A Sad Note To The Visitors And Friends Of FiftiesWeb

The creator, author, researcher and webmaster of this web site, Candace, has sadly passed away. She has moved on to new challenges and opportunities, a place which no doubt has both a soda fountain and a juke box.
She was and is an inspiration to everyone she ever met, always lending a helping hand and a kind word. No one will miss her more than me, her brother.
This web site is a tribute to her love of the fifties, her knowledge and mostly her passion for both learning and teaching. I will endeavor to keep it fresh and true to her vision of the decade for in it's pages I hear my sister's voice everyday.

Thank you for visiting FiftiesWeb

Michael Rich

I really didn't want to do this "About Me" thing. I'm not comfortable talking about myself. Plus, webmaster information, Name and Address is public which means that anybody who wants to, can find you. I've had some really interesting phone calls at home from a few folks who I believe desperately needed to get back on their meds. So while I have shared many memories throughout the pages of this site, I have always wanted to keep personal stuff to myself.

I have had some emails from librarians suggesting that I should say something about the site's origins and about me. Very nice people with constructive advice. So this page is my attempt to accommodate scholastic needs and still maintain some bit of privacy.

My name is Candace Rich. The FiftiesWeb is entirely my creation. Way back in the early days of the Internet, in 1996, I noticed with some chagrin that the sites talking about the Fifties and Sixties were done by people who weren't yet even a sparkle in Daddy's eye during that time frame. Though well-intentioned, these sites were done by people whose experience with the Fifties involved repeated viewings of "Grease."

Although it pains me to say, I was born in 1950. I am an authentic Baby Boomer. We are a much discussed generation who saw the birth of Rock and Roll, space exploration and Barbie. We could walk home at night, alone, without ending up on a milk carton. We can recall the first TVs, cell phones and natch, computers. I get a lot of mail from people who wish they could go back to the Fifties. So I EMAIL back that I'll go too, but I'm taking my microwave.

The site started small. 40 pages. I used to write a column for the then, Fort Lauderdale News (now Sun-Sentinel) and some local magazines so I figured I could handle the copy. I had saved everything I ever owned, so I had inspiration.

Very quickly I discovered that remembering a thing is not the same as knowing it. So I bought books. And more books. My house is now overflowing with books and I'm not stopping. I have everything from learned pieces like Halberstam's "The Fifties" to all the J.C. Penney and Sears catalogs from the applicable period.

I come from a time when you expected to "look it up" in a book. Failure to do so brought bad consequences from both teachers and parents who studied your report card as if they were IRS auditors on the trail of fraud. Although I am probably more Internet-y than most people who visit my site, I still believe in the power of the written word. I believe in books.

Now that those books which were once considered rare and out of print have become merely Used on Ebay, they are affordable and readily found. And they are the basis for this site. Everything you read on this site has been "looked up" in a book.

I answer most student emailed requests for information. I say "most" because I'm old school. I expect a "please" or "thank you." I have now worked on more homework projects than I did as a student. No, I don't do the work for them. I show them where to, yup, look it up. Sometimes I can contribute information not available on the site.

The FiftesWeb has grown over the years largely in demand to visitor requests. Now over 1,000 pages, the site has expanded in scope and content. The demands of a site this large necessitated that it become my full time job. I hope that this answers some of your questions.

Oh, and here's a thing you won't see on most other sites...

If you have any questions, email me.

Candace Rich