Road tripping America in the 1950s… Awesome

Posted by Kane on February 28, 2023 10:39 pm

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Excellent clips from History Lounge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Chance Observer
Chance Observer

No, the elephant in the room was in the very first scene of the clip…A bible quote featuring Jesus Christ on the outside of a building. We were a God fearing country then.
God can grant us the wisdom and the grace to make the country work regardless of how many races are present. Likewise, we will crumble even with just one race once we stop honoring Him!

BeastieBoys
BeastieBoys

It can be with a lot of hard work, patience, persistence, and the courage to be called ugly names in the pursuit of reclaiming our nation. One encouraging thought: Those voices that would call us ugly names are dwindling by the day thanks to their safe and effective jab.

curt
curt

The car at 2:02 in the Road Trip video is identified as a ’56 Chevy Nomad. It is NOT a Nomad.

richard
richard

I was born in 1953. When we were kids, we thought the future was going to be this wonderful place like Tomorrowland at Disneyland. Even though we live through times that were turbulent (i.e. Cuban missile crisis, JFK assassination) we were brought up in an innocent time where children were for the most part, shielded from life’s crap. It truly was the golden age for children. I feel blessed I was able to experience it, but very sad for my children and grandchildren that they didn’t and won’t.

Phil A. Buster
Phil A. Buster

The unfortunate part of childhood in the USA is we raise children to think the real world is like Disney World. In reality it is no where mear it.

The result, IMHO, is what we see on libs of Tiktok. My grandparents grew up in a tougher world. They lived through the uncertainty of the Depression and WWII. My one grandfather left school after the 3rd grade to help support his family. He retired at 70 years old from his business with over 25

. They worked hard and enjoyed their family. The most important job they had was raising their children. Weekends were family time. Sunday and Holiday dinners and get togethers were regular events.

The majority of young people today don’t experience adversity or tough times. Inner-city youth face tough times with little or no family structure or support.

Tom
Tom

No you didn’t…

Goober
Goober

The 1950’s will be remembered as the close of the Golden Age of the American City. If you weren’t there it would be impossible to truly explain it to you. These pictures of the great metropolises evoke just a fraction of it. Perhaps someday somehow that energy will be possible to reignite MAGA. Man, it was great, fresh and new or maybe it was just me.

It's the SUN Stupid
It's the SUN Stupid

No Air Conditioners in those suckers. You rode with the windows down.
Will need to roll with windows down again with the EV’s – if you want to make it your destination.
I won’t be timely with recharging.

Ugly kid bill
Ugly kid bill

Remember those little wing windows with separate cranks to open and close them pre air conditioning? The concept, I think, was to blow air into the faces of the driver and front seat passenger on warm days.

BackO'Beyond Gary
BackO'Beyond Gary

I still have a couple vehicles with those. It’s more for fine-tuning your air flow, also useful on damp mornings to direct air along the windshield to prevent fogging. I actually don’t like air conditioning.

BeastieBoys
BeastieBoys

Also great for venting cigarette smoke, which was a consideration.

The Rook
The Rook

Thanks Kane, a great look back. Can we do a go fund us for James O’Keefe?

Skl45
Skl45

Dinah Shore sang, ’See the USA in your Chevrolet.’ Those we’re the days!

Buck Fiden
Buck Fiden

Back when they were made in the USA. Before GM set up in China and sold out.

Wanda
Wanda

Life looked a lot simpler and less stressful. The children are outside playing with their friends, socializing and fresh air unlike today with their faces in a phone or the latest tech device to keep them quiet. Today, it’s drag queen shows, propaganda, math, science and history are not taught in most public schools, etc. My mother sent us out to play weather permitting, trips to the bookstore, and report cards were acceptable if she saw As and Bs and little educational trips.

TrueTexas
TrueTexas

You can thank the Baby Boomer generation, with help from the Leftists of the WW2 generation and the Silent generation, for pissing it all away and allowing the Left to destroy it all.

BeastieBoys
BeastieBoys

McCarthy tried to warn us all.

Buck Fiden
Buck Fiden

I wouldn’t blame the baby boomer generation as a whole. I never bought into the marxist crap

Harlan
Harlan

Boomers are the first generation that will not leave it better for their kids… Boomers ruin everything

Wes
Wes

We (boomers) left it so much better for you. Problems you have today stem from the lack of intestinal fortitude of the generations since boomers retired.

Potato
Potato

The President of the United States is a Boomer. They still run everything and won’t retire. That’s the problem.

Ugly kid bill
Ugly kid bill

Plugs Biden was born in 1942. The baby boom started in 1946.

Buck Fiden
Buck Fiden

Well ..I’m a boomer and I’d love to retire me some Democrat boomers. Permanently.

Egfrow
Egfrow

Mass propaganda to separate everyone seems to be working well on you. We are made of of individual Americans and not sub segments to be divided up into political blocks.

G-Man
G-Man

Trump is a boomer… far from a perfect man but certainly has a better vision than the Manchurian Mannequin presently residing in Delaware…err… the White House.

Unfortunately the freedom this country allows, especially after WWII, also gave way to all groups and beliefs to grow, including the hippie/love/anti-war/socialistic/communistic movements. Civil rights, ACLU, Black Panthers, KKK, etc etc etc. Everything was a go!
The industrial revolution took on newer productive meaning – as well as the Industrial/military complex because there was still “danger out there”.

This growth and exuberance in the USA was influential around the world, thus the desire to come here or be like us was prevalent – and still is, even with all our foibles.

Boomers aren’t your problem Harlan. You just want everything handed to you. What the Greatest Generation and their off-spring Boomers had was a will to work and preserve the freedom to do so. Yes the Boomers grew up in a relatively ready-made society, but still had to work and contribute – and had fun because there was no immediate threats!!
It never was perfect but certainly a progression to create, manufacture and enjoy the fruits of our labor in a secure and safe environment. Social and culture values were vastly improved and compatibility was more the norm than not.

Unfortunately our freedoms and ‘letting our guards down’ has led to the rise from within of stronger adversity to the relative status quo we’ve taken for granted. These actions will eventually result in the proverbial “cutting one’s nose off to spite the face ..”, unless peaceful and agreeable intervention can be manifest.

fudly
fudly

Check out videos St Petersburg Russia etc, they are out there. Clean streets, no graffiti, no tents, no open drug use, no street shitters, no zombies/degenerates, no blacks. Slender women in dresses, friendly intelligent people. And the US would like to turn this country into a decrepit shithole just like what is found all over America.

BeastieBoys
BeastieBoys

Lived there for a long time. They also do not have a First Amendment, and you can completely forget about any notion of a Second Amendment. In fact, a “Bill of Rights” is alien to most Russians, so throw that out the window if you ever land in a Russian court accused of something under what we call red flag laws. Your only hope will be how much you can pay in bribes, which is a recurring lesson Russian children start learning in first grade and have drummed into them for years afterwards. (I know this because I was married to a Russian elementary school teach for quite a while.) For most Russians, power is in the hands of the State, not We the People.

Know this: Russia is no friend of the West. Russia would be happy to see Western Civilization fall. Russia is NOT a Western nation. Russia looks white, but Russia is not part of Western Europe or Northern Europe, which are the sources of the immigration that founded America and made it great. Study a map, and you will see that most of Russia’s land mass is in Asia. Russia has always played Western and Central Europe against the Middle East and the Far East. Russia is in the geopolitical game for exactly one interest: Russia. (And that’s the most positive thing I can say about that nation after living there for ten years.)

“Scratch a Russin, find a Tartar.”

Dr. T
Dr. T

“If I knew then what I know now, that would have messed it up somehow, when the day stretched out before me like a long long Texas road”.

– Lyrics from the classic country song “Long Long Texas Road”.

Stephen Thompson
Stephen Thompson

What caused the flight of sanity?

Dr. T
Dr. T

Our unwillingness to imagine just how cruel the CCP could be.

They slid in under cover of darkness and killed the guards, then poisoned American culture with communism.

Their vassals took over higher education and have now spread like cancer throughout every point of power in our society.

It’s going to be Hell to extract them, but do it we must, or all is lost.

TRUMP-WON-TRUMP'24
TRUMP-WON-TRUMP'24

G F Y. With a 2×4.

Ash
Ash

Odd. This very same video showed up in my YouTube home page. I pay extra to have the ads turned off but I wonder if whoever made the video pays YouTube to have it pushed to users. And they get paid by the ads contained. I don’t typically randomly watch videos of past American eras.

Irishsmithy
Irishsmithy

I remember taking the empty pop bottles back to the store. Talk about recycling! It worked! Milk came in refillable glass bottles also! The water you drank came from the tap.

BackO'Beyond Gary
BackO'Beyond Gary

Exactly! I supplemented paper route money with the occasional pop bottle score, but scrap copper under every power pole as they expanded the neighborhoods was the real boon (30¢ per pound!).

Irishsmithy
Irishsmithy

I tell my kids and grandkids what it was like growing up in the 50s. They think I’m exaggerating!

No mandates
No mandates

Love the music ….does anyone know who this is??

Mr Robot
Mr Robot

replay it and sample it with Shazam.

Not gonna say anything
Not gonna say anything

LOL

TRUMP-WON-TRUMP'24
TRUMP-WON-TRUMP'24

Better times, a better America. FACT.
You all “puzzle out” the difference. I don’t want to get banned, again.

bob
bob

back when American cities clean, safe, and prosperous. notice what you don’t see? hordes of black people. forced integration is what destroyed America.

Kat
Kat

How I yearn for the “good ole days”. Seems like we live in another universe today.

something else
something else

hi kat,

it’s a sure bet that for the

liberal democrat communist BRAINWASHED MOB —-

THEY are in another universe,

THEY are dragged around, bossed around,

led around by the nose … by media, government,

every shill that’s yelling —

but

WE who respect the Constitition, the Scriptures,

who believe what we see with our own eyes

and hear with our own ears,

trust our ability to think, reason, plan, understand,

and don’t need to be told what to think,

are in the same ETERNAL reality

that we have always live in

folks … THAT is a huge plus for America First People

Old man on the mountain
Old man on the mountain

Every summer brought a marathon camping expedition into the northwest. Just to see what was over the horizon. One or two days and on to another place to explore. Wake up in one state and fall asleep in another.

Dee west " little richards almanac"
Dee west " little richards almanac"

We were by todays standards “dysfunctional” but we did not know it.
We were happy, healthy, we were a family, we stuck together thru thick and thin.
A rare quality now.

KJinAZ
KJinAZ

I guess you had a normal family. My dad was anything but normal. He was writing the first IRS auditing software that was to run on punch cards and punch tape drivers. He read all of the millions of ones and zeros to make sure the code was in order. The computer ran on vacuum tubes, and not just a few, but thousands. The GE plant on Thunderbird and I-17 was the largest building on the west coast for quite a while. People from the valley would remember that I-17 was still a dirt road back then, and so was Thunderbird.

Alex Kitner
Alex Kitner

Were you near Flagstaff?

BackO'Beyond Gary
BackO'Beyond Gary

Actually I-17 was laid down without regard to the existing avenues. I-17 runs north out of Phoenix a bit catty-wampus from true north.

the fleeced americano
the fleeced americano

Our politicians and elites are trying to kill this American dream. Electric cars to help them control our driving habits. No jumping in the car for a 2 week road trip when you have to do 3 hours stops for recharging. Not to mention you will be hooking up to the internet everytime you plug in so they can track you. No houses in rural america with big backyards and swingsets in the back….nope high density housing for you plebes with a community park. Your vote will be squelched out by the 10 other families in your building that all get their generous tax bennies from you paycheck….. FU, your freedom and independence.

This is your future america an if you don’t agree well they are already importing your replacements. Go walk into your local WALMART and listen to how many non-english speaking people are pushing around carts full of groceries and towing their nonenglish speaking kids behind them. They are getting that grocery money from uncle sugar.

MsRebel61
MsRebel61

So true about Walmart. I don’t recognize the town I grew up in anymore, it’s all 3rd world. Used to play outside after dark and could leave your front door unlocked and not worry like today. What a shame what this country has become.

ElderGeezer
ElderGeezer

Where oh where are the proofs of all the low fuel prices and gold or green stamps and full service we had back then?

Mgerard55
Mgerard55

One thing that jumps out – obesity was almost nonexistent!

SSR
SSR

We played outside morning, noon, and into the evening. We played hard, taking risks, testing our endurance and courage. Running, swimming, jumping, building things. . . . no hours in front of television, computer, or smart phones. In our house the kitchen was CLOSED until meal times and fast food hadn’t been invented yet.

Irishsmithy
Irishsmithy

Yep I had an annual trip to the emergency room for stitches about ten years in a row! I was an active child. Now of days they would have put me on drugs!

Irishsmithy
Irishsmithy

I grew up in the 50s and 60s. We ate what my Mom cooked period. We never ate out unless we were traveling!

TRUMP-WON-TRUMP'24
TRUMP-WON-TRUMP'24

Highly processed food.
Refined flour, refined everything. High calories, high fat, high trans fats.

Add in sloth-like physical habits, electronic devices, fat kids coddled, morbidly obese women being celebrated, and here we are.

BackO'Beyond Gary
BackO'Beyond Gary

One of the only truly obese persons I can remember was our fourth grade teacher, who was known as Mrs. Hippo (unfortunately her actual last name was phonetically close to her sobriquet).

4EVATrump
4EVATrump

You musta missed New Orleans🤔

Phoenix Arisen
Phoenix Arisen

There was a photo of NO, LA. You must not have seen it.

PU
PU

It was all going south in the 60s with Kennedy assassinating Diem, LBJ assassinating Kennedy and the takeover, opening the borders, removing criminal penalties, telling everyone stop eating meat and eggs, the climate lies, big pharma etc.

freevoter
freevoter

the decline began in society when we enacted welfare programs that encouraged the migration from poor regions into Cities. Then in 1964 with the Kennedy Immigration Bill that opened our borders to third world populations. The annual immigration quota that was enforced was about 250K and increased to 800K. Now with Illegal immigration it is in the millions. The decline was scripted by corrupt progressive politicians.

FJB
FJB

Last picture says it all!!!

jack
jack

Not all. Most of definitely did not grow up to be “hippie, communist freaks”.

Keep it real, and if you can’t … speak for yourself.

Irishsmithy
Irishsmithy

I’m a boomer and I know that the hippies were just a small percentage of losers. Most worked hard and had fruitful careers like I did!

Landshaft
Landshaft

It’s repulsive what the left has done to this once glorious nation. All the fake Republicans who went along with this trash are just as responsible.

buster
buster

Much better days!

Phoenix Arisen
Phoenix Arisen

Though I was born at the start of the sixties, I remember many of the scenes, cars, and lifestyles of those three decades. Ah, how simple and beautiful everything was then. I can remember taking pleasure in the way women dressed, their hairstyles, and makeup, as well as how mannered the majority of people were back then.

I miss being able to walk down the street and tell ALL women from men by their dress and behavior. Even shorter hair styles were still uniquely feminine, and though errant behavior existed, it was kept, for the most part, out of the public eye. It was a time just like Edith and Archie sang about in “Those Were the Days”.

We, as kids, left the house each summer morning to wander about our neighborhoods until just before dark. The sound of the screen door latching behind us signified our independence but sent a clear “entertain yourselves, maybe learn something, but stay out of trouble until dinner” message, that never even evoked a passing thought of safety or security, as that was a given.

It was also the time when ANY adult was an authority figure who wielded the power to instruct and discipline for the common good of society, and due respect was always given whether you knew them or not. And women in general, but especially ladies, were never disrespected in public as the immediate consequential punishment was usually severe.

Yes, Those WERE the Days, and I miss them terribly. Thank you for the long lost memories of my youth, which now give me comfort and a renewed zest, but also the assurance that our moral compass was, and is, always zeroed to what is righteous and just.

Be strong and live faithfully, always abiding by our God given and parentally reinforced values and beliefs Patriots! We, as the side of Good, WILL prevail in the end!!

jack
jack

Well written and, more importantly, true.

Irishsmithy
Irishsmithy

Exactly right! If I was playing at a friends house and we got in trouble his Mom would bust my arse right along with his!

FJB
FJB

Google sucks.

Victor Mason
Victor Mason

When a stewardess asks me to buckle my seatbelt i say i want to be thrown clear

JEFF POLLARD
JEFF POLLARD

That looks just like us back in the day. Out after last bite of breakfast, back in when fireflies (lightning bugs) came out. In between we were on our own, having fun.
Riding bikes, throwing rocks at passing trains, playing football (boys and girls, there were 2 genders then), We were like one family, loving and looking out for each other. It was the best times of our lives. God Bless Jane, Retta, Claire, Karen, Thomas, Ginny, Martha & Lucy & me.

Obama Rules This Country
Obama Rules This Country

I love the picture of the neighborhood kids playing together. Does anyone remember when our mother would tell us to go out and play? And, we would knock on the neighbors door and ask if Johnny or Suzie could come out to play?

Whoozie
Whoozie

I had a ’42 Buick, straight 8, vacuum tube radio, three on the tree. It was old when I was a kid. It came from a farmers field. Grandfather pulled it with the old John Deere model M, and it started! It never saw the road again, just drove it on the farm.
A friend hitchiked from White Horse Alaska to El Salvador, west coast to east coast for 10 years to heal childhood emotional scars. He is quite the historian, having visited everythiing, collected stories from war veterans. We slept in the grounds of the Alimo one night on one trip.
Now we are at the point of our constitutional duty to throw off the tyrants again.

jxh
jxh

I was a child in the 50s. Those pictures are great.

Barnacle Bill the sailor
Barnacle Bill the sailor

As a child of the best, bravest, and most moral generation of Americans I remember never locking the doors, leaving keys in the car, buying a Sunday newspaper and leaving the change on the stack. Milk was delivered and put in the refrigerator. Everyone went to Church on Sunday. Language was not vulgar, most people were honorable, All gone now

sway
sway

Never ever in my childhood did I ever hear a vulgar word out of my mother or Father’s mouth. They thought it was low class I assume. My mother told me as a young boy I should aspire to rise above what I came from.

Irishsmithy
Irishsmithy

The only time we ever locked the house was when we went on vacation! When we were at home the milk man and egg man came in even when no one was home and put Moms order in the fridge! Can’t even imagine doing that now!

Umberto
Umberto

In the 50′ America was building Churches. Today in what used to be America, Churches are going out of business.

Congratulations to the enemy

Mr. Anth Ropy
Mr. Anth Ropy

My uncle owned a Fina gas station on a busy corner.
Gas was 25c per gallon.
He also ran book for football.
Everyone in town placed bets – the Mayor, Chief of Police, DAs, federal judges, you name it. Everyone had a nickname.
They’d come in and fill up and place their weekly betslips.
He made more money off the bookie biz than legitimately selling gasoline.
When the guy at the gas station on the opposite corner was shot dead in the 60s race wars my uncle Terry quit the gas station business and became a radio DJ.

Zack
Zack

People had common sense, and cared, were more intelligent, life was much happier. I always notice in old pictures, the people are smiling, there’s contentment and peace, no worries about the government ripping freedom from you more each day. Hate to say it but those days will never be back. America is in rapid decline now . . . will stop there.

t
t

That would be because more and more people care more about themselves than others. A problem exasperated by taking God, who says to love your enemy and bless those who curse you and to love thy neighboy as thyself, out of everything. When you don’t have someone to tell you what is right all you have left is to look after yourself. That means whatever it takes to survive.

Whatever
Whatever

Todays generation is all about YOLO(you only live once). Live for yourself, do what feels good, take selfies, post pictures of yourself all day, focus on things of this world and not above.

Joby
Joby

Did I miss the gallon price for gas?

C. L. Fincher
C. L. Fincher

23 cents a gallon when I was in high school. My friends and I chipped in nickels and dimes to buy enough gas to circle Tastee Freeze on Friday nights.

chris
chris

high school in the early 70’s gas was 32 cents a gallon

Irishsmithy
Irishsmithy

It was 30 cents a gallon when I started driving.

Mike DiBari
Mike DiBari

I’m pushing 76. This was the America I grew up in. And it’s why it’s so painful to witness what is has become, and what is about to happen to it.
We were the envy and heroes of the world. Sure, we had problems, but we had swagger. It truly was the best of times.

Mr. Tellis
Mr. Tellis

I was born in 1985 but sometimes I do wish that I was born in like 1945, 55, or even 65. I think life would’ve been a lot better, especially for you young person…

Umberto
Umberto

Life is still filled with many moments of happiness.

Keep the Faith. not in People, but in GOD.

walx
walx

I’m 76 also. Remember bobbing for apples on Halloween? All the kids with mouths open dunking their faces in a tub of water. The horror! There is not a kid or parent in the entire U.S. who could remotely understand that today. Somehow, we all survived.