What it was like Growing Up in 1960’s and 1970’s America

Metallicman ^ | 23DEC18 | Editorial staff

[vannrox]

Here, I would like to relate a little about what it was like growing up as a boy in Pennsylvania. For, I am a native born American who lived through the 1960’s and through the 1970’s. I am pretty typical for my generation. The 1970’s was the decade of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. It ended on a whimper with Jimmy Carter at the helm. Here we talk about the 1960’s and 1970’s and what it was like growing up at that time. School

I attended elementary school. First I attended a private Catholic school in Connecticut, and then when my father was promoted we moved and I attended a public school in Western Pennsylvania.

Allowance

Before I started work, I was permitted an allowance. My sisters both received an allowance with no strings attached. Mine was contingent upon my successful completion of my chores, and usually meant that I would get “paid” after I mowed the grass on Saturday (shoveled the drive in the Winter).



As a kid, my allowance of $1.00 per week was given to me every Saturday afternoon after the grass was successfully mowed. The hardest part was deciding how to spend it and get the very most out of every penny. Of course, a trip to the corner store for candy always figured into the picture!

One of my favorite treats was Dubble Bubble – a hard piece of pink bubble gum that included a tiny printed comic tucked between the gum and the outer wrapper, all for just a penny. I remember my first experience with inflation – the day when the

[RightGeek]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubble_Bubble

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Psst...Jethro Tull was a real person, an English agriculturalist around the turn of the 18th century.

[napscoordinator]

You should ask her if she snuck and voted democrat. Might make for a good laugh. Dems back then were normal at least.

[The FIGHTIN Illini]

Grew up in 60s and 70s. I remember going out after supper with my ‘crew’ and we would back up to the light pole and hit it just right with the bottom of our foot and out would go the street light. Run to the next and repeat. The neighborhood would go ‘dark’ for about 15 minutes while the lights would recover and turn back on while we laughed and rubbed the bottoms of our bruised feet!

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

We had NO TEACHERS that looked anything like that.Of course our principal was a Nam infantry combat vet and was the coolest guy I ever met and that was 42 years ago.Norman S Barkey IIRC.

[rlmorel]

Bfl

[Skooz]

Skooz enduring forced labor. Age 2:

Skooz with his new sweet wheels. Age 6 or 7:

Growing up in America in the 1960s and 1970s might be as good as growing up in any other place and time in world history.

[Tennessee Conservative]

I probably should ask her. LOL Back in the 60’s the Northern Democrats weren’t bad. It was the Southern Democrats that were racist but they are worse now that they have gone so far left. They were decent after the civil rights area and up until 20 years ago. That’s how I remember it anyway but I was young. Once she realized how bad they were she converted to Republican.

[Lurker]

For later.

L

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Within two years of our high school being integrated a large number of white kids were acting like hoodrats.It was disgusting.Instead of bringing them up it brought us down.

[daler]

I was born in 1952.

Mom, dad, and five kids lived comfortably on dad's income-he owned a small retail store.

Mom stayed home to raise the kids, home-cooked meals were served at "normal" times, and the entire family gathered at home in the evening.

Both parents working just to stay afloat, scrambling to get the kids to and from daycare, obnoxiously obscene celebrities and a Democrat party filled with unpatriotic radicals weren't yet a part of American culture.

Sadly, there are many who look down their noses and scoff at those of us who fondly remember that earlier era.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

We build the coolest shit.

[al_c]

Yep ... life was a lot easier back then. Good times!

[READINABLUESTATE]

I was born in 59. The pictures on this thread all look like people who I knew. Especially the teacher in the class photo... Hippy. Our hippy was Mr Redmond -art teacher.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Loved that movie.

[OrioleFan]

I pumped gas, checked oil, cleaned windshield and headlights, topped off washer fluid and checked the belts at my Dad’s Texaco Service Station and grocery store after school and Saturdays. That and mowing got me money. I also worked in the local tobacco fields. I don’t remember ever getting paid for that backbreaking work. Tobacco was labor intensive. I remember getting a couple of weeks off at the start of school to harvest the tobacco.

In the fall and winter spent a lot of time in the woods, hiking and hunting.

[minnesota_bound]

#3 I got .25 while my older sister got use of a credit card. My parents would stiff me out of the quarter!

[antidemoncrat]

My wife taught in Pennsylvania then and I don’t think there were any teachers that looked like that at her school.

[Bonemaker]

You make perceptive observations, and I remember that election very well. I would argue though that today our major enemy is NOT Russia but rather the American left which is far more dangerous than the old Soviet Union.

[trebb]

Born in ‘52 and saw the degeneration from an even longer period of time.....even at 7 and 8 years old, I was learning that if I wanted Grandpa to give me a dime for some goodies at the corner store (still remember old Mrs. Allen running the store and watching out the windows to be sure the kids were OK), I had to clean the driveway or the porch or do some other chores to earn it.....also wasn’t odd for us to go out at first light, play and end up at someone’s house for a baloney sandwich for lunch, then play again and not show up at our own home until supper time....