For me Coolest Period was the 1950s United States

 In 1952, I was 7. Life was simpler then. Kids could play outside all day and not get snatched off their front lawns by a pedophile.  

 The crime rate was lower; gas was cheaper; we were happy with simple things (e.g., when we had a birthday party, we only invited the kids on the street, not the entire class.  

 We didn't go bowling, or to a theme park, or anywhere else. We had cake and ice cream in the kitchen and we (at least girls) were happy with our gifts: Crayons, coloring books, bubble bath, etc.  

 We didn't get digital wristwatches, DVD players, Game Boy, remote-controlled dinosaurs (if those items had been invented then, we wouldn't have gotten them anyway), etc.  

 in the summers, we had a clubhouse that a neighbor's father built, and we'd hang out there or under "the big tree" reading comic books and waiting for the Popsicle truck, with our nickels in hand.  

 My parents would dress me in my pajamas and we'd go to the Star Drive-In for a double feature, and we took our own refreshments.  

 No, we weren't poor. We just did things that way: Fewer material things, more togetherness. The music of the 50s and early 60s was relaxing: Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Patti Page, etc. all crooning about fnding and losing love.  

 Whatever movies we saw on Sat. afternoon at the Sunshine Theater, the same stars were always in them: Bob Hope, Debbie Whatever...Movies were OK for kids, with no gruesome bloody bodies, homicide scenes, etc. and we had cartoons in between the features.  

 We had the first TV on the street and my friends and I gathered in front of it each afternoon at 4 p.m. to watch the test pattern turn into Howdy Doody.  

 We used to talk about what we wanted to be when we grew up; by the time I was raising my daughter, she talked about what she wanted to be if she LIVED to grow up.  

 Also during the 50s, it was a time of innocence. Media technology wasn't as evolved as it is now, and there were fewer things to nag our parents for. We saved boxtops. We thought Davy Crocket and Rin-Tin-Tin were the closest thing to Heaven.  

 Now that I'm 63, I pine away for those sweet, simple songs of the 50s, when life was uncomplicated and people were nice to each other.  

Memory Posted By:   Anonymous