The 1950s aren't so far back in time that people can't rely more on their family's and other families' experience of what it was like in the 50s. Or are we really more informed by TV shows and sitcoms than we are by actual experiences?
But they never talked about it as a time of ease and plenty, and the kids all went to college on scholarships, not parent payments. My grandparents were nostalgic for some cultural norms of the 1950s, but not the economic conditions. They seemed to think their kids had much nicer lives with more opportunities, and the grandkids even more so.