- For Canadians, the late forties and early fifties marked the return to a normal family life
- Several hundred thousand Canadian veterans returned home after serving in the war effort overseas
- Some soldiers returned home to their families – others brought home their war brides and their children
- 93% were British, 7% were from Italy, Belgium, Scottish, Danish, etc.
- In the 1950s, the future looked promising again
- Young couples didn’t wait long to get married and have large families
- Expectation to marry
- Sex before marriage not accepted
- The result??? 4 million Canadian babies were born in the 1950s alone!
Baby Boom
- 1950’s
- In just 15 years, between 1946 and 1961, Canada’s population increased by 50%, from 12 to 18 million
- The baby boom made the 1950s and 1960’s an era of youth, and many of these young people would affect new social change!!!
The Rise of Suburbia
- Economic Boom: large amounts of production and foreign investments in the Canadian economy
- Suburbia: rows of houses with garages and yards. Ample space to play and grow away from the noise and dirt of the city.
- Led to the creation of drive thru restaurants, plazas, drive in movie theatres
New Focus on the Family
- Nuclear family: 2 parents and children
- Grandparents lived elsewhere and there were few teenagers
- Suburbs were children focused:
- Dr. Benjamin Spock: new approaches to child care: “respect children because they’ll grow up to be better people”
- Praise: children were treated as having feelings, limitations, and a need to be understood. No heavy handed methods were needed
- Criticism: children were given too much freedom – led to disrespect and laziness
- Roles of the family:
- Husband/father – head of the household, earner, provider
- Mother/wife – heart of the household, carer of children and home
- While women did work, the expectation was still to be the carer of the home
- “I Love Lucy” – Lucy Hires a Maid
Technological Changes
- Technological changes accompanied the new lifestyle of the 1950s
- The key – making life easier and for family centred
- The growth of suburbs went hand in hand with an upsurge in driving and new car styles
- Canadians bought over 3.5 million passenger cars in the 1950s
- The Automobile – bigger is better
- Each year’s model seemed to grow longer, lower, and wider
- Two-tone colours, plenty of chrome, and outlandish tail fins became the fads of the 1957 and 1958 models
New Fads
- The popular candy which was created decades before the 50’s, developed a new pocket-size dispenser which became very popular in the 1950s
- This new dispenser is now a Pez trademark and is what Pez is known for
- Everyone loved throwing the frisbee around
- Children’s first reaction to seeing the high-flying toy was, ‘Wow! What’s that?‘
- Even today people still throw frisbees around at parks and beaches but nothing compares to how people enjoyed them in the 1950s
- Telephone Booth Stuffing
- One of the most well-known fads of all time was Telephone Booth stuffing.
- It was started by several college students who would squeeze themselves into a telephone booth until no one else could fit inside.
- Soon, many colleges around the world were trying to beat each other’s records. The fad died out in 1959, but was reincarnated in the form of Volkswagen stuffing a few years later.
- 3D Movies
- Movie studio executives worried that the new medium, television, would steal away their audiences
- Even though 3-D movies had been around as far back as 1922 and had lost favor, it was decided to try again
- Arch Oboler’s “Bwana Devil” started the 3-D craze of the 1950s
- People were issued glasses, which facilitated the 3-D effect
- Fashion Fads
- Poodle Skirts
- Saddle Shoes
- Letter Sweaters
- Virgin Pins
- Hula Hoop
- One of the biggest fads of all time is the hula-hoop, invented in 1957, by an Australian
- The name “hula hoop” came from the Hawaiian dance its users seemed to imitate
- The invention was licensed to Wham-O, who sold 25 million hula-hoops in two months
- They were manufacturing 20,000 hoops a day at the peak of popularity
- Television
- TV first became widespread in Canada in the 1950s
- More Canadians had money to spend in the post-war years and Canada became a consumer society
- The appliance that everyone wanted first was a television set
- Changed the way the family interacted and spent time together
- Family life underwent great changes because of television
- Families that used to play games or visit relatives suddenly found themselves watching television shows at home
- Eating habits changed when families bought TV tables so that they could eat their meals in front of the set
