The party is more fun the more you prepare so begin early!
A month before the party date you should begin gathering paraphernalia of the 1950s. Put out a call to your fellow staffers for any and all games and toys from the fifties. The more you can gather the more fun you will have at the party. A short list of games and toys follows.
Plastic wall hangings are available, rather inexpensively, from catalogues or party stores. You might plan to include one life-size poster of Elvis and use it as a photo opportunity. Also available are wall “runners” that depict a soda shop and really enhance the feeling of the fifties.
The day before the party, place posters around the building advertising the “Rockin’ Fifties” party. Include the fact that the venue will include a soda fountain, fifties music (CDs), and nostalgic toys and games.
The day of the party, dress tables with checkered table covers, and red and white napkins. The centerpiece for each table will be a small collection of the items you have garnered from the fifties. Be sure they are within reach of participants so they can handle them as they wish.
Hang the wall murals and pictures. Place the Elvis poster in an area easily accessible for photos and perhaps prop a guitar next to the photo and it would be great if you could find someone who plays and is willing to bring a guitar or two and a guitar stand.
CDs of fifties music are plentiful. It is fun to have the music but only for gathering time as during the party itself, the music is distracting and makes it difficult for participants to hear the emcee.
Staff are encouraged to dress in the era; pedal pushers with bobby socks and saddle shoes, poodle skirts, oversized white shirts, white T-shirts with rolled sleeves and blue jeans, penny loafers, “ducktail” hairdo, ponytails.
The most fun part of the party may well be the hula hoop contest. Find several people who can still twirl the hoop, or if there is only one willing participant, keep track of the time the hoop is actually in motion and get party goers to cheer them on.
The emcee also moves from table to table sharing the items that are on display, asking people if they ever had such items in their homes or if they, themselves, ever played with such toys.
Burma Shave signs were a popular sight along highways throughout the 50s. The week of the party, post posters of Burma Shave slogans throughout your facility. Not only will the residents remember and enjoy them but so will their guests.
Enjoying the Party!!
One corner or wall of the party venue is set aside and decorated as a soda fountain. Place banners or posters along the front of the serving table and give it a soda shop appeal. Make a large tent menu to set on the table and use colors reminiscent of a soda shop: mint green, pink, and white. Making small tent menus for each table will add to the soda shop image and will help when gathering every participant’s order for ice cream as they will have had time to consider their choices.
