Posted on 01/09/2007 9:18:52 AM PST by 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.
I remember girls putting their hair on the ironing board to straighten it. I never did that, but I did go into the "colored neighborhood" and buy hair straightening product. Nobody was afraid to go into a "colored neighborhood."
Oh yes, I ironed my hair, and burned my neck trying to do it. And "colored", that word alone takes me back. We did not have anyone of color who even lived in our small town. A lot of things have changed for the better. Including Curling Iron and straight rods.
We had those too. If I had to do that now I'd have an array of broken bones.
We would rush home from school to watch Dark Shadows at a friends house. My Mom didn't allow us to watch it at home, she thought it was too scary. LOL!
I got my first record album with S&H green stamps. It was the Beatles 'Sgt. Pepper'.
S&H Green Stamps..... that takes me back. I would sell mine back and also sell back coke bottles. I married young so was looking for ways to buy groceries. Not sure why my exhusband had a plant hanging upside down in our closet.....
We lived in Bayville and went to St. Patricks Catholic School in Glen Cove.
We watched " Duck and Cover ' in sixth grade and had monthly air raid drills where we went to the lavs in the basement of the schol and put our heads down and against the wall . Also , Bell Telephone films with Dr. Frank Baxter and Richard Carlson .Hemo the Magnificient was one of my favorites . Disney in Black and White unless I went to one of my friends houses who had a color TV .
Women and girls would set their hair with hard plastic or metal curlers and actually sleep on those instruments of torture at night. They'd use "Dippity Do" and "cream rinse" to set and condition their hair.
That's my $0.02 worth.
OMG! I hadn't thought of that in a gazillion years! Yes, the air raid siren always went off at noon in our small town, so we'd know what time it was and could set our watches.
I'm sure it was also for the working men downtown as the lunch whistle. Wow. Takes me right back.
I was 10-20 in the 1960s, so have very, very different kinds of memories of each of those years. Hard to tell what was "coming age" first-time things and what was first time for everyone.
Know the Florios in Bayville?
Not the radio , the car . A guy had one in my town in 65' and it ate up everything at the hamburg stand . Stop and Go hamburgs for $.15 each .
"Money talks, nobody walks."
Remember that?
I'm aging in decades with each post.
My father went to Vietnam for a year and didn't recognize us when he got back.
The mistreatment soldiers experienced when they returned from Vietnam in the 60's, by un-washed hippy-types, was a tragedy and a travesty.
The music of the 60's was great - MoTown and the Beatles.
The big cities had many night clubs, stores and restaurants open after working hours but when the big malls opened things gravitated out of the city area and businesses in the city suffered, possibly with the exception of New York, Chicago, etc.
My older (teen-age) sister had a crush on Quentin (werewolf in Dark Shadows).
I remember saving the cardboard milk caps for something, but I don't know what. Maybe like green stamps, to get giveaway things.
I loved it when the fad of "POGS" came out a few years back, played with those same kinds of milk caps. I collected a bunch of them - fun game because you could play it with any age person anywhere.
At my high school (graduated in '70) there were three groups of kids...greasers, dupers and mods. Greasers looked like Fonzie, with leather jackets and slicked hair. Greaser girls dressed all in black from head to toe, had either very bleached blonde hair or jet black hair, teased hair, dark eyeliner. These were the BAD kids, who rode motorcycles.
Dupers were the wholesome kids. They wore penny loafers and white socks, got good grades.
Mods were sort of wannabe hippies. They wore paisley, mini skirts, fishnet stockings, love beads, go-go boots. Long, straight hair. I was sort of a combo duper and mod.
If a girl got pregnant, it was shocking. She'd go away to "stay with an aunt" for a while, but everyone knew what had really happened. Adult women sometimes went to Sweden to get abortions. All people had to do was whisper, "She went to Sweden," and everyone knew what that meant.
The music was great. Performers usually lip-synched on TV. There'd be two camera angles, close-up and head-to-toe shot, few special effects and quick-cuts like now. People had longer attention spans. There were no VCRs. If your parents made you go visit your aunt or something on the night your favorite TV program was on, it was devastating because you'd totally miss the show, unless it was rerun during the summer.
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