A bit of nostalgia for us older guys

[Al Launier]

In the 1950's I was hooked on Westerns. Tales of Texas Rangers, Fury, Sky king, Bat Masterson, Annie Oakly, Circus Boy, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Roy Rogers, Hop Along Cassidy, Maverick, Broken Arrow, Tombstone Territory, Wyatt Earp, Zane Gray Theater and Death Valley Days. A lot of TV westerns actually did not start until 1960 or afterward.

So was I. Great memories indeed!

[David Helm]

I remember the Cuban missile crisis. I remember walking home from 7th grade, fully expecting to hear a nuclear explosion in my city. I was so scared .. we all were.



This is funny. I don't know if it's a typo or on purpose but it's so funny. Our parents thought the music on the 45s was so dangerous. It was going to ruin our lives.

I was in the military during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Home on leave, called back from leave early.

[Lee DeRaud]

there's a lot of things to miss about the 1950's. There are a lot of reasons to say good riddance too. I lost my best playmate/buddy to a form of leukemia that is easily cured today. Saw him go through hell. We have vaccines for most childhood illnesses that I had to endure. Measles, mumps, chicken pox, I had all three. I remember the polio scares in the summer. Air raid drills. I remember how scared the adults were when the Russians launched the first space vehicle before we could.

I recall getting a blast of anti-nostalgia reading Stephen King's '11/22/63', where the protagonist from today ends up spending several years in the early '60's. One of the things that no one seems to mention about those days, because we didn't have a basis for comparison at the time, was the smell: bad smog, very heavy cigarette usage, and lack of modern deodorants/antiperspirants. I've seen the same effect mentioned for more primitive environments, but not for a time/place so (relatively) "modern".

And yeah, illnesses that no one today even thinks about. I recall being surprised at a younger person not having a smallpox vaccination...didn't realize they had stopped doing that when I was still relatively young.