Category Archives: 50’s Events

What Ragamuffins!

. 1950's, 50's Events, Holiday Greetings, Thanksgiving, What's New . 2 Comments
canstockphoto51179619

Happy Thanksgiving!

Back in the 1950s it was common to go out on Thanksgiving day knocking on people’s doos saying “Anything for Thanksgiving!”A tradition going back around the start of the century. We just went out as we were dressed although it was common to dress up in costumes, most of the time we were given fruit and nuts maybe come candy.

Some people called it begging and guess some people viewed it like that but back in the 50’s things were tight for most of us who to say the least, so we never looked at it that way as kids we were happy to enjoy it, So the point I’m trying to state is, we were Thankful for the fruit we received on those Thanksgiving days in the 1950s.

I like to wish you all very Happy Thanksgiving!

Rock it Up!

. 1950's, 50's Events, Retro Dance, Rock and roll, What's New . 2 Comments

Here’s Your Treat!

. 1950's, 50's Events, Halloween, Retro Halloween, What's New . 1 Comment
backlit black candle candlelight

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Back in 1957 My cousins and I went treat or treating, we would grab a paper bag as we never used costumes and began our search for many treats, or so we thought!

We just went house to house as always then we had an idea to travel to this apartment building so in that way  we could knock off a lot more treats, going up and down the flights door to door and we were doing great, till we got in the elevator when it came to a big stop!

we were stuck and my little cousin about 5 years old started crying and we had to calm him down. We pushed the alarm and after about 45 minutes the janitor came and helped us out we were stuck between the floors.

We were on our way home about 5 blocks when we ran into a few kids that were older and they were going about town just looking to cause trouble and as they were coming near to us they said “here’s your treat” and pulled out these small pies and threw them at us My cousin got one right in the face! I ran up the block fast as a rabbit! and my cousins followed just as fast. Yea it was a fun time and a halloween memorie I’ll always remember.

candle creepy dark decoration

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Goosebumps in 58′

. 1950's, 50's Events, What's New . 1 Comment
low angle view of man standing at night

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Back in 1958 my friends and I were just hanging out in front of my house, when a few older kids began talking of visiting an old casino about 12 blocks from where we lived. It was used if I remember right for gambling back in the 1930’s but now just boarded up and abamdened.

They wanted to go one night and see what it looked like and maybe find something to take home, we asked if we could go also and it was planned for the next night at about 10:pm. So we met up the next night and walked up to the casino and brought along flashlights to look around. The only thing was we had to open the window in the bottom and slide down to the floor, so we all got in and looked around there was a great big chandelier right in the center of the room and a bunch of tables and other things,

But when we went down the stairs in the back of the room, that seemed to go down a bit, we saw these large spikes implanted in the walls going down! We quickly went up the stairs and went back out the window and headed home with a scary tale to share!

Buddy Holly

. 1950's, 50's Events, Music, What's New . 1 Comment

220px-Buddy_Holly_cropped

Buddy Holly


Read Retodee’s great column on Buddy Holly, on her site, Retrodee’s Guild To The Best Era Ever! A great musican and songwriter from the 1950’s! And you can listen to Buddy’s music on the Jukebox if you like.

Standard 50’s Music!

. 1950's, 1950's Radio, 50's Events, Music, What's New . 1 Comment

The music and stars listed here are mostly of rock n roll of that was out when I was growing up, But there was a lot of great standard music from the area and music stars with hits on the radio, Like the great Pattie Page who sang the great “The Tennessee Waltz”  “Old Cape Code” and more. The Four Lads had a number of hits like “Moments To Remember” “No Not Much”. and others.

The great Nat King Cole had “Unforgettable” The Lovely “Mona Lisa” “Too Young” “Smile” Perry Como had hits like “Catch a Falling Star” “Papa Loves Mombo” “Round and Round” Who sang standards better than Frank Sinatra “Young At Heart” “Witch Craft” “Tony Bennett” “Because of You” “Rags to Riches” “Cold Cold Heart” “Rosemary Clooney” Come On-My House” “Mambo Italiano” “Dean Martin” “That’s Amore”.
Yes They were very much a part of the wonderful 1950’s and many more,the 1950’s would not be the same without their contribution of great standard music!

Perry Como
Tony Bennett
Nat King Cole
Frank Sinatra
Rosemary Clooney
Dean Martin
The Four Lads
Pattie Page

Elvis!

. 1950's, 50's Events, 50's Fashion, 50's styles, 50's TV, Music, Rock and roll, What's New . 2 Comments
Elvis

Elvis Presley

On the 41st year of Elvis Presley’s passing, I have fond memories of him in the 1950s. My friends and I thought he was the coolest looking guy with the long sideburns and he wore his collar up and dressed unlike anyone on the scene at the time!

It was amazing to see him perform on the Ed Sullivan show and the girls loved him and the guys wanted to be like him! What great songs he sang like, I’m All Shook up, Don’t be Cruel, Love Me Tender, and more.

It was Elvis that got me more interested in wanting to play a guitar and make music, he woke us up and rocked us with more great music from him early films like, Love Me Tender, Loving You, Jailhouse Rock, King Creole, the list goes on. You can listen to Elvis on the Jukebox There are a number of his great hits there.

Yes Elvis began it all for me and many more at the time! When I think back to there was some great music made then by many great stars like Buddy Holly, and many groups who were rocking back then! Thanks for the great music Elvis!

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Retro Games!

. 1950's, 50's Events, Retro Games, What's New
monopoly board game on brown wooden tabletop

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When we weren’t playing ball or riding our bikes or exploring other things, we would go outside by my friend’s house a few doors down, and sit on the ground playing board games like, “monopoly”, “checkers” and others. some times we played marbles, or flipped baseball cards against the wall! Some days your winnings piled up! And the next day you would lose most of them.

It was a fun way to spend a summer afternoon, there was quite a number of board games at the time and my friend had most of them it seemed! Other board games we played were, “Cheyenne” a game from the tv show at the time, and also “Gettysburg”. and it was the first board war game based on a historical battle.

And there was also” Leave It to Beaver Money Maker Game” and many more! Yeah summer was never a boring time for us back then, I don’t think there was a kid on my block who was not doing something outside in the summer, and most of the time the boys played together and the girls did the same, but there were lots of times we all played together, I’m glad I grew up when I did and, I bet most of us from that time might agree on it,

The Monastery Grounds!

. 1950's, 50's Events, 50's Summer, 50's Winter, Snow, What's New . 2 Comments

retroboy

in the 1950s, I lived right across the street from from the Church Saint Michae’s It was was built on 12 acres of land and went 2 blocks lwest to east some, and 3 blocks north to south! It was the biggest Chruch in the country at the time and many attented mass there on Sundays and many were married there over the years and my oldest sister was married there also in 1958, it was built in 1869 and completed in 1875.

I moved there when I was 4 years old and still remember when they first put down tar for cars to park in one section, and the other section was dirt with trees and it was fenced in the entire length, so as I got older that’s where the kids in the neighborhood would gather to play, and we would play stickball down where the cars parked after Sunday services. It also had basketball hoops on each side of the parking area.

On the other end is where we would play baseball, the city would add a back stop later on but the bases we made with any decent size rock we could find for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd base, but we did have a home plate the city also added. Many times you could spend most of the day there, only to go home for diner then back again to play a game.

And I remember summer days shooting off those toy water rockets that had a launcher and when you pumped it up it took off straight up and we could have sworn it was headed into orbit! And of course, that’s where the city would dump those wonderful mountains of snow! from around the city and seemed to last a year in the cold winter!

I’m not kidding it took forever for them to melt and they were large and seemed to go on forever and  the truth is, we didn’t mind if they did!  Oh but what fun we had making snow forts and making up sides to have snowball fights! The Church is still standing there but no longer active with membership it was upgraded for the area highschools for sports and looks nice and on the south end part about 3 blocks away from there are condominiums built on the land a number of years ago very nice looking.

So very once in awhile when I’m in the area I say in a quiet whisper “Hello to  Saint Michae’s Church” Thanks for the memories!