The American Dream in the 1950s

1. Baby Boom-
The Baby boom was when the American soldiers came home and settled into urban life and had a family, which ended in a huge increase in the number of babies born that year. This is important because it was the largest generation in Americas history.

2. Dr. Jonas Salk-
Dr. Jonas Salk developed a vacine for poliomylitis, Polio. This is important because it saved hundreds of thousands of childrens lives.

3. Interstate Highway System-
The Interstate Highway System was important because there were so many cars that there wasnt enough roads. The Interstate was a network of highways. Allowed long haul trucking to be possible, but trains declined as well as towns not along the highway. Because of the cheap gas and interstate families were travling all over the place.

4. Franchise-
Is a company that offers similar products or services in many locations. This was important because it was the start of McDonalds and other fast food places, along with many of the businesses that we shop at today such as Mobile gas, Stop and Shop, dunkin donuts etc.

5. In a paragraph, describe in detail how Americans spent their leisure time in the 1950s
Because people only worked 40 hour weeks there was more leisure than ever. Also because of the new advances in tech each household was able to have washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, powered lawn mowers, etc, which opened up time for people to spend. In their spare time people played sports and other recreational activities, along with watching them on t.v. Besides rec activities people also began to read a lot in their spare time, book sranged from cooking and classics to comic books and magazines.