Living in the 50s

Oh-oh, yes I'm the great pretender
Adrift in a world of my own..."Great Pretender" THE PLATTERS

Occasionally, after some above average stress in my day, I wish for a moment to travel back in time. Not to a time I actually knew, or a time when I was single and just enjoyed my time and paid a few bills, not to a time when I myself was a child, but to a time that really only lives in my imagination.


I periodically want to go live in the Fifties.  I know it is a product of media brainwashing and yet I cannot help myself.  Since I live in an age where daily news tidbits include things like raging wars (globally), a downward spiraling economy, horror stories of things done to children, boring but ever present sexual exploits of politicians and basic doom and gloom I sometimes long for those images from the days where people just seemed happy.  I want to wear those torpedo bras, the cute little dresses, the cat eye glasses and I want to be amazed listening to 45s of that new fangled rock and roll (or any of that great music of the time) on the jukebox at the local malt shop.  Since summer is here I want to meet up with Gidget and Annette and play beach blanket bingo (whatever that is) and learn new words like groovy. My hair would be shellacked to a perfect bouffant platinum blonde, red lips, kitten heels on.  I look forward to going to drive in movies, wrapping my telephone cord around a finger while I talk to my friends about the "to die for" new guy, and look forward to getting pinned (easy there this is the 50s and it is not the pinned you are thinking about).  My only exercise would be that shaker machine, the one that just had a belt you put on your butt and it shook you, while holding a drink and cigarette of course. Maybe for a minute I could be Sandy in Grease (both the cheerleader and sexy hot pants at the end), it all appeals to me.  It all appears like a slightly more innocent, less jaded time. 


Since I am in reality a child of my generation I do not believe the above is the way life actually was.  Maybe some of it is accurate but they had problems, issues, predators, wars and many people suffered because they had almost no rights (women included).  However, with the price of airline tickets these days the trip back to a place of idyllic sunshine to enjoy while cruising in a convertible, Elvis and milkshakes maybe all I get as travel time when reality pushes me to need a break.  I do not think there is anything wrong with finding a place you can go to in your mind, a place you make exactly as you wish it to be, as long as when you open your eyes you open your mind and think of how to make your time in your current era something someone in the future would want to visit.

But don't forget who's taking you home
And in whose arms you're gonna be
So darlin', save the last dance for me, mmmm..."Save the last dance for me" Ben E King