The Summer of 1969. When Everything Changed and We Were There.
From the moon landing to the Vietnam draft lottery, 1969 was the year America grew up in public. Every majo...
20 min read
The Penny Candy Store: When a Nickel Could Buy You Happiness in a Brown Paper Bag
From about 1900 to 1975, the penny candy store was one of the great sacred places of American childhood. Th...
25 min read
Doo-Wop: How a Group of Kids Singing on a Brooklyn Street Corner Invented the Sound of American Romance
From the late 1940s to the early 1960s, doo-wop was the soundtrack of American adolescence. Born on the str...
25 min read
The Sears Catalog: How a 1,500-Page Book Became the Internet of Rural America for a Hundred Years
From 1888 to 1993, the Sears catalog was one of the most influential single objects in American culture. It...
25 min read
The 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air: How One Year of One Model Became the Most Beloved American Car Ever Made
It was not the fastest, the most expensive, or even the best-selling car of its time. But the 1957 Chevy Be...
25 min read
The Golden Age of TV Variety Shows: When 60 Million Americans Watched the Same Thing Every Sunday Night
From 1948 to about 1980, the variety show was the dominant format of American prime-time television. Ed Sul...
25 min read
The Corner Soda Fountain: How a Pharmacy Sideline Became the Heart of American Small-Town Life
From the 1890s through the 1960s, the soda fountain was the social center of nearly every American small to...
25 min read
Saturday Morning Cartoons: How Three Hours of TV Defined a Generation of American Childhood
From about 1962 to 1992, Saturday morning between 8 AM and 11 AM was the most sacred block of television in...
25 min read
The Drive-In Movie Era: How a Backyard Idea From New Jersey Became the Soundtrack of American Summers
From a single experimental screen in Camden, New Jersey in 1933 to over 4,000 drive-ins across America by 1...
25 min read
Toys We Fought Over at Christmas: A Trip Down Memory Lane
The most sought-after Christmas toys from the 1960s through the 1980s — what they cost then, what they're w...
30 min read
Ice Cream Truck Memories: The Treats, the Jingles, and What They Cost
A complete guide to the iconic ice cream truck treats of the 1960s-1980s — what they were, what they cost, ...
30 min read
The Pontiac GTO: How One Car Invented the Muscle Car Era
The complete history of the Pontiac GTO — the car that created the muscle car category in 1964 and changed ...
35 min read