Contributed by Dave Jensen

 

21 Pictures Only Baby Boomers Will Understand

 
#1:  Cars Were Colorful!  Most cars these days look fairly bland, but in the 50's, our cars were big, bright, and fun! 
 

 
#2.  We Got Dressed Up for Birthday Parties.  And sometimes there was even a pony there!
 
 
#3:  We Played in the Streets:  We didn't have to text our friends back in the day - we'd all just come outside and get to playing!
 

 
#4:  Gas Was Very Cheap:  On some days, it was only $0.20 a gallon, and beyond that, the people at the station could also fix just about anything!
 

 
#5:  Ben Franklin 5-10 Was Everything:  We loved going to these stores.  They had just about anything and everything you could think of. 
 

 
#6:  If it Wasn't the Ben Franklin, it Was the A&P! 
 

 
#7: Our Skates Got "Locked" with a Key.  They were also made almost entirely of metal and very hard to skate on!
 

 
#8:  The Drive-In Was The Place to Be:  This 1950's photo from South Bend, Indiana shows how popular they were!
 

 
#9:  Car Seats Were More Like Couches:  That’s right -
 
They were big, long, and you could slide all the way across! 
 

 
#10:  The Freezer Actually Had to be DEFROSTED!:  That's right, every now and then you'd have to manually defrost the freezer - sometimes took all day with a lot of scraping!
 

 
#11:  Grandma Let Us Do Everything.  Well, maybe that hasn't changed so much, but we LOVED eating off the beaters!
 

 
#12:  Sometimes Your Food Came On Roller Skates!  That's right - certain restaurants had "roller girls" who would zoom your food out to you!
 

 
#13:  We got DOWN at the Sock Hop!
 

 
#14:  Sunday Drives Were A Thing:  That's right - on Sunday, many of us would load up the family car and just go cruising over to the neighbors or just around town!
 
 
#15:  There Was One TV.  And, surprise, we didn't argue all night about who should get to watch their favorite show.  Most of the time, we all liked the same shows!
 

 
#16:  The Playgrounds were VERY Different:  At recess, we'd swing from the monkey bars with wild abandon and often even stand on the swings and go as high as possible.  And still, we survived!
 

 
#17:  TV Had "Sign Off" Messages.  Remember these?  TV would go off at midnight and sometimes even go as far as playing the National Anthem all night.
 
 
#18: Just One Hula Hoop Wasn't Enough:  Some of us could do multiple at a time!
 

 
#19:  We didn't Text, But We Did Pass Notes!  And we were experts at not getting caught!
 

 
#20:  We Had Xylophones That We Kept on a Pull String.  That's right - there was nothing like the Pull a Tune!
 

 
#21:  We Got Bottled Cokes and Loved Them:    That’s right - no cans or plastic bottles back then.  We were 100% excited when we'd find a cooler like this to get that ice cold bottle!