Give Me the Fifties

In the fifties we girls could not wear pants Unless it was bitter cold, then a temporary grant. We wore them under our dresses in freezing drool But had to take them off when we got to school If you told a girl today she had to wear a dress She would look at you like you had a nose of watercress Girls today wear what they want I have to confess Many do not own a skirt, a jumper or a dress In the fifties most of us went to church and sat in pews We were silent knowing that to upset our parent was a lose. We could sit through weddings and funerals silently. No one thought to interrupt an adult in 1953. Today’s child cannot sit silently anywhere without bedding. Not at school, in church, in a synagogue or at a wedding Today’s child thinks what they have to say is valuable without fault. They believe they are on the same level as an adult In the fifties we kids fought over who laid in the back window When we went to grandma’s or to church in the Christmas snow. Today’s child has to be strapped down like an inverted turtle In the backseat, so the air bag does not “get” them, right Myrtle? In the fifties students waited for instructions from a teacher Today’s children interrupt and out-talk even a preacher. When a teacher commands silence, they ignore her, not nifty. I wish children respected adults like they did in the fifties.