A Friend Always Believes In You Picture Oil Change: Fill & Download for Free

Note: all currency is in 2016 dollarsThey would marvel at our televisions, computers, internet, reliable cars, immodest clothing, and more.Here’s what life was like then. Surmise from this what a 1950’s person would think about America 60 years in the future.One of the things I most notice as I look back is we kids were never bored even though we didn't have, or perhaps because we didn’t have, a TV. We wandered the neighborhood and sometimes into a large wooded park a half mile from our house. We could spend hours in the backyard. We sewed our own Winnie the Pooh dolls, created our own Clue game from memory after playing it at a friend's, wrote poetry, put on magic shows, and more. Our imaginations knew no bounds. On Saturday we would listen to The Lone Ranger and Dragnet on the radio. These shows could be quite violent. I remember once Sgt. Friday of Dragnet said he crossed the plain to get to a crime scene so I pictured him walking across an airplane. The plane lay on the ground because he didn't say anything about climbing over it. Then later in the show he crossed it again but the rains had caused grass to sprout. I visualized an airplane covered in grass. I wondered about this for years before I finally got it.When we did get a television in 1957 it had no remote. That meant getting up to change channels, of which there were only two, and being forced to listen to the commercials. Black and white of course. The modern remote was decades away. Father Knows Best, I Love Lucy, Lassie, I've got a Secret, and Your Hit Parade were some of my favorites. Televisions weren't the reliable self-adjusting units of today. Tubes burned out and the picture might start "flipping" meaning it would move up and return from below over and over. We had adjustments on the back. It was an art to get a stable picture. Don't get me started on adjusting color televisions. You were likely to have to settle for green faces. And they were extremely heavy. Moving larger TVs might take two or more grown men and these sets were expensive costing much more than a modern television set. A 1954 15" color set cost nearly $9000. Screen sizes were no more than 12" and often round at the beginning of the decade but grew. Today’s young people don't know how good they have it. Modern TVs are lightweight, troublefree, and have large screens with beautiful pictures.$5000!I Love Lucy set. I Love Lucy was the biggest show on television and is still fun to watch. The show blazed the trail for all future sitcoms. Ricki's innovations revolutionized how television programs were broadcast. Some of the techniques he pioneered are still in use.Children's programs were fairly unsophisticated with the most popular being The Mickey Mouse Club and the original children's show, the Howdy Doody Show starring Howdy Doody, a puppet. The studio audience was called the Peanut Gallery. There was the beloved mute clown Clarabell who had a horn he honked and a seltzer bottle he wasn't afraid to use, and Buffalo Bob. Clarabell broke his silence on the last show saying "Goodbye Kids". Getting a picture of Clarabell's real face by pesky photographers was an ongoing threat but they all failed.The original Clarabell went on to host the Captain Kangaroo showMeet the Peanut GalleryCaptain Kangaroo had a 29 year runThe upbeat Mickey Mouse Club. On Friday we were sung a special goodby song: M-I-C see you next week, K-E-Y why? because we love you, M-O-U-S-E. The charismatic Annette Funicello (can you find her?) went on to star in a series of Beach Party movies in the 60's and released several successful singles. A single was a single song on a 45 rpm record with a throwaway song on the reverse side.Annette Funicelleo was the first Micky Mouse Club breakout star but not the last as the likes of Britney Spears followed in her footsteps.Britney and JustinAmerican Bandstand, possibly the longest running TV show ever, was on daily for decades hosted by the ever young Dick Clark.Movie serials were popular. They were about ten minutes long and followed a hero from week to week and always ended in a "cliff hanger". I once saw one that left the hero actually dangling over a cliff hanging onto a branch. I was very worried so it was a relief when he saved himself the following week. They played at the Saturday matinees for several decades until television replaced them.All movies opened with a cartoon. The Disney characters along with Woody Woodpecker, Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and the ever popular Roadrunner were my favorites. Popeye the Sailor Man was big but not one of my favorites. This was before CGI so each frame was hand painted then photographed.The Tasmanian Devil may think he's got Bugs but he be wrong.Bugs Bunny was an irrepressible smart aleck who was always one step ahead of whoever wanted to eat him. Here he is, once again, about to outsmart Elmer Fudd.The Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote were favorites that sometimes got a round of applause when they appeared on the screen. The irony is coyotes can outrun Roadrunners and Roadrunners can fly short distances.There was no way to watch a movie at home so theaters boomed. The modern multiplex theaters we have now had not been dreamed up so a movie came to one theater in town and stayed as long as it was popular. You might have a double feature meaning two movies for the price on one. Many movies were still in black and white at the beginning of the decade.Weekends at the moviesOne convenience that was killed by daylight savings is the drive-in theater. These were very popular and convenient. Once I could drive it was great fun loading up the car and going for a romp at the drive-in. A small speaker was hanging on a pole. You would hang it from your window and crank the volume to the desired level.There was also this. Normally it went no further. It wasn't until the 60's that mores began to change.Elvis Presley debuted amid controversy that may be difficult to understand today. He was universally disliked by adults because of his below the waist gyrations but the kids loved him, their crazed reactions to his shows was repeated when the Beatles hit our shores. He was dismissed as talentless but in actuality he was a very good singer with a very good voice. He was a giant who dominated the music scene for a long time. He changed popular music forever.As preschoolers we had a simple little record player that used steel needles. My mother would buy us the needles in little bags for us to change out as needed.There were no battery powered watches. All watches were powered by a mainspring that had to be wound daily. I wound mine first thing in the morning. There were some self-winding watches. It was not unusual for me to have a watch that kept poor time. Watches came in varying qualities from, inflation adjusted, $10 for a watch with just a few jewels to $200 for a good 21 jewel watch. The jewels, rubies, were installed at high wear points to increase the life of the watch. My parents would buy me a Mickey Mouse watch annually although I did get a Hopalong Cassidy watch once. He was my cowboy hero.The white haired cowboy hero, Hopalong CassidyMy first camera was a Brownie box camera passed down from my mother. It was made in the 1930's. It only took eight black and white pictures so I had to be careful. The pictures were excellent quality due to the huge negative. I used it for around 20 years carrying it into the Army with me. The case finally broke so I bought one of those new inexpensive Pentax 35mm imports from Japan. $600 at the PX. German cameras were the standard at the time but the Japanese cameras turned out to be truly excellent. Mine was in good condition when I sold after 20 years of hard use.Cameras don't get much simpler. I had to hold my breath when snapping the picture.Flash photography required the use of a flashbulb, a bulb filled with magnesium. Flashbulbs were around for quite a while. Cameras had a special setting for flashbulbs of around 1/50th of a second. The bulbs would be very hot so needed to cool before being replaced. As the electric flash has become affordable it has replaced the flashbulb on modern cameras so that most young people probably are not even aware we once would stock up on flashbulbs if we were serious camera buffs.At night the fireflies came out so we caught them to put in bottles and watched them light up.Refrigerated air conditioning was expensive. I didn't even know there was such a thing so we didn't miss it even though we lived in the Southwest. 100 degrees was not considered hot.Can openers were awful. The modern sprocket type weren't available so we had to work the opener until the can finally surrendered.Coke and beer cans had to be opened with "Churchkeys" that stores provided for free:Cokes were 6½ ounces and there was no such thing as unscrewing the top. The other end of the "Churchkey" was used for removing the top or you could use this:That cap will take the skin right off your fingers if you try to unscrew itTelephones were primitiveAffordable home answering machines were a long way off as was voicemail so if someone called when you were out the call was not answered. There was something peaceful about that especially since there was no other way someone could get in touch with you so if you left the house no one was going to bother you.Long distance calls were a big deal so were rare. If you needed to call someone long distance you told the operator who would then call down the line so each operator could connect the call until they finally reached the party in question. Then the operator called you back and the call was connected. Next you received a huge bill from Ma Bell, the only game in town. With the advent of direct dial the system was streamlined but operator assistance continued to be a requirement in some areas into the 60's.Because long distance calls were prohibitively expensive and there was no email most communication out of the immediate vicinity was done by letter. It was the only way I had to communicate with "Granny". We kept a stash of stamps and envelopes on hand. If you had a problem with a retailer who wasn't headquartered in the city you had to work it out through the mail. Everything was slower. At Christmas I had to sit down to write thank you notes and get them in the mail. This was still my MO on staying in touch into the 90's even though long distance calling was more affordable. Email?Payphones were a nickel and rotary because touchtone hadn't been invented. They could be found almost anywhere.All phones were rotary and had to be supplied by Ma Bell. You couldn't install your own phone or even buy one. They were all black. Ma Bell sent out a technician to hook up the phone wherever you wanted. If you wanted two or more phones you paid extra every month. Long distance rates were high and subsidized local service so that local service was affordable. Ma Bell was reliable and took care of things. It was one of the best companies in the world for service but being a monopoly it was eventually brought down resulting in the profusion of options we have now. Phone numbers came with a prefix. We lived in the Lynwood area so our phone number was Ly1-2345. Smaller town might only have the last five digits: 12345.Direct dial was introduced in the 50's but wasn't available everywhere, some places still did not have it well into the 60's. It was a huge deal. We no longer had to have an operator connect us but long distance remained expensive.Touchtone was introduced in the 60's making it easier to dial the long numbers. Playing tunes with the touchtone numbers such as "Mary had a Little lamb" was a popular pastime for a while. People would publish the numbers to press to play a song.Mary had a little lamb:6,5,4,5,6,6,6,5,5,5,6,9,96,5,4,5,6,6,6,6,5,5,6,5,4Besides pencil and paper there were two ways to do calculations. An expensive and bulky mechanical calculator or a slide rule. I opted for pencil and paper and was good at doing arithmetic in my head. We were a long way from the handheld digital scientific calculators that replaced the slide rule. I once worked as a repairman at the Monroe calculator company. Adding machines were our main product. They were all gears and levers.Pull the handle.Cash registers were also manual.Toy cars were steel with rolling rubber wheels and that's it. You might have a sheet metal wind up toy that could move but no battery operated or radio controlled cars. I once had a windup bulldozer that fascinated me but I dropped it and it wouldn't work anymore.We could buy balsa wood airplanes for a dime that would glide when tossed but not well. I once made a plane with a rubber band motor that would fly but it kept running into things.We spent a lot of time with our View Master. We could click through stereophonic pictures of various landscapes. Ours was a much older version of the one in the picture but the 3-D realism amazed.Lionel trains were a popular postwar item. I loved the one I got. It was solidly built of metal with realistic detail. It had a working headlight and pills I could drop into the smokestack that produced puffs of smoke. The only problem was the track would tend to slide on the linoleum floors.I went through all the normal childhood diseases. There was mumps, whooping cough, measles, chicken pox, and maybe some others. Once I caught something that laid me out for weeks but I didn't die. The fear of polio, we didn't know what caused it, always hovered around the edges of our lives. There were 20,000 or more cases annually. Articles about this dreaded disease were ubiquitous. Salk's invention of the polio vaccine in 1955 was HUGE!FDR was a Polio victimSome people were so paralyzed they couldn't breath and spent their life in an "Iron Lung" in order to stay alive.Cigarette smoking was ubiquitous. It wasn't seen as the health risk it is today and at the beginning of the decade cigarettes generally weren't filtered. By the 60's filtered cigarettes were the standard. 50's cigarette ads would offend us and even seem irresponsible today.The 5 & 10 cent stores, Woolworth's and Kress, were popular. They had a lunch counter for snacks and sandwiches. The stores were filled with neat stuff. Outside of Sears and JC Penney this is where many of us shopped. If we went to a shopping center it was just a line of small stores or what we call a strip mall today. In 1962 a covered mall came to our town. We were blown away as we walked through it. It's still in existence.Woolworth lunch counter. It could get crazy at lunchtime.Automats were around for a long time. I saw my first one in New York and thought it amazing. You view your selection through little windows, put your money in a slot and open the door and remove your lunch. I was amazed at buying a pie and seeing a hand reach in from behind and replace the one I just bought.Sears was a force to be reckoned with and a forgotten item may be the Sears Catalogue that arrived by mail. Its hundreds of pages was great fun to peruse and an American staple. There was little you couldn't buy including a car, the Allstate. The Allstate was a rebranded Kaiser Henry J. and very basic but essentially a good car.At one time Sears even sold prebuilt house kits. The precut materials along with instructions were shipped to you to be put together by the contractor of your choice. They were of excellent quality. Many are still with us today and are considered desirable because of their quality.Sears began as a catalogue company selling to the homestead frontier market in 1886. Farmers and their the isolated families lived near small towns. With the advent of reliable train service it was possible to order whatever you needed from Sears knowing you could trust the Sears name. When it came in the farmer might hook up his buggy that he bought from Sears ($25, $700 now) and drive into town to pick it up.There wasn't a lot you couldn't get at Sears. Your car could be serviced, repaired, and Allstate batteries and tires were for sale. The Allstate brand insured quality. At one time or the other Sears sold appliances, clothing, guns, luggage, watches, musical instruments, tombstones, typewriters, tools, cameras, toys, baseball mitts, bicycles, motor scooters, pianos, horse drawn sleds, shoes, boots, jewelry, well pumps, insurance, the list is nearly endless. If the farmer needed it or his family wanted something they would look in the Sears catalogue. I once bought a motorcycle jacket through the catalogue and it arrived by mail. I drove Sears scooters for years. I even owned a Sears cowboy hat. All were excellent. If Sears sold it you knew it was top quality.The scooters were rebranded Cushmans and Vespas.The 1953 Henry J Allstate car. White sidewall tires were the thing back then but hard to keep cleanThe rebranded 50cc Vespa was a reliable and fairly quick scooterYou supplied the land and the builder, Sears provided all materials and directions. Each piece was stamped with a number so you could find it on the plan. Sears stopped offering them when WWII broke out.Can you believe it? Cradle to grave, Sears was there.After 130 years Sears is struggling to keep up with the times.Banker's hours is an expression that refers to the 10am to 3pm hour the banks were open to the public back in the day. After 3:00 you were out of luck. The industry had been heavily regulated since the depression and this mean few, if any, branch offices. In my town there were no branch offices so all banks were downtown with the traffic congestion and bad parking associated with that. We could mail in checks but cash meant a trip downtown. In the 80's the regulations were largely lifted and the frenzied competition for your money began.Although there were oil company and department store credit cards there were no general use cards available to most people. BankAmericard (Visa) changed that in 1958. Now anyone could go in debt and we've been on that ride ever since.An odd fashion statement of the time was the veil woman sometimes wore formally. Unlike the MidEast veil it was see through. I once saw my mother wearing one.We used pencils in school. The only pens in general use were fountain pens which were filled from a small bottle of ink called an inkpot. You stuck the tip in the pot and pulled a lever to suck the ink up. Someone created refills that could be popped in making the fountain pen portable. Ballpoints were coming online but the pencil still reigned supreme. Paper Mate came up with a dependable and affordable ballpoint pen sounding the death knell for the fountain pen then Bic invented the long lasting disposable ballpoint that took its design from the pencil. With it's clear plastic barrel you knew how much ink you had. The pencil began to settle into its current secondary role.A Paper Mate innovation so you wouldn't be caught with a pen that wouldn't write. By the way that pen cost $18 in 2016 dollars.The 1950's was the decade of the Ballpoint pen. The first retractable ballpoint pen was introduce in 1949. Ballpoint pens had a long history of development with countless failures along the way primarily because of problems with the ink. Paper Mate, followed by Bic, finally marketed a workable pen.These were around for a whileAs ballpoint caught on such standard desktop items as the blotter became obsolete. The blotter was needed to dry up fountain pen smudges. Fountain pens were needed for signatures since pencil could be erased. You had to allow your paper to dry before folding or stacking it. Refillable they could get quite fancy but most of us had to settle for strip of blotter paper. Turning out a smudge free letter or report could be a challenge.BasicDeluxeReports were done in pencil and if it was a “term theme” that meant doing your research at the library. I had to take a bus into town and spend the day at the library. We would go through the card catalogue that had every book in the library cross referenced. A report might involve perusing several books, making notes on 3x5 cards, organizing them then writing out the report. The internet changed everything.In college I typed my reports. An invaluable skill I learned in High School. Since the home computer hadn't been invented there was no other way to turn out an attractive looking report. Now it's easy, then it could be laborious. It would take me three attempts to turn out something with a finished appearance. Typing a twenty page report over and over...you get the idea. If I decided add a sentence on the first page then the whole report had to be retyped.I picked this office machine up at a thrift store, it was an oldy but a goody. It took me through my University years and I carried it with me all over the country as I moved about. Then I scored this one:The IBM Selectric. The typewriter reached its epitome when IBM came up with this beauty. Its rotating ball replaced the strikers. If you accidentally hit two letters at the same time on a manual they might jam on the page when the strikers both met. I got years out of this beauty until it finally died in Dallas. I never had one better. My computer with a printer changed all that. My first 386 computer was $4000 and my Dot Matrix printer was $800. What's a Dot Matrix you ask?Make a mistake? I went though many bottles of this:The modern ambulance with its abundance of lifesaving equipment and trained paramedics hadn't been dreamed up yet. Ambulances were made by Cadillac and looked like colorful hearses with windows. I went to a hospital in a green one after a scooter accident.Ether was the preferred anesthetic for operations and it was an unpleasant way to go under but it worked. It's what they used when my tonsils were taken out. Because of the lack of pain killers they fed me ice cream several times a day. They must have scheduled all the tonsillitis cases for the same day because there were a bunch of us in the ward and we all cheered when the orderly rolled in the cart full of ice cream. I was very excited telling my mother about my good fortune.After my scooter accident all I got for the pain was the occasional aspirin so I writhed.Steam locomotives were still pulling trains so if you lived on the "wrong side of the tracks", meaning the prevailing winds blew your way, any laundry drying on a clothesline was doomed should you lose the mad dash to get it down. Diesel trains were making inroads but steam was not obsolete.Steam was much more powerful but you could gang together diesel locomotives until you had enough which is why you will see several locomotives pulling a train. With steam if you needed more power you built a bigger locomotive. They could be ganged but it was undesirable. These locomotives could get massive, 85' long, 132' with the tender, and weighing considerably more than a million pounds. Steam is suited to pulling trains but is high maintenance and expensive to operate compared to diesel.As diesel became more prevalent the union insisted the obsolete jobs remain so a diesel locomotive would have a fireman even though no coal needed to be shoveled into the boiler fire. Reader's Digest got into the act writing outraged articles about "featherbedding". Out of Steam“Big Boy”, the largest steam locomotive of all time. That’s how trains were pulled over the RockiesTwenty-five "Big Boys" were builtThese behemoths were capable of pulling a WWII destroyer along with a train of boxcars over steep mountains like the Rocky Mountains by itself.I remember sitting in class being introduced to Dick and Jane who were to be my friends for a long time as I learned to read. See Dick run. See Jane run. See dick and Jane run. Run, run, run. It worked.A few people were still using washboards but washing machines were taking overWashing machines worked okay but there were very few dryers so clothes were wrung out with the motor driven wringer on top of the machine. The clothes were then hung out to dry. A friend of mine had his thumb severely crushed when it got caught in the wringer. Then came the ironing. Since we didn't have a steam iron the clothes had to be sprinkled with water. A cork with a top with holes in it could be bought and put on a coke bottle for sprinkling. Washing clothes was a major ordeal. Cotton clothes, artificial fabrics hadn't been invented, had to be bought oversize because they shrank when washed until "Sanforized" cotton was introduced.Our sewing machine had to be pumped by foot. It seemed to work fine but what do I know? The machine folded down converting the unit into a flat table.Although the concept had been around a long time the dishwasher didn't take off until the 1960's. Until then we stood at a sink and handwashed with our bottle of Joy, something I still do.Joy introduced an automatic dispenser for a while. It would give just the right amount of detergent.The modern coffee maker with it's timers and filters was a long way off. Most people made coffee in a percolator. Maxwell coffee grounds (Good to the last drop) were poured into a basket and placed in the pot. The boiling water was forced up the tube in the middle and spilled onto the top of the basket. I was fascinated with watching the water beat against the glass stopper as it slowly turned brown.The soles of shoes were leather and would wear out before the uppers. Heels had to be replaced and holes would appear in the sole. It was a nuisance. I'll take today's Nikes with their rugged soles and care free uppers over the old leather shoes that required frequent polishing. If you wanted a high gloss you wet a cotton ball and used that to apply the polish. In the Army we called that "spit polishing".Even Adlai Stevenson, presidential candidate, wasn't immuneYour average car basic with a manual shift. It didn't come with a heater, air conditioning, radio, or power steering. Most, but not all, had turn signals. Turn signals were standard by the end of the decade. If your car didn't have turn signals you were required to stick your arm out the window to signal your intent.Failing to signal might get you a ticket.Power steering was introduced in 1951 on some luxury cars. Manual steering effort was substantial. I heard a couple of women saying they wished they had power steering. I asked what that was and they told me it makes steering easier but were unable to tell me what that meant. Cruise control was first installed in 1958 but was also a luxury item. Very few cars had cruise control. Automatic transmissions had been developed but were out of the range of many car owners and might only have two speeds, modern cars have at least four and some have eight. Modern air conditioning was introduced in the 60's although primitive systems were available in the 50's.We got our first car with a radio (AM only) and heater in the 60's. The radios were all vacuum tube so required a minute or so to warm up.Besides having a heater our new car could go 70 mph! Even faster downhill. 70 was the Beetle's top speed.Cars didn't have seatbelts. They were beginning to show up by the end of the decade but were resisted by many. Ford introduced them as an option in 1955 but they weren't popular. The thinking seems to have been that Fords must be dangerous or they wouldn't offer seatbelts. A popular scenario was what if you end up in a lake and couldn't get free. I thought that was silly. How often do you end up in a lake? I got it right away and always wore mine, thank God. I had an accident in which I might have died without it. Reader's Digest published articles detailing accidents in which someone's life was saved. Because they actually saved lives so were eventually accepted.Cars back then had steering wheels often with horn rings that could easily impale your chest. Without a safety belt I would have merged with my steering column. As it was I bent the top of the steering wheel over 90 degrees. Before belts people often were severely injured by their steering columns, chests were crushed and passengers went through the windshield. People would be thrown out of their cars to slide down the street or bounce around the interior slamming into one another or hard interior parts. Dashboards were metal and less forgiving than modern dashboards. Airbags, what?Many cars had vacuum operated windshield wipers that operated using the engine vacuum. Electric windshield wipers were catching on through the 50's and became the standard in the 60's. Vacuum operated wipers, although better than nothing, were quirky and didn't operate well under acceleration. In a downpour I periodically let up on the accelerator allowing the wipers to speed up so I could see.Cars often didn't come with side mirrors unless you went upscale. When they had mirrors they were often just on the driver's side. If you wanted a mirror on your basic car you had to add it yourself. I purchased aftermarket mirrors and added them to some of my cars. They were hard to adjust. You usually loosened a screw to adjust the mirror which might go out of adjustment as the screw was tightened.No mirrorsAftermarket mirrors. Adjustment screw is facing the front of the car.Windshield washers were almost non-existent. I didn't even know such a thing existed. White sidewall tires were ubiquitous.Cars were not reliable. They were pretty well worn out by 60,000 miles. Speedometers only went to 99,999 miles. I only saw one car break a 100,000 and it was very tired. By 60,000 you might have gone through five sets of tires and even more tuneups. A tuneup required new plugs, points, and maybe even more. Tuneups needed to be done every few thousand miles. Most people didn't do it as often as needed so the car's performance suffered. I did a tuneup on a friend's car that was barely running. It ran like new afterwards. I was a hero. I tracked my gas mileage and when it began to fall I did a tuneup. They were simple to do if you knew how and took an hour. The points had to be carefully set and the timing adjusted using a timing light. I bought the necessary equipment and saved a lot of money doing my own. The carburetor was a beast best avoided by most DIYs. I learned to overhaul them but there were pitfalls galore for even the best mechanics. I got so adept at tuneups I set up a mobile tuneup business and made a few bucks.Chiltons published an excellent service manual for all American cars. Everything you needed to know about doing your own work on a car was in them along with valuable hints such as how to "power tune" an engine and all the specs you needed to do a tuneup. They would tear down an engine and then tell you how to do it, step by step, complete with photographs. In later years they no longer took these extra steps so I stopped buying them.By 60,000 miles you might have made some repairs and replaced shocks and brakes a number of times. Drum brakes were high maintenance. They required periodic adjustment so the car wouldn't pull to one side or the other when you stepped on them. It could be tricky. Modern disc brakes are superior in every way except peddle effort.Engines quickly wore out and began burning oil on top of the oil they invariable leaked. Roads back then would have a black streak down the middle from all the oil the engines put out. Motorcyclists were cautioned to not drive in the center of the road because of the oil slick. A car spewing white smoke was a common sight, sometimes it came out in clouds. "Ring and valve jobs" were commonplace and a part of owning a car.Engine oil was crude relative to today's oils. It was a "single grade" meaning there was a difference between winter and summer oil. "Multi-vicosity" oils changed that so we could use a single oil both winter and summer.Multi-viscosity, 10W-40Single-viscosity, 30 weightDetergent oils also changed things. One problem owners faced was the development of "sludge" on engine parts. This gooey substance is acidic and can ruin an engine. It is one reason for prescribed oil changes. Detergent oils suspend foreign products in the oil and protect against sludge buildup. In the 50's this was a major concern. Articles were written educating people about the phenomenon.Sludge buildup can happen to modern engines but is no longer the common problem it was in the 50's.Modern oil has played an important role in allowing today's engines to develop so much power and last so long. Synthetic oils are even better and an economical choice if you plan to keep your car. The 40,000 to 70,000 mile expiration date for your engine is a thing of the past.Upholstery was generally cheap plastic and would begin tearing and splitting before the end of the useful car life. There was a market for aftermarket seat covers.Those who could afford it traded in their car every two years. A car loan was generally for two years. A new car warranty might be for six months and 4000 miles. Cars frequently came out of the factory with problems so the warranty was important. We bought a car that had no oil in the transmission. A friend bought one with none of the chassis bolts tightened.There was a big market for retread, or recap, tires, they were good for maybe 5000 miles. The modern radial tire, a European innovation, didn't begin to catch on in the US until the 70's. I remember a Sears display of a radial tire that pitched rubber after 40,000 miles. I could barely believe it, nobody would because everyone knew it was impossible for tires to last that long. Sears jumped on the Radial bandwagon right away and was an important retailer for these modern tires.Willys (Jeep) got into the new car market after the war trading on the Jeep's wartime reputation. We owned two of their station wagons. They weren't bad. I once noticed our Jeep had 40,000 miles and commented. My mother told me that it's been a good car as we rattled down the street. The car was near the end of its useful life.This is what our second Willys-Overland Station Wagon looked like. It had a single seat in the very back which was my favorite. The flathead four cylinder engine could propel it to upwards of 60mph on a flat road but it slowed down on hills. It was the first American station wagon with an all metal body. 60 or 70 was about all most cars could do. Upscale cars with their V8s were much faster. A modern Honda tour bike has considerably more horsepower than your 1950's basic car.Modern paint can last for years but back then paint would begin to "oxidize" and fade after a few months so people needed to wax the car. People would drive to the lake and spend the afternoon rubbing wax on and then off leaving a protective film.There is a story of a policeman driving to work when a Cadillac blew past him at 85. He floored it and got up to 70mph. He caught the guy at a light and gave him a ticket. His engine blew up a couple of days later.There was an amusing song about a Nash Rambler that outran a guy in his Cadillac.Nash also made a subcompact in an age in which the Beetle was the popular small car. It was a neat little car and got around 30 miles per gallon. It could hit 60 in 30 seconds. Most modern cars will hit 60 in fewer than 10 seconds.BMW was not yet the automotive powerhouse it is today. In the 50's it began marketing its version of the isetta in the US. Competition with the Beetle killed it.Vespa also got into the minicar craze in the 50's with a cool little car powered by a two stroke rear engine. My mother had one. It was a true, fully equipped car. We both liked it although I had to install a right side aftermarket mirror on it. For its size it was quick and it was easy to drive. My mother took my sister and friends swimming once. My sister told me as she walked by a mother and son she heard the woman telling her son "You saw them all get out of the car".My mother got hers up to 70 onceHowever the smallest American car had to be the King Midget. A couple of war veterans began marketing them in 1946 and was in business until 1970 when the new owners mismanaged the company into bankruptcy. They sold for $5000 in today's money. I owned one. Mine, a later model, had an air compressor engine, a 2-speed automatic transmission, and was peppy enough to hold its own in traffic. At 8½' it was the same length as a decked out Harley-Davidson which weighed almost twice as much as this 500 pound package.Engine in back, feet in front, no trunkThe VW Beetle began making inroads into the America market. There was a hunger for inexpensive and reliable cars. Compared to the big, thirsty, unreliable American cars it filled a need. We were all sensing something was rotten in Detroit. The phrase planned obsolescence entered the vocabulary.At $17,000 with a 1200cc engine that got 30mpg the Beetle filled a niche and provided a warning shot across the bow of the bloated American car companies that they ignored allowing the Japanese to come in later and blow them out of the water.The Harley Davidson twin was the king of the road. Big, comfortable, and with an engine the same size as a Beetle it reigned supreme. It leaked oil and kept the owner busy working on it weekends but it was a labor of love. It was all the police drove. The earlier ones had controls that would confuse a modern rider including a hand-operated stickshift for the transmission complete with a pedal operated clutch and a manual timing control. Note the stick shift on the right side of the tank and running board for the feet. Running boards were infinitely more comfortable than a foot peg particularly on a long trip.Manual transmissions were about all most people could afford and the shifter was not on the floor like they are nowadays, it was on the column. There are jokes that the best anti-theft device you can have is a stickshift but there was a time when everyone could drive a three speed manual shift car.The little 8 ball on the steering wheel was nicknamed the "suicide knob". They were a popular item for helping people to steer. They are still available but are not legal everywhere. They can be dangerous.You would leave the car in first gear when you parked. The engine would stop the car from rolling. When you wanted to drive away you would push in the clutch, start the engine, let out the clutch, and go. If you forget to step on the clutch and turned the key the car would jerk forward.Before refrigeration you might be able to cool your car with one of these. The air would enter the car through wet pads and in dry country would provide some relief. We had one of these during a cross country trip but I didn't notice any difference.The triangular "wing windows" were an important part of ventilating the car. You could adjust them to divert air into the car. It was a big help.The only dependable way to make your way about town was with a map. If you were going across country it was even more essential because this was the age of the state highways. Gas stations were generally a dependable source of maps.AAA was another source and they would plan your trips for you with a customized "Triptik" in which the trip was unfolded for you from one page to the next. I've ordered a lot of these in the days before GPS.Since the miracle of GPS I haven't owned a map. The GPS took me from door to door on my last cross country trip which included many stops in between.I owned a stack of these.AAA Triptik. For the frequent traveler these alone made the membership worthwhile.I'm in loveSchwinn was the most popular bicycle brand. Bicycles were heavy and had a single speed. They sometimes came with a "tank" and might have a horn inside. You stopped by pedaling backwards to engage the brake.The horn button is the silver button on the tank. They weren't shy about packing on the weight back then especially JC Higgins.Here's another. Note the whitewall tires.There were special bicycles for girls with a gap in the frame for her skirts. A boy wouldn't be caught dead on one.The "English racer" was lighter than American style bikes and had brakes that clamped on the wheel rim that worked much better than the American style. Some had three speeds.Lights were ineffective battery operated affairs with a short battery life. They did little more than hopefully alert a car driver to your presence. "Generator lights" would take care of the battery problem but the lights were still dim.The wheel turned the generator but also added a substantial drag so was tiring.Automobiles aside trains and buses were how you traveled long distances, if you crossed the ocean you went by ship. I've done all three and spent many a night on a "sleeper" train in a fold down bed. I especially like ships, crossing the Atlantic twice on one. I loved the rhythmic pounding of the engines at night. We spent a night on board a ship in the New York harbor when a hurricane came through. I was impressed by the huge trees that were lying around next morning.Although not the first commercial service, Pan American had been flying the Transatlantic route for a couple of decades with the Clipper flying boats, the Boeing 707 paved the way for affordable long distance air service in 1958. It was fast, traversing the ocean in less than 8 hours vs more than 20 for the Clipper, and reliable. In addition you could carry on a conversation with your neighbor, something you couldn't do in a piston engine plane.This? 180 mph for 20+ hours to Europe spending more than $10,000?Or this? 6-8 hours at 600 mph for a few hundred dollars?The home entertainment system consisted of a vacuum tube AM, no FM, radio with a 4" speaker and a tube record player. Primitive Hi Fi and stereo was just catching on in higher priced systems. The long play LP 33⅓ record was introduced but most pop music was 45 RPM with one song on each side. Teenagers might have a stack of 45's. By the way it took a while for vacuum tubes to warm up, perhaps a minute, so when you see someone in a movie turn on an old radio and it comes right on...didn't happen. Instant on is the result of transistors followed by printed circuits.Transistors made their debut in the late 40's. The Japanese developed them into a commercially viable item with Sony introducing the astounding portable radio that could be carried in a pocket in 1957. I got my first one in 1963. This product was an unbelievable departure from what we were accustomed to.This was how teenagers built their collection of favorite songs. There was one song on each side. Usually the other side was a throwaway. At the modern equivalent of $8 a record could be a sizable investment. LPs were closer to $40. An adapter could be bought to push into the large hole so it could be played on a 33⅓ record player. Record players generally had three speeds 78, 45, and 33. 45's were 7" and 33's were 12". A full album could be recorded on a 33. The 78.26 was mostly obsolete in the 50's and had a playing time about the same as a 45. My mother had a collection of 78's.This was the solution to playing all those 45s. We all had these record changers that we could stack our records on. At the end of the song the tone arm returned to the side, a new record fell and the tone arm set down at the beginning of the new record automatically. What more could you ask for?Recording music is easy now and we can download from the Net but back then there was no practical way for the average person to record music. Commercial tape recorders were available but were too expensive for the average person. Tape recorders didn't come into their own until the 60's after problems with the tape itself were solved although the late 50's had some showing up. Hi Fi stereo also came into its own in the 60's with the advent of affordable amplifiers, tape decks, record changers, and separate speakers. With the availability of high quality components you could build your own system.My dream speakers were the AR5. Acoustic Research made some of the finest speakers in the world and at $2000 a pair was within reach of the serious audiophile.10" woofers. I picked up a pair at a thrift store at a ridiculous price. They didn't know what they had.In the early 60's Sony introduced one of the first affordable home use tape recorders, the Sony 500, if you call $2000 in current money affordable. It was a nifty unit with speakers that folded in to make a compact portable unit. The amplifiers were vacuum tubes, not transistors. I bought one, subscribed to a tape club, and began building a collection of prerecorded music. The nice thing about the unit is I could record records from a record player. Never before had I dreamed of such a luxury.This folded into this!I built my own system and an amusing incident resulted. I recorded some piano music and because of a miscalculation I had a long lead time before the music began. Friends were over and my 3 year old daughter sat at the piano to pretend to play. We forgot I had a tape on and just then the music began and to all appearances my daughter suddenly could play professionally. One of my friends was actually shocked into standing up staring at her open mouthed. We were all stunned until the reality sank in when my daughter stopped "playing" to check out the sudden stir of activity behind her. See what Acoustic Research speakers can do for you?Postage was 3 cents, for an extra 2 cents you could have your letter air mailed which was considerably faster. Otherwise it was sent by train which might take a while if it was going across country. If you sent it ground to another country it went by ship and could take weeks. When I was in Germany a friend mailed a letter ground from Japan. It arrived three months later.Now all mail is airmail.If you didn't have enough postage a stamp for the amount due was put on the letter and the recipient had to pay to get his letter. This practice came to an end because people were mailing their bills without postage and the bill collectors were spending a lot of money paying the postage due. Today it's no stamp, no service.Of interest but off subject is one of the most valuable American stamps is the upside down or inverted Jenny stamp issued in 1918. Somehow the stamp slipped by inspectors and a single sheet was sold. The buyer, realizing what he had, asked for more but the clerk instead tried to get it back. The buyer refused and examples now go for hundreds of thousands of dollars.Long distance driving was more difficult as cities were connected by two lane state highways. These highways would go right through a city. Signs would guide the traveler through the city streets, traffic lights and all, and back into the countryside. On the highway one might get stuck behind a slowpoke unable to pass for miles and miles as a dozen cars stacked up. There were other hazards. We once topped a hill and suddenly found ourselves barreling down on a farm tractor doing perhaps eight miles an hour while we were doing seventy. It was close.Eisenhower launched the country into the modern interstate system in the fifties and it was a huge project. Lives were disrupted as the right of way would mean old family dwellings being torn down to make way for the freeway. Rockwell did a touching painting of a family watching their family home being destroyed. Entire towns died as the traffic they depended on was rerouted.Some construction workers would haul mobile homes behind trucks as they moved from city to city attempting to minimize disrupting their children's lives.The interstate had an unexpected side effect as a small industry, relative to today, over the road trucking, took off. Trains were no longer the only way to move large quantities of goods between cities. The problem was the interstate was not designed to handle so much weight creating unanticipated maintenance issues.A typical 1950's semi.

Note: all currency is in 2016 dollarsOne of the things I most notice as I look back is we kids were never bored even though we didn't have a TV. We wandered the neighborhood, sometimes into a large wooded park a half mile from our house. We could spend hours in the backyard. We sewed our own Winnie the Pooh dolls, created our own Clue game from memory after playing it at a friend's, wrote poetry, put on magic shows, and more. Our imaginations knew no bounds. On Saturday we would listen to The Lone Ranger and Dragnet on the radio. These shows could be quite violent. I remember once Sgt. Friday of Dragnet said he crossed the plain to get to a crime scene so I pictured him, oddly, walking across an airplane. The plane lay on the ground because he didn't say anything about climbing over it. Then later in the show he crossed it again but the rains had caused grass to sprout. I visualized an airplane covered in grass. I wondered about this for years before I suddenly got it.When we did get a television in 1957 it had no remote. That meant getting up to change channels, of which there were only two, and being forced to listen to the commercials. Black and white of course. The modern remote was decades away. Father Knows Best, I Love Lucy, Lassie, I've got a Secret, and Your Hit Parade were some of my favorites. Televisions weren't the reliable self-adjusting units of today. Tubes burned out and the picture might start "flipping" meaning it would move up and return from below over and over. We had adjustments on the back. It was an art to get a stable picture. Don't get me started on adjusting color televisions. You were likely to have to settle for green faces. And they were extremely heavy. Moving larger TVs might take two or more grown men and these sets were expensive costing much more than a modern television set. A 1954 15" color set cost nearly $9,000. At the beginning of the decade screen sizes were no more than 12" and often round but grew. Young people don't know how good they have it. Modern TVs are lightweight, troublefree, and have large screens with beautiful pictures that never require adjusting.Your Hit Parade 1951. The show had a radio/television run of 24 yearsI Love Lucy was the biggest show on television and is still fun to watch. The show blazed the trail for all future sitcoms. Ricki's innovations revolutionized how television programs were broadcast. Some of the techniques he pioneered are still in use.Children's programs were fairly unsophisticated with the most popular being The Mickey Mouse Club and the original children's show, the Howdy Doody Show starring Howdy Doody, a puppet. The studio audience was called the Peanut Gallery. There was the beloved mute clown Clarabell who had a horn he honked and a seltzer bottle he wasn't afraid to use, and Buffalo Bob. Clarabell broke his silence on the last show saying "Goodbye Kids". Getting a picture of Clarabell's real face by pesky photographers was an ongoing threat but they all failed. The original Clarabell went on to host the Captain Kangaroo Show.The upbeat Mickey Mouse Club was another favorite. On Friday we were sung a special goodby song: “M-I-C see you next week, K-E-Y why? because we love you, M-O-U-S-E”. The charismatic Annette Funicello went on to star in a series of Beach Party movies in the 60's and released several successful singles. A single was a single song on a 7″ 45 rpm record with a throwaway song on the reverse side.A sample of a Beach Party movie with grown up Annette Funicello. Teenagers frolic on the beach:Movie serials were popular. They were about ten minutes long and followed a hero from week to week and always ended in a "cliff hanger". I once saw one that left the hero actually dangling over a cliff hanging onto a branch. I was very worried so it was a relief when he saved himself the following week. They played at the Saturday matinees for several decades until television replaced them.All movies opened with a cartoon. The Disney characters along with Woody Woodpecker, Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and the ever popular Roadrunner were my favorites. Popeye the Sailor Man was big but not one of my favorites. This was before CGI so each frame was hand painted then photographed.Bugs Bunny was an irrepressible smart aleck who was always one step ahead of whoever wanted to eat him.The Roadrunner and the hapless Wile E. Coyote were favorites that sometimes got a round of applause when they appeared on the screen. The irony is coyotes can outrun Roadrunners and Roadrunners can fly short distances.There was no way to watch a movie at home so theaters boomed. The modern multiplex theaters we have now had not been dreamed up so a movie came to one theater in town and stayed as long as it was popular. You might have a double feature meaning two movies for the price on one. Many movies were still in black and white at the beginning of the decade.One convenience that was killed by daylight savings is the drive-in theater. These were very popular and convenient. Once I could drive it was great fun loading up the car and going for a romp at the drive-in. A small speaker was hanging on a pole. You would hang it from your window and crank the volume to the desired level.Elvis Presley debuted amid controversy that may be difficult to understand today. He was universally disliked by adults because of his below the waist gyrations but the kids loved him, their crazed reactions to his shows was repeated when the Beatles hit our shores. He was dismissed as talentless but in actuality he was a very good singer with a very good voice. He was a giant who dominated the music scene for a long time. He changed popular music forever.As preschoolers we had a simple little record player that used steel needles. My mother would buy us the needles in little bags for us to change out as needed.There were no battery powered watches. All watches were powered by a mainspring that had to be wound daily. I wound mine first thing in the morning. There were some self-winding watches. It was not unusual for me to have a watch that kept poor time. Watches came in varying qualities from, inflation adjusted, $10 for a watch with just a few jewels to $200 for a good 21 jewel watch. The jewels, rubies, were installed at high wear points to increase the life of the watch. My parents would buy me a Mickey Mouse watch annually although I did get a Hopalong Cassidy watch once. He was my cowboy hero.My first camera was a Brownie box camera passed down from my mother that was made in the 1930's. It only took eight black and white pictures so I had to be careful. The pictures were excellent quality due to the huge negative. I used it for around 20 years carrying it into the Army with me. The case finally broke so I bought one of those new inexpensive Pentax 35mm imports from Japan. $600 at the PX. German cameras were the standard at the time but the Japanese cameras turned out to be truly excellent. Mine was in good condition when I sold after 20 years of hard use.Flash photography required the use of a flashbulb, a bulb filled with magnesium. Flashbulbs were around for quite a while. Cameras had a special setting for flashbulbs of around 1/50th of a second. The bulbs would be very hot so needed to cool before being replaced. As the electric flash has become affordable it has replaced the flashbulb on modern cameras so that most young people probably are not even aware we once would stock up on flashbulbs if we were serious camera buffs.At night the fireflies came out so we caught them to put in bottles and watched them light up.Refrigerated air conditioning was expensive. I didn't even know there was such a thing so we didn't miss it even though we lived in the SouthwestCan openers were awful. The modern sprocket type weren't available so we had to work the opener until the can finally surrendered.Coke and beer cans had to be opened with "Churchkeys" that stores provided for free:Cokes were 6½ ounces and there was no such thing as unscrewing the top. The other end of the "Churchkey" was used for removing the top.Affordable home answering machines were a long way off as was voicemail so if someone called when you were out the call was not answered. There was something peaceful about that especially since there was no other way to get in touch with you so if you left the house no one was going to bother you. We did not have portable phones or more than one phone in the house, unless we paid for the privilege, so when the phone rang we had to race to its location.Long distance calls were a big deal so were rare. If you needed to call someone long distance you told the operator who would then call down the line so each operator could connect the call until they finally reached the party in question. Then the operator called you back and the call was connected. Next you received a huge bill from Ma Bell, the only game in town. With the advent of direct dial the system was streamlined but operator assistance continued to be a requirement in some areas into the 60's.Because long distance calls were prohibitively expensive and there was no email most communication out of the immediate vicinity was done by letter. It was the only way I had to communicate with "Granny". We kept a stash of stamps and envelopes on hand. If you had a problem with a retailer who wasn't headquartered in the city you had to work it out through the mail. Everything was slower. At Christmas I had to sit down to write thank you notes and get them in the mail. This was still my MO on staying in touch into the 90's even though long distance calling was more affordable. Email?Payphones were a nickel and rotary because touchtone hadn't been invented. They could be found almost anywhere.All phones were rotary and had to be supplied by Ma Bell. You couldn't install your own phone or even buy one. They were all black. Ma Bell sent out a technician to hook up the phone wherever you wanted. If you wanted two or more phones you paid extra every month. Long distance rates were high and subsidized local service so that local service was affordable. Ma Bell was reliable and took care of things. It was one of the best companies in the world for service but being a monopoly it was eventually brought down resulting in the profusion of options we have now. Phone numbers came with a prefix. We lived in the Lynwood area so our phone number was Ly1-2345. Smaller town might only have the last five digits: 12345.Direct dial was introduced in the 50's but wasn't available everywhere, some places still did not have it well into the 60's. It was a huge deal. We no longer had to have an operator connect us but long distance remained expensive.Touchtone was introduced in the 60's making it easier to dial the long numbers. Playing tunes with the touchtone numbers such as "Mary had a Little lamb" was a popular pastime for a while. People would publish the numbers to press to play a song.Mary had a little lamb:6,5,4,5,6,6,6,5,5,5,6,9,96,5,4,5,6,6,6,6,5,5,6,5,4Besides pencil and paper there were two ways to do calculations. An expensive and bulky mechanical calculator or a slide rule. I opted for pencil and paper and was good at doing arithmetic in my head. We were a long way from the handheld digital scientific calculators that replaced the slide rule. I once worked as a repairman at the Monroe calculator company. Adding machines were our main product. They were all gears and levers.Toy cars were steel with rolling rubber wheels and that's it. You might have a sheet metal wind up toy that could move but no battery operated or radio controlled cars. I once had a windup bulldozer that fascinated me but I dropped it and it wouldn't work anymore.We could buy balsa wood airplanes for a dime that would glide when tossed but not well. I once made a plane with a rubber band motor that would fly but it kept running into things.We spent a lot of time with our View Master. We could click through stereophonic pictures of various landscapes. Ours was a much older version of the one in the picture but the realism amazed.Lionel trains were a popular postwar item. I loved the one I got. It was solidly built of metal with realistic detail. It had a working headlight and pills I could drop into the smokestack that produced puffs of smoke. The only problem was the track would tend to slide on the linoleum floors.I went through all the normal childhood diseases. There was mumps, whooping cough, measles, chicken pox, and maybe some others. Once I caught something deadly that laid me out for weeks but I didn't die. The fear of polio, we didn't know what caused it, always hovered around the edges of our lives. There were 20,000 or more cases annually. Articles about this dreaded disease were ubiquitous. Salk's invention of the polio vaccine in 1955 was HUGE! Some people were so paralyzed they couldn't breath and spent their life in an "Iron Lung" in order to stay alive.Cigarette smoking was ubiquitous. It wasn't seen as the health risk it is today and at the beginning of the decade cigarettes generally weren't filtered. By the 60's filtered cigarettes were the standard. 50's cigarette ads would offend modern sensibilities.The 5 & 10 cent stores, Woolworth's and Kress, were popular. They had a lunch counter for snacks and sandwiches. The stores were filled with neat stuff. Outside of Sears and JC Penney this is where many of us shopped. If we went to a shopping center it was just a line of small stores or what we call a strip mall today. In 1962 a covered mall came to our town. We were blown away as we walked through it. It's still in existence.Automats were around for a long time. I saw my first one in New York and thought it amazing, especially after I bought a pie and saw a hand reach in from behind and replace the one I just bought.Sears was a force to be reckoned with and a forgotten item may be the Sears Catalogue that arrived by mail. Its hundreds of pages was great fun to peruse and an American staple. There was little you couldn't buy including a car, the Allstate. The Allstate was very basic but essentially a good car manufactured by Kaiser, a now defunct brand. At one time Sears even sold prebuilt house kits. They were of excellent quality and many are still with us today. Their solid quality makes them desirable.Sears began as a catalogue company selling to the homestead frontier market in 1886. Farmers and their the isolated families lived near small towns. With the advent of reliable train service it was possible to order whatever you needed from Sears knowing you could trust the Sears name. When it came in the farmer might hook up his buggy that he bought from Sears ($25, $700 now) and drive into town to pick it up.There wasn't a lot you couldn't get at Sears. Your car could be serviced, repaired, and Allstate batteries and tires were for sale. At one time or the other Sears sold appliances, clothing, guns, luggage, watches, musical instruments, tombstones, typewriters, tools, cameras, toys, baseball mitts, bicycles, motor scooters, pianos, horse drawn sleds, shoes, boots, jewelry, well pumps, insurance, the list is nearly endless. If the farmer needed it or his family wanted something they would look in the Sears catalogue. I once bought a motorcycle jacket through the catalogue and it arrived by mail. I drove Sears scooters for years. I even owned a Sears cowboy hat. All were excellent. If Sears sold it you knew it was good quality.You supplied the land and the builder, Sears provided all materials and directions you needed to build your own home. Each piece was stamped with a number so you could find it on the plan. The houses were excellent and are desirable today for their quality. Sears stopped offering them when WWII broke out. Now after 130 years Sears is struggling to keep up with the times.Banker's hours is an expression that refers to the 10am to 3pm hour the banks were open to the public back in the day. After 3:00 you were out of luck. The industry had been heavily regulated since the depression and this meant few, if any, branch offices. In my town there were no branch offices so all banks were downtown with the traffic congestion and bad parking associated with that. We could mail in checks but cash meant a trip downtown. In the 80's the regulations were largely lifted and the frenzied competition for your money began.Although there were oil company and department store credit cards there were no general use cards available to most people. BankAmericard (Visa) changed that in 1958. Now anyone could go in debt and we've been on that ride ever since.An odd fashion statement of the time was the veil woman sometimes wore formally. Unlike the MidEast veil it was see through. I once saw my mother wearing one.We used pencils in school. The only pens in general use were fountain pens which were filled from a small bottle of ink called an inkpot. You stuck the tip in the pot and pulled a lever to suck the ink up. Someone created refills that could be popped in making the fountain pen portable. Ballpoints were coming online but the pencil still reigned supreme. Paper Mate came up with a dependable and affordable ballpoint pen sounding the death knell for the fountain pen then Bic invented the long lasting disposable ballpoint that took its design from the pencil. With it's clear plastic barrel you knew how much ink you had. The pencil began to settle into its current secondary role.The 1950's was the decade of the Ballpoint pen. The first retractable ballpoint pen was introduce in 1949. Ballpoint pens had a long history of development with countless failures along the way primarily because of problems with the ink. Paper Mate, followed by Bic, finally marketed a dependable pen.As ballpoint caught on such standard desktop items as the blotter became obsolete. The blotter was needed to dry up fountain pen smudges. Fountain pens were needed for signatures since pencil could be erased. You had to allow your paper to dry before folding or stacking it. Refillable they could get quite fancy but most of us had to settle for strip of blotter paper. Turning out a smudge free letter or report could be a challenge.Reports were done in pencil and if it was a “term theme” that meant doing your research at the library. I had to take a bus into town and spend the day at the library. We would go through the card catalogue that had every book in the library cross referenced. A report might involve perusing several books, making notes on 3x5 cards, organizing them then writing out the report. The internet changed everything.In college I typed my reports. An invaluable skill I learned in High School. Since the home computer hadn't been invented there was no other way to turn out an attractive looking report. Now it's easy, then it could be laborious. It would take me three attempts to turn out something with a finished appearance. Typing a twenty page report over and over...you get the idea. If I decided add a sentence on the first page then the whole report had to be retyped.I picked an office machine up at a thrift store, it was an oldy but a goody. It took me through my University years and I carried it with me all over the country as I moved about. Then I scored an IBM.The typewriter reached its epitome when IBM Selectric came up with this beauty with its rotating ball instead of the strikers. If you accidentally hit two letters at the same time on a manual they might jam on the page when the strikers both met. I got years out of my IBM until it finally died in Dallas. I never had one better. My computer with a printer changed all that. My first 386 computer was $4000 and my Dot Matrix printer was $800. What's a Dot Matrix you ask?The modern ambulance with its abundance of lifesaving equipment and trained paramedics hadn't been dreamed up yet. Ambulances were made by Cadillac and looked like colorful hearses with windows. I went to a hospital in a green one after a scooter accident.Ether was the preferred anesthetic for operations and it was an unpleasant way to go under but it worked. It's what they used when my tonsils were taken out. Because of the lack of pain killers they fed me ice cream several times a day. They must have scheduled all the tonsillitis cases for the same day because there were a bunch of us in the ward and we all cheered when the orderly rolled in the cart full of ice cream. I was very excited telling my mother about my good fortune.After my scooter accident all I got for the pain was the occasional aspirin so I writhed.Steam locomotives were still pulling trains so if you lived on the "wrong side of the tracks", meaning the prevailing winds blew your way, any laundry drying on a clothesline was doomed should you lose the mad dash to get it down. Diesel trains were making inroads but steam was not obsolete.Steam was much more powerful but you could gang together diesel locomotives until you had enough which is why you will see several locomotives pulling a train. With steam if you needed more power you built a bigger locomotive. They could be ganged but it was undesirable. These locomotives could get massive, 85' long, 132' with the tender, and weighing considerably more than a million pounds. Steam is suited to pulling trains but is high maintenance and expensive to operate compared to diesel.The biggest. Built for pulling trains over the Rockies.As diesel became more prevalent the union insisted the obsolete jobs remain so a diesel locomotive would have a fireman even though no coal needed to be shoveled into the boiler fire. Reader's Digest got into the act writing outraged articles about "featherbedding".I remember sitting in class being introduced to Dick and Jane who were to be my friends for a long time as I learned to read. See Dick run. See Jane run. See dick and Jane run. Run, run, run. It worked.Washing machines worked okay but there were very few dryers so clothes were wrung out with the motor driven wringer on top of the machine. The clothes were later hung out to dry. A friend of mine had his thumb severely crushed when it got caught in the wringer. Then came the ironing. Since we didn't have a steam iron the clothes had to be sprinkled with water. A cork with a top with holes in it could be bought and put on a coke bottle for sprinkling. Washing clothes was a major ordeal. Cotton clothes, artificial fabrics hadn't been invented, had to be bought oversize because they shrank when washed until "Sanforized" cotton was introduced.Our sewing machine had to be pumped by foot. It seemed to work fine but what do I know? The machine folded down converting the unit into a flat table.Although the concept had been around a long time the dishwasher didn't take off until the 1960's. Until then we stood at a sink and handwashed with our bottle of Joy, something I still do except I use Dawn instead of Joy.The modern coffee maker with it's timers and filters was a long way off. Most people made coffee in a percolator. Maxwell coffee grounds (Good to the last drop) were poured into a basket and placed in the pot. The boiling water was forced up the tube in the middle and spilled onto the top of the basket. I was fascinated with watching the water beat against the glass stopper as it slowly turned brown.The soles of shoes were leather and would wear out before the uppers. Heels had to be replaced and holes would appear in the sole. It was a nuisance. I'll take today's Nikes with their rugged soles and care free uppers over the old leather shoes that required frequent polishing. If you wanted a high gloss you wet a cotton ball and used that to apply the polish. In the Army we called that "spit polishing".Your basic car was a manual shift that didn't come with a heater, air conditioning, radio, or power steering. Most, but not all, had turn signals. Turn signals were standard by the end of the decade. If your car didn't have turn signals you were required to stick your arm out the window to signal your intent.Power steering was introduced in 1951 on some luxury cars. Manual steering effort was substantial. I heard a couple of mothers saying they wished they had power steering. I asked what that was and they told me it makes steering easier but were unable to tell me what that meant. Cruise control was first introduced in 1958 but was a luxury item. Automatic transmissions had been developed but were out of the range of many car owners and might only have two speeds. Modern air conditioning was introduced in the 60's although primitive systems were available in the 50's.We got our first car with a radio (AM only) and heater in the 60's. The radios were all vacuum tube so required a minute or more to warm up.Besides having a heater our new car could go 70 mph! Even faster downhill. 70 was the Beetle's top speed. I used to own a New Beetle and took it up to 110 a couple of times.Cars didn't have seatbelts. They were beginning to show up by the end of the decade but were resisted by many. Ford introduced them as an option in 1955 but they weren't popular. The thinking seems to have been that Fords must be dangerous or they wouldn't offer seatbelts. A popular scenario was what if you end up in a lake and couldn't get free. I thought that was silly. How often do you end up in a lake? I got it right away and always wore mine, thank God. I had an accident in which I might have died without it. Reader's Digest published articles detailing accidents in which someone's life was saved. Because they actually saved lives so were eventually accepted.Cars back then had steering wheels often with horn rings that could easily impale your chest. Without a safety belt I would have merged with my steering column. As it was I bent the top of the steering wheel over 90 degrees. Before belts people often were severely injured by their steering columns, chests were crushed and passengers went through the windshield. People would be thrown out of their cars to slide down the street or bounce around the interior slamming into one another or hard interior parts. Dashboards were metal and less forgiving than modern dashboards. Airbags, what?Many cars had vacuum operated windshield wipers that operated using the engine vacuum. Electric windshield wipers were catching on through the 50's and became the standard in the 60's. Vacuum operated wipers, although better than nothing, were quirky and didn't operate well under acceleration. In a downpour I periodically let up on the accelerator allowing the wipers to speed up so I could see.Cars often didn't come with side mirrors unless you went upscale. When they had mirrors they were often just on the driver's side. If you wanted a mirror on your basic car you had to add it yourself. I purchased aftermarket mirrors and added them to some of my cars. They were hard to adjust. You usually loosened a screw to adjust the mirror which might go out of adjustment as the screw was tightened.Windshield washers were almost non-existent. I didn't even know such a thing existed. White sidewall tires were ubiquitous.Cars were not reliable. They were pretty well worn out by 60,000 miles. Speedometers only went to 99,999 miles. I only saw one car break a 100,000 and it was very tired. By 60,000 you might have gone through five sets of tires and even more tuneups. A tuneup required new plugs, points, and maybe even more. Tuneups needed to be done every few thousand miles. Most people didn't do it as often as needed so the car's performance suffered. I did a tuneup on a friend's car that was barely running. It ran like new afterwards. I was a hero. I tracked my gas mileage and when it began to fall I did a tuneup. They were simple to do if you knew how and took an hour. The points had to be carefully set and the timing adjusted using a timing light. I bought the necessary equipment and saved a lot of money doing my own. The carburetor was a beast best avoided by most DIYs. I learned to overhaul them but there were pitfalls galore for even the best mechanics. I got so adept at tuneups I set up a mobile tuneup business and made a few bucks.Chiltons published an excellent service manual for all American cars. Everything you needed to know about doing your own work on a car was in them along with valuable hints such as how to "power tune" an engine and all the specs you needed to do a tuneup. They would tear down an engine and then tell you how to do it, step by step, complete with photographs. In later years they no longer took these extra steps so I stopped buying them.By 60,000 miles you might have made some repairs and replaced shocks and brakes a number of times. Drum brakes were high maintenance. They required periodic adjustment so the car wouldn't pull to one side or the other when you stepped on them. It could be tricky. Modern disc brakes are superior in every way except peddle effort.Engines quickly wore out and began burning oil on top of the oil they invariably leaked. Roads back then would have a black streak down the middle from all the oil the engines put out. Motorcyclists were cautioned to not drive in the center of the road because of the oil slick. A car spewing white smoke was a common sight, sometimes it came out in clouds. "Ring and valve jobs" were commonplace and a part of owning a car.Engine oil was crude relative to today's oils. It was a "single grade" meaning there was a difference between winter and summer oil. "Multi-vicosity" oils changed that so we could use a single oil both winter and summer.Detergent oils also changed things. One problem owners faced was the development of "sludge" on engine parts. This gooey substance can ruin an engine and is one reason for prescribed oil changes. Detergent oils suspend foreign products in the oil and protect against sludge buildup. In the 50's this was a major concern. Articles were written educating people about the phenomenon.The acids in sludge ruined metal parts.Sludge buildup can happen to modern engines but is no longer the ubiquitous problem it was in the 50's.Modern oil has played a critical role in allowing today's engines to develop so much power and last so long. Synthetic oils are even better and an economical choice if you plan to keep your car. The 40,000 to 70,000 mile expiration date for your engine is a thing of the past.Upholstery was generally cheap plastic and would begin tearing and splitting before the end of the useful car life. There was a market for aftermarket seat covers.Those who could afford it traded in their car every two years. A car loan was generally for two years. A new car warranty might be for six months and 4,000 miles. Cars frequently came out of the factory with problems so the warranty was important. We bought a car that had no oil in the transmission. A friend bought one with none of the chassis bolts tightened.There was a big market for retread, or recap, tires, they were good for maybe 5,000 miles. The modern radial tire, a European innovation, didn't begin to catch on in the US until the 70's. I remember a Sears display of a radial tire that pitched rubber after 40,000 miles. I could barely believe it, nobody would because everyone knew it was impossible for tires to last that long. Sears jumped on the Radial bandwagon right away and was an important retailer for these modern tires.Willys (Jeep) got into the new car market after the war trading on the Jeep's wartime reputation. We owned two of their station wagons. They weren't bad. I once noticed our Jeep had 40,000 miles and commented. My mother told me that it's been a good car as we rattled down the street. The car was near the end of its useful life.Our Willy-Overland station wagon had a flathead four cylinder engine could propel it to upwards of 60mph on a flat road but it slowed down on hills. It was the first American station wagon with an all metal body. 60 or 70 was about all most cars could do. Upscale cars with their V8s were much faster. A modern Honda tour bike has considerably more horsepower than your 1950's basic car.There is a story of a policeman driving to work when a Cadillac blew past him at 85. He floored it and got up to 70mph. He caught the guy at a light and gave him a ticket. His engine blew up a couple of days later.There was an amusing song about a Nash Rambler that outran a guy in his Cadillac.Nash also made a subcompact in an age in which the Beetle was the popular small car. It was a neat little car and got around 30 miles per gallon. It could hit 60 in 30 seconds. The car magazines liked it, the public not so much. Most modern cars will hit 60 in fewer than 10 seconds.BMW was not yet the automotive powerhouse it is today. In the 50's it began marketing its version of the three wheel Isetta in the US. Competition with the Beetle killed it.Vespa also got into the minicar craze in the 50's with a cool little 8′ long car powered by a two stroke rear engine. My mother had one. We both liked it although I had to install a right side aftermarket mirror on it. For its size it was quick and it was easy to drive. My mother took my sister and friends swimming once. My sister told me as she walked by a mother and son she heard the woman telling her son "You saw them all get out of the car". My mother got it up to 70 once.However the smallest American car had to be the King Midget. A couple of war veterans began marketing them in 1946 and was in business until 1970 when the new owners mismanaged the company into bankruptcy. They sold for $5000 in today's money. I owned one. Mine, a later model, had an air compressor engine, a 2-speed automatic transmission, and was peppy enough to hold its own in traffic. At 8½' it was the same length as a decked out Harley-Davidson which weighed almost twice as much as this 500 pound package. Modern compact cars weigh around 3,000 pounds.The VW Beetle began making inroads into the America market. There was a hunger for inexpensive and reliable cars. Compared to the big, thirsty, unreliable American cars it filled a need. We were all sensing something was rotten in Detroit. The phrase planned obsolescence entered the vocabulary.At $17,000 with a 1200cc engine that got 30mpg the Beetle filled a niche and provided a warning shot across the bow of the bloated American car companies that they ignored allowing the Japanese to come in later and blow them out of the water.The Harley Davidson twin was the king of the road. Big, comfortable, and with an engine the same size as a Beetle it reigned supreme. It leaked oil and kept the owner busy working on it weekends but it was a labor of love. It was all the police drove. The earlier ones had controls that would confuse a modern rider including a hand-operated stickshift for the transmission complete with a pedal operated clutch and a manual timing control.Manual transmissions were about all most people could afford and the shifter was not on the floor like they are nowadays, it was on the column. There are jokes that the best anti-theft device you can have is a stickshift but there was a time when everyone could drive a three speed manual shift car.You would leave the car in first gear when you parked. The engine would stop the car from rolling. When you wanted to drive away you would push in the clutch, start the engine, let out the clutch, and go. If you forget to step on the clutch and turned the key the car would jerk forward.The triangular "wing windows" were an important part of ventilating the car. You could adjust them to divert air into the car. It was a big help.The only dependable way to make you way about town was with a map. If you were going across country it was even more essential because this was the age of the state highways. Gas stations were generally a dependable source of maps.AAA was another source and they would plan your trips for you with a customized "Triptik" in which the trip was unfolded for you from one page to the next. I've ordered a lot of these in the days before GPS.Since the miracle of GPS I haven't owned a map. The GPS took me from door to door on my last cross country trip which included many stops in between.Schwinn was the most popular bicycle brand. Bicycles were heavy and had a single speed. They sometimes came with a "tank" and might have a horn inside. You stopped by pedaling backwards to engage the brake.The "English racer" was lighter than American style bikes and had brakes that clamped on the tire rim that worked much better than the American style. Some had three speeds.Lights were ineffective battery operated affairs with a short battery life. They did little more than hopefully alert a car driver to your presence. "Generator lights" would take care of the battery problem but the lights were still dim.Automobiles aside trains and buses were how you traveled long distances, if you crossed the ocean you went by ship. I've done all three and spent many a night on a "sleeper" train in a fold down bed listening to the comforting clickety-clack of the wheels. I especially like ships, crossing the Atlantic twice on one. I loved the rhythmic pounding of the engines at night. We spent a night on board a ship in the New York harbor when a hurricane came through. I was impressed by the huge trees that were lying around next morning.Although not the first commercial service, Pan American had been flying the Transatlantic route for a couple of decades with the Clipper flying boats, the Boeing 707 paved the way for affordable long distance air service in 1958. It was fast, traversing the ocean in less than 8 hours vs more than 20 for the Clipper, and reliable. In addition you could carry on a conversation with your neighbor, something you couldn't do in a piston engine plane.The home entertainment system consisted of a vacuum tube AM, no FM, radio with a 4" speaker and a tube record player. Primitive Hi Fi and stereo was just catching on in higher priced systems. The long play LP 33⅓ record was introduced but most pop music was 45 RPM with one song on each side. Teenagers might have a stack of 45's. By the way it took a while for vacuum tubes to warm up, perhaps a minute, so when you see someone in a movie turn on an old radio and it comes right on...didn't happen. Instant on is the result of transistors followed by printed circuits.Transistors made their debut in the late 40's. The Japanese developed them into a commercially viable item with Sony introducing the astounding portable radio that could be carried in a pocket in 1957. I got my first one in 1963. This product was an unbelievable departure from what we were accustomed to.45's were how teenagers built their collection of favorite songs. There was one song on each side. Usually the other side was a throwaway. At the modern equivalent of $8 a record this could be a sizable investment. LPs were closer to $40. An adapter could be bought to push into the large hole so it could be played on a 33⅓ record player. Record players generally had three speeds 78, 45, and 33. 45's were 7" and 33's were 12". A full album could be recorded on a 33. The 78.26 was mostly obsolete in the 50's and had a playing time about the same as a 45. My mother had a collection of 78's.This was the solution to playing all those 45s. We all had these record changers that we could stack our records on. At the end of the song the tone arm returned to the side, a new record fell and the tone arm set down at the beginning of the new record automatically. What more could you ask for?Recording music is easy now and we can download from the Net but back then there was no practical way for the average person to record music. Commercial tape recorders were available but were too expensive for the average person. Tape recorders didn't come into their own until the 60's once problems with the tape itself were solved although the late 50's had some showing up. Hi Fi stereo also came into its own in the 60's with the advent of affordable amplifiers, tape decks, record changers, and separate speakers. With the availability of high quality components you could build your own system.My dream speakers were the AR5. Acoustic Research made some of the finest speakers in the world and at $2000 a pair was within reach of the serious audiophile. They had 10" woofers. I picked up a pair at a thrift store at a ridiculous price. They didn't know what they had.In the early 60's Sony introduced one of the first affordable home use tape recorders, the Sony 500, if you call $2000 in current money affordable. It was a nifty unit with speakers that folded in to make a compact portable unit. The amplifiers were vacuum tubes, not transistors. I bought one, subscribed to a tape club, and began building a collection of prerecorded music. The nice thing about the unit is I could record records from a record player. Never before had I even dreamed of such a luxury.I built my own system and an amusing incident resulted. I recorded some piano music and because of a miscalculation I had a long lead time before the music began. Friends were over and my 3 year old daughter sat at the piano to pretend to play. We forgot I had a tape in and just then the music began and to all appearances my daughter suddenly could play professionally. One of my friends was actually shocked into standing up staring at her open mouthed. We were all stunned until the reality sank in when my daughter stopped "playing" to check out the sudden stir of activity behind her. That’s what Acoustic Research speakers could do for you.Postage was 3 cents, for an extra 2 cents you could have your letter air mailed which was considerably faster. Otherwise it was sent by train which might take a while if it was going across country. If you sent it ground to another country it went by ship and could take weeks. When I was in Germany a friend mailed a letter ground from Japan and it took three months. Now all mail is airmail.If you didn't have enough postage a stamp for the amount due was put on the letter and the recipient had to pay to get his letter. This practice came to an end because people were mailing their bills without postage and the bill collectors were spending a lot of money paying the postage due. Today it's no stamp, no service.Of interest but off subject is one of the most valuable American stamps is the upside down or inverted Jenny stamp issued in 1918. Somehow the stamp slipped by inspectors and a single sheet was sold. The buyer, realizing what he had, asked for more but the clerk instead tried to get it back. The buyer refused and examples now go for hundreds of thousands of dollars.Long distance driving was more difficult as cities were connected by two lane state highways. These highways would go right through a city. Signs would guide the traveler through the city streets, traffic lights and all, and back into the countryside. On the highway one might get stuck behind a slowpoke unable to pass for miles and miles as a dozen cars stacked up. There were other hazards. We once topped a hill and suddenly found ourselves barreling down on a farm tractor doing perhaps eight miles an hour while we were doing seventy. It was close.Eisenhower launched the country into the modern interstate system in the fifties and it was a huge project. Lives were disrupted as the right of way would mean old family dwellings being torn down to make way for the freeway. Rockwell did a touching painting of a family watching their family home being destroyed. Entire towns died as the traffic they depended on was rerouted.Some construction workers would haul mobile homes behind trucks as they moved from city to city attempting to minimize disrupting their children's lives.The interstate had an unexpected side effect as a small industry, relative to today, over the road trucking, took off. Trains were no longer the only way to move large quantities of goods between cities. The problem was the interstate was not designed to handle so much weight creating unanticipated maintenance issues.

This is all myth that Canada creates new jobs*. There may be a niche market. Usually, such peaks come when there is some Government funding. And they come and go. Often nothing comes out of it, pie in the sky schemes.Have you ever heard an MBBS from India/or such less advanced country, opened his/her shop asap he/she landed here?Have you ever heard a DDS from India/China/or such less advanced country, opening a dental clinic here straight from the airport?Have you seen any professional Engineering job, getting the job with imported credentials?Have you seen any accounting imported credentials which have any value in Canada, or the law professionals?Well, some trolls will write a useless explanation about the above jobs.Have you seen any plumber/electrician/welder getting a job, a plumber, electrician or welder or heating and cooling technicianOf course, not,Why??????All these jobs are protected one way or the other, right and wrong.Well, some trolls will write a useless, based on their ignorance explanation about the above jobs.Yes, on papers, there is a process to go to these professions.Talk to the people who tried that route?????Let us go one step lower jobs,Unskilled or here we call general help, but this job is with Government/City/or some very well established organization with a lot of benefits and excellent wages.Any FOB, fresh off the boat, means new arrival, Do you know anyone who got that job?Of course not.Simply that job was already filled by a friend of a friend of the high up in that organization. Going through the selection process in most cases is a sham.Please do not write BS; there is not any profession that I am not aware of Mafia-style protectionThe list goes onYes, a few trades which are in some short supply, may get a job, and those are the people thump their chests. But these glories come and go from Canada.When all the glut from HIB, visa put their tents in Canada, those jobs will be a dime a dozen.Yes, Canada has created a tremendous amount of opportunities for the coming generations.As follows:Yes, Canada always had a shortage of people who are willing to work, in back-breaking work. In a very hostile environment/ perceived dirty work/jobs which are not 9 to 5/posts. The tasks which do not carry a lot of benefits/jobs which fell from the favor of teenage employees/jobs that are shift work/jobs which do not give Sat/Sun off/jobs which need heavy lifting/ the list goes on.These are jobs:Tim Horton, a coffee shop franchise, where you find now middle age, even seniors and serving coffee/donuts.Macdonald,Truckers.Septic Tanks cleaningJanitors.Gas station attendants.Farm and seasonal work.Cab/Uber/driver.Pizza delivery guys/gals.Barbers.Nail/face make up.Porters.The list goes on and on and on and on.In the past all or most of the fast-food work was done by the Canadian Teenagers, now it is falling from grace, now all you see middle age/even seniors in these trades. And most are from India, especially from the Punjab region.In my close to fifty years, now I see guys with the full set of beard with hair net(that is the law), handling fast foods in the restaurants. This field was strictly reserved for the Canadian, mostly white teenagers.Therefore, yes, Canada always had opportunities, but what kind of opportunities????Please go and read the Canadian history books, immigration patterns, strict laws keeping Canada white, stories of injusticesLet us start with Chinese laborers who built the rail lines,Who suffered tremendously and extremely hostile immigration policies towards them.Let us go from there to Italian immigrants who carved their way with muscles.Let us go there to Ukrainians who were labeled “ Garlic Eaters” they carved their way.The list goes on from one group to the other.The new immigrants, in some cases, usually lose the first generation to create a productive environment for the second generation.Provided the second generation does not do as follows.Walk away with loser partner.Joins the gangs for the quick buck.Hooked on the alcohol/drugs/Drops out of schoolBreaks the law ends up a born loser.The answer: Canada always replenishes the stock to pay taxes and do most of the above-stated work.These are the jobs for people from less advanced countries, and sure they are employed.Canada has a lot of opportunities, bring a shipload of boys and girls from the less advanced countries, give them student visa, then PR, and then these jobs.It is a life long process to get out of modern slavery; maybe the second generation will see some benefits. If and some survive western lifestyles,Unless you know the ins and outs of this culture/country, please think very carefully before sending your very young daughters here on a student visa.Yes, he has a job Walmart Canada, and he is a poster boy.Maybe as a greeter, Welcome to Walmart, have a lovely weekend, come again.Yes, he has a job, as a security guard, maybe his parents sold a piece of land to send him here.Maybe their parents sold their land in native Punjab; these kids were ashamed to till and work their property, there a white Canadian is getting the work done. Enjoy the employment, in fake Rayban glasses, torn jeans, and rented a car.In case your kid is marginal in school/education, he/she will go from bad to worst in these countries. English/French medium may be an extra burden.School/work may almost kill the kid; Western kids are altogether different breed to cope with all these things.Get ready to start from zero if you are coming from a less advanced country.Some professions have a bit of value for the time being to get recognized, but it is only a question of time before these professions become fully saturated. I have seen this phenomenon in scores of businesses.Nursing is a prime example: At one time due to acute shortage, nurses from overseas, they were treated like princesses, now try to find full-time employment even for native-born white Canadian girls/boys.A lot of B.S. and glorification: By a new immigrant who comes from unfortunate situations in their lives. They are baffled with open space, clean roads, and minor things which are very reasonable. And these new immigrants have not paid a single penny in taxes as yet when they will see good fifty-cent gone from their paycheques then they will not take too many pictures in the parking lot to send back to their villages.This couple most likely from India, Fresh off the Boat, is very excited to be here, taking pictures in a busy plaza parking lot.To the amazement of the native Canadians, who are wondering why on earth they are so excited to take pictures in busy building store plaza.I knew it all the answers but kept my mouth shut, to send these pictures to their village that now they have joined the White elite, at least in their minds.Yes, indeed we show our this behavior in the air travels, eating out, in the busy parking lots, doing shopping in the plaza, and try to bargain like a village market.Some are coming straight from remote villages who have not seen a western toilet in their lives. And it is their first interaction to the civilized world.This is an old beat-up car, photo opp, in a bustling plaza, in fact very crowded and busy.People were a bit puzzled, what is so romantic here to take pictures of the car?I knew it this couple is fresh off the boat, and they are in extreme hurry to send this picture to their village.( Because when we came close to five decades, once upon a time, we did the same things, at that time our mothers were very proud of our beat-up car/fake Ray-Ban/and legendary blue jeans.I realized after seeing this couple, that time has not changed; still, we are 100 s of years behind.Indian trolls:In case you have a great idea please write your article/ also in the international community of writers, Indian trolls are well known. Most of them write non-related garbage and try to spoil and well-written essays/articles/string of thoughts.I have written thousands of articles/answers on Quora, except for Indians I have not received even one negative feedback from Pakistani and Chinese brothers and sisters.Canada is not a land opportunity, cream, honey, and roads paved with gold.46% of Canadians $200 or less away from financial ... - CBC.cahttps://www.cbc.ca › Calgary › 200-financial-insolvency-2019-1.4986586Forty-six percent of Canadians are only 200 dollars away from Bankruptcy.People who thump their chests free health care????No Sir/Madam: We all pay for each and everything, one way or the other, now by the time, this system is stumbling, sick itself, due to mass scale wastage, abuse, and mismanagement.How do I know?One of my dear and near one just retired after 45 years of service from this field. This utopia is not sustainable, where one or no one working in the family with ten members using and abusing the system. Soon the Canadians will be kissing this system last hurrah.,For your bedtime stories:In a country where 46 percent are 200 dollars short from bankruptcy andEnjoy the following post.What jobs???, Industry is almost all gone, we are in service-related business, whatever is left we extract something from the earth and sell when we finish that we start something else.We have striped the ocean empty, and we have striped naked all the lumber from Canada. Now we are trying to stripe all the oils from the sands. Eventually, we will finish that too, or we cannot do anything about it.For for your visual pleasure:Financial Post:Intuit says 45% of Canadians will be self-employed by 2020, releases new app to help with financesIntuit says 45% of Canadians will be self-employed by 2020, releases new app to help with financesAnd46 percent of Canadians are 200 dollars short from Bankruptcy.Canada is not a land opportunity, cream, honey, and roads paved with gold.46% of Canadians $200 or less away from financial ... - CBC.cahttps://www.cbc.ca › Calgary › 200-financial-insolvency-2019-1.4986586One for night time reading:I get a lot of personal mail, most of the people from India, there is nothing new they all complain about the usual problems in life.Once again nothing new: When I left India in the early 70 s,The second part of the letter is usually glorifying the West, and they believe it is close to paradise.My conclusions:Human suffering remained the same, since Lord Buddha left home, in search of the truth.There is no paradise on the earth; each place has its issues. Some write glorious things here; they do not write when you walk in minus 30 or below; this paradise is not paradise anymore. This list of hardships goes on here as well.Last but not least:Most of us realize in the previous run of our life when we saw the waste of your tax dollars. Here some people did not work all their lives and maybe for several generations. They just waited for the Dole from the Government, and some had a double-dipping system, working on the side also.And realize the fancy plans which you dreamed off when retired, may not be worth [email protected] you might realize, what a fool I had been?Some of us had worked all their lives and to provide for the kids, in the end, think about a mother:A whose only son joined the gang, and when she came home, he was lying dead, in front of the fireplace, in a gangland war.God forbid, that your daughter is beaten to death; in fact, it was a racial issue, (Reena Virk murder case). However, Govt would never admit, it was the gut-wrenching case of Canadian born, east Indian girl.Reena Virk - Google SearchI hope it helps, close to fifty years in Canada, I have seen almost everything, been there done it.In case everything and every suggestion from this post fail:Remember this golden formula for Canada.First-generation worked very hard irrespective of caste, color, religion, there is/was no free lunch.The second generation knew to survive and thrive in Canada is not a joke.The second generation, in most cases, stayed focused.By the third generation, a percentage they learned how to scam the system, wanted to make easy money and diverted the attention of the parents/teachers/clergy/public into soft and cushy ideas. Talk about changing the world, even though they have not cleaned their closet since the Clintons left the office.By the time all popcorn popping ideas failed, by the fourth generation, all the hard work first two generations had gone into ashes.No identity, no trace, nothing to be proud of,This is a general formula; in some communities, the things do not go up to third/fourth generation.The total damage starts: As soon as the family lands, and there is no turning back. Alcohol/drugs/violence/criminal records/falling grades/no interest in school/too much freedom/ and the list goes on.Some lose their loving partner due to alcohol/water fountain talks/too much freedom. And other issues of change of scenery.Some have nothing to show for any area of their lives, kids — self, spouse, parents back home. Life started with zero ended with zero.Welcome to Canada, I have seen in the last five decades, the Canadian dollar is very stubborn does not leave Canada.Some immigrants made it by hard work, saving, sacrifices, and their next-generation lost everything.Thirty years of Canadian Industrial/corporate experience from trenches to about four-star general, as they say. In now fifteen years in self-employment and counting, no sign of slowing.When we came to Canada, our motherland was struggling big time, and we had no hope in Hell.We all had no choice; we almost all came with a borrowed one-way ticket; we were determined to help our families back home.India was on its knees there was extreme poverty, helplessness, desperation,However, India of our time was very pure, nationalistic movies, intense love for the parents/siblings/sacrifices/ and our teachers, elders, the whole society, taught us, ethics, hard work, sexual purity.Alcohol was unknown except in some communities, and the drug was not even heard of, never mind use.To excel in school/college/university was the only mission because that was the only way to get out of poverty, help our parents, who most of them were shattered souls due to partition of India.India made sure that we all got an excellent education, who worked hard, made it in life. Because to get a university education was not a joke, to get in good programs was life and death situation. There was the only university of Punjab, in the whole of combined Punjab, including Haryana, Punjab, and Himachal.Our mothers woke us up at 4 in the morning, made tea for us, and we and our school/college/university, and then it was all Hell on the Earth, until 11 PM.Not to outshine was an option, and then to do Ph.D. in the west or other postgrad degree was the only route.Well, people of my time did not beg for HIB and go on knees for the green card, the USA, offered a star-studded position to those stars.It was known: When any American met an Indian, he/she would ask: Are you a doctor? You must a NASA, Engineer? Well, you must be faculty in the University? You must be in management of a well-known company?The offsprings of those pioneers in North America, most of them now are massive stars in their own right.There were no fraud and abuse cases in the student visa, almost all came on some form of assistantships.Some Fake resumes, some fake degrees, and some fraudulent HiB, was unknown.When we came to this country, as I recall, we had to fight for existence and even for hard back-breaking work, we had to fight for work.The best I could describe, it was exactly same as an episode from movie Deewar, where helpless laborers had to fight for existence.The early immigrants no matter which country, color, ethnicity, Europeans, non-Europeans, everybody had to fight and make a place. In case you have colored the struggles multiplied even for the safety of your kids.Unless you have more fire than the hero of this movie, good luck, you will be another number lost in the dirt of Canadian soil.Sam AroraM.Sc. Dairy Science, U of Punjab, India, M.Sc. Food Science, U of Guelph, Canada.Thirty years in the Canadian corporate world from the floor level to the board room, and more than fifteen in self-employment, and continuous journey.