The Nifty Fifties Teenage Dating!

Dating in the 1950s was a whole different ball game then in today's generation of young teenage dating!
The guys date etiquettee was to wait by the door to take them to the car to open the car door for them, bring enough money for the date, always ask when the girl has to be home and not to kiss on the first date!
The girls etiquette was to be ready when the boy arrives to pick you up, parents had to be introduced to the boy, applying makeup in public was a ‘no-no’, if you can not arrive to a date there has to be a good enough reason, only floozies  ask guys out so it was a 'no-no’ to ask a guy out, and lastly when at a restaurant it is polite to tell your date what you want to order so he can tell the waiter.

Did she really get pinned? Did she kiss him and cry?


 When dating would turn into boyfriend/girlfriend a.k.a going steady the boy would 'pin' the girl. What that means is the boy would get a pin and put it on her shirt so everyone knows she has a boyfriend! Like in the Musical “Bye Bye Birdie” They sing about the young girl (Kim) getting pinned, just a fun example.  :)

So why was dating in the fifties so much easier?!
Well, that’s easy.....
*See a lot of people were not as busy, so there was a higher chance of seeing the significant other more often and well meeting new ones!
*Also weight/looks was not as much as a big deal, like in today's generation. Anyone could get a date!
*Girls back then respected themselves. Basically saying they were a bit naive and innocent. No girl really wanted to be a “floozie”!
Floozie- Easy, hooch girl.

Ready for that 1950s date? If not watch the video!

In 1959 there was a Seventeen (which is still around today) magazine that said the most popular places to go on dates was ice cream&pizza parlors, bowling alleys, record shops, coffee house and my favorite drive-ins.

Other fun dates were malt shops, school dances, sock hop, and school sport events.

Malt Shop- Ice-cream and fast food restaurant.

Sock Hop- Informal dances.

 In shorter words, Dating was so much easier and more fun! Guys respected the women more then today..  I don’t think men know what a date is.... If I’m wrong tell me, but the guys that I know of don’t take girls out on little dates like in the 1950’s!

Television

In the 1950s technology was becoming extremely popular. Television being one of them was one of the most used. Practically  most families in the 1950s had one television in there living room space, rather then today we have one almost in each room. Anyhow, they had a limited set of channels to watch and that being said family time was still extremely important since they all had to still entertain each other somehow! Down below I made a brief list of the shows that were watched in the 1950’s.

Comedy

The Honeymooners

I Love Lucy

Drama

The Twilight Zone

Superman

Kids

Mickey Mouse Club

Howdy Doody Time

Even with these television shows, Family was still important and everyone enjoyed watching the shows together which is less common in todays generation.....

Body Images

When did skin and bones showing become more attractive then curves? In the 1950s the average women’s ideal body is what we would chubby today. Marilyn Monroe was the ideal to look up to with her height being 5 feet by 5 1/2 inches, weight about 118, bra size 36D, size 12 in a dress and a size 8 in jeans. Even when she gained about 22 pounds she was still viewed as a sex goddess. Although comparing to todays ideal female it is 117 pounds with the height of 5’11. It is really sad how girls today look up to girls with un-healthy weight rather then the healthy weight. What we call “chubby” was beauty  in the 1950’s......

Introduction

In the Retrospective blog I will blog from various topics of the 1950s or anything related to the retro time period. Some examples would be the everyday life, the cars they drove, houses they lived in, music they listened to, how society was, what jobs were around and how the family values were. As I begin writing until the semester is over, there will be many new great ideas more then my intro, don't be fooled and if you wanna know about something or have an idea tell me! I would love to look it up and write about it! :) I also have a tumblr with only vintage/retro images...... <http://holydoodlethatsapip.tumblr.com/> if you’re interested in more of the image follow me, I love followers :) Hope you enjoy!