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.

[Gay State Conservative]

Great music... I still have Motown collections in the car.

Motown,British Invasion,lots of stuff from before the British Invasion,early and mid 60's folk....

[HungarianGypsy]

I smell another Boomer v. Xer battle brewing.

Oh! I really hope not. Since I am an Xer I would be a bit cheesed off if that happened because of me.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Mrs. Slim realized liberal men were trash when the organizer of an SDS rally asked the "girls" to bring cookies.

[Kenton]

For the early part of the '60s, see "American Graffiti". For the latter part, see "Full Metal Jacket". That was the '60s.

[armymarinemom]

Great music but a lot of bad movies.
Teachers actually expected good behavior from students.
If a student found herself in the family way she went away for a year.
Girls had to wear a dress to school.
AM radio stunk and you had to pay bigger bucks to get an FM radio in your car.
Muscle cars ruled.
Most people got up to change the channel on their TV's.

[sheik yerbouty]

Some of it is classified information..

[Tijeras_Slim]

You had streetlights?

[3AngelaD]

Just about everyone in school then actually learned to read.

[randita]

In 1969, when the lottery system for the draft was instituted, a lot of young men in my high school class were pretty nervous.

Classic rock came into its own. I recall hour after hour sitting with my friends listening to Blood, Sweat and Tears, Moody Blues and Chicago.

As teenagers and young women, it was still safe for us to drive down to Steel Pier in Atlantic City, dance, see a concert and walk the Boardwalk safely at night. Forget that now.

Mostly we just went to school, studied sometimes, hung out with friends and stayed out of trouble.

I recall the assassination of JFK and the man on the moon making a big impression on me. Other than that, I wasn't that interested or involved in politics.

[bankwalker]

Great stuff short term - devastating long term - just like communism.

concerts if SF until 4 am.

hare krishnas

first joint

touched Grace Slicks butt at a concert after looking up her little black dress on stage for over an hour because I was in the front row.

can't believe I'm not dead after some of the stuff I did.

hell's angel's

drove around with beer all the time. When caught police just dumped it out and told us to go home.

No seat belts, helmets, cell phones, answering machines.

Lotsa freedom

halter tops

much, much more

[CatoRenasci]

Depends where you were: I grew up just North of San Francisco. I graduated from high school in June 1966. My senior year, I knew of only a few kids who smoked pot or dropped acid, although the Mexicans were all rumored to use pot. A year later, according to friends a year behind me, by mid-1967 between 60-75% of the then senior class had smoked pot (at least). Meeting up with my high school friends after a year of college, I found virtually all of them had at least tried pot. But, that was California.

[4yearlurker]

No video games,ipods,cable TV,cell phones,Home computers,VCR,CD,DVD,etc... When you put a station on the TV,it stayed on that station! No channel flipping. You had to make your own fun as a kid,like.Riding bikes,(No helmet necessary),Fishing,build a tree fort,Read books. You could buy a clunker car for $35.00! I had loads of fun in the 60's.

[Vigilanteman]

We were, I swear, the only people in the neighborhood who did not own a TV. Not that we couldn't afford it, but because my father thought it was a time waster. Every now and then, he would break down and buy a crippled used TV. This would last maybe a year.

My sister finally broke down and bought her own TV from babysitting money. I think it was a 13 inch black and white. She charged us 3 cents per hour to come into her room to watch, 5 cents for Star Trek. I got a discount because I made tickets and assisted her in enforcement.

There was an upside. With no TV, my brother and I spent most summer days playing ball with our friends. We did out morning chores before lunch and then didn't come home to stay until dark, which was 10 p.m. or later in North Dakota. Supper was a very hurried affair to get back to the game. In the wintertime, we build snow forts, tunnels and trenches to defend our turf. The only season we didn't care for was spring when it was too muddy to play baseball and too warm to have anything other than isolated patches of melted snow.

The first time I smoked weed was second-hand, at a Doobie Brother concert in college. Contraty to the Clintonistas, there were a lot of people who grew up in the 1960's who managed to stay off drugs and keep their zippers up. We were only a small part of that number.

[confederacy of dunces]

I graduated from high school in 1974. I learned how to drive in a Volkswagen Bus. :)

Lots of us grew up in Leave it to Beaver Land.

Not everyone hated President Nixon.

[tiredoflaundry]

My mother had them installed! ;o)

[Al Gator]

In 1969 during hunting season, at 2:45 when class let out, I would open the trunk of my car and put on some hunting overalls. I would pull my trusty, rusty pump shotgun out, meet with a few other dudes. We would walk into the gym. The gym teacher got his stuff on and grabbed his piece from a locker. Up the stairs we went, down the hall past the principal's office, out the front door and across the street to the open fields on the other side.

That's how it was.

[GOP_Proud]

Actually, some people made it thru without any drugs or sex.

I was a boring teen.

[Dan(9698)]

Get the book "Radical Son" by David Horowitz.

He was the editor of Ramparts magazine and the foremost spokesman for the radical left during the 60s.

His book is an accurate portrail of the history of the time.

I was born in 1939, and was married in 1962. His portrail is exactly as I remember the 1960s.

[visualops]

My mother bought me Danskin pants and you couldn't tell the back from the front.
I hated those pants.

[Tax-chick]

Most people got up to change the channel on their TV's.

Other people only got one channel, unless their brother stood on top of the TV with an antenna in each hand :-).

And the TV was big enough for him to do that, and weighed 250 lbs.!