I was a young child in the New Jersey suburbs of NYC in the 1950's, which were the best of times, and the worst of times. In general, you felt safe to the extent that concerns about your safety at least in your Caucasian neighborhood never entered your mind; you walked or biked everywhere usually alone, including to school. Anyone could walk into a school at any time for any reason whatsoever; it was a school, and who would want to hurt children?! At school, however, air raid or nuclear drills were held where we were taught to cower against interior walls or under our desks for protection against distant and mysterious enemies, the Soviets, who might someday come to bomb us.
Families had one vehicle, rather than a car for every person of driving age. There was likewise one phone per household, a heavy rotary-dialed model permanently tethered to a fixed location where calls were anything but private. There was also one black-and-white television set per household that might receive several channels, perhaps three of them clearly. Be ready to get up to adjust the "rabbit ear" antennas, or change the channel or volume on the set. Turn on the TV before your show started, because vacuum tube sets were the norm and required several minutes to "warm up." The TV repairman was a frequent visitor as tubes would often need replacement.
Air conditioning was mostly in movie theaters and expensive stores, not in homes and vehicles. It was supposed to be hot in the summer, and everyone was miserable! Be glad you at least had an electric fan, and hope that Mom and Dad would get the car running fast so you could roll the windows down and not fry yourself on the vinyl car upholstery.
Professional men wore hats when going out, and read newspapers to pass time on their commutes via train or bus to work. Many people smoked virtually everywhere, and ashtrays were in homes, on desks, and in cars; you definitely would get your share of second-hand smoke. People tended to die younger from an unwise diet, smoking, or undiagnosed and untreated high blood pressure/high cholesterol. Many men didn't live to see retirement. And of course, racism, sexism, and homophobia were powerful undercurrents that were operational and institutionalized. "Ike" was president, and Elvis was introducing people to a radical new form of music my father considered "noise..."