A Candid Look at Teenage Life in 1950s America
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- čas přidán 8. 12. 2023
- Rare Snapshots of Teenage Life in the 1950s...
Today, we journey back to the iconic era of the 1950s, where poodle skirts, rock 'n' roll, and wholesome teenage mischief ruled the scene.
For this week’s video, we've unearthed a treasure trove of candid snapshots capturing the essence of adolescent life as it was lived some seventy years ago.
Here you’ll see teenagers being teenagers before cell phones, texting, and social media screwed up the way we all interact with one another.
From sock hops to soda shops, these genuine moments frozen in time offer a glimpse into the carefree spirit and camaraderie that defined a generation.
Please enjoy this visual journey into the heart of the 1950s teenage experience!
#1950s #nostalgia #lifeinamerica - Zábava
It is clear that people were happier without social networks and gadgets. They danced, talked, and loved
Unless you were not white. Or a woman.
"A time before smartphones, Ipads, and the internet screwed everything up " How true.
DEFINITELY
It's obvious that the difference between the views and the likes would be the age differences. I’m 82 years old and I remember and miss the 50's. Simple times that could never be explained to anyone who didn’t live through it.
I'm 41, but I remember my grandparents telling me about their youth when I was younger and how it was simple (compared to even when I was a teen in the 90's), yet it had a mystique to it.
@Thehajohajo I would give ANYTHING if I were living back then during this time period. Your right things seemed more simple back then but what I just realised why I love this time period 1940's-1950's so much is just plain ole common decency. EVERYONE seemed decent back then. It was the society norm. Today everyone has gone insane. And we accept it as "normal" that it's just the times we are living in. I think God made a mistake when he put me to live in the here and now. God if your listening BIG mistake. HUGE. And I would know. Ha ha ha I also love the 1800's.
I suppose there was a lot of racism at latino population at those times.
I never saw any such "racism," and I worked with latinos. I don't know why you would suppose such a theory.@@gustavoperez5480
there was nothing too mysterious about the 50s, every summer there was a polio scare, the government kept people in line by sending out brochures on how to build fallout shelters because the Russians were about to drop atomic bombs on the USA, the schools had drills on how to hide under your desk when the A-Bombs were on the way, at least half your neighbors were Russian spies, Joe Macarthy was on the television with the House Un-American activities Committee. the negroes were starting the Great Northern Migration and starting to get uppity. all and all it was a really paranoid decade.@@northofknowhere130
I was 18 years old in 1954 You really captured my heyday! Video brought back a lot of good memories. Thanks for posting.
I was 17, and ditto to your comment.
Growing up in the austere '50s in a small Scottish mining town,I saw 1950s America in movies and magazines and I longed to be there. Even now in 2023 I still do!
And I long to return to Scotland for their values.
@@juanitahardy8583. No kidding.
Maybe your next incarnation 😅
I'm a child and young adult of the 70's and 80's. Given a time machine, going back to that era is my first choice 👍.
But! My second choice would be the USA or even my Canada in the 1950's. Infact anything beginning say 1947 through the 50's as a life experience.🥰
@@juanitahardy8583 And their thrifty ways.
Wonderful as always . I was in my teens during the 50s . The best decade of all time. The music , the fashions , the cars with big fins . Record players . Excitement was in the air . I met my wife in 58 . A magic era . Most people today don't know what they missed .... And all without the internet too !!!
Thanks for uploading and best wishes for Christmas 🎄
Hey, @ry491 - What a great time to grow up. Thanks for your comments, and Merry Christmas to you!
Before the days of crappy fast food, social media and game stations. People actually talked to each other, were active and not an overweight person to be seen.
The kids are all well-dressed and slender back in the 50's.
The Silver Skylark @ 3:45 is one sharp looking car.
Yep! That's sure one big-ass boat. Look at all that chrome, and those whitewalls. Wonder what it weighed, and its MPG. Maybe single digits.😁
@@brucestaples4510 10 to 12 MPG at best … going downhill with the wind coming from behind. 😂
My Grandad always drove Buicks in the fifties. Loved them and always proud to be seen in one, until my Mom married my Stepdad in the mid-sixties. Great guy and best Stepdad a kid could hope for, but still driving a '56 Roadmaster 2dr Hardtop, Black over Pink, considerably lightened by the rusted rockers and rear quarter panels, and way overdue for new rear shocks (sit in the front seat or get seasick in the back seat). But it got 8mpg!
My partner is 82, and he was a teenager in the 50s. I see some of these kids and I know they are the same age as he is. Wow, times flies! Teens in the 50s and 60s were always so well dressed and behaved. I miss those times and wish I could go back into again. I was born in 1961.
Thank you for sharing this. I grew up in the 1950' and 1960's.
How much racism there was at 50's to latino population?
Keep it up. It's the pot-stirrers such as you who keep the delusional "racist" lie alive.@@gustavoperez5480
SPECTACULAR presentation!!!
Fantastic age!!
I 'm 75 ( 76 next month ) - I remember the late 50's and early 60's - great times ! Please take me back !!
The good old days. I’m glad I grew up in the 50s, it was such a great time!
How much racism there was at that decade to latino population?
My experience never saw any particular racism, so why do you keep suggesting that racism to latinos was prevalent? @@gustavoperez5480
If you were white. And don't forget in those days, the couples who "had to get married" because of pregnancy, and illegal abortions, and girls going away to "visit an aunt" if they got pregnant and weren't married.
I became a teenager in 1962 but these photos bring back some great memories. Greetings from Australia.
The 50's and 60's were great times. Men looked like men women acted like women. Clean cut, no tattoos no green or blue hair no nose rings....and to top it off....no weight issues. We ate what was supposedly the wrong stuff but it was the right stuff. Unlike the fast food garbage now, Families ate at home ......home cocked meals and good company no cell phones no computers. So much has been lost.
Yes, indeed. Life was far more fulfilling and happy without the social media, and lack of connectiveness.
Stilus, elegancia, buli, USA fénykora. Amikor ilyen elnök volt mint JFK, nem aggok vettik, vezették azt a nemztet....
Meaning?@@gaborgredely1848
On top of that, one wasn't say to anybody what a man and a women did behind closed doors. That was strictly private.
Yeah and there wasnt rampant corn holers and buttslammers and women didnt have dicks n hairy balls
5:11
"A white sports coat, and a pink carnation, I'm all dressed up for the dance."
Marty Robbins, 1957.
Thank you for the memories, thank you for bringing me back to a time of innocence, optimism and freedom (before the war that is). That is truly the way we dressed in an era when and where respect was taught by one's nuclear family and reinforced by boys/girls groups (BSA, GSA, 4H...), the community, the church, the schools/colleges, the community and the media at large. I am very grateful for having lived those decades, married my high-school Sweetheart (until CA took her away), still have my first car (vintage Mustang), ... Happy New Year, Ciao L (Veteran)
Excellent as always, if we could only bring back simpler times and all enjoy the time we have. We still have bon fires every other weekend, it keeps us young at heart.😊
It is very easy to capture those simple times today😊
For everyone here who thinks these were the good old days: in future people will look at pictures of today and imagine they were the good old days
That will never occur. There is no future.... anymore.
Thank you for posting 👍👍
Thanks for another priceless video. I was born in 1956 but I can still relate to those times.
I’m glad you liked it. Thanks for your kind words!
I was born in 53, but I remember malt shops, drive-ins(both kinds)DAs and some girls wore saddle shoes.I remember the BrylCreme and Wildroot commercials. My cousin was born in 39 and had arguments with her father(my uncle) about being able to wear a strapless gown when she 18-19.
I was '55 and my dad('30) was VERY much against us wearing a strapless gown! (not that I could "hold one up anyway!...lol)
Look at what we have lost! This is so upsetting that the America of our fathers and mothers is gone!
Amen ! Nailed it !
Wonderful time.
I see these kids, and then I picture the kids of today....so depressing.
Just thinking same.
Everyone looks so healthy
These 50's pictures of young people, recalls me the characters and vibe of the "Archie" comics!
Back then they didn't have flat screen color tv's or CD's or CZcams, but neither kids were fed with the rude and foul-mouthed "Simpsons" cartoons on their black and white tv's, nor teenagers were fed with dirty pornographic music freely sung by supposed "artists"! 😊
The fifties house my most precious memory - that of my big sister Karen. I remember her pretty slim figure beautiful dresses and gowns - the crinolines she wore under them. Curling her hair, hiding her bra straps using pins under sleeveless blouses - dancing to records with friends and boyfriends Always on the phone, sharing sodas - her boyfriend's jalopy. her excitement over a dance or a movie date. She was good to me, letting me wear her crinolines, teaching me to dance - laughing at her kissing her boyfriend. The times were beautiful, innocent and so alive - just like her. Then came the morning in1959, when I woke to my Daddy sitting on my bed. He told me that Karen, her boyfriend, and another couple had been killed the night before in a car accident. That was it. In those days, no one would be so ill bred as to mention your dead. This video made me cry - I pray that there is a heaven like the fifties and sixties - and Karen will be there waiting for me. Sorry - just felt I had to write.
Karen will be waiting for you.x
wow years later that still has to hurt like a bitch I am so sorry four people . Where they drag racing
Probably not in those days there were no seat belts and cars were big chunks of metal.
With all due respect, at present a dad most probably would inform his younger daughter that her older sister was killed in a mass shooting! 😢
@@JERios-wv8lx What does that have to do with he losing her sister to an auto accident? WTF
Like I stated before, I would give up everything today to live in the 50&60s as a young adult. Simple, clean, and families were pretty much all together. I absolutely love and adore the 50s. People cared how they looked, acted and had respect not just for one another but also our great country USA. Today, politicians, leaders and corporations sold us out. it is so sad and to think the generations after us will have no idea how good we as a people, society and country had it! Yes, there were hard times and poverty however life was like a snow globe back then!
It was an entirely different era then, and it's sad that today's young crowd have to endure the constantly negativity in which the internet, media and schools keep them awash.
@@leecox1513Atheism destroyed America.
Atheism destroyed America.
Would you give up everything to be the age you are now in the 50s?
@@plicketyplunk YES
Thanks, Kevin! You knocked it outta the park once again! Speaking of which, while not in a park, but on the streets of Brooklyn, I recall playing stickball (sometimes even baseball, if there weren't too many cars parked where we might hit them) into the night till we couldn't see the ball anymore. While not a teen yet in the '50s (I went from 1 to 10 years old in the decade), I went to the beach (Coney Island, of course), dug the diners with the personal little juke boxes in every booth, and always, always playing outside...ball, skating, biking, skelly (might be unique to Brooklyn, not sure, big chalk box in the middle of the street with smaller boxes within and by flicking bottle caps through the boxes you become a "Killer" and can blast everyone else's cap out of the game...or something like that, it's been a while😁), flipping baseball cards, clothespinning (gotta be the spring-loaded ones) baseball cards to our bikes so the wheel spokes hit the cards to sound like a motocycle, building scooters or soapbox racers out of scraps of wood, a wooden milk box, and either roller skates or an old carriage for wheels...jeez, good times! And oh yeah, no girls! They still had cooties at that age!😊😂😄😀
Bruce, we're living the same timeline, but for me it was our 109 acre farm upstate during the '50s. No skelly, instead "kick the can" best played at dusk so as to be less visible to whoever was guarding the can. Twelve miles to Ithaca, so it was an even bigger deal when we got to the soda fountains and diners, but everything else was much the same. Beaches on the Finger Lakes or simply cooling off swimming in the ponds and creeks. One difference was the girls had no cooties, instead they were real cuties! And the views of sunsets from the barn hayloft with a neighbor farm girl just couldn't be beat.
On the other hand, my wife grew up in daBronx! Thankfully, despite (or because of) that, she loves our house in the woods of Western New York, and we only go to "the city" (Queens) once or twice a year to see relatives. A great life, but good to look back at our childhoods with fond memories, so different but so similar. Enjoy!
I want a time machine so I can travel back in time
I miss the drive ins, some people like of today never seen them, gone almost.
As a Child born in the 60s raised in the 70s to early 80s is Holidays both on TV and our culture was special. Bob Hope, and many others are gone.
You would maybe get Blake Shelton instead of Red Skelton.
Saint Paul Minnesota definitely is not like that anymore. Sad days in the USA, hopefully moral people will be able to stop the decline.
Thank you for sharing another outstanding video. God bless you 🙏🎄
The luckiest people on the planet. Even today at their ages for so many very obvious reasons! They now have all the very best memories too. What memories will You have?
well dressed, clean, nice hair. today we get dirty smelly wrinkled clothed kids in pajamas
And dont forget the Women on the beach with the dong and hairy balls sticking out of the bathing suit
I totally agree with you in regards to a care free life. Thank you so much for posting these videos. Keep up the great work!
This production is a testament to your artistic brilliance, effortlessly connecting the glamour of 1960s Hollywood with the genuine and heartfelt stories of these actors. *DO YOU AGREE WITH ME*
Times were hard in the 50’s. Korea (1950-1953).
Really cool commercial stock images♥
RIght, some have mentioned how healthy everybody looked. There were some fat people back then. And ugly people too. But none in these pictures.
@@leilacarter9813And segregation hadnt even ended yet. This is a very White suburban middle class view of the 1950s. My grandparents sure didn't live like this in rural Tennessee lol. I understand nostalgia, but these are just so unrealistic. My favorite comment was someone saying "no marijuana, valium, etc" ...like they think no drugs (especially prescriptions) were being used/misused lol.
Eine wunderbare Zeit!
Stil und Eleganz, und heute?
Atheism destroyed America.
Thanks for the memories. One thing though, I don't know of anyone having a milkshake in the 50's. We had malts not shakes.
I didn't even realize the difference till as a 16 yr old in 1971 started working at Dairy Queen and the Malt machine was a glass container with a powdered substance (malt) added to milkshakes if someone ordered a malt. It did make the milkshake even tastier!😋
I was 13 in 1958 so remembering all of this especially because we had just moved to NZ
I would loved to have taken a spin in that silver 1953 Buick Skylark convertible.
No McDonald's, Burger King, Long John Silvers, KFC, Taco Bell... etc. Nobody's fat... What a coincidence!
No LSD, no phentanil, no abuse of cocaine, no Vicodin, no valium, no abuse of marijuana.
No Xanax, no Prozac, no internet, no 24 hour "news" channels, no violent movies... No public shootings. What a coincidence!@@gustavoperez5480
on the west coast, the only place you could get pizza was at the drive-in movie.
Cigarettes Heavy drinking. Polio. No real treatment for mental illness except to be locked away. Weed. Heroin. Oh, and women could be raped and beaten by their husbands with no laws on the books against it. Society blaming the woman or just ignoring her plight. @@gustavoperez5480
Ironically this and the following generation invented most of the electronic stuff that "screwed up the way we all interact with one another"
This was right before the mass production of our food. Look how healthy they all look! Today you go outside and see all sorts of deformed creatures wandering around
🤣
The fifties were the best of times
Glad i was a teenager back then. Lucky i guess. Certainly the music was the greatest
Thank you. 👍🏻😊
Ahh. What a journey. I would have travelled back in time without hesitation if I had the choice. Yes. There were obstacles then but a less complicated life, Im sure. Thanks.
Teens in those days knew how to dress when they took their girlfriends out. The music complements the video. The girls look like ladies and the clean cut boys look like gentlemen. In those days they were expected to behave in a certain manner and everyone was down to earth. Everyone in those days had their share of problems but they knew how to make the best of it. People were happy dispite there was a Cold War threat between the East and the West. That didn’t stop people from having fun and enjoy life.
Lovely video I must say! ❤
AH..... The happy days before social media......
Thanks!
@MelvinJ64 - Thank you again for your generous contribution! Please know that tipping this channel is not necessary, but I do appreciate it. Since you are clearly a fan of the subject matter here, let me ask you this... Are there any particular topics you'd like to see covered on this channel, or are there any topics you'd like to see more of?
@@TheHistoryLounge No problem just wanted to show appreciation for the wholesome content you produce. Awesome to see you do it for the passion of it and not just to get paid. I don't have any specific interests, I'll take them as they come 😊👍
@@MelvinJ64 Thanks for your reply. I really do enjoy putting together these collections, and I'm glad there are people out there like you, who like them. Thanks again!
:30>...before cell phones..".'screwed up"..... I LOVE IT. 2:22>Looks like it could have been early 60s
Love it. Sorry I missed it.
Only two obvious genders made life simple, efficient and logical. The 50s was the first real time, where the pressures of survival weren't demanding much of your day's efforts, but left a decent amount of time to enjoy life and pursue friendships and relationships. Instead of chopping firewood, the gas heater, stove, and oven would do the heating in its stead. Instead of feeding and butchering your own livestock or grow your own vegetables, now you spent a tiny amount of time at a store. Because there was very little TV, reading and homework were often utilized, which meant the population was smarter. The 50s was a relative time of peace, growth, unparalleled prosperity and physical health. To me, it was the golden age of America.
Atheism destroyed America.
I graduated from highschool in1951 and remember that the most important thing for a boy to have is a car! Without one girs wouldn't go on a date. The benefit was that keeping a car going taught me a lot about mechanical things but not much about girls.
Seeing these pic I wish I was born about 10 years earlier. Where is the background music from, enjoyed that just as much!
I miss the country I grew up in.
Back before texting ruined lives...
It's funny how many of these teenage girls looked like mid 30's women.
Was purple really such a predominant color in the 50s, or are most of these "rare color photos" just colorized black and white pictures? I'm thinking the latter, because even some of the shadows and white shirts have a purplish hue.
Great video!!!
Maybe a video of the Jim crow south in the 1950’s would reveal another reality that most reminiscing of the “fabulous 50’s” are afraid to show.
Women always wore dresses, that was so nice, everybody looked good.
What happened to our kids and teenagers nowadays I would like this more than people nowadays
Pretty girls back then!
I wonder if this guy does live streams.I know a bunch of ppl would be crackin wise to some of these .
What gorgeous music! What is it called please?
These were the good old days my father told me about - he has been gone for 8 yrs and i miss him terribly- i will see you on the other side
First of all, these photos are mostly posed, like for advertising. Judging the fifties by these photos is the same as judging someone’s life by the photos they post on social media. If you do fondly remember the fifties and want to go back there, don’t forget to remember the Cold War, McCarthyism, polio, the huge gap between parents who lived through WWII and their progeny who rebelled and would die in Vietnam. Forced marriages due to pregnancy and a time when a man could rape and beat his wife while no laws protected her and society looked the other way.
Sorry, only watched half of the video. Prefer naturel pictures, rather than staged, pictures and or models. Reminded me of old movie studio shots. First time a little disapointed. I am a subscriber and definitely still like this channel.
At 6:50, those two people on the top row are kind of creeping me out. (Look up, right between the conductor's hands.) Where's her neck and is that a guy next to her?
Yes creepy... Look also right above the conductors head.. thats creepy too..
@@uzeela Dang, you're right. Looks like someone with a dagger.
I think I saw Biff!
Hello Hello is anybody home?!!!???
hola saludos desde España,tengo 64 años y no se hablar ingles( uso el traductor)me encanta U.S.A. hasta el punto de que tengo la bandera y locomotoras en escala HO,siempre he creido que esa epoca a sido la mejor,la gente era feliz porque creo que habia trabajo para todos.me pregunto donde estaran esas chicas ahora y si alguna verá este video?
Best time in America, ever. No drugs, and we were raised Christian..
Wow/.....everyone was slim.
Wow!!! No phones & no FATTIES!! 😮
Maybe its me but it sure seems like the "teens" in these pics look like they're about ten years older than teens of the same age look today.
❤
When America was great.
Basically what being shown is the good memories. The negative ones such as the McCarthy hearings and the threat of a nuclear war are absent. But one thing about the 1950's was we had a great economic time. Only one income was necessary to live comfortably,people were able to buy houses. Our nation was at its greatest with Eisenhower as President
The pics don’t seem natural. All posed.
It's a shame that these things are foreign to the youth of today. As a boomer I can attest that these were the best of times in a teens life. Cell phones should only used to answer necessary calls. I actually miss the corded phones.
We've really destroyed the food supply, hey?
I wanna head out with my girl little Suzy in my 55 convertible to a diner, gonn get some fries and pops, who’s coming ?
. . ✨ stunning faces, hair styles and smiles too ✨ . .the crew cut was easy enuf to manage, it kept hair lice free but it was an informal way where boys/young men could
emulate military men➖UNTIL➖things REALLY changed in ‘56 with ELVIS’S delicious scooped up pompadour and quiff . . he was an ice cream float ✨DREAMY✨
Whatever happen to wholesome teenage mischief? Those days are long gone it seems. I grew up without gadgets, gizmos and video. I wouldn't trade my memories for any kid living these days. I was also around when the internet was still decent. An inbetweener I guess is what I am.
Lots of stories never made it to the papers. It was the era of lynchings, and segregation, discrimination against women and minoriies, tobacco promotions, heavy pollution of our air and water and the begining of a silent spring because of the heavy use of DDT. No seatbelts or pollution equipment in our vehicles and the near extinction of our national symbol. This was also the era of nuclear bomb testing and
www.history.com/news/the-infamous-40-year-tuskegee-study
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Starkweather
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide_scandal
Lord just grant me one wish…
Now this is not the America I came to, almost a banana republic
People were generally better than people of today. Maybe parents gave their kids more of their time
Less distractions.
Even though this is a beautiful sentiment. This is only a depiction of one side of people. I love looking back at the 50’s and 60’s, but I’m also sad to not see my people enjoying themselves here. Great Video overall
It is sad ... wish we could go back and change that!
These are amazing photos :) I think it might be an idea to acknowledge that this is from a very white person lens. Would be lovely to see typical American teens of color in the 50’s, too.
Ah yes the good ol days. I wonder where they all are now for sure. Kids today have no respect what so ever and like a bunch of idiots. I am 77 years old myself.
Rare color snapshots indded....hard to believe given the color film emulsions availble and papers lsting this long with zero fading of colors...have most of these been colorized?
A golden period where America peaked in terms of quality of life and decency and then declined rapidly.
Thanks to hippie druggie boomer generation.
Ah, America at the zenith of it's Postwar glory, the land of abundance and freedom to be whatever you dreamed. We need leadership to get us back on track.
Imposible because US people have become fat and lazy.
Nobody looks overweight at all!