Pictures of the past

  I saw this meme on Facebook yesterday afternoon. It contained a few pictures with the heading, some rare photos for the 1950's. These pictures were depicting what life was really like in the 50's! I couldn't help but smile and comment, they look like pictures from my photo album. Rare photos? I did mention that we had cameras back then, granted the average person wasn't shooting in color but we did take pictures. We just weren't taking pictures of ourselves. That isn't to say some didn't try. We did have cameras mounted on a tripod with a remote clicker for the shutter though. A little too high tech for my house, someone just wasn't in the picture.

 Those pictures that were showing me what it was really like to live in the fifties looked more like the Hollywood version than real life. Change the faces and they looked like the cast of Happy Days. My mother certainly wasn't dressed like June Cleaver when she was doing the housework. Dad didn't come home carrying a briefcase and retire to his den. Now there were some pictures of kids riding in a station wagon, did that often enough, sometimes we could ride on the tailgate, if we weren't going very far. And I sure did play on a jungle gym, galvanized steel bars set in concrete with hard packed dirt underneath. Rode my bicycle everywhere, no helmet, no pads of any kind, sometimes barefoot too. Rode my friends on the handlebars! Went to the drive-in movies with my parents occasionally and later on with my own car. Made book covers out of grocery bags and drank the latest drink, tang. The astronauts drank that stuff too. 

  Life in the fifties. I was amused by that meme. I guess it accomplished what it was intended to do. No offense taken. I have finally come to realize it is the 21st century. It came to my attention when talking with a young person. He was explaining a bit of history to me, said it had happened in the 20th century. I had to agree, tell him he was correct, it was in the twentieth century, and I know because I was there. He seemed a bit surprised by that, saying he hadn't thought about that either. I have to say life was a bit more black and white back then. There was right and wrong and very little middle ground. A far cry from today that much is certain. In my opinion we are losing touch with reality. Morality isn't a conditional thing dependent upon the mood you are in. Your gender is assigned at birth, actually about nine months before that, and you don't get to choose. In the fifties there were boys' rooms and girls' rooms for a reason. The boys used one, the girls used the other. That was life in the fifties. As a kid it was also, because I said so, that's why. Teachers controlled the classroom, and the Police controlled the streets. Either of them may report you to your parents, at any time, for any offense real or perceived. You were guilty as charged, that was life in the fifties. An allowance? You were allowed to get a job. Kids on television got an allowance, I did odd jobs. 

 Well, I'm pleased. I found out yesterday that I'm living history. It's a good feeling to know that, that you have made it that far. I can talk with authority about the old days. A lot of people will mention the old days, but my old days were in the last century. I remember using a phone booth, when American Express and the Diners Club where the only credit cards you saw, and I remember postdating checks. Today there is an app for that, saw it advertised on television. It's called EARNIN. In the twentieth century that only apps I knew about where job applications or applications to go to college. According to Google the first app was a game on a Nokia phone. The apps we think of today didn't really appear in general use until the 21st century. In the last century a browser was someone that wasn't buying. Today the browser allows you to buy stuff. Times change. I was there for life in the fifties, I lived through the fifties all the way into the 20's. Now I'm in my seventies! Better take a selfie so the grandkids can show it to their grandkids and talk about the old days. Back in the twenties. Their twenties will be in the 21st century though. 

 As far as rare photos go, I can say I have pictures from three different centuries. I do have what are called cabinet card photos. Those are from the 19th century. Of course, I have plenty from the twentieth century. They are all actual photographs. What I mean is they were printed at the developers on professional paper. I probably have as many pictures from the 21st century, but the vast majority are in digital format. A good number of them I have printed at home with my ink jet printer. How many and how long any of them will survive is a good question. Those cabinet cards have lasted over a hundred years. I'm thinking my digital ones will not. But the grandkids will still have some of my rare photos from the fifties. Their kids will be amazed!