Mid Century Home life -- The 50s

every Friday night Julia's job is to compare the grocery prices of our neighborhood stores for our Saturday morning shopping when that matter settled I figure maybe I can get in a little reading before it's time to go to bed that is after the radios turned down a little the evening papers and now it's my time to relax just the wind up of a typical work day in my life today is Saturday my work at home day as always a million and one things to be done around the house I get things started while Julia is out doing the shopping there are five big neighbourhood markets within a couple of blocks of our house and Julia spreads our shopping around going where the prices are lowest and the quality best the six miles to feed food is a big item in our budget and we have to make sure we get the most for our money every Saturday morning Julia buys stuff for the entire week so she takes her time and sees that everything she gets is fresh and good the vegetables and fruit she buys from one store or meat from another we're all big meat eaters in our family even little Jackie that means he has to make sure there's plenty to go around also on Saturday mornings I usually take an hour so to go over the accounts and bills figuring out ways to double stretch that check of mine to pay him upkeep on the house and car electricity gas and all the rest as I started to unfold my check all of a sudden I had an odd feeling about the date on it it was exactly 13 years ago this week that I first went to work at the plant 13 years a lot of things had happened to me since that first week was that big day when I joined our Auto Workers Union the UAW United Auto Workers and not long after that when the fellows in my department elected me shop steward [Music] if the workers in our department had any grievances or complaints they brought unto me and I'd take him up with the foreman if the foreman felt he couldn't make a fair decision or settle the grievance we went to a higher representative of Management [Music] special committee meetings were held to discuss the personal problems and troubles that come up among workers or between management and workers the main thing is for the union and management to get together and settle things fair and square for everybody [Music] usually we could settle matters quickly and we all think that's best for everybody concerned the union was a big thing in my life still is I took an interest in helping to set up recreational classes for the youngsters of our members I figured that someday mine would be here learning to dance and enjoying it like these children I remembered that day when Julia and I made up our minds we were through paying money to landlords and we were going to build our own home easier said than done we had to scrimp and save every penny they get the money needed for a down payment on a new home one day our bank deposit book showed that the money was finally saved we took this money got ourselves a Federal Housing Administration loan and we were on our way [Music] in 1940 our new home was finished and we were ready to move in [Music] then we had the job of getting acquainted with our new neighborhood meeting our neighbors making friends with the people we'd be living close to probably for the rest of our lives all of Julia's time and that of our children and most of mine too would be spent in this house of ours on this street living among and with these people I got an inkling of the kind of neighbors we had the first time I tried to move the lawn with that ancient broken-down lawn more of mine the people next door crossed the road down the street turned out to be friendly and helpful the fact is we weren't strangers very long those neighbors of ours working people like myself made us feel at home right off [Music] it wasn't long before we were getting together for Saturday night card parties a young married couple from across the street came over [Music] and another couple who lived two houses down we founded a swell way to spend an evening the matter of fact we still do [Music] neither Julia nor I've ever missed voting in any election and we seldom miss church on Sunday mornings the new home the friendly neighbors everything was fine except that Jeanie ran into a little trouble at school one night I came home and found her crying and Julia was plenty upset Jeannie had a note from her teacher that she'd have to do better an arithmetic er will be put in a lower grade I believe I felt even worse about things than Jeannie did I thought maybe I could help her with her problems on my job I used blueprints dealt with figures and numbers all the time but it'd been a good while packs inside tackled high school math I figured the best thing to do was for Julia to go down and have a talk with Jeannie's teacher so one afternoon she went to school right from the start Jeanne's teacher and julia got along okay Julia talked about her own schooling and mine now he wanted our children to get even more education there's a couple of weeks later that we got the good news Jeannie was going right ahead with her class no those years weren't all smooth sailing by any means I've had my share of the breaks good and then all our machines have safety devices but there was a time I got a little careless and had that accident one of the fellows rushed me over to the plant infirmary my hand could have been badly smashed luckily it wasn't on top of that I got quick medical attention and the best it was one experience that made me glad I was covered by workman's compensation and company insurance it meant that no matter what the docs verdict Julia and the youngsters wouldn't have to worry about my being off the job [Music] the x-ray showed several small bones were broken and I was laid up for a couple of weeks but the past with all its experiences wiped itself out when Joan came running into the house to tell me her mother wanted me to come outside and help carry in the groceries I was right back in the present again [Music] Bill's yes six miles to feed worries and troubles and problems good times and bad times the years have been full of but there's some things that make it all worthwhile and more changing the details a little the way I live might be the way of any one of us at the factory doing our best to make a decent life for ourselves and try and maybe to make it even a little better for our children [Music] [Applause]

Channel: King Rose Archives

Views: 2,987,809

Rating: 4.8936496 out of 5

Keywords: 50s, Unions, Grocery Store (Industry), work, Middle class, Church, schools, Bridge game, Class

Id: 6WEzqw-1vTU

Length: 10min 32sec (632 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 27 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/ChristPanda]

"Do you own a lot? $10k" lol. That's less than a years rent bud.

[u/anotherkeebler]

08:30: "All our machines have safety devices"

But screw wearing goggles when you're operating a lathe, right?

[u/hello_specific_ocean]

I haven’t seen a burn barrel in a long time.