Vintage Photos of What Life Was Like Back in the 50s.
12-01-2018, 08:49 AM
#21
Those of us who live in the rust belt can not comprehend the housing prices we see on the two coasts. In my area $200k - $250k would get you a very decent house of 2,000 sf on a decent sized lot of nearly an acre.
12-01-2018, 01:23 PM
#22
Diseases in the 50s? Who cares if you live longer today? Old age sucks. You just become a processor, turning perfectly good food into poop. Hurry up and die. Make a young person happy. They don’t want us around.
Racial tensions in the 1950s... Racial tensions, gender tensions, immigration tensions, sexual orientation tensions, religious tensions and political tensions today.
Home prices are no worse today? Go back and edit your post. You are embarrassing yourself!!
Environment? No climate change versus what we have now.
Population? Don’t make me waste keystrokes.
What’s better today are boats, internal combustion engines and tires. I would build my time machine out of a modern boat filled with modern engines and tires. Maybe some brake kits as well. Convert my money to some valuable commodity and go back in time and buy the waterfront.
Racial tensions in the 1950s... Racial tensions, gender tensions, immigration tensions, sexual orientation tensions, religious tensions and political tensions today.
Home prices are no worse today? Go back and edit your post. You are embarrassing yourself!!
Environment? No climate change versus what we have now.
Population? Don’t make me waste keystrokes.
What’s better today are boats, internal combustion engines and tires. I would build my time machine out of a modern boat filled with modern engines and tires. Maybe some brake kits as well. Convert my money to some valuable commodity and go back in time and buy the waterfront.
12-01-2018, 06:48 PM
#23
The house that my father bought in 90% complete condition on a great, hilltop one-acre site in Lynn, MA for $5,200 in 1952, where my mother still resides, was just appraised at $370,000 in current condition. If rehabed and modernized, it would sell in excess of $500,000.
12-02-2018, 06:24 AM
#24
One thing I remember about this era, at least in the actual city of Detroit (not the suburbs) was the professionals all lived in the same neighborhood and their kids were in my grade school class. Doctors and dentists on the next block. Stock brokers two blocks away. Business and factory owners. Ford "Rouge" foremen. Then came the freeways and the neighborhoods emptied to the suburbs...
My dad paid the astounding price of $8,000 for this 1300 sf house in 1948. Still well maintained and worth 11x that in that market. Photo is from August 2018.
https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...zm/0_mmm/1_rs/
-- Chuck
My dad paid the astounding price of $8,000 for this 1300 sf house in 1948. Still well maintained and worth 11x that in that market. Photo is from August 2018.
https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...zm/0_mmm/1_rs/
-- Chuck
12-02-2018, 06:52 AM
#25
It is nice that neighborhood has maintained. My wife grew up in Detroit. Her family had a nice home with an inground pool. When she was a teen they family joined the flight. Her old hood is a dump now.
12-02-2018, 08:45 AM
#26
So live a shorter life and die of a different horrible disease? No thanks.
We haven't had a lynching lately. Just the occasional nut with a gun or bomb. Hmmm... But as bad is it is now to be non-white in America, it was way worse in 1950. Come to Mississippi and let me show you.
The numbers don't lie. You are letting your personal experience trump statistics. I will grant you that housing prices are a much bigger problem in some parts of the country, like the places where everybody thinks they want to live.
The seeds of climate change, acid rain, and dangerous levels of air pollution were sewn in the 50s but, yeah, the environment seemed better then.
On this, I won't. Population is the greatest threat to civilization as we know it and overpopulation could result in one of the worst periods of suffering in human history, rivaling the plague years in Europe, but on a world wide scale..
The seeds of climate change, acid rain, and dangerous levels of air pollution were sewn in the 50s but, yeah, the environment seemed better then.
On this, I won't. Population is the greatest threat to civilization as we know it and overpopulation could result in one of the worst periods of suffering in human history, rivaling the plague years in Europe, but on a world wide scale..
What’s better today are boats, internal combustion engines and tires. I would build my time machine out of a modern boat filled with modern engines and tires. Maybe some brake kits as well. Convert my money to some valuable commodity and go back in time and buy the waterfront.
12-02-2018, 08:49 AM
#27
I find it fascinating to look back in time when it relates to someone you knew. My dad was born in 1907. The US statistics for the year 1907 dramatize how much things have changed since he was born:
The average life expectancy was 47 years!...
...There were about 230 reported Murders in the “entire” USA!
The average life expectancy was 47 years!...
...There were about 230 reported Murders in the “entire” USA!
12-03-2018, 04:27 AM
#28
Thread Starter
I find it fascinating to look back in time when it relates to someone you knew. My dad was born in 1907. The US statistics for the year 1907 dramatize how much things have changed since he was born:
The average life expectancy was 47 years!
20% of the adults couldn't read or write. Only 6% of all Americans had graduated from high school.
The average wage was 22 cents/hour.
The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
95% of all births took place at home.
90% of all doctors had no college education; they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and the government as "substandard."
Only 14% of the homes had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent had a telephone and a 3-minute call from New York City to Denver cost $11.00.
There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads. The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
Most women only washed their hair once a month and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist made $2,500 per year, a veterinarian $1,500 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
Diarrhea was one of the five leading causes of death; the others were pneumonia and influenza, tuberculosis, heart disease, and stroke.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was only 30.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."
There were about 230 reported Murders in the “entire” USA!
The average life expectancy was 47 years!
20% of the adults couldn't read or write. Only 6% of all Americans had graduated from high school.
The average wage was 22 cents/hour.
The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
95% of all births took place at home.
90% of all doctors had no college education; they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and the government as "substandard."
Only 14% of the homes had a bathtub.
Only 8 percent had a telephone and a 3-minute call from New York City to Denver cost $11.00.
There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads. The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
Most women only washed their hair once a month and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist made $2,500 per year, a veterinarian $1,500 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
Diarrhea was one of the five leading causes of death; the others were pneumonia and influenza, tuberculosis, heart disease, and stroke.
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was only 30.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."
There were about 230 reported Murders in the “entire” USA!
12-03-2018, 08:46 AM
#29
Nine months after we got married, AK and I moved into this house (April 1985). We paid $212,000 I think it was in 1985. AK sold it last year (32 years later) for $640,000. He did add a huge garage/shop and a 20' by 40' pool among decks and landscaping. It was interesting to see his honey's decorating in the photos. When I moved out in March 2008, it looked different.
12-03-2018, 12:09 PM
#30
