Why Old Stuff Was Better

You don’t really think of the 1950s as “decades ago”, but it was.

Yes, in 2026, we’re not even a century away from the centennial capital of tradition that was the 1950s.

That said, it seems that a lot of things that we use today have lost the quality that they used to have decades ago.

1940s and 1950s Quality

When I was very young — for a brief time — I actually believed that the 1950s was all in “black and white”.

It was the decade where most people, regardless of political persuasion, seem to mark as the modern beginning of time.

Much of this has to do with the rise of television during that decade. For the first time in documented history, we have television to encapsulate any decade into a commodity in motion.

I like stuff from the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. I like the aesthetic, and the quality. Things were built to endure. It wasn’t about how many units you sold. It was about the value of selling one unit.

Therefore, companies put a lot of care into the quality of what they made.

Let’s look at this beautiful illustration of a 1950s electric range—the Frigidaire Flair, designed to be built into the kitche’s perimeter so that it doesn’t take up too much space. Inside the range is what appears to be a fowl of some sort. Perhaps it is a turkey, or a goose. It’s definitely not a TV dinner,

People who owned this range in the past claimed that the range’s parts lasted for several decades. Today, the steam from coffee makers will melt its own plastic control panel.

In those days, companies valued what people thought.

Today, market researches have the ability to review ginormous amounts of consumer data on a level unprecedented in recent history. Yet, very few companies actually apply that data because the data is more of a form of currency than it is for marketing and product development.

Maybe that is the key thing that modern business needs. Quality, durability, and design with intention in mind. For that one customer, and not for the droves.