In the early 1980s I was in high school. One day while sitting in class, out of the blue, for reasons i cant recall, the school 16mm movie projector was rolled into the classroom. And they played for us several of these old, antiquated 1950s instructional films on how to date, how to be polite, how to behave, etc. My classmates laughed through them. The wooden acting, the cheap production values, the over politeness, the squeaky clean activities (a picnic, a carnival, a weenie roast, bike riding, a day at the park, dinner at home with the family, etc), the innocent slang of the time (gee, golly, swell, etc). I on the other hand, wasn't laughing. To the contrary. As someone who was being raised in a severely abusive, dysfunctional home (We never did anything together as a family. We NEVER sat together at the same table at meal times. Not even once. Even though we always had a full sized dining room with a full sized dining room table), i found these films to be quite charming. A sort of a time capsule of a more innocent era. DON'T get me wrong. I had no illusions. I was well aware that the 1950s wasnt so perfect and innocent. That there were negative things going on in the 1950s, such as segregation, criminal activity, corruption in the public and private sectors, poverty, the occasional economic recession, war, etc. No decade is perfect. But still, it seems to me that there were SOME things in the 1950s they were doing so right back then that we were doing so horribly wrong in the early 1980s as well as today.
No they said momma and papa, like we do today but some families were more formal than others. But parental love was something that developed more in the 18th century.
Not to fret.........this very same towel (unwashed) was also used for each of the family members to take a bath with........you see, back then, towels were a scarce and precious commodity!!!
Families didn't have time to argue. They had to work a lot more. Ol Ma didn't look that haggard for nothing. She had to make clothes for the family and darn Pop's socks. Wash windows, clean up after Fluffy after every meal. It was tough back them.
How this takes me back. I was 3 years old in 1948.Our dog was named Spot . My dad would not let Spot in the house. Dear old dad didn't like dog's much and so one day he took Spot out to the country and dumped him. My brother who was 1 year older then me and I cried so hard that my mother made dear old dad go find Spot and bring him home.I remember it all like it was yesterday. Golly Ge it was good to have Spot back home and dear old well he just opened up a beer and played like it all didn't happen.
@@arriesone1 yes he was a nasty man but the woman who lived down the street liked dad alot her old man drove a truck and was gone a lot so when she needed something he would take care of it for her. She didn't have a dog but she had a pussy 😸🐈
Such a simple time. No home computers, no cell phones and in most cases no TV. They had radio and phonographs. Dad went to work and mom stayed home. He had a good job and no worries. Everyone was happy and got along.
Love the video, but had to laugh at the snow and removal with big smiles on their faces. Our faces stay grim in the north, even if we're working as a family.
Not back then; I grew up in the 1950s and 60s, and bedtime was immutable. None of us four kids functioned well with less than nine hours of sleep---as far as I know, it's still the same way (the brother next to me in age disowned the family 100% 37 years ago), so my bedtime is still immutable---and Mom and Dad had jobs that required them to be up far earlier than normal jobs did, so they needed to be in bed earlier than most adults did.
We're all gonna die and there's nothing we can do about it so it's silly to dwell on it. If you want to live forever do something people will remember for centuries. Or you could sign some kind of contract with an infernal entity that will grant you eternal life in exchange for being its slave.
No more different than your will be dead in the same number of years. Typically this kind of reflection comes from young people who have not lived enough.
I like the video. I don't think it was unrealistic that's how things were in the past (and some family's still are today) familys working together....wish more were. I have old fashioned values and believe children should have chores and learn to do cooking a cleaning laundry all the things they will need to know. I had my kids in the kitchen with me. They got an allowance which they would earn but behaving and doing chores. I also didn't just give them extra money they could talk with me for certain things I would give it and for other things they would offer to do something extra to earn it.
! Mine, like yours, were in the kitchen with me too, both of them, and we had one daughter and one son! They learned how to pick up their own toys and put them in the toy box when they were old enough to walk. They started doing their own laundry, and had assigned laundry days, when they were 10. Kitchen stuff seemed to come natural when they were old enough to talk, and stand on a chair or step stool to reach the counter top. OR the sink! Doing the dishes was part of everyday life, and everybody helped. They had a chore board, and once they could do everything on it without assistance, they were allowed to negotiate with each other to keep the jobs covered. I didn't care much who did the jobs, as long as SOMEBODY did them! If one had an extracurricular activity, like band practice, and couldn't get a particular chore covered, they could barter with the other to do it in exchange for doing something else. They developed their own budgets when they got their first jobs; to cover their own personal expenses. Our son bought a used car from his dad's employer, for whom be worked one summer, and he bought it on short-term time payments. He also paid for the title, taxes, license plates, and most of his insurance, and worked out a budget for his money, and kept it up on a small white board on the wall right next to the door of his room so he would always see it, and so that everything was covered, and also got a checking account. Our daughter bought her own car once she was out of high school and had been working for a littlr while. Before that, they each drove a small car we had purchased for their use, as longh as they contributed to its upkeep, and bought their own gas when they used it. She started purchasing all the things she figured she would need when she moved out on her own, and stored them in a closet in her bedroom until she did.
Yeah it's crap how the boys weren't automatically expected to be in the kitchen but the girls were. So I guess the boys got a free pass to do what they wanted.
I'm 62 and that's how we wore our boots. Just get the boots a size bigger. They were nothing but rubber boots and it would get too cold even with two pairs of socks on. So you added the shoe's
Prayers of thanks - thanks that two world wars, a depression, a deadly influenza epidemic and a dustbowl that at times that blocked out the sun even in Chicago are now a thing of the past. In 1948 people just wanted to be left alone.
For all you foreigners out there: this life was only achieved by about half the population in this day, and about a third of the population now. I'm almost 40 and dream of not living in poverty. I'm an accomplished pilot, mechanic and builder, this is the current America: poverty and despair for even the most achieved.
My Mom was 12 years old when this film was made. It’s interesting to see what the “ideal family” looked like at the time. It does seem like the family has been pretty sterilized. Even back then I would imagine that most families lives weren’t quite as perfect as this one. 🤣 “Mother is sorry…” 21st century translation: “Mom’s pissed!”.
One odd thing I've noticed after watching (too many) of these old classroom films. In the usual four person family (mom, dad, girl, boy), it's predominantly an older sister and a younger brother, far more often than random chance would dictate. Must have been some accepted reasoning for this among the people who made these films.
@@JillKirchner I had a cuzzin (called "Spider" when he was 3) who blew up to 100 pounds at about 6 or 7. 275 by the time he was 12. But everybody else was skinny. I weighed 47 pounds until I was about 9.
Shouldn't Tony have washed his hands after scrubbing mud off the floor, and going straight to dinner prep? I guess that will be a lesson in another video on family hygiene?
The girl seems to have to do a lot more jobs than the boy. Favouritism. He is old enough to do just as much. The boy should have had to clean the floor anyway, it was HIS dog that made the mess when he came in from playing with him.
Galoshes, yeah. Rubbery things - women could get them to fit heels in transparent rubber. You weren't supposed to have to take your shoes off to wear them, part of the convenience - they just pulled on over shoes. Wish I could find a pair now...
This is funny..a reel like that takes about 10 minutes to to show on a projector..we had one and had to splice each reel together to get a decent home movie.
