Good old days? Well, maybe not

“Music from the 1950s” was the theme from a circus we attended in Salem, VA., a few weeks ago.

“Why did they pick the ‘50s?” I wondered. “They must have thought times were better then,” my wife, Pickett, said

Really? Well, yes, there were some great things about the 1950s:

— World War II was over, and we were now the most powerful country in the world. Jobs were plentiful and we had a president, Dwight Eisenhower, whom my sister said would make a good grandfather.

—Kids could run loose all day and didn’t need sports leagues and adults driving them everywhere. (There were probably predators then, too, but we just didn’t know about them.)

—We had the calming “Ozzie and Harriet” and “Leave it to Beaver” with no profanity, and stories that were easy to follow. The live shows on “Playhouse 90.” and others were wonderful.

—Air travel was fun. And there were Disney, jazz and plentiful cars.

But were these times really better than today? Let’s look at the other side of the ‘50s.

—Polio. Some kids in my town were afflicted with it. There were people living in iron lungs.

—The Red Scare and McCarthyism. I remember my parents burning an innocuous book that they thought could get them into trouble.

— Racial discrimination. Blacks were barred from many schools.

—Lesser roles for women.  They were stereotyped as housewives.

—Smoke-filled rooms. This was before the dangers of second-hand smoke were discovered.

—Wars seemingly everywhere (just like now.) Algeria, Malaysia, Indo-China, Korea.

—Cold War. We feared that we would never grow up because we would be annihilated by atomic bombs.

—Party lines. You couldn’t make a call if someone else was using a phone. When you could, others could listen in. And it was so inefficient to need switchboard operators!

—No dishwashers. You cleaned dishes by hand. “Oh, the humanity!”

—Boring pop music. Mitch Miller converted Columbia Records into a factory for bland, inoffensive songs. Doris Day, Frankie Laine, Guy Mitchell, Ray Conniff.  This was before rock ‘n’ roll.

—Lower life expectancy. Children born then could expect to live to 68, Now it’s 77.

—Limited communications. How did we live without smart phones and wi-fi? There were three TV channels, and they went on the air at 5 p.m. in 1950. You could watch a test pattern the rest of the day. (Well, maybe not so bad. You could also read a book!)