The wilsons are what you would call a typical 1950s american family. They consist of the father and husband Frank, housewife linda, oldest child Tommy age 17, Cheryl age 16, Mikey age 10, and Suzie age 8. Thay are a white middle class family that lives in the suburb autside little rock, Arkansas. The neighborhood was modled after Levittown, a famous sururb community outside of New York. Right now it’s monday morning and the wilsons are starting off their week. “Breakfast is ready”, yells linda. She has just prepared pancakes, sausages, and orange juice for her whole family.
Also, she just finished ironing her husband’s dress shirt for work. On her way back to the kitchen, she recieves a huge kiss from her husband, seeing as she felt her identity was riding on him; since she never managed to finish college. “Oh Mother, the food smells so good! “, suzie enthusiastically bellows in excitement. They all sit sit down and happily eat their foos together, while linda goes around and serving them seconds, pouring them juice and cofee, and washing some disshes. Tommy and sheryl finish and are ready to go to school, Central High. “Bye mom and dad, we love you” they both say.
We love you too kids, have a fun day” they replied back Tommy and cheryl getbin the car, and tommy drives them to school. Frank had jus gotten the car from the dealer. It was a 1958 chevelle, with all the luxuries. Frank Wilson could afford it, since he was an executive workng with a prestigious farming products factory; where he worked for the animal feed division. The bank was more than happy to lend him the money for the car, seeing that his job with the factory was stable, the farming industry was growing and he qualified perfectly as an average middle class white man.
He was no different that any of his coworkers. “Jailhouse Rock is really good… By elvis right? ” Asks tommy “Why yes! ” says cheryl. The tune was blasting on a radical radio station playing rock music. It was 1957, the year of the little rock nine. Tommy and Cheryl were rather neutral towards segregation, they had good moral values. They had heard about the incident earlier that year, but they didn’t pay any attention to it. Furthermore, Cheryl brought her slynky along to school. She was one of the first to have a slynky in her group of frineds. It was their favorite passtime.
According to Cheryl, it would be the new Barbie doll, but she was to old for dolls. Tommy had a surge of courage and decided to ask Marie out, on a date. He told her that they would go to the Drive-In that had just opened outside of town. A John Wayne double feature was playing, that’s all tommy cared about. He really liked westerns, since he always satdown and watched it with his dad on TV. The television set was new at the house too. The older model they had burnt out a few months back. Frank decide to get another one just as soon as the neighbors got theirs. It was also a growing passtime in the 50s.
Thay day in school saw the beginning of a polio vaccination campaing led by the county hospital. It was a huge threat all around the US, so the campain proved to be succesful in that area. Tommy and cheryl didn’t really care since they already had a shot a few months back. Nevertheless, they were in awe after seeing the endless line for vaccination. By the end of the school day Tommy had a date for friday with Marie and Cheryl had learned how to wash dishes and bake muffins all at the same time. On the way back home they listened to the new Rock’n roll station earlier mentioned. It was playing James Brown.
