The Romance of the '50s

Alan (ajzend),  you said it well.

.....

Dennis

NOT ONE PERSON who ever received a college deferment was then drafted into the military after their college deferment expired.

Nonsense. Perhaps in the area covered by your particular draft board, but my deferment ran out and I got called up. As it happened, I flunked the physical because of bad eyesight, but if I'd passed the physical you better believe I'd have been in the military within a month or two. 

At Michigan State University and all Land Grant colleges, ROTC was mandatory for two years.

That requirement was gone by the time of Vietnam. I enrolled at MSU in 1965 and I was not required to enroll in ROTC. 

There is nothing new under the sun.

The Babylonian quote is similar to some Roman ones as well.  However, these reflect youth's unleashed energies.  Today's youth have all of that plus a damaged and lower intellect from the massive electronics input,  It truly is not the same.  For all of the wildness of the roaring 20's America's moral center did not shift.  People did not lose their work ethic and achievement orientation.  Today's youth, and unfortunately, many of their parents are and are becoming lost causes.  I don't say these things just standing on some old valued principles.  As a physician I read medical studies that show this as fact.  In fact, my father, as a physician as well, identified this situation decades ago when the only screen time was television.  The lost intellect when early adulthood is reached is irreversible.  This is also observational.  I have seen the decline in high school graduates continually sink deeper into the toilet for 36 years.  It's just not intellect either.  It's moral character as well.

A stranger in a strange land.

Alan

Rather than dwell on the much changed society of the present, I enjoy this thread for its recollections of a long-gone past--the early postwar years in particular--when many of us spent a great and memorable childhood, and when toy trains and real trains were so much a part of it.

A time that included these sorts of things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMx4MEoKaKA

hello ajzend..........

alot of  what you are saying is true as i see some of that already but what do you see 10 years from now or 2023 ?

the woman who loves the S.F.5011

Tiffany

To me, looked ahead to 2023, I am incredibly positive.  I know we have lots of problems but sometimes BIG things happen and sort of provide the fuel (which is usually money - not much happens without it) to make good change.  I just finished a report in our company newsletter, that goes out to execs in the utilities and governemnt regulation field about why my company is  so optimistic about America's future: both the International Energy Agency and the US DOE's Energy Information department have recently released studies that project the US will become a net energy exporter by 2020 (still importing lots of oil but exporting more value in coal and natural gas - much much of it to China) and we will be energy independent (importing no significant energy) by 2035.  This one shift, due to technology and rising prices for energy globally, will cure a lot of what ails the US - turn around balance of payments, create gobs of jobs here, and shift things in the "us versus them" however and whatever that means.  Meanwhile, manufacturering is already coming back to the US, albiet slowly - but then that's how it always begins. 

I truly believe my grandchildren will have a better life than I, or their parents, did.  Like the 1950s?  Not at all: Complicated, imperfect, and frustrating at times, yes - but better.

Still, I

Came home from Korean War in '52, got job in electric shop at Western Electric, later quit job enrolled in College, then got married [and we experienced near starvation]. So the "romantic" culture of the '50s passed me by and no trains until HO in the late '60s--when I had a real paycheck.

Born 2/32

Hello Lee Willis.....

ohhhhhhh,we hope youre right about this as we both would like to have a job but will companies then hire old seniors like us and some of the forum members here too?

the woman who loves the S.F.5011

Tiffany

It's easy to see our personal experiences from back then have much to do with who we are and how we think.  Kids today have to grow up so much faster.  Any information is available so quickly.  

I remember (born 1952) going with dad to the city (Philly), to Miller's, or Sears & Windsor's discount stores to buy trains.  Picking up catalogs & having trains at Christmas.

My dad left this world in 97, but not before he helped guide me to enjoy life.  While I don't pretend people have been horrible to each other, I also realize playing with trains is a great distraction.  A distraction hatched in the 50's.

I think one thing that stands out about the '50s was that most people had a positive outlook for the future. Remember, adults back then had surived a 10+ year Depression, as well as WWII. Through hard work, things could only get better. Life was more family oriented. What would your kids or grandkids say to you if you said, "Let's go for a Sunday drive"?. A family would save a little bit at a time all year so they could spend a week at the lake or beach. Now they ask, "Can we afford to charge it or not?".

I have 9 grandkids, ages 2 to 16. I think they are all wonderful, yet I still worry about kids today in terms of what I see... like the kids I saw at a parade, where most of them were only looking at their hand-helds. Or the young people on Amazon describing  novels about the Halocaust as "boring".

As far as offering jobs to young people...fine, as long as they can write a sentence that can be understood, or have a useful education ("the history of dance" does not count as a major subject unless you want to be a dance instructor). 

I don't worry overly much about the future--too old for that now, and I don't have offspring to worry about.  

I do wish I could share the optimism Lee and others have expressed about what the future holds for today's young people and this nation as a whole, but I'm afraid that I don't and can't.

Dating back to the 70s, I have held either full time or part time teaching posts at four major universities.  My overall impression over that long period is not one that most would want to hear.  Today, far too many young people see employment as some sort of entitlement (a word I really despise)...something that they deserve because they have reached a certain level of education.  Relatively few are accepting of the fact that you often need to start at the bottom and work your way up, and that a good job isn't going to be handed to you on a silver platter.  It's a very different mindset that I have seen evolve over the past 40 or so years, and it is disturbing.

I suppose it's good that there is a variety of views among the older generation . . .

But that said, Allan, I couldn't disagree more.  I'm  bullish on just about every aspect of the future.  No doubt my luck, or whatever you call it, the last few years has a lot to do with it: I started a business in mid '06, just in time for the recession, but despite that my once-little company has "created" about 140 other jobs (all but five in the US) as we grow despite all the economic woes.  I know its easy to be optmistic when you're riding a rocket going up, but . . .

We have had no problem finding young, intelligent, willing learners to work hard, think fast on their feet, and do what is required to get the job done without complaining, fantastic young kids that certainly don't feel entitled to anything but are eager to work hard.  We actually have people volunteering to intern for nnothing - but I always pay decent starting wage and so far we've been able to keep all of those who work out. 

I think there has always been an "entitlement" portion on our population - I know it was there in the 50s, because I remember a pathetic figure who my parents just explained to me as "John doesn't want to work hard - that's why things are so hard for him."  That was an early, and valuable lesson that stuck -- I actually remember thinking: something in your life is going to be hard - either the work you do or the life itself.  Easy decision to make for me, and apparently, for a whole bunch of young kids today. 

I was born in 1942, and I remember our doctor making house calls. My mother would boil some water to sterilize the glass syringe and needle so he could give me a penicillin shot when I was ill. You could always tell when a doctor was in the neighborhood by the Cadillac with the "MD" license plate parked outside one of our houses in Woodhaven, Queens, NY.

Another benefit of living in Queens, NY was the ability to ride the el and subway to New York City to visit the Lionel and Gilbert showrooms and all the hobby shops like Madison Hardware, Polks, Savoy Merchandise, and Model Railroad Equipment Corporation.

I enlisted in the US Army at age 19 in June of 1962 after two years of college. Attained the rank of Sgt. E-5 in under twenty-four months. In March of 1965, I received a 90-day "early out" to go back to college. My outfit, the 5th Infantry Division, later would be deployed to Vietnam that summer! It was pure luck and timing that I did not go to war.

Big difference now Lee: overwhelming national debt.  

The "Pearl Harbor" of the future is our $16 trillion debt, growing about one trillion annually and no attempt to deal with our inflated spending habits. The problem is us, of course.

I believe the Budget Office calculates the present value of our "entitlement" obligations at $82 trillion. Not a good basis for optimism but I guess we have to keep on keeping on and print more dollars.

Gotta keep Amtrak and my layout running.

Post Script to my earlier post:  For the member who remembers the 5c Coke (interestingly enough I can not find a symbol on my keyboard for the old cent mark, you remember, the c with a slash through it) and watching the rail yard work around the station while drinking a soda.  I would take a penny and ride my bike to the General Store a few town blocks from home picking up two glass soda bottles from the ditch line along the road so that with the two bottles valued at 2c each and my penny I could enjoy sitting on the front porch of the General Store and watch trains go by while sipping a cold Pepsi (pepsi is a native drink to North Carolina) and return the empty to the store.

If you are using a Macintosh computer alt-4 will give you the cent symbol.    5¢  

Speaking of costs, at age 5 and 6 in the 40s we kids could buy a penny glider, made of balsa wood, and fly them around in the street (we lived in a dead end court) for hours. We could ride the bus downtown for a nickel, see a double feature cowboy movie or the "Dead End Kids" for 12 cents, buy candy bars or Milk Duds etc. for a nickel too.

.....

Dennis

Lets not forget taking a skate and nailing them to a two by four, getting a crate to make a place for nailing a handle bar. The real masters of making a scooter nailed a coffee can to the front as a headlight. One time I made the mistake of convincing my cousin to get inside of a toy box outfitted with swivel wheels so I could push him off the top of a huge hill on our street. He crazily zig zagged down the grade at high speed without the benefit of a brake until he made contact with a parked car which split the sides of the box off. There he was clinging with dear life to his little oblong platform bumping along when my Aunt and Uncle and folks came out the front door. Another experiment gone terribly wrong. His comment?

"Wow that was great!"

Let's get this thread back on track. It's all about happy times and fond memories. How about, "Hey Poncho, Hey Cisco" or "Happy Trails To You". Maybe a little Lone Ranger time.

Many fine recollections here, and I have my share for sure, but...

"But if memories were all I sang, I'd rather drive a truck."

- Rick Nelson -

Ozzie and Harriet's son.

Pete

Listening for the musical tunes of the ice cream truck as he cruised the neighborhoods on summer afternoons.  My ticket to a cool treat after a full afternoon of playing outdoors with my buddies or working various jobs around the neighborhood.

No computers, no cell phones...none of the electronic gizmos that seem to command the undivided attention of today's young (and old).  All the outside activity sure paid off when I got into the service.

My lifelong interest in model railroading was rekindled by a chance acquisition of a 1951 Lionel 2175W set just three years ago. Since then I have become increasingly interested in O-gauge as a diversion from HO. I've acquired addtional O-gauge items with a preference for mostly 1950's Lionel, representing their golden years of production. These are the kind of trains I would have most enjoyed as a kid.

Post Script ABA: You know, our love for trains is as addicting now as our memories in this thread have been but for one revelation.  After my weekly newspaper collecting task was completed I think back on the fact that even then I had to browse the Hobby Shop for a month before I would make a purchase - $1.95 was a lot to give up for a freight car and $29.95 was a lot to pay for a new F3 engine - just too much - a whole months profit from taking the paper route - paper route vs rail route !!! so---I stayed with the small stuff at the Hobby Store. 

I'm enjoying this thread very much. In Los Angeles we had not only our milk delivered to the door, but a guy with a truck full of ice delivered fish, Holms Bakery had trucks with bread. The driver would blow a whistle to let the mothers know he was in the area. Of course as Allan said, the ice cream truck with it's music. How things changed. We had to live in Sacramento for a short time in not a great area before our house was ready here. I heard a ice cream truck one day. It looked more like a armored car. One tiny round opening and bars over everything else. So sad. Don

In the Midwest, instead of Holms, we had the Omar Man..bread, cakes, donuts, milk..all delivered... right to the front door. Went the way of gas station attendants..another lost occupation along with firemen and coal shovels...

In case you missed it, here is a video of my 1950's Toy and Train Layout.

I received my first electric train when I was 7 years old at Christmas in 1957.  It is a Lionel 027 train set #1575 and consists of the Missouri Pacific 205 A-A Alco's pulling 5 freight cars, 6121 Pipe Car, 6112 Gondola with containers, 6111 Log Car, 6560 Crane Car, and 6119 Work Caboose. Vintage 1950's toys include, Robert The Robot, Mr. Machine, Easy Bake Oven, Vacuform, Roller Skates, Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs, Magic Eight Ball, Slinky, Mickey Mouse Ukulele, Tamborine and Ears, Etch-a-Sketch, Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots, Barbie and her Car, tin Jet and Dump Truck, Viewmaster, and various Pull Toys.

No electric power extended down the Farm road until after WWII. My clockwork train was a NYC winder from Christmas 1938.

A favorite summertime memory is the anticipation of the homemade peach and vanilla ice cream made in the old crank freezers. Mr. Apple delivered block ice in his '35 Fork truck for our icebox twice weekly from the Greensboro ice and coal plant and, after picking into small blocks, we busted it in a burlap sack with the flat side of an axe to enable freezer size pieces. Raw milk and cream, sugar, eggs and a touch of vanilla flavoring.

The good old days[] of cutting stove wood, milking by hand and carrying an oil  lantern everywhere for chores, especially in the short, dark days of Winter.

And, being especially careful not to disturb the hibernating Black Snake when getting corn from the crib to feed the mules. I made dang sure not to disturb him in the Summer either[when he was on rat patrol].

 Ooooh, good example, Don!  BTW, Sylvan makes this resin kit (SE-O3) sweetheart in O scale...I had to have it!!  A challenge, but fun!!  Clare Gilbert is visiting our store tomorrow...how timely!  Think I'll take this and the tugboat and barge (I named it Scuphee ) he makes in O scale to show.  I keep encouraging him to do more for the O scalers.

KD

They gave cardboard trucks out to the kids. I love your model. The real ones had a Studebaker or nash engine depending on when they were made. Don

Been posted before but great to watch again.

http://oldfortyfives.com/TakeMeBackToTheFifties.htm

For me it was growing up in Pittsburgh, where my brother (to a lessor extent) and my cousin (to a greater extent) were chooch freaks...knowing where to find the good stuff in the mid '50s.  Despite their fondness for little tinker-toy steamers, I was soon introduced to Diesels of all shapes and sizes, and the King of Pennsy steam; the outrageous (for a five year old) PRR 2-10-4 Jay.  Was at Pitcairn at least three times, and had my ultimate experience with this machine at my dad's company picnic in '57.  Another unforgetable event: watching coke being dumped into waiting gondolas at sunset at Pittsburgh Coke and Chemical - Neville Island.  A standard that could never be equalled again,  and then throw in all that awesome Lionel...I mean what more could you want??!!

Ah, yes...the things we once did as kids in the fifties. 

Like running around the neighborhood, through neighbors' yards, hiding behind cars and bushes, chasing each other on our Schwinn's...all the while shooting at each other with cap pistols!!!  All incited by that horrific Western 'violence' on big-cabinet-little-tube black&white TV's...like our ol' Dumont! 

Just try to get away with that nowadays!!!

Hmmm...When you think about it, that's what is claimed today...TV, DVD, Computer Game, cinema violence leading to re-enactments in a neighborhood near you...

But, not with a roll of caps in a plastic or diecast facsimile.

Ah, well, back to this forum's lifeblood...trains.  Yep, they were THE mode of interstate travel back then...at least as far as my adolescent mind was concerned.

Travelling from D.C. to Wisconsin every summer to visit my Mom's relatives was torturous incarceration in the 1949 Buick...a three-day trip each way.  But riding the B&O and Twin Cities Zephyr, as we did if Dad could not get away from the office, was more to look forward to...than Christmas!!  Really!!  Dome cars, boat-tail observation cars, fancy dining cars, rhythmic wheels and swaying, fiery Pittsburgh steel mills in the night, river-hugging tracks along the Mississippi, massive train yards, huge train stations in D.C. and Chicago, trains, trains, trains everywhere!!!  It was as close to heaven-on-earth as I could imagine. 

I really miss it, too.

So, when at home...trains, trains, trains.  2343 ABA's pulling freights and streamliners, 823 switchers shunting dump cars, Dad's 366W racing around the Christmas tree, Strombecker wood models of trains for the shelves in the bedroom, eating Post Sugar Crisp and pleading with neighbors and relatives to do the same in order to collect all the tin railroad signs, magazines about trains, books about trains, TV shows about trains, ...anything, ....everything.

After 68 years, it has hardly worn off...Thankfully!!

Great hobby!

KD

I was also born in 1942, and until 1948, lived in Ridgewood, Queens.

KD:

Actually born in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. We moved to Woodhaven when I was eight or nine.

My mother's cousin, John Brigandi, was the owner and pharmacist of the Bargett Pharmacy ("the oldest drugstore in Brooklyn") near the Myrtle Avenue El in Ridgewood. My aunt and uncle, Lucy and John Brigandi, also lived in Middle Village, near Ridgewood.

I had a close German friend, Bob Maidl, who had relatives in Ridgewood.

Gee, to us guys from the Bronx you guys were suburbanites!