21 Pictures Only Some Folk Will Understand

#1:  Cars Were Colorful!  Most cars these days look fairly bland, but in the 50's, our cars were big, bright, and fun!

#2.  We Got Dressed Up for Birthday Parties.  And sometimes there was even a pony there!

#3:  We Played in the Streets:  We didn't have to text our friends back in the day - we'd all just come outside and get to playing!

#4:  Gas Was Very Cheap:  On some days, it was only $0.20 a gallon, and beyond that, the people at the station could also fix just about anything!

#5:  Ben Franklin 5-10 Was Everything:  We loved going to these stores.  They had just about anything and everything you could think of.

#6:  If it Wasn't the Ben Franklin, it Was the A&P! 

#7: Our Skates Got "Locked" with a Key.  They were also made almost entirely of metal and very hard to skate on!

#8:  The Drive-In Was The Place to Be:  This 1950's photo from South Bend, Indiana shows how popular they were!

#9:  Car Seats Were More Like Couches:  That’s right - they were big, long, and you could slide all the way across!

#10:  The Freezer Actually Had to be DEFROSTED!:  That's right, every now and then you'd have to manually defrost the freezer - sometimes took all day with a lot of scraping!.

#11:  Grandma Let Us Do Everything.  Well, maybe that hasn't changed so much, but we LOVED eating off the beaters!

#12:  Sometimes Your Food Came On Roller Skates!  That's right - certain restaurants had "roller girls" who would zoom your food out to you!

#13:  We got DOWN at the Sock Hop!

#14:  Sunday Drives Were A Thing:  That's right - on Sunday, many of us would load up the family car and just go cruising over to the neighbors or just around town!

#15:  There Was One TV.  And, surprise, we didn't argue all night about who should get to watch their favorite show.  Most of the time, we all liked the same shows!

#16:  The Playgrounds were VERY Different:  At recess, we'd swing from the monkey bars with wild abandon and often even stand on the swings and go as high as possible.  And still, we survived!

#17:  TV Had "Sign Off" Messages.  Remember these?  TV would go off at midnight and sometimes even go as far as playing the National Anthem all night.

#18: Just One Hula Hoop Wasn't Enough:  Some of us could do multiple at a time!

#19:  We didn't Text, But We Did Pass Notes!  And we were experts at not getting caught!

#20:  We Had Xylophones That We Kept on a Pull String.  That's right - there was nothing like the Pull a Tune!

#21:  We Got Bottled Cokes and Loved Them.

Thanks to Dick Horton for sharing!

The Year is 1922

The year is 1922,"One hundred years ago."
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some statistics for Year 1922:
The average life expectancy for men was 47 years.
Fuel for cars was sold in drug stores only.
Only 14 percent of homes had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent of homes had a telephone.
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
The average US wage in 1922 was 22 cents per hour.
The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000 per year.
A dentist earned $2,500 per year.
A veterinarian between $1,500 and 4,000 per year.
And, a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
More than 95 percent of all births took place at home
Ninety percent of all Doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND in the government as "substandard."
Sugar cost four cents a pound.
Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
Most women washed their hair once a month . and, used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
Canada passed law prohibiting poor people from entering into their country for any reason.
The Five leading causes of death were:
1 Pneumonia and influenza
2 Tuberculosis
3 Diarrhea
4 Heart disease
5 Stroke
The American flag had 48 stars ...
The population of Las Vegas , Nevada was only 30.
Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented yet.
There was neither a Mother's Day nor Father's Day.
Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write And, only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were available over the counter at local drugstores. Back then pharmacists said: "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach, bowels, and is a perfect guardian of health!" (Shocking?)
Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help...
There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.The Department of Education did not exist.

Fab 50s Reunion Pictures

Fabulous 50s Reunion pictures have been posted in the Fab 50s Picture Gallery - see left navigation link on this page and click on the top one (not the Reunions link). There are pictures on the main link but also click on the right pointing arrow, which will open up more categories of pictures: Mixer at Midnight Ballroom, Maid-Rites at the High School, Parade and City Tour, Dinner-Elmwood, Breakfast at Best Western.

You can right click  on a picture and save or copy it to your own computer.

If you have pictures to add, send as an attachment to bev@sitesandsounds.com. 

If you see corrections needed on names in pictures, or names that can be added to pictures, please let me know.

Thanks, Bev

Enjoy our complete 1958 Yearbook. The high school has digital copies of yearbooks from 1950, so if you want to see other years, go to: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fBLwu6z48bmfkmgChVGbz9BOvqDZUIMK 

Check out the Marshalltown weather HERE!

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