Men and women sought to look good in the 50s. Men wore suits to work. Housewives wanted to be attractive when their husbands came home, so they got “dolled up” with makeup and a stylish hairdo. Lipstick was popular in the 1930s and 1940s, but after the war, as much as 90 percent of American women wore lipstick. Lipstick and makeup got a boost from Hollywood; starlets, who could now regularly be se

In the ’50s and ’60s, every Boomer kid loved to play with “Boomer Brands,” and there were plenty of toys and games that fit the bill! Younger children could play simple games like Candy Land with their parents, move Colorforms around on a special shiny surface, or dress Barbie dolls for hours on end. Older kids built stuff with LEGOs, Lincoln Logs and TINKERTOYS, and they spent a lot of time outsi

Boomer kids may have considered snack food essential fuel, but the 1960 edition of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary classified it as “junk food.” This broad categorization could include candy, cookies, chewing gum, potato chips, ice cream and much more. Historically, Boomers were far from the first American generation to get hooked on snacks. The Hershey chocolate bar was invented in 1900. At the St

When we think of “technology,” it is likely to be in the context of information technology, biotechnology, or perhaps environmental technology. None of those technologies existed in any meaningful form in the ’50s and ’60s. But technology was very much a part of the lives of Boomer kids – it was just different kinds of technology. The most enticing technological advancement was television (and eve

In the ’50s, Boomer kids grew up immersed in the new post-war car culture. The impact of the automobile during the Boomer era cannot be over-stated. The U.S. auto industry, the largest in the world, supported one in six American jobs. More than eight million cars were manufactured in 1950 alone, and more than sixty-seven million cars were registered in the U.S. by 1958. During the ’50s and ’60s, A