Things You Didn’t Know About the 50s

It wasn’t all idyllic.

Photo by Jan Canty on Unsplash

A certain segment of America is very nostalgic about the 1950s. I’m a little too young to remember much about that decade but is seems idealized on TV. I suspect it wasn’t all Mayberry and cool stops around Route 66, though I wish we still had more of those roadside attractions.

So, I took a look to see what I could find out about stuff from the 50s. Here are some things I found.

1: “Catcher in the Rye,” by J. D. Sallinger is considered the most significant piece of literature from the 50s.

That’s odd, I read a lot of baseball books, but not that one. Hang on, being told it’s not a baseball book. No wonder Kevin Costner hasn’t made a movie about of it.

2: April 11, 1954, has been identified by a computer at Cambridge University as the most boring day in history.

How boring was it? Husbands found themselves talking to their wives without being prompted.

3: The decade saw the advent of subdivisions.

William Levitt is considered the “father of suburbia.” The 50s saw a housing crunch and Levitt’s solution was…