What didn't exist in the 1950s when I was a child

Color TV (that was worth watching) until maybe 1960 with Bonanza and a few other programs (Bonanza was from 1959 to 1973 as a series that almost everyone watched. The reason almost everyone watched this series is that there were then ONLY three big networks: NBC, ABC and CBS. That's all. It's true around Los Angeles there were independent networks like KTLA and KTTV and others but they ONLY broadcasted independent programs that usually didn't go nationwide like programs from NBC, ABC and CBS often did especially at prime time at night. Prime time then was likely from about 7 or 8 pm until 11 pm. And often by midnight or 1 am there was nothing on TV at all except a test pattern until around 6 am.

Our first TV wasn't until 1954 by the way which was a black and white 17 inch TV.

My first TV I ever even watched was a large Black and white TV my grandfather bought to watch General Eisenhower of World War II be nominated for President.

No disc Brakes on Cars or Trucks which caused many deaths from Shoe brakes over heating and giving out going down hills all around the world. So, if you lost your brakes to overheating likely you were going to die if the hill was steep enough and long enough.

No Radial Tires on Cars. I bought one of the first sets of Steel belted Radial Tires for my 1965 VW Bug that my parents bought for me for college. But, even then I still had shoe brakes on my 1965 BUG which took a lot longer to stop with than present Disc Brakes. 

No Home Computers at all in the 1950s. Not only were there no home computers or PCS or Apple computers, there was no idea that there would be ever either. So, this was not even an idea at this point to have a home computer. However, at the same time there were even in the 1950s Dumb Terminals connected to Mainframe computers but those computers usually cost millions of dollars each.

The first passenger jet service anywhere on earth I believe didn't begin until around 1957.

However, I think the 1957 date was just in the U.S. because of this in 1949:

begin quote:

British De Havilland Comet

On July 27, 1949, the world's first jet-propelled airliner, the British De Havilland Comet, makes its maiden test-flight in England. The jet engine would ultimately revolutionize the airline industry, shrinking air travel time in half by enabling planes to climb faster and fly higher.

First commercial jet makes test flight - HISTORY

History Channel

https://www.history.com › this-day-in-history › first-jet-...

Why were children and women devalued so much in the 1950s and before?

 The primary reason was just that children died a lot especially between zero and 12 from childhood diseases and accidents. If you look at how dangerous the things were that people did with kids then on many different levels you can see why so many children died from neglect, ignorance, accidents, childhood diseases etc. And in regard to women often men didn't take them very seriously and lied to them a lot about a whole lot of things. There was definitely men speak and women speak and men and women had totally different things they said to each other than to members of their own sex. To some degree it's still that way in parts of the U.S.

Here is one example of my experience as an 8 year old. My father rented me a horse at age 8 and put me on it in Griffith park in Los Angeles and slapped the horses behind and it took off running. "I was a cowboy like Roy Rogers and Dale Evans!".

But, eventually the horse slowed down and begrudgingly did what I signaled for it to do with my heels and the reins and my body positions. But, this was the first time I was left alone with a horse and I had never had one riding lesson in my life. It was sort of like a father throwing his child into the water in the hopes that the child learned to swim. At one point I did this with my own son when he was 4 to see if he could swim. He could sort of but it also traumatized him until I jumped into the water with him and assisted him. 

But, on horseback I was now several miles from the stables alone in someplace I had never been before at 8 years old on a horse I never met before who had to ride with hundreds or more different riders over the years. So, this horse when I turned him back towards the stable and hay and water took off at a run with me and almost killed me on barbed wire and fences and tree branches. So, only because I was an am very coordinated and survival oriented did I actually survive all this.

When I returned to the stable I had a different perception of my father than before. I realized he wanted me to be a man and to make my own decisions just like he had been forced to from 4 years old on too.

I had more respect for myself and my father after this but also realized that some fun was on the edge of death too. So, I had to think differently if I was going to survive everything I would have to encounter in life.

But, also remember this is the 1950s when things were very very different than now worldwide.