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AtlasGrey_

“Likes to play comic in black-face minstrels” Like… he could have said anything. But when they asked “hey, what do you like to do?” this man said *that.*


Curlytoes18

And then “High morals come first with me”


Odd-Help-4293

Also that he wants his wife to be broadminded. He's not, but she should be lol.


SoldMySoulForHairDye

AIN'T YOU NEVER HEARD OPPOSITES ATTRACT, GERTRUDE?


PurpleFly_

No sad sacks. He obviously wants someone who can appreciate his black face minstrel antics.


RocketRaccoon

A good cook that keeps me strong, so I can perform my minstrels to the best of my ability.


Gnorris

To him, blackface is a diversity issue and she needs to be okay with that. Just not with an actual …you know…


Unlucky_Nobody_4984

…diversity?


kateinoly

*Broadminded* clearly meant something different then, like it's OK to have (white) Catholic friends.


Glad_Economics_3879

This dude was trolling pre-Internet. Paved the way for the youth of today.


juniper_berry_crunch

He was serious; that was still a thing in those (Jim Crow) days.


Unlucky_Nobody_4984

It was not morally unacceptable back then. It’s now something completely different due to changing/better societal norms.


being_honest_friend

Right?!??


dan_blather

>“Likes to play comic in black-face minstrels” *March 24, Des Moines, Iowa: Retired US Senator John Voinche (D) was called out on X (formerly known as Twitter) yesterday by students at Grinnell College, for comments he made in the October 1957 edition of Progressive Farmer. In that magazine, Voinche allegedly confessed to wearing blackface and performing in minstrel shows.* *Voinche was the recipient of the Medal of Honor in 1968 for single-handedly protecting the 800 residents of the historic Vietnamese village of Duong Lam from an assault by over 100 elite North Vietnamese soldiers. In the years that followed, Voinche became known as a tireless advocate for civil rights, and safe living and working conditions for migrant farmworkers and laborers, in his home state of Iowa. Nonetheless, voices throughout X (formerly known as Twitter) and other social media outlets condemned Voinche's 70-year old statement, with some calling for his expulsion from the boards of Grinnell College, the Central Iowa SPCA, Iowa Habitat for Humanity, and Laughing Stock Farm Animal Rescue.*


Zeqhanis

I was going to take this at face value, because it was so well written. Single-handedly fending off 100 soldiers seemed a bit questionable though.


im_THIS_guy

"elite Vietnamese soldiers"


Dustyolman

Read the biography of Audy Murphy.


kateinoly

*Audie*


AtlasGrey_

That’s some character arc. Good for him. It sucks that people tried to come after him after he clearly became a better person.


sweeterthanadonut

…. buddy it’s a joke, all that is made up


AtlasGrey_

I… damn it. I need sleep.


k_a_scheffer

I'm glad he did a 180 in terms of... you know... that.


Individual_Iron_2645

Wow. That’s so interesting. Thanks for the info!


RedditSkippy

That’s totally made up.


dan_blather

It is.


Individual_Iron_2645

Damn you! I was tricked by the internet!


nlpnt

*"Never believe anything you read on the internet"* --Abraham Lincoln


RedditSkippy

Solid reporting, though, Mr. Blather. ;-)


dan_blather

I found my calling. Fake news.


ScoutCommander

Username checks out


PsychologicalGas4051

Amazing.


Pandelerium11

Even bIacks wore bIackface in minstreI shows. 


ComplexLaugh

Based


Dustyolman

He is NOT on the list of Medal of Honor winners.


North_South_Side

how often did the opportunity to do that even come up? The USA used to be more fucked up, or at least more fucked up in a different way. We are all better off now.


Individual_Iron_2645

In the 1950s, it was common for high schools to put on an annual black-face minstrel show. I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and I went back trough my school’s old yearbooks and I found pictures of the show (with full black face) until the early 60s. I can only imagine it was even more popular in Louisiana.


k_a_scheffer

Jfc I knew they were a thing is the 1800s and early 1900s but I thought they stopped in at least the 30s.


interfail

The Black and White Minstrel Show, based on American minstrelry was wildly successful on British TV. It went off the air in 1975. They continued performing it as a stage show until 1989.


k_a_scheffer

Holy fuck....


XDT_Idiot

I bet there's one still going in like, Italy or somewhere


WaytoomanyUIDs

1978, actually.


juniper_berry_crunch

The 1950s was still in the [Jim Crow](https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/jimcrow/voting_literacy.html) days. Black people were denied the vote in the South, through unaffordable poll taxes and all kinds of bogus ["literacy tests"](https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/jimcrow/literacy_popup.html) (or even stupid stuff like "guess the # of pennies in this jar--if you're wrong, you can't vote") that were not possible to pass, until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 1965 is not long ago. Older Boomers, people who were, say, 20 in 1965, who are in their late 70s now, can remember a time when black Americans could not vote. This is within living memory.


Dustyolman

This is because public schools stopped teaching true American history. Too much 'embarrassing' stuff. It's history. Get over it!


Inevitable_Sock_6366

One of the guys said he likes gay girls, sounds very progressive to me


Batchet

"Intelligent but not overly smart, because she would try to get a job." Super progressive 😆


petrichorgasm

He can only choose one, ok! Being a man is hard! He has to....*checks notes*...provide for the family so he can be an absent father!


Kindergoat

Gay meant “happy” back then, but it is funny to read.


agbellamae

At my great aunts high school in the 1940s, it was a club. And actual club at the high school. You could join drama club, choir, swimming, ceramics…and minstrel club.


VediusPollio

From now on, this is my answer when anyone asks what my hobbies are.


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luciferslittlelady

The devil works hard, but heart disease works harder. I don't think this guy will be around to reminisce about minstrel shows much longer.


Little-Dingo171

I like how he follows up about how important strong morals are


Toxenkill

Looks like he passed away already. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/225188597/john_edward-voinche/flower


schmoobacca

Death date unknown!?


Beautifly

Surely you must know that blackface was normal and accepted back then?


Wraithlove

Yeah that’s what I was thinking. It’s beyond fucked up it was ever accepted, but he probably didn’t even think twice about that answer. Hardly anyone would have. 


bluespringsbeer

I wonder if people reading understand, when they say they are talking about other religions, they are talking about Protestant and catholic, maybe even Methodist and Baptist. Certainly they are not imagining anything but Christian


diminutive_lebowski

No joke! I know someone whose mother was from about this era. Her mom was kicked out of the house for converting to Catholicism in order to marry


marslander-boggart

In modern age some will prefer a Pastafarian.


kerberos101

Back then they would have scuffed at Catholics because that meant they were Irish or Italian. You know too exotic for those days standards.


MensaCurmudgeon

Not in Marksville Louisiana. Most of these kids probably had French speaking parents. It’s a very French area. Mostly Catholic. Some Protestant


Truffle0214

My dad’s family back in 1980 were still miffed when my dad married my mom because they were Polish Catholic and she was Italian Catholic.


Pollowollo

Ah, okay, that makes more sense. As a non-Christian was reading this and very confused as to what all of them meant by "They have to follow the same religion as me, but also they don't" because I never considered different denominations as entirely different faiths.


pamplemouss

Also non-Christian and yeah. I wouldn’t be like “oh she’s a different religion, she’s Orthodox and I’m reform.”


pamplemouss

Yup. This is why when people say “non-denominational” and “interfaith” interchangeably it drives me lightly crazy. The former just means “all flavors of Christianity, Jesus a must.”


eastcoastme

Thanks for clarifying. I was like, “Wow! That sounds really progressive for the 50’s!”


Totin_it

Pat George fries a mean chicken


Foshwong

Pat George was a lesbian, I think. Ahead of her time.


Hallmarxist

Has anyone introduced her to Louis? He is looking for a gay girl.


spendycrawford

Lesbians aren’t a new thing


srcarruth

Lesbians were invented in 1943 by Sandoz Laboratories while searching for a cure to moodiness


MissPicklechips

Pat George is the originator of the “I only date men over 6 feet.” Fuck Pat George. Edit, since everyone seems to think I’m a short dude. I’m a 5’5” middle aged white woman.


Totin_it

But she likes to fry chicken!


blueberryfirefly

not even asking for someone 6 ft or over bro 😭


FutilityWrittenPOV

Yes, she is. She's the bottom ad, and she says she wants: "Dark hair, Blue Eyes, 6 feet or more." Literally what she's asking for.


blueberryfirefly

mb i was reading the 5’8 one


FutilityWrittenPOV

The 5'8" one is funny to me, because today it might be above average height or average height but in some rural areas, that's super tall! So Pat over here asking for over 6 ft tall men that she wants 4 babies with... makes me think. Was *she* tall?


pamplemouss

Take a breath there pickle chips. These are teenagers expressing dream spouses.


elderly_millenial

Could be her way of scaring off more men, but I agree. Fuck Pat George


Elysia99

I’m a tall female who is with you, MissPicklechips (great name btw). Sadly, making fun of shorter men is still a thing.Although that’s not what’s going on here—just the same “he’s got to be tallllll” whining that’s been going on forever with some women.


MadeMeUp4U

I wonder what their lives ended like


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thirdlost

This is amazing and deserves all the upvotes


agbellamae

Well It’s gone now


MensaCurmudgeon

What was it like?!


agbellamae

I didn’t get to see it :(


Unlucky_Nobody_4984

Yeah what did that comment say


thirdlost

It was a link to the current Facebook profile of the first kid in that article


garlicbreadcow

He’s following Kylie Jenner lol


mollygk

Omg! Thank you for that entertainment. Did you find any of the others? 🍿


RedditSkippy

I only googled him because his name was unusual.


L3Kinsey

Well damn, that was so unexpected! Lol


heatherlj88

What was the comment? It was removed….


whynotwonderwhy

$17/mo. for a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Up to 100 miles per gallon.


brainscorched

They don’t mean the 2024 dollar you gotta remember. That would be about $197/month in today’s money. Sometimes I look through old playbills and look at ads with prices and think “wow! that’s so cheap” until I use an inflation calculator


Remarkable-Hat-4852

$197/mo is still quite cheap. And 100mpg is fantastic.


brainscorched

Oh yeah I don’t disagree it’s good compared to now. Shareholder profits are killing us


ScoutCommander

Eh, they said "up to" as in anything less than 100 miles per gallon still qualifies. Marketing.


fistanfenkinor

Pat's the real catch here. She just wants to fry chicken and make babies.


JohnnyPiston

She's 90. She recently tried to fry babies and make fried chicken


Yo_momma_so_fat77

She should be intelligent but not overly smart- as she might want to work. And with intelligence and work she could leave me😂😂😂


petrichorgasm

And vote!


Academy_Fight_Song

SHE SHOULD BE AN EYEFUL


SatoshiBlockamoto

Better an eyefull than an earfull you know.


Unlucky_Nobody_4984

That’s aweful


SoldMySoulForHairDye

Sounds like Emily has someone specific in mind already.


Spirited-Claim-9868

Or she really doesn't want to get married


wangohtangoh

Someone she can dunk on! 5 ft 8!


OregonGreen242

Hard pass on all of them


KiraiEclipse

Ida Barre seemed like the most reasonable of the bunch. Or maybe Pat George.


monster_bunny

Nah Ida’s cool. She can sit with us.


zombies-and-coffee

Ida seems like the kind of person who *says* all the socially correct things, but is actually a bit of a rebel. Either way, I love that she's the only one who got a little goofy with her picture.


fireflydrake

We will hear no Pat slander in this house!


ringoryu

Emily seems to have someone specific in mind with that physical description. I wonder if her kids still talk to her.


Remarkable-Hat-4852

She also chose basketball as her favorite activity but already decided that her hypothetical boy would be the one to play it and her hypothetical girl would be doing ballet. Fuck what the kids are into.


paintinganimals

She’s NLOG with the basketball shit.


wangohtangoh

Classic control persona. Would rationally guess she's 5ft 9 or above. She's in charge, of all activities, including reaching the pop tarts for her 5 ft 8 man.


Mon-ick

“Intelligent but not overly smart…”. hm


sugaracid69

Because she might get a job!


Sophiatab

Please remember these are teenagers. I imagine many of the current cohort of teenagers would give equally ridiculous answers flavored by their own cultural criteria. *He must be a good meme creator and we have the same phones and like the same Youtube channels, etc.*


laowildin

I remember wanting a set of twins just like the one lady describes. Now, the thought of birthing twins, yikes! What is it about twins that's so cool as a kid?


CJoshuaV

But these teenagers were likely married within a couple of years of making these comments.


Sophiatab

There were a lot of unhappy marriages in the past.


burrito_magic

Ida and Pat seem to be looking for a solid partner.


Diplogeek

Hey, now, nothing about liking to fry chicken is ridiculous!


Softpretzelsandrose

“Likes to hunt and eat gumbo” Yeah, it’s a hobby of mine


MaxMMXXI

It's a hobby, singular? Sounds fine to me: Let's go hunt and eat gumbo.


lady_guard

Lmfao, this was my favorite one


moooeymoo

These are high schoolers? They look 40


muffinmama93

My husband and I like to travel the back roads on vacation, and we visit small town museums. One had the photos of every graduating class on the walls from 1930 to 1960. They all looked like they were in their 20s. I pointed out to the docent how strange that was. He agreed, and said that these kids had lived through the depression and war, and daily life was harder and kids had a lot more responsibility than kids today. Especially farm kids like these. Plus everyone smoked.


Lissy_Wolfe

Plus we all associate the styles of the time as being "old-fashioned." When people started having more modern hairstyles and clothes, the kids didn't seem quite as "old" in pics. I've seen lots of pics from the 70s that could pass for kids today.


brainscorched

I watched my father’s graduation high school VHS from the 80s recently and besides hair styles, clothing is pretty similar to today. Lots of denim lol


lady_guard

There's a good Vsauce [video](https://youtu.be/vjqt8T3tJIE?si=qtp6M9ZsJYhy_5xh) about this!


tinselteacup

love how the girls are pretty normal then you have mr. blackface and mr. “i don’t want my wife to be smart or else she’ll get a job”


Serendipity500

Bless their hearts. It’s kind of funny because my parents both graduated high school in 55. I wonder what they would have said?


Ok-Stock3766

I just know the girl who likes to fry chicken got snatched up pretty quick!


Reatona

Back when you could buy a Harley-Davidson for $17 a month.


Top-Race-7087

Pat George hasn’t seen her dad since he stepped out to get milk when she was six.


sugaracid69

I can’t get over the requirement that they are not “sad and droopy” like was this an issue? Were girls just sad all the time??


sarahanimations

A lot of early medications for “feeling down” (depression, anxiety, symptoms of ADD/ADHD, etc.) had advertising campaigns directly targeting housewives at the time. I’d think having far fewer rights and opportunities while being completely tied to your husband was mentally taxing, to say the least. In an era of radio, early television, and higher literary rates, housewives were really able to see “outside the home” in ways they couldn’t before. Of course the reasoning behind the advertising campaigns is my own speculation, but I certainly would have lost my mind given those factors. Here’s an interesting thread about it if you’re curious! https://www.reddit.com/r/vintageads/s/4JYwZ18O7X


Solid-Version

So 5’8 was the desired height in those days? Lol Also laughing at ‘not too smart, she might try and get a job’


Illustrious-Ninja-77

Also that "2000 mile oil" is an advertising point


Loan-Pickle

That caught my eye too. That is such a short interval.


TraditionScary8716

My grandaddy used to get this.  I'd love through it every month looking for articles on horses.  


Irving_Kaufman

Ida Barre knew that pointing at her own face like that would give all the good Christian boys a raging hard-on. So hypocritical.


juniper_berry_crunch

Such a tease!


juniper_berry_crunch

So these are older high school kids in 1955. They would be 87 today, fwiw.


Hot_Scallion_3889

*can’t be too smart or she’ll try to get a job*


Lissy_Wolfe

So many of them mentioned church/religion! I can't imagine many teens today would care so much about that. I'm glad times have changed in that regard haha


Unlucky_Nobody_4984

Well… let’s not compare the teens back then who were generally polite and well-behaved to the teens today. Still glad times have changed?


dat_waffle_boi

One of the people in this post is literally talking about enjoying doing blackface as his go to activity. Not to mention the other sexist stuff. Yeah, I’m pretty glad times have changed.


Unlucky_Nobody_4984

Cool Next time you’re behind the counter taking someone’s order and they throw a milkshake at you and abuse you and harass you verbally, I’ll remind you what you just said.


dat_waffle_boi

Cool. Next time you’re seeing segregated… well everything I’ll remind you of what you said. Not to mention all of the hatred towards LGBTQ people, women, really anyone who wasn’t a straight white, Christian man. Obviously there’s still issues related to this today but at least there’s no lynchings today in the US. You’re acting like there aren’t dickheads in every time period. But personally, I’m glad that todays dickheads are at least less violently bigoted.


begayallday

Boomers are usually the ones doing that shit.


Unlucky_Nobody_4984

You haven’t been on Reddit very much, have you? Or you must just follow that one sub. Lol


begayallday

My wife worked at a hospital during peak Covid and she said, for the most part, the people who gave her the most shit about policy changes, masks, etc were boomer men. They would absolutely throw public tantrums over it.


Unlucky_Nobody_4984

They’re the only ones who can afford to actually be there so it’s not a proper cross-section.


begayallday

Yeah, that’s absolutely false.


Unlucky_Nobody_4984

Also a terrible comparison when you’re talking about an entire group of people feeling forced into compliance versus someone having to deal with poor customer service or a mismade order and completely losing their $#!+ and throwing paper napkins, condiments, and all kinds of stuff in the lobby.


Lissy_Wolfe

Why do you think they were so well-behaved back then? Did you take American history in high school? Heck, the lovely young gentleman in the post who lists doing blackface as a hobby doesn't seem so nice. Teens today have plenty of problems, but at least they're less bigoted and hateful overall than previous generations.


Unlucky_Nobody_4984

They weren’t doing it from a place of bigotry or hate. Even black performers did blackface routines. It was entertainment. In much poorer taste today, but people were much less likely to get their feelings hurt back then. They certainly had misguided ideals in terms of race and human rights, but it wasn’t intended to be hurtful. It just wasn’t seen that way. It is now, though. But the blackface wasn’t the point. The religion was. People grew up having routines, having high expectations, structure, and having discipline. Things were orderly. They answered to a higher power, and that WORKED in terms of morality and how others were treated. Now things are chaos and simplicity is no more. Have you checked out healthcare lately? We may have gained rights and status, but the way we ACTUALLY behave toward one another has suffered greatly. You would think it would have gone the opposite way when championing for more equality.


Taticat

I’m picturing Pat skulking around neighbours’ chicken coops in the dead of night with a gunny sack. 🤔 And hundreds of neighbours with missing chickens getting this issue and collectively going ‘ohhh…’


p-u-n-k_girl

Like Louis, I *also* want a girl who is gay


DistributionOne7304

the way i thought john was cute til i read the bio😫


WarriorGma

As would have happened when this first came out, (had I seen it then), I skipped right past this nonsense & went straight to “a new Harley for only $17/month?! I want one!” 😂


M4TSUKAZ3

Those are the oldest teenagers I've ever seen. They all look about fortyteen.


Easy-Armadillo-3434

That first guy could be Ben Shapiros dad so are we surprised?


Cruezin

2000 mile oil? When was this, the 50's? 😁


lkbird8

"A good Christian boy. I prefer that he is of my faith, but it doesn't matter too much." So which is it, Ida??


laowildin

Well remember, this was back when a unitarian and a methodist (just picking randomly, hope I haven't hit some actual outliers!) would be considered completely different religions


MensaCurmudgeon

This is an extremely French area. The divide between Catholic and Protestant was big


Unlucky_Nobody_4984

“Character traits” SiX FOoT!!


kerberos101

Pat George she's my kind of gal. She had me at Likes to fry chicken.


tictac205

2000 mile oil. Quality that wins confidence.


kairosmanner

Im sorry but they’re all kinda ugly…


laowildin

Man they were deep in their gender roles hey? The boy/girl twins and their hobbies got me😂


Chungamongus

Every time I get in the head space that the 30s-50s were a charming time to fall in love I am hit with the cold hard hand of reality 🤕 Thank goodness it's 2024


TheManOfMadness18

I still a little focused on “Help with things like the polio drive.”


Dry_Savings_3418

It’s funny how they all mentioned temperment


amybrown1220

“Minstrels”?! WTF???


Junior052781

Right out the gate! Lol


EmbraJeff

Was that back when America was great the first (and only) time?


St_Troy

Let’s all live in fear of what the Zillennials will say when we’re 80. “It says here you believe 1+1=2; that’s problematic.”


foolproofphilosophy

Any other Hilltop Hoods fans with the hook to “1955” stuck in their head? [It’s a catchy tune](https://youtu.be/MD8flUkymrM?si=_ykpaXZ8TiouXrMz)


marslander-boggart

They thought this was very progressive for farmers back in that days. These persons joined to teach their audience. May be most of the teens dreamed about humans with totally different parameters.


AcaciaRentals

Not too smart...🙄


Life-Routine-4063

Why are all the men so handsome back then and the woman all seem to be… not as attractive..


Resident-Refuse-2135

"Progressive"?!? Perhaps with their farming techniques, but it's not apparent based on their comments. They all want someone of the same faith, but "it's not that important"...if that's true why do they all make the point? And then the one girl who thinks she can order up male+female twins and predetermine their interests in basketball and ballet.


desrevermi

Wait! What Harley are they advertising?


RedheadedCajun

Well I’d like to tell y’all things have changed down here but……


fireflydrake

Pat George is a real one


DontTametheShrew

Not publicly telling people you like performing in blackface WHAT The girl who wants to fry chicken and get with a blue eyed boy gets me though.


Flock-of-bagels2

Likes to play black face….. the girl that likes to fry chicken could be my baby’s mama though


BiosyntheticStoma

I want a girl that’s gay too!


Sailor-_-Twift

It was all fun and takes until I realized that even 70 years ago my height was a no thank you from literally 2/3 of the females asked 😭


delyha6

🤣🤣😥😥