The Fifties Were Really and Truly Not All That Square

The Fifties were really and truly not all that square Though that dullard Dwight D. sat in the Executive Chair And his frumpy wife Mamie had really bad hair Matching those dowdy, plain dresses she'd wear ... While husbands toiled in obscurity for large corporations The "Ugly Americans," reviled by most other nations Their stay-at-home wives feeling mostly frustration Downing "happing pills" daily instead of real medication Their sons sporting letter sweaters, obedient jocks, Their daughters in plaid skirts and white bobby socks Penny loafers and saddle shoes were in for ten years Along with white levis and coca-cola -- never rum, never beer Yet how about Krushchev's dust-ups with Tricky Dick Nixon What about Sputnik 1 and the panic it put us in And remember George Wallace and old Lester Maddux Hosing down *******, echoes of Crispus Attucks ... The rise of brutal pro football threatened apple pie and baseball Heralding the next decade's premiere spectator sport, i.e., 'spaceball' Joe McCarthy dug up the dirt of a "red scare's" nitty gritty In the work of the House un-American Activities Committee Then there was Rosa Parks refusing to sit in the back of the bus Championing the yearning for justice in so many of us And the music, the music, so outrageously wild Chuck Berry, Richie Valens, the Big Bopper -- that overgrown child Yes, the Fifties were really and truly not all that square Though we shan't heed the call of those who'd return us to there