The Fabulous Fifties
Talk about cool. It was the simplest of times, but maybe the best of times, too. The big war was over and America was bursting with optimism and excitement about the future. Shaking off the cobwebs of the past, we embraced an exciting future.

Cars sprouted fins, Elvis gyrated his way into our psyche, the Crosley radio gave way to television and Beaver became our buddy. Mom stayed at home, dad went to work and a generation now known as the baby boomers was born.

New products rolled off assembly lines where only a few short years before tanks and airplanes and ammunition were the order of the day. Electric appliances made mom's life easier, allowing time for a new form of entertainment ... the soap opera ... As the World Turns and the Edge of Night. Tupperware made its debut and leftovers became part of our lives forever. Barbie was born and we had our hula hoops and coonskin caps. While we were just as nuts about our toys as our kids and grandchildren are about Strawberry Shortcake and Pokemon today, we didn't have sheets and towels to match ... let alone video games.

We cooled it at the picture show with James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and the Three Stooges (or hid in the trunk of dad's '55 Chevy to sneak into the drive in). We slurped Coca Cola floats at the drugstore soda fountain and agitated the gravel and laid rubber as we tried to impress that cute carhop down at the Dairy Queen. And just like Clark Kent, we used a telephone booth when we needed to call home.

The war in Vietnam was still years away, and even though we were in the midst of a cold war, complete with bomb shelters and Civil Defense drills, there was an innocence about those times we still yearn for today. After all, did we really take those drills seriously?

We had our slang, but "Cool" was truly our word. We had it first ... and we said it our own way ... slow and easy. And though we may have a little smog in our noggins now, we remember how Kookie Burns taught us the language of 77 Sunset Strip ... coolsville, deadsville, squaresville, weirdsville. Anyway, you get the picture.

So ... daddy-o ... tuck in the ankle biters, cast an eyeball on our website, find something you gotta have for the pad and spend some of that long green while you still can. Have a blast and ... if you like what you see, get on the horn and tell your friends what's buzzin cuzzin. Dig it?