July 2005
Dear Friends,
Here's a look back at summer fun in the 1950's ~ Enjoy!
I fondly remember growing up during the 50’s in Milwaukee, WI. Summer was our favorite time of year. School was out and we were free to play all day, as long as we completed our chores. They were not onerous – make your bed, hang up your clothes, help do the dishes, take out the garbage, the usual tasks that help any family home run smoothly. We knew we must work first, then play. And we certainly new that mother was busy enough with everything she had to do each day, and she was not there to wait on us nor to entertain us. We learned how to make our own fun, keep ourselves happily occupied during the long summer days, and stay out of the way.
There were no computers, no videos, no microwave. TV was a new thing, and only black and white. It never crossed our mind that TV shows could be in color. There were 2 reliable channels, and then only if you fiddled just right with the rabbit ears and it wasn’t storming. We would be allowed to watch perhaps one 30 minute show and then usually one or both of our parents watched with us. There was no need for a rating system. Leave it to Beaver, Howdy Doody, and Captain Kangaroo were our favorites, and hardly needed to be rated!
The first TV dinner was soon invented and it was quite a treat to get dinner in a metal tray that had cooked in the oven. It was rare that we ate a meal that was not home-cooked, from scratch… every night. TV dinners were just too expensive. The first MacDonalds opened when I was a child and it was a major event for the family to get in the car and eat 10 cent hamburgers and some fries.
I can remember no organized sports for children our age. No one I knew in my neighborhood or at school took dance lessons or played in a sports league. A few who could afford it took piano lessons, but that was about it. Most of us took group piano or recorder lessons at school.
We had only one car and that was for my dad to use to get to work. I did not know any family with two cars. If we wanted to go anywhere during the day, we walked. Sometimes we might ride the bus if we had to go very far.
Children today would probably think we spent our summers bored to tears, but nothing could be further from the truth! We were all happy, active youngsters, fortunate to grow up in a neighborhood with many other children. No one was overweight. We spent our days running, playing, riding bikes, roller skating, playing a variety of games: we organized our time ourselves making sure we came whenever our mother called. After lunch, we were out the door until dinner time, and usually played outdoors again until the street lights came on. That was our signal to get ready for bed. Bedtime was 8:00, sometimes 8:30 in summer. No debate, no discussion; it was a comforting routine. Tomorrow was another day.
Much of our time was spent with our playmates who all lived just a few houses away. No one had air conditioning so everyone’s windows were open most of the time. We simply ran outside and if we did not see our friends, we ran to their yard and called out for them.
We were rarely allowed to use the telephone and, of course, cell phones are only a very recent invention. Many families, like mine, had a party line telephone because it was cheaper. That meant we shared the same line with at least one other family. We each had our own phone number, but when you picked up the phone, you had to listen quietly to see if someone was already on the line. If so, you politely, and quietly, hung up and waited. It was rude to be on the phone for very long because the other party might need to use it or be expecting a call. It was many years before we could afford a private line all our own!
Our days seemed filled with fun, all of our own making. We’d gather with our friends and decide what we wanted to do. Hide and seek, Red Light-Green Light, Captain May I?, and Simon Says were among our favorite group games. My younger brother and the other boys would play cowboys and Indians, or cops and robbers, while my girl friends and I would play house and take care of our dollies.
While my mother hung the wash on the line, I often washed my doll clothes in a little dishpan mother set out for me and then hung them on a low clothesline strung at my height. Then I would wash the play dishes and perhaps bathe my baby dolls. As soon as the clothes dried, I pressed them with my toy iron. It was not heated, but that didn’t matter. I wanted to be like mommy.
The sandbox was another favorite spot for quiet play, especially on hot days. We could have a bucket of water to dip our sand toys in if we were careful not to get our shoes and clothes wet. We made big sand mountains and patted them hard with wet sand, then tunneled through them to see if we could get the spoon through to the other side. The mountain often caved in first, so we would start over and do it again and again.
There was no pool nearby and Lake Michigan was a long way from our house. Going to the lake to swim was a special treat usually reserved for extremely hot days when everyone needed relief from the heat. We enjoyed a small kiddie pool in the yard, but it was more fun to run through the sprinkler. There were no Slip n’ Slides or water toys other than a squirt gun which my brother enjoyed using to torment his sister! The best fun came on rainy days when there was no lightning and we were allowed to run outside in the summer rain.
I was the neighborhood organizer! I enjoyed starting clubs and enlisting my friends. One year I organized a contest among the girls to see who could grow the longest fingernails! At the end we might be allowed to use a bit a clear nail polish, but anything other than that, or the lightest shade of pink, was considered inappropriate for young girls. I organized puppet shows and my brother put on plays. We made our puppets from socks; it was 90% imagination and 10% actual props. I started a neighborhood kid’s newspaper, but everyone seemed to already know all the news so there wasn’t a lot to write.
We jumped rope, scrawled our own hopscotch games on the sidewalks, and made tents with an old sheet or blanket. When mom and dad went to the supermarket, usually once a week, we begged them to bring the groceries home in boxes. Those became our trains, cars, and all types of forts and other creations.
We tried our hand at business, charging a penny or a nickel to see our plays and puppet shows, or weaving loop pot holders on little metal frames and selling them door to door. Our neighbor ladies kindly obliged us, sometimes even with a quarter. If we had any soda at home (a real treat) we’d rinse the bottles and ask permission to return them for a nickel at the neighborhood store. That would buy a Popsicle.
Though rainy days would keep us indoors, we had plenty to do in our room. Besides reading and playing with dolls, there were magazines we could cut up, coloring books and dot-to-dots. Mother would give us bubble pipes to blow bubbles, or just a dish of soapy water with a straw to blow bubbles. My brother and I listened to 78 rpm records of our favorite cowboy singers, Gene Autry and Roy Rodgers, and we strummed along on toy plastic guitars.
We were creative and we created our own fun. As my husband just reminded me, if he or his brothers ever said, “I’m bored,” they would soon be scrubbing the whitewall tires, or washing the car, or any other task mom or dad assigned to cure our boredom! It was the same in my family. Our parents enabled us to have fun by providing basic toys (probably few by today’s standards), and the rest was up to us. If we could not think of anything to do, then they would give us some work to do.
My husband is one of 6 boys. My dear mother-in-law had two sets of twins and, as she reminds me, there were no disposable diapers in those days! She rang a cow bell to call her boys to meals. They stopped whatever they were doing immediately, came in and washed their hands and sat down at the table. If they arrived late, they were sent to their room without dinner, unless as my dear husband explained, there was a good excuse – like a broken leg!
The boys learned Morse code playing with flashlights at night and sending each other messages. Card games and board games were a favorite among these competitive brothers especially on rainy days. Sometimes they played church: the oldest brother was the priest, my husband remembers always playing the part of the penitent, and Necco candies were Communion wafers. The card table that often held board games became their altar as they covered it with an old blanket.
Grading a dry ditch with his toy trucks, playing marbles, sandlot baseball, football, setting off rockets; all of these and more filled a boy’s days.
Our childhood days were happy days, filled with simple, homemade fun. There were clear limits, predictable routines and schedules, and firm discipline. We had long stretches of unstructured time especially during the summers. I can remember no stress, no rushing around, rarely any hurry. There was very little misbehavior and no ADD. We sat quietly in church, just as we did in our hard wooden desks in school. If we misbehaved, there were swift and unpleasant consequences, that ensured we’d remember what behavior was expected of us.
We were happy children. I hope today’s children will look back 50 or 60 years from now and fondly recall their summers. The happiest times are often the simplest. Give your children the gift of relaxed time this summer without feeling guilty because you have not signed them up for yet another activity. Teach them to entertain themselves and become self-motivated; it will help them learn to think for themselves. Lie in the grass and look up at the clouds, imagining what they look like. Give your children old dishes to play with in the sand or water. Make a batch of play dough (see below for last month’s letter for a recipe) and let them sculpt their own creations. Get some inexpensive watercolor paints and lots of paper and let them paint. Encourage their creativity. Get outdoors for some sunshine, fresh air and exercise every day. Plant some seeds and watch them grow. Encourage their curiosity. Go to the library, a Farmer’s Market, a U-Pick field.
Don’t give in to consumerism and the peer pressure many parents feel to give their child every “advantage” in life by over-scheduling their young lives. Over-busy lives lead to stress and exhaustion. Children should not be stressed or depressed.
I hope this look back at summers 50-60 years ago will inspire you to enjoy this summer with your children.
Until next time ~
Yours in Him,
Copyright, 2005, Laurie Latour.
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