1955
Mid-twentieth century year
1955 is a year in the mid-twentieth century, often referenced as a marker of a particular era—postwar prosperity, early rock and roll, the beginning of the American civil rights movement.
In fiction, 1955 appears as a nostalgic touchstone: Back to the Future sent Marty McFly to 1955.
Like other years, it functions as shorthand for the cultural moment it represents.
After hostilities end
- segregationForced separation by group
- MontgomeryAlabama's seat of government
- SputnikFirst orbital spacecraft
- LevittownPlanned suburban community, postwar
Eisenhower · suburbia · television · drive-in · tailfins · chromium · polio · vaccine
Rock and roll monarch
- rockabillyHillbilly-influenced early rock
- doo-wopFifties vocal harmony genre
- jukeboxCoin-operated music player
- sockhopInformal school dance, shoes off
Age-defined peer group
- postwarAfter hostilities end
- demographicsStatistical population characteristics
- birthrateNewborns per capita measure
- populationAll inhabitants combined
growth · cohort · fertility · census · suburbia · prosperity · consumerism
Old valued collectible
- classicOf lasting excellence
- collectibleObject worth amassing
- retroEvoking recent past
- heritageInherited cultural legacy
memorabilia · Chevy · Thunderbird · pinup · kitsch · ephemera · midcentury · restoration
Recalling past experiences
- yearningIntense prolonged craving
- wistfulnessTender sadness for absence
- sentimentalityExcessive tender emotion
- bygoneOf earlier times
retrospection · yesteryear · flashback · recollection · innocence · Americana · black-and-white · chrome
postwar
After hostilities end
- segregationForced separation by group
- MontgomeryAlabama's seat of government
- SputnikFirst orbital spacecraft
Eisenhower · Levittown · suburbia · television · drive-in · tailfins · chromium · polio · vaccine · McCarthyism
Elvis
Rock and roll monarch
- rockabillyHillbilly-influenced early rock
- doo-wopFifties vocal harmony genre
- jukeboxCoin-operated music player
generation
Age-defined peer group
- postwarAfter hostilities end
- demographicsStatistical population characteristics
- birthrateNewborns per capita measure
population · growth · cohort · fertility · census · suburbia · prosperity · consumerism
antique
Old valued collectible
- classicOf lasting excellence
- collectibleObject worth amassing
- retroEvoking recent past
heritage · memorabilia · Chevy · Thunderbird · pinup · kitsch · ephemera · midcentury · restoration · original
reminiscence
Recalling past experiences
- yearningIntense prolonged craving
- wistfulnessTender sadness for absence
- sentimentalityExcessive tender emotion
bygone · retrospection · yesteryear · flashback · recollection · innocence · Americana · black-and-white · chrome · neon
midcentury
Around the 1950s
Danish · furniture · organic · minimalism · form · function · geometric · abstract · Scandinavian · teak
- Back to the FutureDeLorean, Doc Brown, Marty McFly, flux capacitor, time machine
- Cold WarBerlin Wall, Iron Curtain, arms race, Warsaw Pact, Cuban Missile Crisis