Butch in 1956

By John ‘Butch’ Dale
Guest Writer

Some of you may be like me, I almost hate to listen to the news nowadays. Trump’s indictments, Biden’s incompetence, Huntergate, race problems, gender controversy, illegal immigration woes, liberal woke thinking, conservative grumbling and inaction, high prices, stagnant economy, trillions of national debt, and on and on and on. Then switch off the news to TV shows and what do you get? Nothing very entertaining. Either trashy, silly, and or just plain stupid. This is exactly why my wife and I read our books each evening.

John ‘Butch’ Dale

I take a walk each evening down to a nearby creek, about two miles there and back. A neighbor has a child who is 8 years old, and I often see him playing outside in their yard. It got me to thinking what life was like when I was 8 years old, back in 1956.

Dwight Eisenhower, who had been the top general during World War II and had led our troops in the defeat of Germany, was our President. He was someone I looked up to and admired. In 1956 he defeated the Democrat challenger Adlai Stevenson for the second time, winning the electoral vote 457 to 73.

In sports, boxer Rocky Marciano retired as the only undefeated heavyweight champion of the world with a record of 49-0. Mickey Mantle was named the Athlete of the Year, leading the league in home runs, batting average, and RBI’s. The Yankees won the World Series again, beating the Brooklyn Dodgers 4 games to 3, with Yankee pitcher Don Larson throwing the only perfect game in World Series history. The New York Giants defeated the Chicago Bears 47-7 to win the NFL championship. In golf, Cary Middlecoff won the U.S. Open. The Olympics were held in Melbourne, Australia, and the outstanding thoroughbred horse Needles won both the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes.

Naturally the big sport for me to watch was high school basketball, and I had to arrive early to get a seat in the Darlington gym, which was doubled in size the next year thanks to trustee Harry “Hab” Weliever!

Television had lots of good shows in 1956. I watched “I Love Lucy,” “The Danny Thomas Show,” “I’ve Got a Secret,” “The Red Skelton Show,” “This is Your Life,” “The $64,000 Question,” “Lassie,” “Father Knows Best,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “The Jack Benny Show” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” just to name a few. And of course I watched all of the westerns, eight of which were rated in the top 25 in viewing “Gunsmoke,” “Tales of Wells Fargo,” “Have Gun Will Travel,” “Wyatt Earp,” “Cheyenne,” “Wagon Train,” “Zorro” and “Sugarfoot.”

Some of the movies that came out that year were “The Ten Commandments,” “Giant,” “Bus Stop,” and “My Fair Lady.” Elvis made his first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” and he had five number one hit records in 1956! Rock and roll dancing and “slow dancing” dominated the high school sock hops. And do you remember when actress Grace Kelly left Hollywood to marry Prince Ranier of Monaco and when Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis broke up their comedy act?

The yearly inflation rate in 1956, hold on to your hats, was a mere 1.5%. The average cost of a new house was a little over $11,000, and the average cost of a new car was $2,050. Gas was  22  cents a gallon, ground coffee was 69 cents a pound, a loaf of bread 18 cents,  a gallon of milk 97 cents, and a postage stamp was 3 cents.

When I visited Arthur Friend’s drug store in Darlington in 1956, a candy bar, or a pack of Topps baseball cards, or a bottle of Coke, or an ice cream cone, were all 5 cents each. Of course, people didn’t make as much money back then, but it certainly went much further than in today’s world. The last ice cream cone I purchased cost $3.50, honest to God!

In 1956, college tuition was affordable, averaging $225 a semester, with one out of every three high school students headed off to college. The year 1956 was also when President Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act, which authorized the construction of the interstate roads. IBM also invented the first hard disk for computers. Perhaps it is significant the serial soap opera TV show “As the World Turns” also began on CBS that year, because the age of computers also spun our world in another direction, with good or bad results up for debate.

Not to downplay troubles in 1956, segregation still existed in many parts of the country. And there was the “Red Menace” of the Soviet Union, along with the threat of nuclear war, on our minds, but I truly believe that most people lived happy and contented lives. We watched John Cameron Swayze, followed by Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, bring us the daily news, and they just gave the news, with none of their personal or political opinions along with it, definitely NOT like today.

By the way, Walter Cronkite did not become a news anchor who was considered “the most trusted man in America” until 1962.

Dear Lord, when I kick the bucket, please transport my soul back to 1956. I want a 5-cent ice cream cone and Mickey Mantle’s autograph. As Walter Cronkite would say, “And that’s the way it is.”