Dwight Eisenhower elected President over Adlai Stevenson by wide
margin; Republicans gain control of White House and both houses of
Congress
Korean conflict continues as truce attempts fail
Princess Elizabeth of Britain coronated queen upon the death of her father, King George VI
U.S. begins construction of first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus
U.S. detonates world’s first hydrogen bomb
Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Richard Nixon defends himself
against charges of maintaining a secret slush fund in his "Checkers"
speech, broadcast on national television
Violent protests erupt in Egypt
Britain develops atomic bomb
BUSINESS & ECONOMY:
Green-tinted chlorophyll becomes a popular aulitive to a variety of
food and medicinal products as a breath aid (a benefit soon to be
disputed by many doctors and scientists)
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY:
First contraceptive pill developed
Dr. Jonas Salk develops polio vaccine
SPORTS:
World Series: New York Yankees over Brooklyn, 4-3
Olympics held in Helsinki, Finland
John Cobb sets a water speed record of 206.89 m.p.h. on Loch Ness, Scotland; is killed in process
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT:
Movies:Limelight, High Noon, The Greatest Show on Earth
Songs:It Takes Two to Tango, Your Cheatin’ Heart, Wheel of Fortune
TV Shows:Our Miss Brooks, Jackie Gleason Show,
I Love Lucy, Dina Shore, Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, George
Burns and Gracie Allen Show
Books:The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemmingway; East of Eden, John Steinbeck; The Grass Harp, Truman Capote; The Power of Positive Thinking, Norman Vincent Peale
Revised Standard Version of the Bible published
EVERYDAY LIFE:
1952 presidential campaigns are the first to be broadcast on television
Microwave ovens made available for domestic use; first models are the size of refrigerators and cost over $1,200
Color television introduced; first color broadcast transmitted from CBS in New York
The King and I opens on Broadway
Robert Frost and Carl Sandberg both publish collections of poetry titled Complete Poems
EVERYDAY LIFE:
In response to the growing popularity of television, movie theatres
experiment with a variety of attractions, including wide-screen
projection and 3-D effects
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older
woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags
weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized and explained,
“We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.” The young
clerk responded,
“That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care
enough to save our environment for future generations.”
She was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its
day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles
to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and
sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over.
So they really were truly recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing
back in our day.
Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we
reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage
bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our
schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books
provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings.
Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But
too bad we didn’t do the green thing back then.
We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every
store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t
climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.
But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day. Back then,
we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throwaway kind.
We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning
up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in
our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or
sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we
didn’t have the green thing back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every
room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief
(remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the
kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric
machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to
send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not
Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine
and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran
on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a
health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s
right; we didn’t have the green thing back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup
or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled
writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the
razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just
because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back
then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their
bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour
taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank
of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a
computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000
miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint. But isn’t
it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were
just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?
