great blog...great insight....it was a wonderful time to grow up in

our time will never be equalled - in safety, culture, inosence, possibilites, music , social awareness ..........
i feel so lucky to have lived them

I wonder what our children's blogs about their early years will say.

Pete Townshend has often correlated the advent of Rock n Roll with the after affects of WWII. Tom Brokaw was astute in calling it the greatest generation.

i too was a child of the 50s (as well as a fraternity brother and friend of freddy klein, a/k/a "fiddler" to his close friends, for over 50 years) and a devout yankee fan--mickey mantle was my hero, too--by way of correction, although the yankees did in fact win a record 5 straight world series from 1949-1953 they lost to the dodgers in '55 and to the braves in '57--i vividly remember being in yankee stadium on memorial day 1956 (section 7 row 1-upper deck between home and first--when mickey came as close as he could to hitting a fair ball out of yankee stadium--his home run hit the facade overhanging the upper deck roof in right field and missed going entirely out of the stadium by 18 inches

There never was. and there never will be, a better time to become an adult than the 50's There is nothing wrong with innocence. The great war had ended, Korea was a skirmish, we had nothing to worry sbout except getting






































































































There never was, and there never will be again, a better time to be alive and growing up than the 50's. The world was ours. The war was over, jobs were plentiful, job secuurity was ours if we wanted it. We either "liked Ike" or we didn't, but who cared? We were happy, a word which now defies descritption. It all ended in November of 1963. As I near 80 I feel so grateful to have lived in that decade. If you missed it, you can never understand.












































good grades, grafusting snd finbding a job in our field. Jobs were plentiful

Lucy and Elvis!!!! Nuf said.

The contrast between the 1950's and late 60's/early 70's is almost as huge as pre and post internet times. I still remember watching American Bandstand after elementary school. Fun times for sure!!

Mick leaned into a Pedro Ramos fastball on that May 30,1956 day. Memorial Day was Monday the 28th of May....Two days later in the first of two, Ramos threw a fastball that Mick crushed. A long fly ball that hit 18" below the right field upper deck façade. The Yanks swept the doubleheader against the Washington Senators who eventually became the Minnesota Twins. Mick won the Triple Crown that very year. The night before the game our family tuned in to The Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle.
Dwight Eisenhower was our President and a former 5 Star General.Think about it...5 Stars! As the term Halcyon suggests there was a tangible feeling of tranquility and calm. I collected baseball cards that smelled like the sweet gum they were wrapped in. I collected Pennies. The 1943 steel penny. The 1909 VDB ( Victor David Brenner) who designed the coin. The S ( San Francisco Mint) and the D ( Denver mint)....We played stickball with the Spaulding pink rubber ball against the East Hills School brick gym wall.
So I wonder...Was it because we were so young and carefree. Our parents must have had issues. I know mine did. Their renaissance from Forest Hills to "The Country" had to come with many of the same issues that we as adults have endured. I remember my parents arguing about money, parenting techniques and friendships. But I did not have a care in the world.
I was busy in Mrs. Fuller's third grade. Bernice Sirken's 4th and 5th. My first girl crush was with Joanne !! Ha ! I would walk to and from school and cut through people's property in Fairfield Park. I would ride my bike up and down Barberry Lane hoping to be noticed with my playing cards and close pin deep throated engine.
I wonder also what our kids will reflect upon as they re-visit their childhood.
By the way...You forgot to mention that you became The Commissioner of that very same league you played in !

Hollander Sends

What a time to live through! The progression from the early sixties to the late sixties rocked the world! My son studied "the sixties" in college and brought me in for "show & tell" -

Isn't that the job of parents?? I think my kids-when they hit the real world-are in for the same rude awakening.

Parents prepare their kids. Fred offered some profound thoughts of what many us including some grandchildren were shielded from. Never quite thought about things in the way you shared. Though when it comes to war, all who experienced it I am sure got profoundly affected.

I grew up in the 1970s, which were sort of the antithesis of the 1950s. Everything going to hell in the '70s, is the way I remember that decade. Vietnam War, Watergate, Nixon's resignation, two oil shocks, double-digit inflation, the Iranian revolution (and the hostages, of course), riots, and it seemed like everyone's parents were getting divorced.

However, the 80s were an awfully nice time to be young and alive. The economy was booming, people were optimistic about the future and things just sort of got better. I spent nearly half of the decade living/working in Buenos Aires, which was a blast. And of course, I met my wife of twenty-five years. For my generation, the 80s were our "fifties."