The whole country of United States of America was a wonderful place when I arrived as a graduate student in engineering in 1960. I was enrolled in University of Iowa, and in spite of the brutal winters there, I loved the place. There were no long hair, torn jeans, unshaved faces or drug addicts in university. OK so we drank beers on weekends. Later came Vietnam war and it was the beginning of the demise.
In 1960, what you describe was the entire USA. The VN war really started the counterculture ball rolling. The black riots in the mid 60s were a disaster, too. The Pill really caused morals to decline through “recreational sex.” And the nation was still feeling rather muscular in 1960, only 15 years after the end of WW II, and Pax Americana was the rule.
Mark Steyn’s excellent book “America Alone” discusses how two World Wars so damaged Europe that people became fatalistic, ennui set in, and birth rates fell below replacement in many places. Some of the same fatalism took root in the USA, too.
I went to engineering school at the University of Missouri in Fall 1969 and we were really a secluded, rather peaceful place blissfully far removed from all the VN War riots and unrest.
We were there at the same time mate!😀