Posted on 02/21/2007 10:07:19 AM PST by Incorrigible
I read last year about a guy that did this. Two things that were interesting:
1. There was no such thing as "good" vodka in the US in the 1950's.
2. If you follow the instructions for brewing coffee in the 1950's if you took it black, you could put a spoon in your cup full of coffee and easily see the spoon all the way to the bottom. Try that at starbucks, even with an 8 ounce cup...
One of my chores when I was kid was ironing my father's cotton broadcloth shirts. You practically had to shoot the wrinkles out of them.
I do remember sprinkling the clothes with water, putting them in the refrigerator for a while wrapped in a towel, and then ironing them. Made the wrinkles easier to get out.
No skirt. No cow.
There were a LOT more dirt/gravel roads and parking lots.
Driving on roads in the rain could be dangerous too. Roads only had a line in the middle. Nothing on the sides.
Also, nowadays a yellow dashed line in the middle of the road means two way traffic. White means both lanes go in the same direction (like on freeways/tollways). In the 50's they were all white.
This is one of the things I have noticed in some low budget movies and tv shows. They are supposed to take place sometime before 1970, but the roads are painted/striped as they are today.
Also, roads didn't have the nice shoulders they do today.
>>That's pretty cool. I did not know TV went back to the 1940s.<<
I believe it was invented around 1929 in Great Briton. IIRC, it was even being broadcast in the 30's in GB but the war put everything on hold.
>>Why would she need birth control?<<
That's right! This is the 50's. The only reason for doing "it" was to produce a pregnancy. ;)
The local stations signed off at midnite - 2am while I was in college. This would have been early 90s.
How do I know this? My college didn't have cable.
She needs to be using drum brakes, bias ply tires, and leaded gas for sure. Although she would get "full service" when she stopped to fuel up - and maybe even a free bar of soap or green stamps with her fuel purchase.
She could visit McDonalds though - if they would sell burgers for 15 cents and fries for a dime.
Yes, this is how we did the ironing. We had an old milk bottle adapted with a sprinkler top. First you dried the clothes outdoors, then wet them down again. They were saved in the refrigerator sometimes but usually in bushel baskets covered with a damp towel. The iron was not a steam iron and it weighed quite a lot.
I did about three bushel baskets full of ironing a week and was extremely good at it. This was my favorite household chore, especially in summer because I'd set the ironing board up in the cool basement and turn on WWVA (the Wheeling, WVA country music station).
>>There was plenty of fast food. <<
Absolutely. They just were not national chains. And the food was MUCH better. Whenever you find an independent burger stand you see what I mean.
Not to mention the changes in grade for some roads. I think there is a section of Rt 66 in New Mexico (La Bajada) where the cars had to go up backwards because they didn't have fuel pumps and the cars would stall when their gravity-fed carbs became starved for fuel.
I read that Popular Science article that someone linked to earlier in the thread.
Explains the cans of 'Chock full O' Nuts' and the weak coffee my parents STILL make.
I was born in 1954. I distinctly remember driving on paved roads at night and seeng the headlights emphasize the washboard qualities of the road.
Damn, them's ugly shoes.
I'm curious why she has the phone facing away from her.
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