My parents had a new home in a new development when I was born so there was a true feeling of those photos you see of tract homes in the 50's, but this was the 60's. The entryway and living room were separated on the left and right by a dividing wall made of concrete bricks, which were white and had a square pattern in the center, providing support while enabling you to see through. Also making excellent if not annually easy place for hiding and finding easter eggs.
My brother, David, finds a hidden egg. His height was the bane of my existence each Easter.
The living room itself had wood paneling on the left wall, and shelves on the right. The shelves were ones that because staples in the house and traveled with us to Pennsylvania and back, some still standing [or hanging depending on symantics] in my mother's house today. These were shelves that had wall mounted vertical railings into which support brackets were inserted for the left and right of a given shelf. The shelf itself was wood veneer and had notches into which the bracket tips would insert for relative but not absolute stability. I can personally attest to having tipped these without intending to do so. The wall would usually have about 3 or 4 vertical columns of shelves that could be staggered in height. On them would rest decorative items such as a posable wooden human figure, the 'penny eater', the African man and woman busts, and of course, my father's stereo.
The shelves, and the 'Hi-Fi' to the far left
The stereo at that time was a focal point and essential component of the home. I know it was a source of pride and pleasure for dad. It had tubes, which says how old it was, and the stereo would always take a minute or two to warm up once it was turn on and the tubes in the back came alive with a subtle orange glow. When shut off, they'd gradually lose the orange glow as they lost the residual power. I can remember as 'recent' as 1972 when we moved out to San Jose, going with my father to a stereo store on San Carlos St in San Jose, one dealing in used and older equipment, which had the same musty smell as his old Peugeot or the leather and canvas bag that was his fathers. This store was the source of said tubes, required for repairing and reviving the aging system. But in LA, in the early 1960's, this was a system deserving of respect. Not only was there a tuner and amp, but there was a microphone on a stand and a reel-to-reel tape deck. Karaoke was not quite the rage yet so I don't expect the microphone was for singing, but for recording onto the tape deck, something I know he did and would give anything to find and transfer the audio from those long lost reels. There was a stack of boxed real-to-real recording, both homemade dictation as well as record company release complete with the same artwork and notes/credits that you'd also find on LPs at the time, then 8-tracks, cassettes, and eventually CDs. Mp3's are sadly missing this minor eloquence.
One more hidden aspect to this setup was the headphone jack wired into the paneled wall. My father had run the wiring under the house and into the wall, into which he installed a headphone jack so he could sit on the couch, across from the stereo, and listen to his music. Now we have cordless headphones, or better still, iPods, to address the discerning listener's requirements. My father would be thrilled by today's technology, as I suspect I would be of that which might exist in 2050, but that's for another entry.