50 years later

    Time magazine labeled the post WWII college students “The Silent Generation”, because we did not seem to be interested in politics, social issues, or anything except getting a good job and making money.  When Eisenhower and Stevenson ran for President in 1952 we showed them...we wore buttons proclaiming “I Go Pogo”. Time also said we didn't have wild parties like the kids in the Roaring 20s. So we had panty raids.
    As I look at this collection of cartoons from a college campus in the 1950s, originally published at the University of Iowa in the student newspaper and magazines, I wonder why we were so obsessed with sex and beer? Well, beer was forbidden fruit, and we thought that since we were out of high school we had the right to taste it. Then as now, 21 was the legal alcoholic drinking age. My first day on the campus a friend who was a sophomore bought me a glass of beer in a tavern across the street from the main university buildings. I said something about this being illegal because I was only 18, and he smiled and said, “You've got a lot to learn.” They let us drink beer so long as we didn't get rowdy. But one time some officials became concerned that fraternities were serving alcohol to minors, and some plainclothesmen were sent to parties to check on it.
    I think women were sex objects because there weren't enough of them in college to go around. During the 1950s I remember male students outnumbered women by about two or three to one. Just getting a date was tough. You couldn't think about a relationship until you got a date. “Going Steady” was the fashion, and the odds were that when you asked a pretty girl for a date, she was already going steady with someone. Quite a few women encouraged this attitude by coming to college with the main purpose to marry a college man, not to necessarily pursue a career of their own.
    Yes, getting a good job, getting beer, getting sex, getting married...these were our goals. The Korean War, the draft and the possibility of nuclear war hung over our heads. We tried to have a good time before things got worse. And sometimes we even got good grades...without necessarily cheating.