Freckled marionette Howdy Doody was kind of a big deal at the onset of the 50s, so it was no surprise that LIFE magazine hosted a lookalike contest. 
Wondering what galluses were? A pair of suspenders. Nobody says that now.
Poor kids. Surely George Ford grew into those ears. I imagine he never lived this article down. Pity.
The winner was five year old Billy Oltmann (Old Man at this point). Cute as a button in his bandana and western wear!
Time to celebrate his big win with Hostess Twinkies!
I may have conquered using apps on a smart phone or removing jams from testy copy machines, but the technology of yore frightens me. I don’t get it now, and I certainly wouldn’t have gotten in back in 1955, at the University of Colorado.
Nope. Too many wires.
Next up: isotopes. Haven’t talked about proton/neutron stuff since high school, and I’m not gonna start now.
She is clearly steering a cardboard ship, but I know not what the men do.
Too many black holes and knobs in the cube. It doesn’t even fit in my pocket.
Get a load of this jet engine compressor! I’d rather feed a porcupine.
And this last one takes the cake, with “nurse aids performing the pleasant task of hairbrushing for a paralytic.” Pleasant? That looks like a nightmare. 
Rapture, take me now.
Do you suppose it’s pantyhose on their faces, like robbers don?
Even living in Texas, I’ve never heard of hitting a piñata for Christmas. One might lose the bat (or cane, as it were) and fling it into the Christmas tree, making it a holiday to remember.
Today’s images are all Christmas scenes from dorm life at the University of Texas in 1955. Some images were inaccurately labeled, like this one.
Not everyone. Not Carol.
These Spooks don’t seem to be haunting anything.
This girl seems horrified by her friend’s decoration. Thankfully, Santa is supervising.
We see scenes of tree trimming and wrapping paper cutting.
Men topping a diminutive tree.
Late night gift exchanges.
Ah, the excitement of the first tear!
Before IKE meant “I know, eh?” which sounds soooooo Canadian, Ike meant Dwight Eisenhower, as in the former president. All the boys in his family were called Ike; he was “Little Ike” as the youngest. And who could have imagined one day women would be sitting on a hardwood floor, clapping for him, wearing his nickname all over their flouncy dresses?
I Don't Get It 