I forgot about that with the joking.

The 50's, here in America anyway, were generally thought to be a quiet, conservative time. After the Korean war was done we still had the Cold War escalating, but domestically it was a quiet time. The economy was good, couples were having lots of babies, the suburbs were growing, there was no real political unrest, and "family values" were at their peak. It was a generally peaceful time here and a time of innocence.

You're a movie buff.... look at most of the movies that depict 50's life. Sure, some focused on changing issues ("Rebel Without a Cause" comes to mind) but they were mostly tame. The youth of most countries/cultures are the revolutionaries. The American youth of this time was very quiet.