Were the 50's a happier time?

[PowerOfOne]

I bought a bunch of old books today and included in the lot was a home economics text book from 1950. This is what they told a woman needed to do to make a happy home. Was it a happier time then and keep in mind that the women usually did not work.

1) Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal on time. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home, and the prospect of a good meal is part of the warm welcome needed.

2) Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so that you will be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your makeup, put a ribbon in your hair, and be fresh looking. He has been with a lot of work-weary people. His boring day may need a lift.

3) Clear away clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives, gathering up school books, toys, papers, etc. Then run a dust cloth over the tables. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift, too.

4) Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children's hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair, and if necessary change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part.

5) Don't greet him with problems or complaints. Don't complain if he is late for dinner. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day.

6) Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or suggest he lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soft, soothing, and pleasant voice.

7) Listen to him. You may have a dozen things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first.

8) Make the evening his. Never complain if he does not take you out to dinner or to other pleasant entertainment. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure, his need to unwind and relax.

I am NOT making these up. They are direct quotes from a 1950's Home Economic text book!

 

[Angel]

I'm certainly glad I was born in 1978.

 

[Silverlily]

Wow, no wonder both of my grandmothers drank.

Scary thing is, there are still peope that feel this is how things ought to be. One of the guys I work with is like that. Too bad for him, the store is run by two women (my boss and I).

 

[Summery]

Were the 50's happier times?

After reading that, my opinion would be no. More simple maybe, but happier, NO.

 

[PowerOfOne]

Wow, no wonder both of my grandmothers drank.

Scary thing is, there are still peope that feel this is how things ought to be. One of the guys I work with is like that. Too bad for him, the store is run by two women (my boss and I).

ROFL! Thank you! I was thinking this may have been the cause of my Mom being a loon.

 

[LukkyKnight]

The question is, happier compared to what?

Was worrying over the mutually assured destruction happier than than the age of the flappers? Nope. Better than the depression? Yep. Better than Disco? Better than being in WW II? Better than the day President Kennedy got shot? better than when we sent men to the moon?

...it comes and goes, in an unpredictable rhythm, Power, and the broad answer historians give cannot do justice to the extremes being felt by individuals.

 

[PowerOfOne]

Re: The question is, happier compared to what?

Was worrying over the mutually assured destruction happier than than the age of the flappers? Nope. Better than the depression? Yep. Better than Disco? Better than being in WW II? Better than the day President Kennedy got shot? better than when we sent men to the moon?

...it comes and goes, in an unpredictable rhythm, Power, and the broad answer historians give cannot do justice to the extremes being felt by individuals.

I suppose I should have qualified the question better, LukkyKnight. Perhaps I should have posted the question, "After reading the page of this 1950's Home Economics text book was home life easier in 1950 than it is now?" Is that better?

(You give them the title of Literotica Guru and look what happens!! *giggle*)

 

[Mischka]

I bought a bunch of old books today and included in the lot was a home economics text book from 1950.

What is the name and publisher of the text book? I've seen this excerpt floating around the internet for years, and have always been curious which publishing house is responsible for the original text.

 

[PowerOfOne]

Re: Re: Were the 50's a happier time?

What is the name and publisher of the text book? I've seen this excerpt floating around the internet for years, and have always been curious which publishing house is responsible for the original text.

The publisher is/was Baker, Inc. NYC

 

[LukkyKnight]

k, 50's compared to early 2000's

Yeah, they were better. I had a cool red trike, cowboy boots, all my meals prepared for me, no bills, and I could watch the Lone Ranger on TV.

No, now is better. I have a cool red truck, rockports, nobody fixes me food I don't like, I've got a credit card, and G.W.Bush sounds just like the Lone Ranger.

 

[PowerOfOne]

Re: k, 50's compared to early 2000's

Yeah, they were better. I had a cool red trike, cowboy boots, all my meals prepared for me, no bills, and I could watch the Lone Ranger on TV.

No, now is better. I have a cool red truck, rockports, nobody fixes me food I don't like, I've got a credit card, and G.W.Bush sounds just like the Lone Ranger.

Somehow I cannot imagine our vice president as Tonto.

 

[LukkyKnight]

Tonto had a better heart

and better makeup

 

[JennyOmanHill]

50s were good for me

Guess my family didn't take home ec back then. My grandfather, the only man in our family, did ALL the food shopping and cooking, and the only rule at mealtime was tasting a little of each dish.

I grew up with wonderful childhood memories, with only the weekly under the desk bomb drills to darken my world.

I marked yes on the vote before reading it all through.

 

[p_p_man]

Copied from PowerofOne's post:

"Were the 50's a happier time?"

Dunno I was trashed most of the time!

 

[registered "^^"]

50's hmmmmmmmm

You could walk down any street and live. No one was shot and killed in school.Neighbors talked, kids were not glued to puter games and TV, they actually went outside the house. The crazies were at the funny farm and not your neighbor, no kids pitures on milk cartons. You did a crime you did time and not at a resort.

Nawwww much better now.

 

[Weird Harold]

This is what they told a woman needed to do to make a happy home. Was it a happier time then and keep in mind that the women usually did not work.

1) Have dinner ready.
2) Prepare yourself.
3) Clear away clutter.
4) Prepare the children.
5) Don't greet him with problems or complaints.
6) Make him comfortable.
7) Listen to him.
8) Make the evening his.

I am NOT making these up. They are direct quotes from a 1950's Home Economic text book!

These are all sound advice for a stay at home partner even today. Perhaps those parents/grandparents who were "less-than-normal" didn't pay attention in home economics?

By today's western/american/"First World" standards, this does sound very sexist, but by the standards of 1950's America and many third world countries today, it is good advice. It is a a formula for reducing stress in a relationship by picking the time for the disagreements when the bread-winner is not stressed by work and the outside world.


It's just sound pschology to wait and evaluate the state of mind of your partner before unloading your problems on them. Greeting your partner at the door with a recitation of how bad your day has been before you know how bad their day was is just asking for a major fight. It's much easier to get sympathy for your problems if you listen to your partner's first.

Having grown up in the 50's and 60's, I'd have to say that overall, they were a better, happier, time than today. They were the heart of the "good times" when there was only optimism and anticipation about how much better the future would be. It was still possible to "live off the land" because cookbooks still told how to make things from scratch and housing was generally affordable.

registered "^^" pretty much summed it up -- the 50's were a much simpler and carefree time. If you ask most women who were stay-at-home mothers or were raised by stay-at-home mothers they will tell you that, "I was happy because I never knew anything other way."

 

[Calamity Jane]

Wow, no wonder both of my grandmothers drank.

Oh Kitten... lmfao! Must take a potty break now... lol... maybe if i took up drinking, i'd be a better wife??? pass the scotch.

 

[MunchinMark]

A massive recession, rationing still in this country. Most people still used coal, so pollution in towns would have been awful. Variety shows ruled TV. What's to be happy about?

My grandmother left me a cookbook from the 1930's. That's got the same kind of thing, plus a section on 'Empire Dishes' and, brilliantly, a whole chapter on how to train a maid.

 

[Mischka]

PO, it looks like you've solved a mystery! I came across the following commentary on the Urban Legends Reference Page (http://www.snopes2.com/index.html), which states that the authenticity of the text you cited is undetermined. Since you bought the book and can confirm the publisher and name of the text, they can green light it as real now. An excerpt from the site:

"It's become fashionable to portray outdated societal behaviors and attitudes -- ones we now consider desperately wrongheaded -- to be worse than they really were as a way of making a point about how much we've improved. When we despair over the human condition and feel the need for a little pat on the back, a few startling comparisons between us modern enlightened folks and those terrible neanderthals of yesteryear give us that. We go away from such readings a bit proud of how we've pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps and with our halos a bit more brightly burnished.

The juxtaposition of wonderful modernity with a tawdry past also serves to reinforce the 'rightness' of current societal stances by making any other positions appear ludicrous. It reminds folks of the importance of holding on to these newer ways of thinking and to caution them against falling back into older patterns which may be more comfortable but less socially desirable. Such reinforcement works on the principle that if you won't do a good thing just for its own sake, you'll surely do it to avoid being laughed at and looked down upon by your peers.

A typical vessel for this sort of comparison is the fabricated or misrepresented bit of text from the "olden days," some document that purportedly demonstrates how our ancestors endured difficult lives amidst people who once held truly despicable beliefs...."

 

[tn_8tiv]

"Were the 50s a happier time?"

Every age has its good and bad points. The 50's gave us the beginning of Rock and Roll...good to some, not so good to others. Then there was Korea, the first conflict where the U. S. did not win outright! (If you look at my Av you will see a snapshot out of this era). TV was coming into its own and the shows depicted family life as the key to everything good.

But segregation was still a way of life, discrimination was rampant, both sexual and racial. Very little happened politically with gridlock being the norm. Ike played a good game of golf though.

We didn't talk about sex...that was a taboo subject. Nude photography was limited to Nudist magazines which somehow we all found a copy of. So....was it a happier time, noooooo!!!! Just different with a different set of problems.

Just my opinion!

 

[Purple Haze]

Re: 50's hmmmmmmmm

You could walk down any street and live. No one was shot and killed in school.Neighbors talked, kids were not glued to puter games and TV, they actually went outside the house. The crazies were at the funny farm and not your neighbor, no kids pitures on milk cartons. You did a crime you did time and not at a resort.

Sounds just like where I live.

 

[Southern37]

I bought a bunch of old books today and included in the lot was a home economics text book from 1950. This is what they told a woman needed to do to make a happy home. Was it a happier time then and keep in mind that the women usually did not work.

1) Have dinner ready

2) Prepare yourself

3) Clear away clutter

4) Prepare the children

5) Don't greet him with problems or complaints

6) Make him comfortable

7) Listen to him

8) Make the evening his

I am NOT making these up. They are direct quotes from a 1950's Home Economic text book!

OK..this may not be popular....but that sounds pretty fucking good to me.

 

[lovetoread]

Its what I do now.

 

[Southern37]

Its what I do now.

your a goddess...all this and pickled peaches..will you marry me?

 

[Guest]

every generation thinks the BEST DAYS were when they were kids.

That's cause they weren't paying the bills