Last year, 2014, my Kutztown classmates celebrated our 56th class reunion. Whenever we have a reunion, I get out my ’58 yearbook to check out the faces to see who I remember. This time I also became intrigued with our 50s clothes and hairdos.
Of course, like all fads of a certain era, they’re popular for a short-time – at least most of them – and then their gone. This time, I decided to bring these fads back and put them on paper.
I know the pony tail was popular, yet I couldn’t find any one female class photo with their hair pulled back and fastened with a rubber band, or a colorful scarf. Most of the girls had short-cropped hair, some with bangs. Home perms were in if your parents could afford the kit. My mother succumbed a few times to buying a perm kit for me. Mostly, I set my hair in pin curls. I even slept with dozens of bobbi pins in my hair. On damp weather days, I’d keep my hair pins in, wrapping a headscarf around them, until I arrived at school.
My class mate, Joyce Hohl, reminded me of the poodle cut, it became popular through “I Love Lucy” show on TV. I got my poodle perm at the hairdresser, and I loved it!”
I can’t forget our “cool” guys who wore crew cuts or flat tops. Some of the guys had a D.A. (looked like a ducks rear), due to combing the sides to the back and parting it from the crown to the nape at the back of the head. It was kept in place by a dab of grease.
In the clothing department, pleated and full skirts were in. We especially liked the tight skirt with a kick pleat. One of the neatest skirts we wore was the circular poodle skirt, with a poodle appliqued on it. We made them in eighth or ninth grade home economics class. These full skirts were made in both summer and winter material. To make skirts fuller, we wore crinolines – four to five if we had that many – under the skirt. These crinolines had to be washed, dipped in starch solution, dried on the wash line, and then ironed. They scratched but we tolerated them.
We also endured wearing hoops, which held the skirt extended, under a full skirts. Hoops, which were smaller at the top got wider towards the bottom, and hung from a waistband with straps. They were hard to maneuver when sitting, going between desks, or getting in a car.
I recall a date to play miniature gold as a teen. When I swung the gold club in the air, I somehow caught it in the hoop itself and the hoop did some moves I never knew of. I was embarrassed but those are the things we wore to be an “in” teenager.
The girls wore sweater sets and blouses often with a neck scarf, bow tie, or the white dickey collar. To keep the blouse and skirt in place, we wore a three inch wide cinch belt.
Girls did not wear jeans to school, but we did wear them to basketball games and after school activities. Levi’s and Lee brands were popular. Some of us liked to roll the cuffs up, like James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause” movie. Jeans were kind of stiff at first and we had to wash them a few times to soften them.
If you were in athletics, you wore a cardigan-style sweater with button front and hip pockets. They were called Letterman sweaters and usually had the varsity letters on them. Girls were thrilled if their boyfriends left them wear their sweaters.
We wore saddle shoes with bobby socks. We were constantly polishing our shoes. Some girls wore dog collars around the sock. One side meant you were going steady and the other meant you were available to go steady. Joyce, mentioned earlier, still has her dog collar and told me she had all different colors at one time.
Another great “joy” the girls had was wearing a garter belt with stockings that had a seam. Seams were awful and had to be straight. Often we’d ask, “Are my seams straight?” The garter belt held up the stockings with four hanging fasteners. You had to be very careful to keep the fastener on the brown top of the stocking or you’d have a run. The pressure of the fasteners made indentations on our thighs every time, but we endured it all.
For entertainment my girlfriends and I walked the streets of Kutztown or if we’d find a guy with a car, we’d go cruising up and down Main Street.
We loved drive-in theatres. Most times we didn’t have spending money. We worked that out by two people hidden in the trunk of the car. Once parked, the kids in the trunk came out and sat in the back seat.
Incidentally, the idea for a Park-In Theatre was patented in 1933 by a Richard Hollingstead, from Camden, New Jersey. He hung a large white sheet between two trees at his home and placed a movie projector on the hood of his car.
We liked to hang out at restaurants where they had juke boxes with rock and roll music, such as Elvis, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, and Little Richard. Teens often congregated at Hensinger’s Restaurant (now Eckhaus Gallery), on the corner of Main and Greenwich, in Kutztown. Later, the restaurant moved to the east end of the by-pass, (now Hershberger Financial Group).
Another classmate, Brenda Grider, told me, “I lived next door to Hensinger’s, in Kutztown, and baby sat for their children. When I was 13, I continued to babysit and waitress for them, but once they moved out of town I didn’t do as much.”
During school days a number of us girls went to the Barn (now Kutztown Tavern), where we could get 25 cent hamburgers.
The boys congregated at Dan Kline, on Whiteoak Streeet, a short distance from school.
Another classmate told me, “We were able to buy the basic foods – hot dogs, hamburgers, soda, candy, and ice cream. Dan’s wife made a different meal every day and served the guys at their kitchen table. You had to get there fast to get a spaghetti meal. Sometimes she’d run out of food and we were served mashed potatoes – nothing else! Other times, there was no room at the table to sit.”
And then came the TV. My father bought a TV in 1953 when I was 13 years old. The Living History Farm claims, “Between 1949 and 1969, the number of households in the U.S. with at least one TV set rose from 69 to 566.”
Like the kids today, with their smart phones, once home from school, my eyes were glued to the TV set – at least until Mom called to do something. Pop was usually done with his barn chores, so he, too, sat with me. We enjoyed Frontier Playhouse, the Lone Ranger and Tonto. Evenings it was the situation comedies with Lucille Ball and Milton Berle. Yes, among other kids, I was one of the first TV generations.
Once I was fifteen, the TV craze for teens was American Bandstand with Dick Clark. We loved listening to the latest songs and watching the dance steps like jitterbug, the slop, the Hand Jive, and the bop. I remember the day my sister, Gladys, played hooky from school, and was caught on TV by Mom. Gladys blamed me for getting grounded and allowing Mom to see her on TV. How could I possibly miss my famous sister dancing on TV!
Yes, the 50s was a good time to be an “in” teenager, even with scratchy crinolines, hoops, and garter belts. Now I’m trying to be an “in” grandmother and great-grandmother, sitting back, relaxing, watching the grand and great-grands going through their 20th century fads. I might just have an anxiety attack, which I inherited from my mother!
Carole Christman Koch grew up in Berks County and has been published in numerous publications. She has a passion for writing and has many stories from growing up on a farm to raising children to humorous stories about her and her husband to everyday stories to season stories and more.
