Life of Working Class In The 50's

The City had garbage pits in the backyards of flats and apartments. Homes were for the wealthy; renting for the common man/woman.

A shared building with one family up and one family down. Variation on the "Shotgun Houses" built where you walked from the front door through the living area into the kitchen with a small bathroom usually just off the bedroom area. 

City families tended to be smaller; there were some who shared space with an older generation and/or raised families large for "the City", small for "the Country".

Little privacy, no "entertainment" areas; few had TV's and programming was for specific times and locally produced -- all done in  black and white "as it happened" or LIVE as they say.

Air conditioning didn't exist. Refrigerators with freezers the size of four or five books stacked was all the space you had so you shopped frequently at a corner store.

Purchases were  "put on a bill" you paid usually once a month when the "breadwinner" was paid.

With only pen and ink and the US Post Office, the rising costs of stamps, the "secondary generation" clustered together, usually on the side of the River where they lived.

Weddings, anniversaries, deaths gathering them together. 

Party lines, more than one household shared an ability to "talk" and information moved around when some chose to "listen in" to what we consider private conversations.

Aging first by "the children', then the "older grandchildren" and today by the once "youngest" of the grandkids -- now parents and grandparents watching their life clocks.

As current cousins aged, married, moved farther apart, distance and lifestyles or Long Distance Phone calls on land locked lines you couldn't carry with you, family siblings kept in touch less frequently and mostly gathered for weddings and funerals.

As the Cousins age, the Tree of Life bends at lower branches and the once younger children of First Cousins begin their life journey adding to the Family tree through marriage, births, anniversaries, life losses and gains.

Years pass quickly, marriages, even divorces, bring together and spread apart those who once ran around yards, played games of tag and slid down the underground cellar door.

Family celebrations held at different houses if it was Spring through Fall although as we all aged, the grandkids, cousins, those who lived "across the river" came less frequently for gatherings but still found ways to be at "events" -- mostly weddings & funerals.

Now we join for the rare Wedding and the frequent Funeral. Treasuring memories created decades ago. 

Valuing those who stepped up to help, to be there when needed or wanted -- simply because they were "family" and that's what family did for one another.

The headstones are growing on the hillside where Mom is buried. Some are so old you can no longer read what was so lovingly carved into white obelisks and typical grey headstones now tilting and showing their age.

I understand her wish for this final place she chose. 

People she knew, family members, neighbors, friends.

A community who once lived together now lays together.

We come and go and know they are joined now as always.