ly as the television family, there was something desperately wrong that you couldn’t let anyone else, especially your neighbors, know about. The other type of show you typically saw on TV was a western. This was what the boys of the time used as their rebel role models. I mean which would you choose: the family shows (guys with no balls) or the westerns (guys with big guns)? This type of non-conformity on television is what started to spur the ideas that not everything had to be perfect.The issue of conformity was another big influence in the fifties. Everything was the same, the way you were supposed to act, the way you were supposed to dress, how you were supposed to feel. Even the sprawling mass of houses that was suburbia became one big duplication. You were always taught that there was one way to do things and if you deviated from these ways, you were a horrible child. But conformity wasn’t left to the children. Even the adults had to conform to societies ways. Teachers had to follow a strict methodology of teaching and couldn’t question any of it. They had to practice what they preached, which was, “Obey- Don’t ask questions.” Some teachers wanted to question what they were doing to the children, but couldn’t, for fear of losing their jobs.“Duck and cover” was quite possibly one of the most powerful message that was nailed into the minds of the children. Too bad it wasn’t a good one. It instilled them with a false sense of security, while also filling them with an immense fear of the communist threat. Some teachers knew that it wasn’t healthy to constantly drill the kids into the duck and cover method, but if they were to speak out or not practice it, they would be dubbed a communist, and fired. Music was also a way of unconformity that many kids liked. It was something that no one had ever heard before, and teens really were attracted to it. Too bad some adults w...
