My wife's story of her life in the 1950s

Baby boomer women born in the late 40's and early 50's entered a very different world than they will leave. After WWII the women who worked in the plants to provide military hardware went back home and began having children. There was no birth control so the mere presence of the husband in the home resulted in a record number of babies being born.

The music of the day was the big band sound. Glen Miller rocked! Elizabeth Taylor was the most beautiful woman in the world, just ask Eddie Fisher. I remember a photograph of Ms.

Taylor on the front of magazine when we were on a family vacation to the beach and my mother and father deciding that yes, she was beautiful, prettier than Debbie Reynolds. Travel during the 50's was for rich people. To go overseas you had to go by ship and those fortunate to be able to do that came back with trunks with stickers from foreign places on them.

The United Sates economy was beginning to boom. There had been little spending during the war and discretionary spending began to pick up. Couples began to buy houses. Automobiles were commonplace. A new Chevrolet would run you a thousand dollars. Women stayed home and took care of the house and children while the husband worked outside of the home. It was a more simple time. Women who did work did clerical type work. Usually on a typewriter, clerks in dry good stores and grocery stores. Aren't you glad we no longer have to live like that. Now we even get to shop. Shop 300+ Brands at Shoes.com.

Did I mention that during this era milk was brought to the front door! The milk was in a glass bottle with a foil cap and usually very cold. It was a real treat if mother asked the milkman to leave chocolate milk! I remember that President Eisenhower played a lot of golf. At least I remember my parents saying that that is all he did. Starting to school in the mid 50's was an adventure. The buildings seemed so big. There was a wind chime in the door of my 1st grade room. That is the only way I could find it. The schools were very much segregated and after the white kids wore out the books they were sent over the to "colored" kids school for them to use. As I think of it, the whole of society was segregated. Even in public places there were even separate restrooms and water fountains that read "white" or "colored".

I remember praying to God and thanking him for three specific things. And this was when I was very young. I thanked Him that I was born to my parents, that I was born in the United States, and that I was born white because I did not think I could handle being treated like the "colored" people were treated. For some reason phonics had been put on hold in my school district, we had balanced meals in the cafeteria, and all snacks consisted of an apple or an orange. A teacher down the hall kept the fruit and I can still close my eyes and smell the apples and oranges.

School divisions in the day were different from now. There were elementary schools, grades 1 through 6; jr. high schools, grades 7 through 9, and then high school, grades 10 through 12. The middle school concept was just being explored. Elvis Presley had been the dominant factor in music, replacing big band, and then in the early 60's there was the British invasion beginning with the Beatles. The Beatles ushered in the longer hair on men and Nero collared jackets and shirts. Shop The Latest Fashions at CoutureCandy

There was also a fad where kids wore shirts that looked like doctor's uniform shirts. Along with the British invasion music was some crazy kind of music consisting of "One Eyed, One Horn, Flying Purple People Eater" and "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Tiny Polka Dot Bikini." The sixties was definitely the beginning of the best music ever but there were some duds! As young girls we would sing along with our little transistor radios. Those were the hot ticket of the day. Mine was a GE and I remember it being silver in color. Using today's standards they were a piece of junk, but still it was a start.

Television had become more common in the late 50's but I do not remember any programming I enjoyed. We did not have a TV until the 60's but my grandmother had one and we went there every Friday night so my Dad could watch wrestling. During the mid to late 60's I learned of American Bandstand and Soul Train. I then became a TV junkie after I got home from school.

The ambitions of most girls in the early sixties were to go to college but to not work. We wanted to be "educated" housewives. I was not necessarily an ambitious girl. I knew I would go to college, my parents left no option, but I had no idea what I would do except what other educated women did which was teach school. Dog.com - Discount Pet Supplies

Most teachers in my school were women. Of course there were the football and basketball male coaches who would teach an occasional class. It is kind of scary to look at my own career. I am a business manager for a large corporation and a coach taught my first bookkeeping class!

Then came the hippies, protesting, along with so many activist movements, rock and roll and drugs. While so much good came from that era, the WOMENS RIGHTS MOVEMENT being one of them a lot of things that were not good also came from that movement. The music was great, the clothes were funky, but then came Vietnam, the draft, and death.

Hey stay-at-home-moms