Annandale Chamber of Commerce - Annandale - the Crossroads of Northern Virginia

Nostalgia: 1930's and 1950's

Nostalgia:  1930’s: 

US Population:  123,188,000
Unemployment:  13,000,000
Car Sales:  2,787,400

The land of plenty was now the land of poverty and depression.  The average citizen had their income reduced by 40%, if you had not been completely wiped out by the stock market crash of 1929.  Shanty towns went up in cities and countryside alike.  The Southwest suffered drought and land erosion creating a Dust Bowl.  Many farmers moved to California giving up their land and dreams.  Laborers began to organize into unions as the decade progressed.  Dictatorships developed in Germany and Italy threatening their neighbors and overtaking Czechoslovakia and Poland.

What was happening during the 1930’s?

• The Social Security Act of 1935 provided an income for the elderly. Farmers, whose only retirement came at the mercy of their children or by selling the family farm, could now turn over the farm to the next generation and suppliment their old age with a Social Security Pension.
• Social realism and art deco gained popularity.
• The economy was largely regulated by the Federal Government.
• FDR began many programs to put Americans back to work such as the Work Progress Administration.  Many roads and bridges in Virginia were built by this program.  Beautiful examples can still be seen in the Williamsburg area.
• There were no televisions, Xerox machines, credit cards, and ballpoint pens.
• It was a time when hardware meant hardware and a chip was a piece of wood or short for potatoe chip.
• It was a time before scotch tape, disposable diapers, pantyhose, freezers, clothes dryers, FM radio, antibiotics, the 40 hour week and the minimum wage.
• It was a time when coke was a beverage, pot was something you cooked in, grass was mowed, and fast food nonexistent. 
• Airplane travel was a novelty left to few and trans-Atlantic flights were feats of adventure left to Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart.
• Hawaii and Alaska were not yet states.
• India, Pakistan, Iceland, Indonesia, and the Philippines were not independent countries.

Popular Slang:
Tomato = good looking woman
Hoo-ha = a commotion
Canary = female singer
Schlepper = a beggar
Malarkey = foolishness 
Blat = newspaper
Phooey = nonsense 
Speako = speekeasy
Smoothie = person who is suave
Cats = fans of swing
Whoop-de-do = a commotion
Horn = telephone
Hi-de-ho = exclamation of joy
Popular Slang: Big Tickle = really funny
Retroactive = very popular
Bobbed = shortened
Passion Pit = Drive in movie
Cop a Breeze = to leave
Fracture = to amuse 
Swacked = intoxicated
Futz = to waste time
Macher = a big wig

Nostalgia:  1950’s

US Population:  151,684,000
Unemployed:  3,288,000
Car Sales:  6,665,800  

The 1950’s brought a huge expansion of American industry and products.  All those goods not available during the WWII were in great demand.  Returning servicemen began new jobs, bought homes, cars,  and started the Baby Boom.

• It took three minutes for the TV to warm up.
• 25-50 cents a week was the average allowance and the cost per hour for a babysitter.
• You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, air for the tires and all without asking.
• Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box.  So did many cereals.
• Going to a restaurant to eat was a special treat.
• Kids were held back a grade if they failed.
• A ‘57 Chevy was everyone's dream car.
• No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the ignition of the car.
• Doors were never locked.
• People went steady.
• Summers were filled with bike rides, Hula Hoops, Kool-Aid, visits to the pool, roller skating & whiffle ball.
• Products came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison the public.
• Being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited you at home.
• Well known characters: Howdy Doody and The Peanut Gallery, Davy Crockett, the Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows, Nellie Bell, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk.
• Milk was delivered in glass bottles w. cardboard caps.
• Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside and candy cigarettes were popular sweets. 
• Soda pop machines dispensed glass bottles.
• Soda fountains and TOPS Drive Inn were THE meeting place for teens.  There was one in Annandale where Burger King is now and one in Merrifield near the Drive-In Theatre (later a multiplex).
• The Polio vaccine was developed and distributed. 
• Penicillin and Tetracycline were available by Rx.
• Bobbi socks and poodle skirts were all the rage.

Popular Slang:
Big Tickle = really funny
Retroactive = very popular
Bobbed = shortened
Passion Pit = Drive in movie
Cop a Breeze = to leave
Fracture = to amuse
Big Tickle = really funny
Retroactive = very popula r