly could change…

…but then, what do I know?

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srbottch

Retired in 2013 after 5 years as an elementary school teacher and 40 years as a sales representative to begin anew as a school crossing guard. SMy essays/stories are a way to communicate through the telling of personal experiences. One reader said about my blog stories, "...these are like a cold sip during a marathon run, simple, real life events". Another offered about my blog, “it brings some sense of normalcy not easily found in the modern world.”

13 thoughts on “It Was The 50s and I Was A Kid, What Did I Know…”

  4. I think this one is your best.  We all looked the kids from “our gang”, didn’t we.  Mercy me, what a ‘poorly’-looking crew of kids.  How did mother do it.  I really think we, the two of us, had an exceptional upbringing with all the ‘simple’ but wonderful experiences we had growing up in our blue collar neighborhood and having the parents we did.  I know the older 5 didn’t have it so good, but we were blessed for sure.  Talked with Janet last night.  She has become a political junky watching Hannity every night.  She sounded better than I’ve heard her in a long time.  She said she had talked with Carl that day and he told her that the doctors had found a spot on his lungs.   Who knows.     We’ll, woke up about 3:00 and couldn’t get back to sleep so I’m going to turn the light out and see if I can catch a little more sleep before the day officially begins.  Make it a good one.  GO FALCONS!

    Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S® 6, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

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    1. All the pictures were from the 50s except the first group one. You looked like the little Dutch girl. A real cutie! I remember the hassock in our living room. And would you look at that TV!😄

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    1. She was an angel. She grew up in the 19teens got knocked up at 18, married a man whom swooned over in 1930. He became the love of her life. He was a tradesman. She was a housewife to 7 kids, me the youngest. She was happy to do the things she did and for the life she had. A widow at 72 and died at 92, in her sleep. There were two men in her life when she died, God and my father. She spoke to them both every night. I do t think she ever had ‘down time’ in her life. Like you, my wife, two kids and I ate together every night unless I was on the road. Different times, diff circumstances but the live was always there. ‘But, what do I know…?’

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