Tell me about the '60s (vanity)

[HungarianGypsy]

I am wanting to write a story based on a young adult in the 1960s. Since I was born in 1973 all I really know is what I studied in books. But, I want to get beyond love beads and LSD. I want to be able to write this as it really was. I know it's said if you remember the '60s you weren't really there. But, if anyone does remember I would appreciate reading your stories and facts. Thank you.

[rhombus]

Don't forget the Kennedy - Nixon debates (Fall of 60?). I think Dick's 5 O'Clock shadow and the sweat on his upper lip sunk him. With radio he might have been elected. I also remember watching Osweld get it live on television. And don 't forget the famous anti-Goldwater ad that had the little girl plucking daisy petals with the atomic countdown? Now that was a great visual manipulation.

[decimon]

Get the DVD Fog of War and view it ten times while contemplating all that is there.

The get the DVD The Weather Underground and view it ten times while contemplating all that is there.

That should give you a start.

[Holicheese]

My dad would yell at me if I turned the channels too fast!

[dfwgator]

Great music of all kinds, including Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

Anything from the A&M Label was great. Brasil 66, Jobim's "Wave" album. That was my Dad's music and I grew up on that stuff. Whenever I listen to it, it takes me back to my childhood days. That's my 60s Soundtrack.

[OldBlondBabe]

I was born in the late 50s, so I was a young kid in the 60s, teen in the 70s. Another post mentioned families eating together, as did ours. We only had one car (without air-conditioning) and for a while, one bathroom. If the weather was nice, we were outside, playing with neighbor kids and riding bikes (usually hand-me-downs from older cousins). My mother made remarks every evening about how dirty we got while playing outside. Our family "vacations" were spent visiting my mother's sisters and their families in Niagara Falls, NY. Most of my classmates had at least 2 siblings; most had 3 or 4, some had 5 or more. Most of my elementary school (public) classes had more than 30 students. We walked to and from school. Potato chips and coke were a treat that we had in the evening when we stayed up "late" on Friday nights. Our milk and other dairy products were delivered (Twin Pines). The milk was in glass bottles and we gave the empty bottles back. Everyone's house had a "milk chute". I remember my younger sister shimmying through one because we forgot our key.

[Lando Lincoln]

The Green Bay Packers dominated pro football.

[blu]

Parents could punish their kids anyway they wanted.
"Father" (the priest, from church or school) RULED. No one ever questioned him.

When the race riots broke out, they didn't just happen in the big cities, like Detroit and LA. They happened in smaller towns, too. For kids who didn't get the whole "black vs. white" thing, they were very scary (especially when only a few miles from home) and foggy. We didn't know or care who was fighting, what they were fighting about, we just didn't want them burning down our house.

Catholic women who took "the pill" were all but excommunicated, and definitely did not take communion.

Yoko didn't shut up, and broke up the band.

Nehru collars...those where cool! Colored fishnet stockings were appropriate for church, as long as one's Mary Janes matched.

Whole families would wear matching outfits.

LBJ was a skunk. When he came on TV and said "Mah friends, Ah come to ya with a heavy heart" my brothers and I got years of laughs out of adding "cos I ate too much chili n' beans" (!)

Back then, the Rolling Stones were really a good group (She's a Rainbow, and the B side (was that the one about lightyears from home?)
Bill Cosby's "Noah" story, on LP, was a big hit.

Gas was .25 a gallon. Girls (whose name I won't mention) got suspended from school for wearing pants (gasp!). (1967 or 68) Some girls, having seen the older ones (on TV,of course) burning their bras, decided just to not wear a bra.

Gym uniforms were hideous...bloomer kinda things with an attached top. I think they were designed when the school was built, about 1890.

Most families had one car.Kids were learning about sugar in the gas tank and potatoes in the tailpipe.Girls who got pregnant were still, mostly, going to live with "Aunt Jane" in another state, then returning after about a year. And, last but important: GIRLS WERE ALLOWED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN HOME EC AND SHOP! Finally, someone in the office realized that so many girls were from such big families that the girls could probably teach the home ec classes.

[dfwgator]

Bill Cosby's "Noah" story, on LP, was a big hit.

Riiiiiight!

[alice_in_bubbaland]

LOL! Same here, Dad would give us a demonstration on how the change the channels properly.

[OB1kNOb]

Three TV stations, ABC, NBC, CBS. All of them went off the air at midnight after playing the national anthem. No cable. No PC's. No calculators. No CD's. Records were vinyl. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

[rhombus]

One thing to consider is the effect of Color TV. Once color TV came into most homes, NY and Hollywood and advertisers went nuts for about 10 years experimenting with different color schemes, the bolder the better. How else to explain bright orange kitchen counters, outrageous hair colors, wide ties, and lime-green automobiles?

And the interst in drugs perhaps? Of course a draft that lasted for years and years while we grew up might have had something to do with baby-boomer escapism too.

[Miss Didi]

Having Koo-laid stands. Playing kickball in the street, Spud, Monkey in the Middle, Mother May I, Hopscotch, Hide 'n Seek, and Stone Teacher. Riding bikes everywhere. Banana seats. Putting cards in your bike spokes. Pants--hot, stove pipe, clam diggers, elephant and bell bottoms. Watching Captain Kangaroo, Romper Room, Gumby, Go Go Gophers, Batman. Eating Popsicles, Freeze pops, Hotballs, Gum balls, Penny Candy. Bringing cupcakes to school on your birthday. Singing patriotic and religious songs in public school. Bobby Sherman records.

[Carolinamom]

Children's car seats (if you even had one) were metal frames w/canvas seats (no seat belts) and hooked over the car's FRONT seat.

[OB1kNOb]

No remote controls. No internet. No email. No pagers. No cell phones.

[svcw]

Anyone else have only three pairs of shoes: church shoes, school schools and play shoes. And they would rotate as such, usually by the time shoes became play shoes they really did not fit anymore.

[Larry Lucido]

STUTE? STUTE? What was I thinking.

Maybe you're like me. I have a cute dyslexia. I mean acute dyslexia.

[linda_22003]

And the Ponderosa actually looked REAL, back then.

[rhombus]

Bill Cosby's "Noah" story, on LP, was a big hit. Riiiiiight!

Hey was that the one with Fat Albert and Buck, Buck...that really was a big hit.

[Howlin]

When you list all those things we were witness to for the first time, rhombus, what we have seen in our "area" of this century has been truly amazing, hasn't it?

I actually feel sorry for younger people sometime because they are never truly AMAZED or in AWE of something.

I, too, saw all those things; you've given me a trip back in time; and for each thing you've mentioned, I can remember EXACTLY where I was standing. Literally.

[Professional Engineer]

Spock did too much LDS.