being gay in 1950 and liking washing machines...

[washertalk]

These days there are some who romanticize certain periods in history. All of us here do, lets face it. We always come back to the reality of that.
I know my view of being gay in 1975 or 1980 or 1985 and what that most likely was like.
It frightens me to think, what would it be like to be gay in America, in 1950. And have a interest in Washing Machines and appliances. Especially if you put in other variables like, living rurally, living with racist relatives, being poor, not being white, etc. Someone enlighten me.

 

[foraloysius]

Did you ever see the movie "Far from heaven"?

Nystartlån, hopbakslån, snabba lån | Vad är skillnaden?

 

[dalangdon]

While I like post-war industrial design and advertising, I am under no allusions that is was a good time to be anyone with half a mind, at least in the United States.

McCarthyism, rigid gender roles, institutionalized racism, bland, bland conformity. No thanks.

Of course, out of that repression came some great social movements, just as out of World War II came some great technological breakthroughs, and out of the Depression came some great economic policies, so I guess it all evens out in the end.

And some of the literature and humor of the '50's was great, which just shows that people can do their best work under adverse conditions.

 

[maytagbear]

It is not a constant delight

to be gay in the United States of 2006, but from what I have read, and learned, it was much worse pre-Stonewall.

I am very grateful to have been born when I was born, and born to the educated, sophisticated parents I had.

One of my Dad's brothers was bisexual, and several of Ma's friends were gay.

Look up Jonathan Katz's Gay American History, and Cures, a Gay Man's Odyssey by Martin Duberman.

If you want a lighter approach to similar material, try the new Tab Hunter and Richard Chamberlain autobiographies.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[Unimatic1140]

While I like post-war industrial design and advertising, I am under no allusions that is was a good time to be anyone with half a mind, at least in the United States.

I couldn't agree more with you Dan, if I could pop back in time to the 50's, it would only be for a very cool visit, pick up a few MIB things to sell on eBay and then I would want to get right back to the relative "safety" of the 21st century.

 

[gyrafoam]

Since the whole world was so different in the 1950's it is hard to even make a comparison to today.

Atlanta was nothing like it is now. Even the old "southern" mindset is almost completely gone unless I run into a rare "old-timer" to chat with every now and then.

Oh, I remember unpleasant things. There were not as MANY unpleasant things back then as there are now. Life was so much simpler.No one ever locked their doors and a key to your car stayed right in the ignition so you never had to look for it. Some folks may remember the early fifties GM cars that had a little lip on the ignition switch. If you took the key out with the switch set in the "off" position rather than the "locked" position---you did not need to use the key again to start and stop the car---and many folks never used the key on that car again! Back in the '50's if there was a murder the whole city was shocked and appalled.People spoke of it in hushed whispers so as not to upset us children, and some women wept at the impending doom of the "end times".
Now there are half a dozen murders or more a day and everyone ho-hums right on through the news.

For the most part I had a great time. I loved visiting my friends and checking out their household laundry equipment.
If the house was really old this sometimes required a trip to the basement, I somehow always figured out a way to go snooping no matter where. If I had to endure a day on the social circuit with mom I always found a way to see what new and different laundry equipment there was.
All this was extra special if said equipment was running at the time. I rarely got shooooed away, and was as persistent as a horse-fly if I was.

Lots of folks who lived in the newly forming suburbs had carports and there was almost always a little laundry room out there. I was good at figuring out what kind of machine I was listening to before I even opened the door to sneak a peek. Didn't usually bother if I heard a 'Kenmo (Whirlys were rare around here back then). Didn't hate 'em but they did not have the appeal of hearing the solenoid of an old "flat-top" Unimatic snapping the trip shaft lever---and that wonderful sound of the motor ramping up to spin speed. Or a 'Noge,(Maytag, Wizard, S.Q. Philco,Thor, or nearly ANY other solid-tub machine of the day) pump alternately sucking air and water. And that kind of rattling noise an old "Rustinghouse" "cement mixer" front loader used to make when spinning.

Some of the houses I remember simply ran the drain house out into the back yard or down the driveway to drain. I guess they could not afford or didn't care to add the extra plumbing. I always thought it kind of a uniquely southern thang to do.(Of course I had not yet figured out this tied in with my obsession with water). When visiting our family up north, I never remember a machine draining outside like that. I guess somwhere they did.

Oh and the Bendix machines. I usedtocould ( yep, thats one word----a very southern expression) reproduce the sounds of the Duomatic's different spin speeds before puberty changed my voice.

Anyway, I have some great memories of the fifties and I'm glad I lived it.

Am anxious to hear of others experiences.

 

[washertalk]

That is good. I have to admit I have certain feelings of dread about anytime before 1960ish and especially about "The South". It helps, me anyway, to humanize that. I need that.
We are all people, right.

 

[mixfinder]

A Proper Time

No one ever spoke of sexual acts, period. I went to college at 18 and had no idea what gay or homo was. I had been sexually active with relatives and frends since I was 12. The idea I was gay never crossed my mind. Everywhere we were people behaved with propiety.
I remeber the 50's as a time when people became self absorbed, because they could. Prosperity abounded, running the household was becoming easier and for the first time people were beginning to travel. I was disappointed when social unrest became the mantra of the 60's and we where no longer allowed to enjoy our own happiness and success. We were told it was someone else's expense and we should feel guilty. I fully believed bigotry would end with my generation since we knew better. I would go back to that time in a heart beat. I don't think MacCarthyism is any worse than Militant Leftist who have participated in attempting to remove all sanction for moral control.
Kelly

 

[dalangdon]

Well, I say THANK GOD for the "militant leftists" who lead the way out of the closet. Hopefully they can lead us out of this current mess we're in.

"Moral control" should come from the inside, not be forced on us by so-called leaders. The closet is no place to spend your life.

 

[scott55405]

I think there are good and bad about both periods, and each could probably stand to "learn" things from the other, but I would have to say overall this is a wonderful and interesting time to be alive. There are a lot of things I remember that I miss about the "good old days", but quite frankly I don't think I'd want to go back even to the 80s at this point. Better music, maybe less crime, but no cell phones, no computers or email, have to write checks and send your bills in the mail and carry cash or a checkbook because there were a lot of places like grocery stores and etc that didn't even accept cards? No Mapquest? And I think about trying to make this big move without the internet? Um, no.

Gay-wise, I hate to say, as far as we have come, I think we've gone backwards in some ways in the last 20 years or so, though certainly in my adult lifetime fewer people I think faced the sorts of things they would have in earlier times before Stonewall, not that anyone should have to, then or now. I can only hope that the backward steps we've had are just normal obstacles people often face on the road to trying to achieve whatever it is.

 

[oxydolfan1]

Please define "militant leftist"....

Just want to establish which moral controls I'm being held responsible for eliminating this week...

IMHO the period was the epidemic until around 1986 was rough, then things brightened slowly, the mid-90's represented a point in which a catalyst for meaningful change, and this is by far, the worst period since Stonewall, in terms of storm clouds gathering and other such personal liberties vanishing.

 

[gyrafoam]

Since eccentricity has ALWAYS been socially acceptable in the deep south----being gay was not usually an issue----however as Kelly said sexual things were not discussed openly. Supposedly not in "polite society" either but I can remember mom's friends whispering things amongst each other with tiny little tee hee hee's going on.

Also, all those male soldiers who had been off fighting WWII and the Korean War for that matter (and later in Vietnam), had not necessarily been "living at the foot of the cross" while they had been away. There were often THOUSANDS of them alone on otherwise deserted islands, or on the fringes of scary and lonely battlefields.
It was the "GREAT SECRET" of the '50's.
I understand it---that was just the way it was.
I didn't need to hear the "dirt" about our war heros.

"Washertalk"---as for "the South", I remember well segregation.
Bathrooms and water fountains for the "colored", etc. Certain places they could not enter, etc.
Signs that said "no colored allowed".
AND there were also plenty of signs that said:
No Colored
NO Catholics
No Jews
No Dogs

My father used to make humor out of it by saying "what did the dogs ever do to anyone?
That was just the way it was.

I almost NEVER heard the "N" word---CERTAINLY not in polite society.
This was NOT the case when visiting family up north in the N.Y., N.J. area. where I constantly heard the "N" word much to my parents chagrin. The same thing happened when visiting family in Ohio. And the same thing happened when visiting family in Brockton and Franklin, Mass.
So, when I think back in time, I can't say I remember the northern folks being a bastion of purity in the days of segregation.

Anyway,the plain truth is, here in Atlanta I never saw blacks openly discriminated against in the fifties,as bad as the blacks now openly discriminate against caucaisians,gays and Jews.
So "go figya".

Our current administration in the Whitehouse has done little to help the situation by making a public policy of openly discriminating against a group of TAX PAYING AMERICAN CITIZENS---the gay citizens. So a message is being sent to America at large that even if you are a citizen of the U.S. you can be singled out for who and what you are and openly and legally discriminated against.
I'm glad to pass the torch off to the youth at this point. The battle ahead will be tough!

O.K. sorry for the disertation. My two shekels, and I bow out of this one!

 

[gansky1]

Sadly, politics and some claiming to be religious always need a societal scapegoat, or a group of people to rally the flock (sheep) around and utilize the very powerful tools of fear and hate. We've seen it over and over throughout history and, for now, it's the gay and lesbian population in this country. Small victories like the most recent one in New Jersey are overshadowed by the overwhelming majority of states that have ammended their constitutions and enacted laws which deny Americans their rights to choose their individual pursuit of happiness and liberty. It comes down to the fact that we, as free Americans, are all drinking from the same fountain, or we're not. It will be a long and arduous battle to overcome the discrimination and deep-seated hatred and fear, as we are struggling against a system that is well funded and organized. Conversely, the gay & lesbian population does not have much in the way of organization and unity, nor do (we) have a leader (e.g. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) so it makes this struggle for acceptance and equality exponentially more difficult.

Having grown up in the 70's, I remember well being made fun of for my interest in washers & dryers, most vividly by my own family. I'm not sure if there was some hardening of spirit or resolve (probably both) that I continued to persue my appliance interest. I generally kept it to myself, being able to drive was a giant leap forward in the liberation of my curiosity - I could visit appliance stores, laundromats, etc. guilt-free and not have to explain or answer to anyone. Even more liberating was finding this group of friends and the finally having the ability to see and use machines that I only ever daydreamed about.

 

[bajaespuma]

Gratitude

I was lucky enough, in many ways, to have been raised in NYC. One huge stroke of luck was that I went to grade school in Greenwich village (one the corner of Hudson and Christopher!). This was the early sixties and most of the teachers were women but there were a few were young gay men (and some clerics). Everyone was closeted at that point, of course, but it was understood by at least parents and a few precocious young girls, what was what. I can't imagine a better and more nurturing environment in which to have been educated. While tolerance wasn't even a catch-word then, it was practiced diligently at St. Luke's and if a young gay boy had even a rat's ass chance at self-acceptance it would have begun there.

God bless my parents for having had the kindness and generosity to send me to St. Luke's School.

God bless all the clerics and teachers at St. Luke's School who led by word and deed rather than the ruler and the rod.

God bless Greenwich Village for providing a safe haven to the eccentrics.

 

[mixfinder]

Mitant Leftist

If you felt bile rise in your throat when you read those words, you may be a militant leftist.

It has been my experience that in order to effect lasting change, comprimise and allowing oneself to make reasonable choices, in what may feel against all reason, allows movement. It is uniquely King County or "Seattle" to assume the rest of the Uninted States is in aggreement with our thinking and perception. There are days I feel assaulted with overzealous environmental and governmental diatribe that does not allow discourse.
I had the luxury of growing of destitute, knowing discrimination and finding my way out with the vehicle of education and ambition. It was my joy to live border and coast to coast and learn the value of integration into the local flavor. I have worked as a laborer, owned my own business and lived off the milk of the world's largest corporations. In the middle of it all lies some fundamental principles of supply and demand and survival of the fittest.
I support the causes of feminism, integration, immigration, emvironmentalism, and global peace. It is the strident supporters who are harder to support. I prefer willingness to accept each other and their right to approach change from a different perspective, without being made to feel, completely wrong. I am not the enemy.
The Quakers have a means of reaching aggrement. In a group they speak, one at a time. No cross talk is allowed. At the end of speaking, the group says, "I hear you". Discourse continues until such a time there is aggreement, without rancor, arguement and wrestling for position.
Perhaps it is age, perhaps weariness, perhaps wisdom gained from looking at what is soon to be the end of this experience, I am so very weary of strife with those that are my comrades. The only person I can change is my own. The only thinking I can change is my own. My hope is to believe those around me see the Light in me, because I do genuinely care.
Kelly
Kelly

 

[gyrafoam]

Kelly------

Back in the 90's I was in Seattle for an International Airliner Show.
In reading the local newspaper over a period of about a week I read everyday of some community grappling with the problems of flooding caused by some over-industrious beaver damming up the stream. OMG every wringing handkercheif was out worrying about what to do to get that pesky beaver to move. In the meantime many homes and businesses continued to flood due to a re-routed stream. I think they finally hired a beaver-whisperer and it still did no good.

I kept thinking if they would pay me $300.00 for my time and expenses I'd go to a local pawn shop and buy a cheap shotgun and fix the problem. Honey puhhleeez.

There was also much talk about saving Spotted Owls although I never found out from what.

Sometime later, back here in Atlanta, I found myself behind a well know paper company's truck.
On the rear bumper was a bumper sticker that said: "When all the trees are gone you can wipe your a#* on a Spotted Owl".
I just fell out!

 

[dalangdon]

Kelly, you must not follow local politics if you think that Seattle "does not allow discourse". EVERYTHING on the local level is about "achieving consensus", and that's why nothing ever gets done. They call it "The Seattle Way", LOL.

But we are a city of firsts, both good and bad: First Women Mayor, first place to allow women to vote (although they rescinded that when the women started to clean up the vice) First place to ratify prohibition, first place in the US to play a Beattle's song on the radio, first World's Fair to break even...

On the topic of the thread, we are the first city of offer a counseling service geared specifically to GLBT people. That didn't happen until 1969, which should give the younger folks an idea of the isolation many gay people felt in the previous decades, when homosexuality was considered a mental illness, and cause for involuntary commitment in some cases. Men could also commit their wives. That happened to the mother or a friend of mine.

Employment rights of sexual minorities were affirmed in Seattle in 1973, and the City broadened its housing laws in 1975. That was held up by popular vote in 1978 when some militant conservatives tried to get them to repeal that by initiative. 2/3 of the City of Seattle rejected that.

The 70's was also the decade when Seattle finally started to break the protection racket within the police department that was extorting money out of gay bars so they could stay in business. The corrupt police were working with corrupt state liquor agents, so they held real power over the businesses they targeted, particularly given the obscure liquor code of the time, which said that women could not sit at bars without a man, and no one could be standing with a drink in their hand.

So, you can see that militant leftists have been of some use to all of us. People - including me - may look nostalgically at the clothes and manners and lifestyles (and especially appliances! )of the earlier decades - although memory does tend to soften things - but don't kid yourself that we haven't evolved. And it took a lot of kicking and screaming to get there. And sometimes it takes kicking and screaming just to stay where we are.

 

[oldwasherguy]

the 50s and 60s

I dont know about the rest of the world but at that time here in charleston we had no problems with racism, and no one knew if you were a homosexual if you did not tell,and if you did noone really cared or really wanted to know in the first place.As for the gov. telling people how to live their lives,we never needed that here because everyone who lived around you were like your family. We still have segregation here,but not gov.enforced, the people segregate themselves to be around those whom they feel most compfortable with,and thats just human nature. Don

 

[gyrafoam]

Hooray for kickers and screamers!!!!! Nevermind which political party.
The sign of a true blue American!!!
We need a gazillion more!!!

Imagine how much could be changed if mainstream Americans had the genitals to kick and scream again!