Recollections A Baby Boomer S Memories Of The Fabulous Fifties

As one of the first post-WWII Baby Boomers, Jim Chambers' childhood and early teenage years were in the 1950s, a remarkable decade for the United States that saw enormous political, technological, and cultural changes. Although many books have covered the headline-making events of the era in great detail, few of these books give the reader a real feel for what daily life was like for Americans living in that decade, especially for kids growing up then. The author remembers the little nuts and bolts things of daily life for families during the fascinating decade known as the Fabulous Fifties. "Recollections" perfectly blends paying homage to the little day-to-day rituals with a larger scale examination of social issues and mores of the times, and it's equally entertaining on either level. "Recollections" is a warm, lovingly honest, and fascinating portrait of America in the mid-20th Century.

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be. For many of us, modern memory is shaped less by a longing for the social customs and practices of the past or for family heirlooms handed down over generations and more by childhood encounters with ephemeral commercial goods and fleeting media moments in our age of fast capitalism. This phenomenon has given rise to communities of nostalgia whose members remain loyal to the toys, television, and music of their youth. They return to the theme parks and pastimes of their upbringing, hoping to reclaim that feeling of childhood wonder or teenage freedom. Consumed nostalgia took definite shape in the 1970s, spurred by an increase in the turnover of consumer goods, the commercialization of childhood, and the skillful marketing of nostalgia. Gary Cross immerses readers in this fascinating and often delightful history, unpacking the cultural dynamics that turn pop tunes into oldies and childhood toys into valuable commodities. He compares the limited appeal of heritage sites such as Colonial Williamsburg to the perpetually attractive power of a Disney theme park and reveals how consumed nostalgia shapes how we cope with accelerating change. Today nostalgia can be owned, collected, and easily accessed, making it less elusive and often more fun than in the past, but its commercialization has sometimes limited memory and complicated the positive goals of recollection. By unmasking the fascinating, idiosyncratic character of modern nostalgia, Cross helps us better understand the rituals of recall in an age of fast capitalism.

Old friends from the class of 1960 at an Indiana high school share nostalgic memories as their fiftieth reunion draws near . . . This is the story of sixteen classmates who graduated from Indiana’s Columbus High School in May, 1960. With their fiftieth high school reunion on the horizon, the “Columbus Crew” reconnected, and here the guys tell stories about growing up in the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s, and how those times impacted who they are today—offering both a glimpse into history and a delightful ride down Memory Lane. While the stories are unique to the Columbus Crew, they will rekindle memories for anyone who grew up in this glorious era—and for children and grandchildren of baby boomers, they show what life was like in mid-twentieth-century America. Let the Columbus Crew take you back to the days of flat tops, LPs, the Hula Hoop, transistor radios, Lassie, 20 cents per gallon gas, big bands, rock and roll—while sharing personal reminiscences of first cars, girlfriends, sports, jobs, getting into trouble and finding their way out, and much more.

Do you remember washing in a tin bath by the fire, using outside lavatories and not having a television? Did you grow up in the 1950s and were you a teenager in the swinging sixties? If the Festival of Britain, food rationing and the Queen’s coronation are among your earliest memories then you belong to the post-war baby boomer generation. How did we end up here, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, when it all just seems like yesterday? In this fascinating new trip down memory lane, Paul Feeney remembers what it has been like to live through the eventful second half of the twentieth century. This nostalgic journey through an era of change will resonate with anyone who began their innocent childhood years in austerity and has lived through a lifetime of ground-breaking events to the much changed Britain of today.

As I was preparing this work, I asked some young adults (early 20s of today) what they know about the baby boomers. One reply was, You had morals. Today, people dont. Another reply was, My grandmother is one, and she worries a lot. Then he qualified his statement with this idea, No, she really takes good care of us. Thus, he was implying that the baby boomers are very humanitarian. Naturally, each of these statements is a value judgment and is open to opinion, and everyone knows that every generation has good and bad people. However, I would qualify the statement that the first young man said with this idea: I do believe that the baby boom generation has been a generation of traditional values in a very special way that no others in modern times seem to have been. Another way to say that is to say that baby boomers followed their parents values in a way that no other generation of modern times has done.

A look back at the last fifty years; growing up in the 60s and 70s, raising children in the 80s and 90s, headlines, and more?Ǫ all with a touch of humor and hope for the memories of tomorrow. For excerpts from the book and postings of the notes for "The Next Fifty Years" see Arthur's blog at http://babyboomermemories3.blogspot.com/

"The stories in this book are about sixteen men, stories of the memories we created throughout our high school years and stories of the separate roads we have traveled since May, 1960"--Introd.