Fashion – Women

Poodle skirt

Pencil skirts

Polka dot dresses

Jeans (dungarees)

Sailor look

Bobby socks

Saddle shoes

Stiletto heels

Gloves

Cats-eye glasses

Beatnik

Cardigans

Brushed Under Bob

Pony tails

Italian Cut

Bouffant

Poodle cut

Slang of the 1950s

Baby – cute girl Back seat bingo – kissing in a car

Bash – big party Buzz off – get lost Blast – good time

Bread – money Bug – to bother

Burn rubber – accelerate hard and fast Cat – hip guy

Cookin’ – doing it well Cool – indefinable quality that makes something or

someone extraordinary Chick – hip girl

Cool it – relax, settle down Crazy – an especially good thing

Cruisin’ for a bruisin’ – looking for trouble DDT – drop dead twice

Dibs – a claim “I got dibs on that seat” Don’t have a cow – don’t get so excited

Drag – a short car race; a bore Far out – ahead of the times

Flick – a movie Floor it – push the accelerator

Get bent – drop dead Get with it – understand

Going steady – dating only one person Give me five – hand greeting

Goof – someone who makes mistakes

Greaser – a guy with tons of grease in his hair Grody – sloppy or messy

Hang – loaf or idle in a place (as in a hangout) Hood – a biker Heat – police

Hip – someone who is up to date Horn – telephone

Hottie – a very fast car Jets – smarts, brains

Knuckle sandwich – a fist in the face Later – goodbye

Lay a patch – accelerate & leave a patch of rubber on

the road Lid – hat

Machine – car Made in the shade – success guaranteed

Make out – kissing session Moldy – a bad teacher No sweat – no problem

Noweheresville – a boring, bad place to be (anything

with ville in it ie. dullsville) Oddball – someone a bit off the norm

On the hook – in love Pad – home, apartment

Party pooper – no fun at all

Passion pit – drive in movie theatre Peepers – glasses Pound – beat up

Punk – a weak, useless person Punch it – step on the gas

Queen – a popular girl Radioactiive – very popular Rattle your cage – get upset

Reds – communists Righto – okay

Rock – a diamond Scream – go fast

Shades – sun glasses Shot down – failed

Snowed – infatuated Souped up – modified car to go fast

Split – leave Spaz – someone who is uncoordinated

Straight – reliable, honest Square – old fashioned, boring

The man – police Threads – clothes

Tight – good friends Total – to completely destroy

Tune out – to go away, not pay attention Unreal – exceptional Way out – innovative

Wimp – push over

PAST-TIMES

1950s Automobiles

Investment in infrastructure such as highways and bridges coincided with the increasing

availability of cars more suited to the higher speeds that better roads made possible, allowing people to live beyond the confines of major cities,

and instead commute to and from work.

Plymouth Fury

Ford Thunderbird

Chevy Corvette

Buick Skylark

Chrysler Hot Rod

Volkswagen Beetle

Chevrolet Bel Air

Cadillac Eldorado

Studebaker

Buick Roadmaster

TOYS

Literature

Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger

teenage angst & alienation

I, Robot Isaac Asimov

theme of the interaction of humans, robots, morality

The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway

Santiago, an aging fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin

I Am Legend

Richard Matheson zombie genre & concept of an

apocalypse due to disease

Charlotte’s Web E.B. White

a pig named Wilbur & his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte

Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien

takes place in the fictional universe of Middle-earth

Farenheit 451 Raymond Bradbury

a future society where books are outlawed & "firemen" burn any that

are found

Chronicles of Narnia

C.S. Lewis Narnia, a fantasy world of magic,

mythical beasts, & talking animals,

The Martian Chronicles Raymond Bradbury

the colonization of Mars by humans fleeing from an atomically devastated

Earth, & the conflict between aboriginal Martians and the

new colonists

Casino Royale Ian Fleming

James Bond, Agent 007 of the "Secret Service", travelling to the casino

at Royale-les-Eaux

Lord of the Flies William Golding

a group of British boys stuck on an uninhabited island who try to

govern themselves with disastrous results.

Horton Hears a Who! (1955), If I Ran the Circus (1956), The Cat in the Hat (1957), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957) Green Eggs &

Ham (1960) Dr. Seuss

Breakfast at Tiffany’s Truman Capote

a country girl turned New York café society girl. she has no job & lives by

socializing with wealthy men

Comics & Magazines

Sports Illustrated

MAD

Peanuts

National Enquirer a sensationalist tabloid focusing on

sex and violence

Dennis the Menace

TV Shows

The Lone Ranger

Lassie

Davy Crockett

Movies

Food

This decade also marked the beginning of ethnic foods entering mainstream America. GIs returning from tours in Europe and the Pacific developed

new tastes. Food companies were quick to supply the ingredients. "Americanized" versions of sukiyaki, egg foo yung, chow mein, enchiladas, pizza,

lasagne, and barbecued meats with Polynesian sauces regularly appeared in 1950s cookbooks.

Backyard barbecues After WWII, many returning GI's married and settled in the suburbs. A house with a back yard was one of the symbols of American middle-class

status. How best to show off one's back yard? Barbecue! It's no coincidence men proudly did the grilling.

Can we eat dinner in the TV room? In the 1930s-1940s, families listened to the radio while dining. After supper, they retired to the living room to enjoy favorite programs. Like

furniture-grade console radios, most families placed TVs in the living room for general seating comfort. TV's allure, of course, was the visual

component. As post-war affluence rose, so did the acquisition of the family TV. This animated box changed American life, and by association dining

patterns, forever. Television posed new challenges with timing (serving meals between "favorite shows") and location (TV trays in the living room).

Did television really "kill" the dinner hour, or did it facilitate an emerging meal pattern? Period newspapers promoted mobile tray dining. Cooking &

serving two settings (early for kids, later for adults) avoided the stress of timing one family table. Kids were hungry long before commuting dads

returned home. Dad needed some time to decompress when he arrived home from the office. The free "babysitter" (tv) in the living room may have

been more welcome than nuisance.

Breakfast 1. Orange juice, sauteed eggs and bacon, cinnamon toast

2. Apple juice, sausage-meat cakes, popovers, jelly

3. Chilled grapefruit, waffles, honey, cream

4. Sliced peaches, omelet or scrambled eggs, drop biscuits, marmelade

5. Tomato juice, French toast with applesauce

Lunch 1. Broiled hamburger sandwiches, wilted lettuce, canned or stewed fruit

2. Cold sliced ham, hot potato salad, toast, applesauce

3. Pan-fried fish, broiled potatoes, tossed green salad with French dressing, muffins, grapefruit jelly

4. Chili con carne, creamed spinach, sweet muffins with nuts

5. French ham toast, avocado on lettuce with French dressing, gingersnaps

Dinner 1. Meat balls with spaghetti, green peas, sliced oranges, peanut-butter cookies

2. Pigs in blankets, baked tomatoes with cheese, banana sherbet, butterscotch brownies

3. Salmon in casserole, potato chips, green salad with French dressing, lemon milk sherbet, chocolate-chip drop cookies

4. Eggplant filled with leftover foods, boiled carrots, hot rolls, preserves, quick method white cake with lemon icing

5. Pork chops with scalloped potatoes, French bread, Harvard beets, apple crunch"

Diner Food