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Family Life in the 50‘s
The American lifestyle changed after World War II. My memories start in the late 40’s and the changes that made the 50’s so exuberant happened gradually. I took it all for granted without any of the difficulties of the depression that my parents knew. Still I knew that my growing up in the 50’s was completely different from the old days when my parents grew up. Where they grew up listening to the radio at night for entertainment, we had TV. And it made a big difference.
TV Caused Change
TV brought many changes to life in America. For me, the TV era began in 1949 when we moved from suburbia to a farm and got our first TV. Maybe it wasn’t only TV that changed things but something about TV was addictive. At first there was only one channel and whatever was on, we watched it. Sometimes we couldn’t even be bothered to take breaks for meals. And we weren’t alone becaue somebody developed TV trays designed to make it easy to eat and watch television at the same time.
New Products Followed
Conveniently, the food industry was evolving too creating new products for the changing American lifestyle. Enter the TV dinner. Looking back, it is hard to appreciate the appeal of these dinners in a tray but at the time they made dinner fun. What appealed to me was that I didn’t have to eat what the rest of the family was eating. I even liked the aluminun trays with compartments for each course. They weren’t tasty. Americans were not very sophistocated about food in the 50’s. They weren’t very attratactive either. Still, they seemed hip and cool. They were easy on mother too.
The TV effect.
Can I attribute the breakdown of the American family to TV? Maybe not, but until we got TV, nobody in my family ever considered that we would eat dinner in the living room glued to whatever might be on TV. This irrepressisble urge was facilitated by TV trays and the TV dinner.
I can remember the family all sitting round listening to the radio, but only after eating a meal.
TV brought the demise of family life as we once knew it, and now computers are finishing the job.
Airline in flight meals and TV dinners – who copied who?
Bill
Ashton-under-Lyne, UK
Bill Murney’s last Blog Post ..Earl Hines
Bill,
I don’t know which copied which because I didn’t fly until the 60’s. Still thanks fo confirming my suspicions.
Ralph’s last Blog Post ..Retirement Lifestyle Question-Are you whining
We did not have a tv for much of the time that I grew up in the 1960’s BUT divorce happened all around me. That is what tore up the American family- IMHO. In 1968 50% of the neighborhood divorced. Also all of the nuns quite the convent and more than a few priests left the church. It was chaos!
I think we can blame the lack of commitment to family on the failing of our society as a whole. We began to put grandma in nursing homes (only the poor went there when I was little). Both parents worked. Children began to live at day care. And the pressure pressed people out of marriage. Heck, we only started marrying for love three generations before that…before we married for commitment and hopefully fell in love in the end.
It is sad to say that my grandson will most likely grow up around more children brought into the world without both parents in their corner. 60% of his generation is brought into the world by a single mother. I really wonder about the next generation…and encourage my children that when they find a person they think they could mold around and love- to marry- for LIFE!
Somedays I don’t feel like being married either— but that commitment sees us through to the next day.
Janette’s last Blog Post ..On my way and off face book
Janette,
I was only partly serious in this post. Certainly there was more going on than the invention of TV dinners to attack the family. I am hoping that we can recover from the breakdown of the family but it is going to take effort.
Are we getting into that “What happened to the GOOD OLD DAYS discussion again? Don’t we need to remember that, in those times, we were pretty much just kids – who had a whole different and usually benign view of the world.
Re those good old days, I remember my parents still reeling from memories of the the depression, WWII & Korean War, alcoholism, the labor movement, the McCarthy hearings, racism and religious persecution…… and I was still so happy to play with my hula hoop or air gun or watch Howdy Doody…
The good old days syndrome is just a way for us curmudgeons to assign blame for the world changing so much faster than before. But the velocity of change has always increased – all the way back to when humanoids first started using tools. Things change, deal with it!
Blaming is a great way to avoid personal responsibility and grab onto easy explanations, limited as they may be (and I’m speaking sociologically, politically, economically, etc.).
I’d rather live in the now and work to “bloom where I am planted”.
Make it a good day.
Banjo Steve,
I don’t know when I would prefer to live. But it doesn’t matter. I am living now and happy to be so. It’s the world I helped to make warts and all. I agree that blaming doesn’t make anything better
Right now I want to do whatever I can do to contribute to a happy world. It may be futile but it keeps me busy.
Wow….I remember when having a frozen dinner, in front of the TV was a treat for us kids in the 50’s. Now I wouldn’t touch one with a ten foot pole.
Well…I gotta go. The tsunami hits the coastal town of Ventura in about an hour, and I gotta get my blogging done so I can ride my bike to the beach and check it out….Big Surf. I won’t get too close.
Hansi’s last Blog Post ..Struwwelpeter
Hansi,
Be sure and report on the Tsunami. If I was living in my old house in Palos Verdes, I’d be down at Lunada Bay watching the waves too. Now I’m 1,000 feet up and 100 miles East of the action.
Ralph…the Tsunami was a big let down for us on the southern California coast. Bummer, I was hoping Godzilla would wash up on shore.
Seriously, love peace and prayers to those in Japan suffering from this disaster.
Hansi’s last Blog Post ..Struwwelpeter
Hansi,
Don’t relax. Remember that Godzilla always comes along after the disaster.