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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBeing a Teenager in the 1950s Being a Teenager in the 1950's Interview of my grandmother, Erma Faye Jefferson 1. During this time what were some of the events or newspaper headlines? Answer: Some of the events during the 1950's were the death of former' President Truman. The election of Texan Dwight David Eisenhower (Ike) as president, the launching of "Sputnik", by the Russians. Hawaii and Alaska becoming the 49th and 50th states. 2. What was a normal teenager's day like? Answer: My life as a normal teenager was going to school during the regular school year, during the summer all of us (my classmates "and peers) went to the cotton fields and chopped, picked and pulled cotton. We got paid for doing field-work, so that's the way I and my mother paid for my and my brother and sister's school Clothes. We went to the movies on Saturday and went to church on Wednesday night and practically all day on Sunday. We celebrated "juneteenth' more than we celebrated the 4th of July. For "juneteenth" we barbecued lamb, beef, goat, pork, and chicken. My grandmother prepared cookies, cakes and pies for about a week before the date. On "juneteenth" she made banana pudding, potato salad, and all kinds of fresh vegetables from her garden. ' After we ate we would all go but back to the field and play softball. My grandmother was the best player on the team. Then we would all sit in the front yard and hand cranked ice-creme, with the rock salt on top of the ice. We played games (Annie-Over; throwing the ball over the house and if you caught it you would run around and try to catch the other team); hide and go-seek, dominoes and different card games such as "Old Maid". While we were playing games, one individual was cranking the ice-creme. When night came, we would shoot fireworks. We lived in the country so, there were no laws prohibiting our shooting fireworks. My grandmother was so agile and alert that she excelled over her children and grand-children in everything we did. " At Christmas it was usually to cold for us to go outside, so we sat beside the fire in the wood stove and played some of the same games inside the house. My grandmother and mother washed our clothes on a rub-board until we got a washing machine with a wringer. One of my tasks was to carry the water from the tank, (a natural small lake ). We didn't have a refrigerator like everyone has today, we had an ice-box, that blocks of ice were placed in. We did not have electricity until I was a junior in high school. I remember when we walked to Bryan from Booneville every Saturday night to watch my Aunt Frankie's television when she purchased the first one. My grandmother liked to watch wrestling, so we watched it. One of the famous wrestlers in the 50's was a wrestler named "Gorgeous George". Wrestling was not as violent as it is today. We did not have a car, so after wrestling we walked back to Booneville. We didn't have electric irons. We had irons (smoothing irons they were called) that you placed on the coals from the wood heater and ironed. 3. What were some of the fads and clothing style in the 1950's? Answer: We wore circle skirts with three or four wide slips that made the skirt stand out real far. I remember that. the hula hoop was one of the fads we had. There were not many fads, because we all had very simple life styles. We did try to dress like the teens, in Philadelphia, who appeared on American Bandstand. Girls went to the beauty parlor to have their hair pressed and curled for special occasions. Boys wore their hair conked (they processed it with lye and eggs and it made it slick and wavy). We wore saddle shoes or penny loafers with socks on a regular basis. I remember that Lily Ice Creme Company in Bryan, begin putting pictures of movie stars on the lids of the little Dixie cups and we collected and traded them. 4. What were education and school like? Answer: I attended an all-black elementary school (Carver on Martin Luther King today,' when I attended school the street was named West 19th). I also attended an all black high school (the site of R. C. Neal Elementary today, then the name was Kemp High). I think that my education was superb. I graduated as valedictorian, was president of the student council and editor of the yearbook. I was also class president during our junior year. I graduated from Kemp High in 1958 and I am and will always be proud of the education I received. You have to remember that we did not have new books, we had the books that had been used by the students at Stephen F. Austin the previous year. Even the band uniforms and instruments had been used by someone else before they were assigned to Kemp. We did not have tennis courts, volleyball courts, physics labs; we had one chemistry teacher. My chemistry teacher still lives today, she is in her 90's. In order to graduate we had to identify the "unknown". She would give us a liquid that we had to identify it; it could be water or a chemical, but, before we could march across the stage and receive our diploma, we had to test the liquid and be able to tell her what it was. My teachers lived in my neighborhood, and attended my church, knew my mother, so they were an integral part of my life. We were permitted to be punished by the teachers and actually preferred their punishment to our parent's. We dreaded teachers having to report that we had disobeyed them or broken any of their rules and regulations because the punishment by our parents would be worse than any punishment the teachers might or would inflict upon us. We had championship football, track, baseball and basketball teams. Our girl's basketball team, track and softball teams were also champions. We did not participate in tennis and golf. We played teams in Austin, Galveston, Waco, and Corpus Christi. We always ended up going to state to defend our records. Many of the schools we met in athletic competition had more students and were more urban than Kemp, however, we held our own. We played against Lincoln High (the black high school in College Station) and defeated them in all sports practically every year 5. What were some of the TV programs that came on that you enjoyed? Answer: The most enjoyable program was "American Bandstand" hosted by Dick Clark. We were so proud when the first black teens were finally allowed to be regular participants. We rushed home from school each day to see what the latest dances were and what musical group would be performing. Other programs that we watched were Gunsmoke, Rawhide, I Love Lucy, Lawrence Welk, Hee Haw, Jack Benny, George and Gracie Allen, the Loretta Young Show, Red Skeleton, Milton Berle, Ed Sullivan (on Sunday night), Julia (with Diane Carroll, the first black to have a sit-com), Amos and Andy, I've Got A Secret, To Tell the Truth, 60 Minutes, What's My Line?, the Tonight Show hosted by Jack Parr, Steve Allen, and later Johnny Carson. We also watched the first show that show that Johnny Carson hosted, Who Do You Trust? We were addicted to the soap operas of the day, which were believe' it or not, Guiding Light, Secret Storm, Search for Tomorrow, etc. 6. What were some rock groups and singing groups in the 1950's? Answer: Well, we didn't call them rock groups, they were singing groups. We preferred rhythm and blues. The major groups were the Supremes, the Platters, Lionel Richie, James Brown, Little Richard, the Sherell's, Martha and the Van Dellas, The Mighty Clouds of Joy, Marian Anderson, Kate Smith, Sam Cooke, Brook Benton, the Four Tops, Pat Boone, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis, JR, Carol Burnett, Julie Andrews, Nat King Cole, Merv Griffin, Patti Page, Doris Day, Dinah Shore, Elvis Presley and B. B. King to name just a few. 7. Were there any other kind of slang words like "square" used in the 1950's. Answer: There probably were, however, I remember "cool" and "groovy". 8. Does any important films or movies come to mind? Answer: One of the movies I remember was "the Ten Commandments" with Burt Lancaster, I remember it so well, because as was customary in the 1950's, there was only one movie theater that blacks could attend, it was the Palace and we had to sit in the balcony. However, when "The Ten Commandments" came to town, we were permitted to go to the Queen Theater to see it, but we still had to sit in the balcony. , ' . . Of course there were the movies with Al Jolson and Step-in-Fetchit. These were movies with blacks portrayed in very demeaning roles. Another movie that I remember from the 50's was "Johnny Belinda" starring Jane Wyman, the first wife of Ronald Reagan. During the 1950's there were serials playing in the movie theaters. We saw Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Tom Mix, Gabby Hayes all western movie stars. The most amazing thing about these movies was that the male star never kissed the female star, they kissed their horses instead. The final frame of the movie would leave the stars in very dangerous situations and you just had to go the next week to see if the star survived. 9. Where did you and other friends hang out together? Answer: There was no hanging out. There were no malls in the 50's. We went to downtown Bryan on Saturday to the Palace Theater to see movies. Other times we hung out at our different churches. We spent most of our leisure time at each other's homes. My house was one of the major places for my friends to come. My mother would let us play cards, dominoes, and later we would make French fries, go to Shipley's Do-Nuts and retum to the house. She didn't mind my having company as long as they were polite. She was so encouraging as a matter of fact, one Christmas she had my uncle build me a huge Ping-Pong table. I remember that one of the fun things my friends and I did was to go to the "holiness" church on Sunday night, stand outside and watch them shout and beat the tambourines until midnight. 10. What were some of the hobbies that you did when you had free time? Answer: I guess that you could call me the first "nerd" or "geek". I loved to read, play "bid whist", dominoes and talk.