U.S. News and World Report
10 Amazing Years, 1947-1957: A Decade of Miracles
As 1947 was ending, the nation contained 144 million people, not the 172 million of today. Television was in its infancy. The four-engine plane was only beginning to appear on civilian airlines. Toll highways were a rarity. The superhighway was little more than a gleam in planners’ eyes. Supermarkets had just begun to dot the landscape. The ranch-type house had hardly made a dent in the building market, and split-levels were all but unknown. The modern “kitchen” lacked many of the appliances that are standard today.
Food packing was primitive by modern standards. Nobody had heard of the heat-and-serve dinner. Passenger cars, with few exceptions, lacked automatic transmissions, power steering, power brakes and tubeless tires. Most had only six-cylinder engines. Air conditioning was the exception in average stores and homes. Polio had not been licked. Today’s wide ranges of antibiotics and hormones were not available. The company pension was more the exception than the rule. So was hospital insurance. So was the long vacation. In the 10 years that followed, amazing changes came over America…. The things that people enjoy increased immensely in number and volume…. |