The "good old" days?

Sunny

Sunny

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In the thread about the C.S. Lewis quote, somebody said,:

If you are old enough to remember the cultural values on the 1950's and early 60's:
the events of today are beyond comprehension.

"What happened?"

I thought this was interesting enough to start a new thread on it. Starsong already mentioned the lack of women's rights and civil rights. How many more cultural values
of that period can we (not so fondly) remember?

Here are some:

Gays were very much in the closet, or living in shame and ridicule.

Schools were segregated all over the country, both de facto and de jure.

In the popular mind, everybody was a Christian, except for a few exotic sub-groups here and there, who didn't matter.

Girls were encouraged to grow up to be secretaries, nurses, or teachers. That about covered it.

Kids were taken out to the woodshed (literally or figuratively) and physically assaulted, to teach them to "behave."

Nearly every middle-class home looked alike. Conformity was the value of the day.

Everybody was required to dress pretty formally and uncomfortably most of the time, outside the home.

Feel free to add to this, if you can remember the "good old days."
 

Sunny said:
In the thread about the C.S. Lewis quote, somebody said,:

If you are old enough to remember the cultural values on the 1950's and early 60's:
the events of today are beyond comprehension.

"What happened?"

I thought this was interesting enough to start a new thread on it. Starsong already mentioned the lack of women's rights and civil rights. How many more cultural values
of that period can we (not so fondly) remember?

Here are some:

Gays were very much in the closet, or living in shame and ridicule.

Schools were segregated all over the country, both de facto and de jure.

In the popular mind, everybody was a Christian, except for a few exotic sub-groups here and there, who didn't matter.

Girls were encouraged to grow up to be secretaries, nurses, or teachers. That about covered it.

Kids were taken out to the woodshed (literally or figuratively) and physically assaulted, to teach them to "behave."

Nearly every middle-class home looked alike. Conformity was the value of the day.

Everybody was required to dress pretty formally and uncomfortably most of the time, outside the home.

Feel free to add to this, if you can remember the "good old days."
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Love the list!

Two things to add-to or dovetail in (highlighted portions)...

Housewives/homemakers. Seems tradition was getting married, having babies, the end.

As for dress, dressing pretty or formally extended to inside as well.
 

Sunny:
Social class was the control mechanism wherein each person knew what they could and
could not do.
Who were those that controlled our behavior; why did we submit?
A topic requiring pages and pages .
 
On the lighter side, here's another one:

Married couples in movies or on TV shows slept in twin beds, like Ward and June Cleever.

And June always wore her pearls, even when doing housework. So I guess you were right about that, Aunt Marg.
 
Sunny said:
On the lighter side, here's another one:

Married couples in movies or on TV shows slept in twin beds, like Ward and June Cleever.

And June always wore her pearls, even when doing housework. So I guess you were right about that, Aunt Marg.
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Love the additions, Sunny! :)

LOL, regarding June! Never dawned on me until you mentioned it, but boy, you are so right!

As for the single bed thing, I just can't get it out of my head now! It applied in so many homes I remember!
 
Well, one thing I've been learning in recent decades is much to do with "lifestyle" and "culture" is regional, rather than time-frame.

The schools I attended said little about "culture," except in terms of countries we'd probably never have a chance to go to, etc.
I started out in life in an area that retained its "old-skool" Dutch culture- all people are equal, regardless of gender, race, age, etc.; children should be encouraged to form and express opinions as early as possible in life; etc. and although I lived in a variety of different places with individuals of other backgrounds, I didn't encounter much opposition to any of this til the last couple of decades.

In my home state, segregation was forbidden by law. I get kinda irked when I notice stuff in the media where the word is used referring to population density. There was never any such 'act, process, policy, or practice' even when my mother and her siblings went to school, and I doubt if there is now, either. https://www.thefreedictionary.com/segregation

People didn't put their personal lives on display, but for the few gay adults I knew when I was a kid it was no big deal- although that word wasn't used. Somebody would say "Your teacher Mr. Smith isn't married?" "No, he's homosexual." No more reaction than a shrug.

Religion was considered personal/family business and not usually talked about. Of my closest friends throughout my growing up years, I only knew one friend's religion, and that was only because she attended parochial school.

Men provided for their families, women took care of the kids and homes. It was expected that most young men would serve in the military, and nearly all those I knew did.
Dropping out of high school was almost unheard of- unless there was an extreme situation like illness/death in the family.
 
I apologize if I'm somewhat straying from original topics intent here, but something else I remember, and I'm sure it applied pretty much across the board... people lived within their means and paid cash for everything, aside from their homes.

Boy-oh-boy... what happened there.
 
Divorce permanently branded and impoverished most woman, but freed up most man.
Speaking of divorce, people usually had to present evidence to a court to obtain one. Infidelity, mental cruelty, etc.

On the plus side, children generally had much more free time. Helicopter parenting was a rarity. Parents didn't want to referee disagreements between kids and their friends, nor did they freak out over skinned knees, a broken bone, a few stitches, or other relatively minor injuries. They'd patch you up - or take you to the doctor who'd patch you up, and life went on. Scraped up bodies were considered part and parcel of interacting with the physical world.
 
I just remember how much more polite people were. :D And that every-freakin'-idiot wasn't "going viral" on a daily basis.

I think we tend to forget how far women's rights have come in a very short time. A few nights ago I watched a movie about Ruth Bader Ginsberg called "On the Basis of Sex" and was honestly taken aback by the obstacles she had to overcome, starting with her education in a "man's world." And this was in the 60's-70's!

I should not have been so surprised since in the 80's I was denied having my tubes tied WITHOUT MY HUSBAND'S PERMISSION. OMG, I have rarely put on such a public display of bad manners as that day. Of course my husband was in total agreement but the fact that I was considered his property in the damn 1980s rankled.
 
C'est Moi said:
I just remember how much more polite people were. :D And that every-freakin'-idiot wasn't "going viral" on a daily basis.

I think we tend to forget how far women's rights have come in a very short time. A few nights ago I watched a movie about Ruth Bader Ginsberg called "On the Basis of Sex" and was honestly taken aback by the obstacles she had to overcome, starting with her education in a "man's world." And this was in the 60's-70's!

I should not have been so surprised since in the 80's I was denied having my tubes tied WITHOUT MY HUSBAND'S PERMISSION. OMG, I have rarely put on such a public display of bad manners as that day. Of course my husband was in total agreement but the fact that I was his property in the damn 1980s rankled.
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And don't forget how long wife-beating was legal... and spousal rape... North Carolina didn't criminalize the latter til 1993!!!
 
C'est Moi said:
I just remember how much more polite people were. :D And that every-freakin'-idiot wasn't "going viral" on a daily basis.

I think we tend to forget how far women's rights have come in a very short time. A few nights ago I watched a movie about Ruth Bader Ginsberg called "On the Basis of Sex" and was honestly taken aback by the obstacles she had to overcome, starting with her education in a "man's world." And this was in the 60's-70's!

I should not have been so surprised since in the 80's I was denied having my tubes tied WITHOUT MY HUSBAND'S PERMISSION. OMG, I have rarely put on such a public display of bad manners as that day. Of course my husband was in total agreement but the fact that I was considered his property in the damn 1980s rankled.
Click to expand...
That last paragraph is amazing, C'est Moi, as late as the 1980's!
 
Everybody dressed up to go to church. Women wore hats and gloves, men wore suits and ties. Children were neat and tidy. Easter Sunday was an explosion of finery.

I'm just fine with the more casual attire in church now, but I still feel dress should be "respectful"......no navels flashing or booty shorts barely covering the essentials (and I saw just that last time I went to church).
 
JaniceM said:
I'm not sure of that procedure specifically, but it wasn't til 1972 that the Supreme Court granted unmarried individuals the right to use contraception at all: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenstadt_v._Baird
and the Court didn't even grant the right to married couples until 1965: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griswold_v._Connecticut
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It must have been a state by state thing. I know New York provided contraception to single people, as when I was 17 in the late sixties I called my family doctor, said I wanted the pill, and he sent a prescription by mail. I wasn't even "doing it" yet, but felt I was ready.
 
Pepper said:
It must have been a state by state thing. I know New York provided contraception to single people, as when I was 17 in the late sixties I called my family doctor, said I wanted the pill, and he sent a prescription by mail. I wasn't even "doing it" yet, but felt I was ready.
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Yes, I think it was a state-by-state thing.
I never heard of doctors mailing prescriptions, though.
 
Pepper said:
If she weren't married and wanted her tubes tied would she even have been allowed to? Or did this make her free to do so?
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I was divorced and couldn't have mine done because I ''might change my mind if I met a man who wanted children '' ..I was told to ''run along, and come back when I was over 40''.. I was 35 at the time with a 15 year old child.....

My sister who'd had 4 children by the time she was 23.. and had nearly died having the last one , was told the same thing about getting her husbands' permission..
 
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