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The Fifties, the Way We REALLY Were...

People frequently send me nostalgic pieces with memories, usually complete with music, such as Lost in the Fifties.  What we usually really remember was through rose-colored glasses - actually recalling when we were young, healthy and strong, had hope, and expectations of a seemingly endless and glorious future ahead - unless we had a really bad childhood and a very good memory.  For instance...

If a kid misbehaved in school, the teacher frequently wielded a ruler across the knuckles, the principal had a paddle, and your parents gave you another licking when you got home. Even if you were innocent. 

*    Even if you were framed by another student.  Even if your parent beat you black and blue...

Remember cheap gas and great cars like the '57 Ford?

 *   Remember the Edsel?   Remember earning so little you couldn't own a car? 

Most kids' mothers were home with a snack waiting when they got out of school....

*    Unless the Moms were alcoholics, social butterflies, or single moms who were hardly EVER home.  And not so great for the moms who'd rather be doctors, engineers, CEO's, architects....

You probably remember when no one worried about a little dirt, or germs, or playing in the mud, or scrapes and bumps....  And often you were sent to play with sick friends to get your required childhood diseases "over with".

*    Remember summer polio epidemics?  Remember people dying of measles, or because there weren't antibiotics to speak of?  And most life-saving surgeries were still a distant dream?  And when cancer was a death sentence and you didn't tell anybody until it became apparent dying was eminent....               
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