Posted on 09/29/2005 6:19:24 PM PDT by operation clinton cleanup
"It was the age of selfishness. It was the age of self-indulgence. It was the age of anti-authority. It was an age in which people did all kinds of wrong things."
- Ed Meese III, U.S. Attorney General, Reagan Administration
"It was absolutely exhilarating. It was the greatest time to be alive ever, for sure."
- Charles Kaiser, Author/Historian
Link doesn't work, could you try again?
Yes. It was a big deal (the Halloween killer in Houston). Everyone was trying to get mothers to give our treats that weren't edible. I gave out nickels & dimes, and my kids were so embarrassed they didn't want to claim me as their mother. I loved getting pennies when I was a kid, but my kids and all their friends wanted CANDY -- the gooeyer the better.
Do you remember the name of the treat the killer used? Was it Pixie Stick?
I thought giving money was great -- no candy in the house to munch on afterward (watching the waistline) and the left overs went right back into the grocery budget. But my idea was NOT a hit. Pencils and pads were too expensive to purchase 100 pieces.
I have about 20 dead friends who wish the 60's never happened.
I go with statement #1.
Except in Berkeley where it all started with the Free Speech Movement (led by Mario Savio -- another transplanted New Yorker) in February 1964 as a protest against Governor Ronald Reagan.
A lot of the headliners in the Berkeley protests were NOT students in the beginning. They were bums who had come out to CA to take advantage of the low tuition for a fine education and were just marking time while they waited to earn their state's residency.
They got caught up in drugs (which really didn't start on the Berkeley Campus in any noticeable way until 1963). They became hangers-on to the "Bohemian" crowd that frequented the coffee houses and poetry readings. Then, somehow they became involved with an antiwar element as VN heated up and started protesting the draft -- probably because they were vulnerable since they were not enrolled in school.
At first the high schoolers became captivated by these folks and then regular UC students joined in. Somewhere along the way they adopted the nome "Hippie" and later "Yippie", thanks to Jerry Rueben. Jerry was a little older than the rest and made a run for Mayor of Berkeley in 1967. He was soundly defeated, thank God. However Rueben was part of a "slate" and one member was actually elected from that slate to the State Assembly -- Ron Dellums. Dellums had been planted in the open district by a branch of the Communist Party just a few months prior to filing for the election. (True, true, true.) I knew the realtor who showed him his house and Dellums didn't even know that he needed money to buy a house and didn't know anything about down payments.
Dellums came back the following week with cash to put down on the property and was thrown a "welcome party" by the local organizer of the Communist Party. There were about 5 people running for that open seat and Dellums eked out a victory. From there he went on to a long career in Congress and eventually became chair of the Armed Services Committee -- Red Ron!
I counted the votes in one precinct in that election (where a lot of professors and Communists lived) and there was no spread among the candidates in that district -- solid Dellums. There was no apparent reason for that. The rest of the slate did not get such a heavy vote and there were other fine candidates who should have gotten a certain percentage of all the votes cast. There had to have been a concerted word of mouth campaign.
We still have the Dellums influence in Congress because the woman who took his place was hand picked by him and formerly worked in his office.
Hillary Rodham worked out there about that time as an intern for a local lawyer who was known as the mouthpiece of the Communist Party and she's still influential too! (Much to my displeasure.)
Ah the selfish self-absorption of the '60s freaks....
I am absolutely convinced this selfish commie generation was primarily the fault of an a$$hole called DR. SPOCK.
Nixon was a "two time loser" -- not three. He lost the Presidency to Kennedy and then lost the Governorship to Pat Brown (Jerry's father). Everyone thought he was finished after that, so his strong showing and win in 1968 was a surprise to the Dems and a welcome relief to the Republicans.
Yes...makes me think that it wasn't the Greatest Generation after all. (Especially since Tom Brokaw coined the term and I don't trust him either.)
Why everyone here is hating on the 60's, straight from the horse's mouth.
Very interesting first hand account. You were right in the middle of it all.
I was always under the impression that Bohemians became hippies, but it sounds like they were an older crowd.
I consider myself fortunate. I was born in 1961, so by the time I was old enough to care about anything more substantial than baseball, it was 1974. I remember thinking then that the behavior was goofy. Now I think it was irresponsible and dangerous.
Why don't you read what I wrote. I know all that. Did I say I said that. I stated a teacher said that. Do I need to be specific and state the teacher was attempting to predict the future of the election. Thatt is the trouble with some on this board. They need specifics or they do not understand the basic statement(s).
And your peers are part of why I don't like "Boomers" encompassing 20 years, or esp. why I don't like '70s "Children" being lumped in w/the '60s "Children".
You all were very different.
And I don't believe - never have - the tripe about the '70s Children being the "Me" generation. BS. Talk about the Pot calling the Kettle black. There was no bigger ME generation than the hippies '60s gen. (And I repeat, that's not ALL "Boomers".)
Yes. An abbreviated but accurate description of the mindset of the times, at least the mindset of those interested in changing their mindset, which was what it was about. Of course, it was driven by LSD, a drug taken not just by crazy kids but also by serious people including NASA scientists hoping for creative breakthroughs. Perhaps some people had good results, but in the man, it caused widespread devastation.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1493942/posts?page=308#308
No, they weren't, if they raised the WORST Gen ever. They were the 1s who caved and bought Dr. Spock in droves.
(IMO, the Greatest Generation was the "Founding" generation. Period.)
The '60s were driven by LSD and marijuana and opened the door wide to other drugs. So it was the beginning of the whole downward spiral.
I keep hoping, just like their parents and uncles, but in a weird ironic twist, the current emerging generation will REBEL against the '60s-ish crapola that's permeated our culture since then.
Frankly, I don't care if it's just to be in rebellion. Anything's better than nothing, and we'll get some serious 1s along w/the merely rebellious types.
I was thirty in 1965, which meant I was beyond the pale. But, you are right. Forrest Gump got it right. Compare Forrest with the love of his life. Forest always did the right thing.
Founding generation also stellar.
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