In the early 50's
Oscar Durkee was an eighth grader living in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.
graduated from high school
in 54 and joined the air force soon after. When he came out of the air force in
58 he went to a university where he graduated towards the end of the decade, and
in the early 60s became a teacher at DC Everest.
Where you in the 1950’s?
In 1950 I was an eighth grade student and in 1954 I graduated from
Rhinelander High School. In the beginning of the 1950’s, I was quite unaware
of cultural things that were occurring. By the time I graduated from high school
I was more aware of the happenings of the day. After 1955 I was in the military,
the USAF, so life for me was a lot different then that of a civilian. I remained
in the military until 1958 and found myself caught up in certain social aspects
of the 50’s culture. After my discharge from the military I attended college.
Did you support a political candidate in the election of
1956?
The first time I voted in my life was in the 1956 presidential election. My
family was Democratic and voted basically that was in every election. In 1956
Dwight David Eisenhower was the Republican candidate. He was such a hero to the
American people. He seemed to be a mice guy and I remember the posters and
slogans, “I like Ike”. He was a father figure, soft spoken, and a great Army
General. Following my conscience, I voted for Ike the Republican contrary to my
family’s political position, I do not think it was very political at the time
and I do believe because of my military experience that Eisenhower appeared to
me as the person who should be president of the country. Since that time I have
become more political and have never voted for a Republican since.
What was the U-2 Spy Plane Incident?
This incident was about he United States’ first spy plane. It would fly
really high and take great camera pictures detailing ground objects. The pilot
of the plane was a US soldier named Gary Powers. He got shot down while on a
mission over Russia (USSR). When he got shot down, he revealed to the Russians
that he was a spy taking pictures for the US government. Kruschev got really
angry and got on the phone with Eisenhower and told him that we were not
supposed to be doing that. I don’t know if there were agreements made, but I
do remember that at first Eisenhower denied what had happened and the American
people were very embarrassed over the whole incident.
What did you think of the Nixon and Kennedy Debate in
1960?
The thing that I remember best about the debates was that John F. Kennedy
was very handsome and had a certain appeal that Richard Nixon seemed to lack.
Perhaps my impression as a young person at that time was that Kennedy was a hero
from the war ad that the press reinforced fact. It just seems. Because of that,
he had a lot of the young people’s vote. Later, when Kennedy came to
Rhinelander to campaign, I was able to shake Robert Kennedy’s hand outside the
paper mill where I worked and I thought that was pretty
eat – the presidential candidate in a small northern Wisconsin town.
Who was Joe McCarthy to you?
I was a junior in high school in 1953 and Joseph McCarthy was the biggest
hero in my school because he made speeches against communism and we thought that
was great. We, as students, felt that communism had penetrated our American
culture and political system. The Communists were going to take over our
country. We were scared to death of Communism We had a saying in the 50’s. It
was, “Better dead than Red”. We just thought communist wanted to take over
the world from what we read in the newspapers and what our teacher and parents
often told us. We thought that McCarthy was a great hero at first, but later
when it was revealed that he had made up most of the charges looking for
publicity we felt quite embarrassed. In high school, he was a hero because
communism was going to take over the United States and the world. Many Americans
feared Communism in the 1950’s.
Did you have to take a Loyalty Oath?
Well I did at that time, but when I started teaching at D.C. Everest High
School, I applied for a grant to go to a Southeast Asian Institute in Washington
State. I had to go down to the local grocery store, raised my right hand and
swear before a clerk, who was a student of mine, that I was not a Communist and
had never been a member of the Communist party. That is the only way that I
could get the grant. Even public institution had responded to the great fear of
Communism in the Joe McCarthy years.
When you said, “Better dead than red,” what did that
mean?
Well, we called the Communist, “red” because that is the color of their
flag. Also, in China, the civilian guards are called “red guards”, so
someone made up the phrase; “better dead than red”. It rhymed and no one
wanted to become a Communist. It would be horrible! It would enslave us, take
over the world and ruin our lives. Now,
experiencing the Korean War; I was too young to enter the war in Korea. The
Korean War started in 1950 and ended in 1953. I was a junior in high school when
it ended. I did have some indirect experiences with the war, however, my cousin,
who went into the war, got shot in the stomach and he had to wear a bag to
collect his body discharges for the rest of his life. He would write to me and I
would write back. I knew it was a
horrible war from his letters as well as the news on TV and newspaper articles.
My impression as a young person in northern Wisconsin was that we had to stop
the horrible Communist expansion in the world. The issue of Communist control of
the world was focused on the Korean War now. Dwight d. Eisenhower said that if
one country falls to communism, then all the countries will fall. We all knew
this to be the “domino theory”.
Who was General Douglas MacArther?
General Douglas MacArther was the general in charge of the war in Korea. He
was from Wisconsin and that made him special to us Wisonsinites. We thought he
was the greatest general that had ever lived. When Truman fired him it was a
shock to us. I cannot remember exactly my attitude about him being fired at the
time but I think it was that Truman was dumb for doing it. Later, I agreed with
the firing because I understood that Army personnel have to follow the
directives of their leader and not go to the press and attempt to make policy, I
think of MacArthur as a great general to this day.
Do you remember what happened with Castro and Cuba?
I remember Castro and what was happening in South America, Americans began
to think that some Communism was not too bad because it could help better the
lives of the people who were living under the dictators that controlled Sough
American countries. I remember hearing about one of Castro’s right hand men.
His mane was Che Guevarro and a lot of young people thought he was a hero
because he wanted to liberate the depressed people in the Satin American
countries. Many people thought that communism would be a better alternative to
dictatorship. That thinking caused a lot of confusion at the time.
Did you live in the suburbs?
I did not live in a suburb. Little old Rhinelander really did not have
suburbia. Historians said that people in the 1950’s were conformist. I think
that we Hodags were really conformist! Everybody wanted to do what everybody
else was doing and had the same outlook on what they thought was the good life.
Family was strong and we didn’t have a teenage culture in the early 1950’s
that developed as the 50’d developed. Later, teenagers could get together,
socialize and started to gain money by part time jobs. For instance, when I
graduated from high school there were only a handful of teens working at part
time jobs, Mist teens just did not work. Everyone generally had the same life
style.
What did kids wear to school?
People wore the same clothes to school and there were few fashion breakers.
For boys, poplin pants were the favorites- it was the style. I probably had four
pairs of pants in my closet and three were poplin; one a Levi jean. There were
farmer’s pants (bibs). Most kids who wore jeans, it was the kids n the farm
who mostly wore jeans and bibs, and we nicknamed them “farmers”.
The girls all wore dresses and skirts to school. My sister wore saddle
shoes and loafers. She, like all the girls never wore slacks to school. The
girls were all Home EC classes and learned all the needed things to be a good
mother and house wife. The tradition at that time was to get married and have a
family. It was very conformist and the attitudes of all the kids were the same.
Did you find people to be conformists in the 1950’s?
All the kids seemed to conform to the same ideas and fashions, We would meet
every now and then at the local soda parlor. Drive-in theaters were coming in,
as well as A&W Root Beer restaurants. These things did get us out a bit but
most kids generally did things with their parents and there was not much
socializing after school and on weekends outside the families. This was the idea
of conformity.
Do you remember McDonalds?
When I graduated from high school there was no McDonalds in Rhinelander. The
first time I went to a McDonalds was in 1957 in Washington State and the
hamburgers were 25 cents. Fast food places were developing along with the
suburbs. While I was growing up we had our own neighborhood grocery store and
each neighborhood had a store of their own. We still had little family run meat
markers. The first large suburban grocery store was Reeves IGA. In fact I got my
first job after high school working as a butcher apprentice there. We thought it
was really something to have such a huge store in Rhinelander. It is still there
today but it is very small by today’s standards. By the 1960’s the small
neighborhood groceries and meat markets were disappearing.
What types of jobs were there in the 1950’s?
I worked in the supermarket for a while after high school and then I joined
the United States Air Force. I got to travel the so I did see life in the
fifties from the standpoint of city life, a faster pace and now developments.
There were bigger cars, kids listening to the now songs on the radio, viewing TV
shows, going to the beaches and even some music festivals. The kids were just
starting to create a teen culture that persists to today.
Most kids did not work when I was in high school so you did not have much
money. You went home after school to your family and that’s it. When I
graduated in 1954 there were 16 seniors with a car in school all we did with the
cars was to cruise a little at night, meet down at the end of the main street of
town and then leave for home about 9pm.
Were there any major differences between school today
and the schooling of the 1950’s?
As far as schools, there were not many differences. The classes were all
pretty basic, History, English and Biology. I remembered quite a bit about them
because I enjoyed them very much. We had to go to school with the expectation
that we would be getting good jobs after graduation. The girls did not have to
worry much about that because marriage was in their future and the husbands did
the work while they raised the children.
My views about the opposite sex were basically that of the typical views
of the day, that is, that the girls were to be protected by the men and that
they were special because of motherhood. An example of this is when the boys
would be out in the halls at school talking a little roughly and a girl would
approach, someone would always say, “Oops, watch your language guys, here
comes a girl.” Now days the girls speak just like the guys, I think that today
teenagers are more independent, more equal and more knowledgeable about what is
going on in the world.
Was family life important?
Family life was very dominant. If you did go out with the gals, or go to a
game with friends, it was just a short time out of a long time spent with your
family. Generally, teens did not have the money to do a lot with their friends,
so they stay bonded to their families.
Most of a teens’ life was with his or her family, Very seldom did I
have a friend stay over because at the end of an activity with another teen, you
went home, I can remember going to some parties and we would play “Spin the
Bottle.” It was a bold thing to get to kiss a girl for the first time, but you
never get to kiss the girl in front of the group because it was too
embarrassing. You had to go out of the room with the girl, and when you
returned, no one knows if you had kissed her. Life was so simple and we were so
innocent. On a weekly basis, relating with friends was about five to six hours
at the most.
What do you remember about the origins of rock and roll
in the late 50’s?
When Elvis came on TV he was the big shocker, Everyone watched American
bandstand and to most it was quite shocking especially to see the black (Negro
in those days) entertainers. We got our first TV set in the mid-50s. When Elvis
came on it was a sensational hit and everyone in America crowded by the TV sets
to watch him Big band music was still in but rock was shaking it’s popularity,
TV effected all of America. The game show got a lot of attention and there were
now stars being born all the time. Movies were still popular. My favorite stars
were Roy Rogers, Gene Audry and Ronald Reagan. I can remember that Marlon Brando
and James Dean were such a sensation when they starred in movies. Everybody was
talking about Marilyn Monroe. I think that she embarrassed many women, the year
that Playboy Magazine was published it was Marilyn in the center that caused the
stir. It was shocking to see women portrayed like that.
What do you remember about the civil rights movement?
The Civil Rights Movement was just getting started in the 1950’s. The
Supreme Court decision, “Brown versus the Board of Education if Topeka,
Kansas”. Started it was not right to have segregated schools. I did not feel
much about it because in my hometown of Rhinelander, it was not an issue. We had
few if any blacks in town. In 1957,while in the air force a friend from
Mississippi invited me to go to his hometown of Meridian, Mississippi. I went
with him and he showed me how nice whites were to the blacks. He took me to the
black school and said, “Look at this nice school, and I looked at a beautiful
new brick school. He drove me about eight blocks away and showed me the white
school. It was old and made of wood. Later, he took me to downtown Meridian
where he showed me the nice benches marked “blacks only” and benches marked
“Whites only”. As we were walking on the sidewalks we came upon a couple of
black men walking in the opposite direction. I stepped out of the way and around
them. My friend grabbed me by the shoulder, shaking explaining and me that I
should never step around a black person, but they should step around me. He was
upset with me, It gave me a real feeling of how blacks were being put down in
the south but he did not even realize it.
Do you remember Sputnik’s launch in 1957?
In 1957, the Russians launched Sputnik. My reaction to it was the same as
the ones you read in books: “Wow”, The Russians beat the United States! We
had cheaper books so that more people could read and get caught up on the now
technology being created, It was called the “paperback Revolution”. When I
went to high school there were only hard cover books available.
How did you feel being one of the few to own a car?
I felt that I was very lucky. I did not come form a wealthy family, We moved
out to the country and my father wanted me to have the car since he bought a now
one. He have it to me, It was a 1936 Chevy, one with big fenders. It was not
fancy but it made me feel very special, We had lots of fun with it.
How young were you when you got your driver’s license?
I was sixteen. It wasn’t a tough test like today. My dad said, “Well,
you’re getting a car so I’m going to teach you how to drive”. He took me
on the road three times and said that I was doing okay and that I should take
the test. I went down to the police station and filled out an application. The
officer came in and told me that we could for a driving test. I drove around
four city blocks and he sat in the passenger seat and observed me. We came back
to the police station and he said, “You pass.”
I felt really fortunate to get a car and a license so easily.
Oral
History Project 
