I’ve had a long week so I don’t have a lot of time for writing, but I had an interesting question come up in a group chat this week I thought I’d throw out there for opinions: when do we think the 1950s will fade as a cultural touchpoint for us culturally?

I still see rather consistent references to the 1950s as though it is something we could return to, but at this point that’s now 75 years in the past. I wasn’t alive in 1950. Neither were my parents. If you’re looking for someone with a real memory of 1950, not just a small child’s thoughts, that person would be over 80. That expands a bit if you’re talking about the later 1950s, but the point remains: actual adult memories of the 1950s are fading fast.

I think the persistence of the 1950s are an interesting example of how history isn’t always a straight line. When I was growing up, we wouldn’t have looked 75 years in the past as a reference point, because there was a World War in there. It was very clear 75 years earlier was a different era. You wouldn’t have expected anything to look the same, or to be able to return to that era easily, or to want to go to those eras with WWII looming.

Anyway, I suspect the 1950s will likely fade as a cultural touchstone in the coming decade for two reasons: aging baby boomers, and it will get closer and closer to 100 years ago. I don’t blame baby boomers for citing the decade of their childhoods, but as they age that will be less present in media. Additionally, in the stats tables I see, at some point it’s going to get silly to act like a city should still be compare to what it looked like 100 years ago. We already see this happening a bit with WWII, as those who served have slowly left us. Kind of puts things in perspective….it doesn’t take many decades before the big eras of your life simply become history.

Given the age diversity of readers here though, I’d be interested to hear thoughts on this. Do you still see the 1950s cited often, and if so how long do you think this hangs on?