This book reminds me of the 50s... and I wasnt even born til the 70s

[unclelouie]

So I got this book for Christmas, and just started it over the weekend. Besides being just a story and plot (so far), it does something odd for me. It reminds me of a time I never lived thru. It that odd. I was born in the mid 70s, but I have this nostaligia for this time period.

I suppose it's my dad, who I was very close to growing up. In the late 70s/early 80s we used to go visit his father, a retired barber in a small town in SC. The town probably has not changed at all since the 50s. We would go into my grandfathers barber shop Sat. mornings and wait til he was done for the morning. His customers were all old guys with crew cuts, pocket protectors, thick glasses... they all smoked (and used lots of profanity, I do remember...).... and he always had the oldies station playing on his transistor radio by the barber chair. My dad had told me then that the shop had not changed one bit since he was a boy.

After grandpa was done cutting hair, we would go to the diner. Concrete floor, screen door..... it had an oldies jukebox, and the waitresses all looked like they were 100 years old, and had all been the original wait staff from the 50s era (and the old ladies still wore those Mel's Diner looking outfits). Dad said the diner there had not changed a bit either.

We would also hit up the Wool Worth to. They had a soda fountain behind the counter, and also stools you could sit on. One odd thing I remember was a wall of Campbells Soup cans stacked from the floor to the ceiling. But there was never oldies here. Just muzak from the PA.

Sorry for the boring post, but I just wanted to share. I cant help but thinking of my grandpas small town when I read this story....

[Neesy]

So I got this book for Christmas, and just started it over the weekend. Besides being just a story and plot (so far), it does something odd for me. It reminds me of a time I never lived thru. It that odd. I was born in the mid 70s, but I have this nostaligia for this time period.

I suppose it's my dad, who I was very close to growing up. In the late 70s/early 80s we used to go visit his father, a retired barber in a small town in SC. The town probably has not changed at all since the 50s. We would go into my grandfathers barber shop Sat. mornings and wait til he was done for the morning. His customers were all old guys with crew cuts, pocket protectors, thick glasses... they all smoked (and used lots of profanity, I do remember...).... and he always had the oldies station playing on his transistor radio by the barber chair. My dad had told me then that the shop had not changed one bit since he was a boy.

After grandpa was done cutting hair, we would go to the diner. Concrete floor, screen door..... it had an oldies jukebox, and the waitresses all looked like they were 100 years old, and had all been the original wait staff from the 50s era (and the old ladies still wore those Mel's Diner looking outfits). Dad said the diner there had not changed a bit either.

We would also hit up the Wool Worth to. They had a soda fountain behind the counter, and also stools you could sit on. One odd thing I remember was a wall of Campbells Soup cans stacked from the floor to the ceiling. But there was never oldies here. Just muzak from the PA.

Sorry for the boring post, but I just wanted to share. I cant help but thinking of my grandpas small town when I read this story....

Not a boring post at all. I think Stephen King is a master at creating atmosphere so that you feel as if you are actually there. Try reading Duma Key - that is another good one (or Under the Dome).

[unclelouie]

Under the Dome is next on my list!

And yes, King is the master of atmosphere. He is so detail oriented. I find in much of his work that parts of his life and mine are similiar... the music, the places, the people, the slang terms... and I suspect many constant readers feel that same connection with King.

I guess another reason I identify with this book, and many of you do as well, is the fact that everyone remembers where they were when JKF was killed. My dad and King are probably the same age, and grew up in the same time, and my dad loved JKF. He's read so many books on JKF. We watched the Oliver Stone movie together when I was in high school.

My dad actually remembers being at school when the annoucement was made over the intercom, and all the kids were sent home for the day. Sad day.

[Neesy]

Under the Dome is next on my list!

And yes, King is the master of atmosphere. He is so detail oriented. I find in much of his work that parts of his life and mine are similiar... the music, the places, the people, the slang terms... and I suspect many constant readers feel that same connection with King.

I guess another reason I identify with this book, and many of you do as well, is the fact that everyone remembers where they were when JKF was killed. My dad and King are probably the same age, and grew up in the same time, and my dad loved JKF. He's read so many books on JKF. We watched the Oliver Stone movie together when I was in high school.

My dad actually remembers being at school when the annoucement was made over the intercom, and all the kids were sent home for the day. Sad day.

Igotta admit that I was only six at the time so I do not remember where I was at that time (we only had a small black and white and I did not start school until I was six years old). I do remember where I was when I heard John Lennon was shot. 11/22/63 is next on my "wanna get" list or should I say "wish list". I read the hardcover version in large type from the library but I just recently (like as of last night) started collecting his paperbacks. I still have a long, long way to go!

[The Nameless]

Sorry for the boring post, but I just wanted to share. I cant help but thinking of my grandpas small town when I read this story....

Impossible to bore me with mental images of the 50's in America. Rock and Roll was in it's early days, cars were beautiful peices of art with lots of chrome and fins, every account of the 50's has the people being friendlier and trusting, people who worked in diners for pittence could somehow afford things like Fender Stratocasters and Gibson Les Pauls.

Guess when I was born? Yep, 1981....in England. I have no connection to the 50's but the book has the same impact on me.

[unclelouie]

Impossible to bore me with mental images of the 50's in America. Rock and Roll was in it's early days, cars were beautiful peices of art with lots of chrome and fins, every account of the 50's has the people being friendlier and trusting, people who worked in diners for pittence could somehow afford things like Fender Stratocasters and Gibson Les Pauls.

Guess when I was born? Yep, 1981....in England. I have no connection to the 50's but the book has the same impact on me.

I had always been under the impression that people in the 50s were friendlier too. But I wonder if that's just a case of being blinded by "the good ol' days"? Maybe. Im at least willing to say for certain that people were more real and less detached... I assume it's because people in the 50s werent constanlty Tweeting, Facebooking, and texting their lives away. People's heads werent always buried in a kindle, iphone, ipad, or laptop. Simpler life. Simpler people.

And I have to say... Im sure Buddy Holly, Little Anthony, Elvis, Frankie Lymon, Bill Haley, Ritchie Valens, et al, were quite more impressive than Bieber.

[GNTLGNT]

...that novel, quite simply, is a rabbit hole to our own past-or one we WISH we could have visited...it's almost tactile...

[fmurray]

I agree that SK is an amazing writer and the reader can really feel like they're "in" the book. But I disagree about nostalgia for the 50's. The perception of a simpler time is, I think, always mistaken. There were no "simple" times in human existence. And the 50's was a horrible time for civil rights and, for women's rights. When I think of the 50's, I think of ads like this:

(Shiver)
And the late 60's and early 70's were, in my mind, a time of great awakening -- once our eyes were opened, they could never be closed again.

I understand your p.o.v. unclelouie, especially as it pertains to your happy memories of time spent with your Dad. But, as a woman, I pair the 50's with oppression of women and other minorities.

Enjoy 11/22/63. It's a great book.

[unclelouie]

I agree that SK is an amazing writer and the reader can really feel like they're "in" the book. But I disagree about nostalgia for the 50's. The perception of a simpler time is, I think, always mistaken. There were no "simple" times in human existence. And the 50's was a horrible time for civil rights and, for women's rights. When I think of the 50's, I think of ads like this:

(Shiver)
And the late 60's and early 70's were, in my mind, a time of great awakening -- once our eyes were opened, they could never be closed again.

I understand your p.o.v. unclelouie, especially as it pertains to your happy memories of time spent with your Dad. But, as a woman, I pair the 50's with oppression of women and other minorities.

Enjoy 11/22/63. It's a great book.

I can see where your views of oppression come from. I can appreciate that those times certainly wouldn't have been sunshine and rainbows for Blacks (esp. in the South where I grew up), or women either. And throughout every decade we have had different forms of oppression, strife, and social issues. Even in 2012, we still have various forms of oppression. We still have policies that negatively affect everyone from women to Latinos to Middle Class Americans struggling to stay out of poverty.

I guess when I said, "simpler times", I just meant times when kids played outdoors (heck, we played outdoors in the 70s and 80s), instead of being glued to Playstation 3 shoot-em up games 24/7.

I remember times in the 80s and 90s going out with friends, and not having to be annoyed by everyone texting and receiving cell phone calls, or annoyed by your own cell phone, or posting crap to Facebook. It was genuine face to face time, and that is my own personal memory.

I remember in high school in college you could get drunk and act like an ass, and not have to worry about it being posted on YouTube or Facebook for posterity. You didnt have cable news brainwashing you 24/7. Thats really what I meant by simpler times.

[GNTLGNT]

The perception of a simpler time is, I think, always mistaken.

...agreed, but in the rearview mirror of history-there IS more than one view-and ALL decades have had gentler and more inspiring moments as well as their dark-side-it's all in how the individual chooses to reflect...