Families in the Fifties
While images from “Leave It To Beaver” and “The Donna Reed Show” may have exaggerated life in the 1950s, they did convey the new American Dream. After the hard times of the Depression and the sacrifices of World War II, Americans turned away from public issues and sought private lives. The cornerstone of their dream was a family and a home in the suburbs.
The G.I. Bill provided loans to veterans, many of whom were starting their families. Because the loans favored new construction instead of renovation, the suburbs experienced an unprecedented boom in new, affordable middle-class housing. “A house a day” was the term the J.C. Nichols Company used to describe the fantastic rate of growth in Prairie Village between 1945 and 1960. Prairie Village won the National Association of Home Builders’ Award for the “best complete community development” in the United States in 1950. The Prairie Scout summed up the appeal of the area in 1953, “The principal factor contributing to a well-rounded suburban life are attractive homes, highly rated schools, sufficiently stocked stores and enough churches.”
The new homes in the suburbs were designed for young couples, just starting their families. Billed as “houses of progress,” these ranch and split level homes boasted the latest electrical appliances in the kitchen. The new homes also featured an open floor plan that fostered family togetherness. Because of the large number of children, builders began including an area in the house specifically for their activities. Often a finished basement served as the recreation room, where children played and the whole family relaxed.
Life in the suburbs centered around the family, and in their homes, families gathered around their televisions. Television emerged as the dominant form of entertainment; by the end of the decade nine out of ten homes had at least one TV. Rooms were rearranged to assure everyone a good view, and meals were planned around the TV schedule. Lucy and Ricky, Ralph and Alice Kramden, and Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob became a part of the family nationwide. In Johnson County, programs featuring Miss Virginia, Dr. N. Ventor and Whizzo the Clown were children's favorites.
The suburbs were seen as an ideal place to raise a family because they were removed from the dirt and congestion of the city and allowed the family to be in harmony with nature. Suburban communities were laid out with winding streets, public parks and individual lawns. Caring for the yard was viewed as recreation, not work. Back yards were a special place for the family as well as for entertaining friends and neighbors. The house was laid out to promote outdoor living, with the patio serving as an outdoor rec room and kitchen, a place for play and summer barbecues.
Families in the 1950s had more children and bore them faster than any other twentieth-century Americans. A million more children were born each year of this decade than during the 1930s. Johnson County, like other suburban areas in the United States, experienced a population boom. The county's population doubled during the 1940s and doubled again in the 1950s, to reach over 143,000. By 1957, Johnson County was the fastest-growing county in the state. By the end of the decade, Prairie Village was the largest city in the county.
Building enough classrooms became the biggest challenge for these new suburbs. As one new school finished construction, plans for another were already under way. At first the problem was a high concentration of students in the lower grades. For example, in 1952 the Belinder School graduated 89 students and enrolled 450 in kindergarten that same year. In addition to new construction, schools also reorganized classroom space. In 1955 the Olathe Board of Education decided to close the kindergarten classes to provide more space for grades one through six.
Overcrowding in schools continued throughout the decade as more and more families moved into the suburbs. Some schools considered radical solutions. For example, the combined facilities of the Corinth and Somerset School buildings were adequate for 840 students and yet for the 1954-55 school year about 1,000 students were enrolled. The Johnson County Herald reported that the school Board proposed that “if adequate facilities are not provided, it will be necessary for many children to attend school one-half day only.”
Because the suburbs were full of young families who initially did not know one another, clubs became a mainstay of neighborhood life. Kids joined Boy and Girl Scouts, Future Farmers, 4-H and Camp Fire Girls to make friends and learn new skills. Women served as club leaders and joined garden clubs and the PTA to support their roles as wives, mothers and homemakers. men often were active in community groups, especially in the local homes' association.
As the suburbs boomed, so did the need for recreational facilities. Families wanted a place to swim, golf and play tennis, and they wanted supervised activities for their children. Because new cities and housing developments could not keep up with the demand, private-membership country clubs helped fill the gap. Neighborhood coffees and Tupperware parties provided other social outlets for women.
Teenagers in the 1950s became a group more distinct and separate from children and adults. Freer of parental supervision and the demands of adulthood, teenagers developed their own culture, with music, clothes and heroes all their own. They watched James Dean at the drive-in, listened to Elvis on the juke box, danced at the sock hop, and tuned in to “American Bandstand” every week. Parents worried about juvenile delinquency, but many teens settled into marriage by the age of twenty.
Underlying currents of racial tension and discontent among women would erupt during the 1960s. But the 1950s are still seen as a “golden age” for families as they sought the American Dream in the suburbs.
--ALBUM vol. 6, no. 2 (spring 1993)