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.

[Arrowhead1952]

We must have had reruns in the 60's. I remember that show, and we didn't have a TV until after JFK was assassinated.

[Al Gator]

Yup, and Art Carney was usually drunk.

But when Crazy Googenheim sang, the place stood still.

[linda_22003]

That was on when I was really little. The "Barracuda" always scared me.

[linda_22003]

Crazy was played by Frank Fontaine, who was a big-band era singer.

[Inyo-Mono]

I agree. What we think of as the 50's was really the late fifties and early 60's. And frankly, I think that what we think of as the 60's was really the late sixties and early 70's.

I agree too. I graduated from high school in '69 and no one was into pot or drugs at the time, just booze. Did not see drugs or long hair (except on rock stars) until the early '70s.

[Al Gator]

OOPPSS

You're right.

Oldagheimers here.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

The Monkey's...I loved Davey Jones.:)

[Al Gator]

But Art Carney was still always drunk!

[svcw]

Then Santa Barbara, CA was way ahead of the times.

[linda_22003]

From me to you:

[wtc911]

Kent State was May, 1970. There are those here (including me) who realize that summer 1969 through 1971 was a radically different time than the sixties and the first salvo of an even uglier time.

[Rte66]

So then, we oughta see you do your stuff!

[Al Gator]

Man, I just loved how he could go from the Crazy voice to singing like he did.

That was talent.

But then, you had to be talented then, not like some of the trash that passes for talent today.

[MHT]

The sixties were really two eras.

Just like WWI moved us from the 19th- into the 20th-century, the sixties framed the last quarter of the last century and, apparently, the first years of the 21st. We are still living with the after effects of that decade.

If you take any American high school yearbook from 1963 and compare it with the same school in 1968, you will see a change greater than any other 5-year period. In fact, the difference between seniors separated by just five years looks like 25 years have passed. The conception of the change of the 60's occurred the day that Kennedy was killed. Before that all aspects of American society from the church, to education, to style resembled the 1950's. 1964 was the pivotal year in the last half of the 20th-century because of all the changes wraught by everything from the Beatles to birth control to civil rights.

The gestation period ended the spring/summer of 1968 when Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were killed and people saw their neighbors' kids being beaten on Chicago streets outside the Democratic National Convention. The Wall Street Journal called it the loss of "guardrails." To be most concise, the change began with the death of JFK and came to fruition with the death of RFK.

PBS did a wonderful series about the sixties about 10 years ago, which is probably available for loan from most public libraries.

[Miss Didi]

My mother tells the story that she sent in a "postcard" to enter me as a guest. After they drew the kids' names who would appear, they found my entry behind a desk. I guess they felt bad that I was not in the official drawing, so they invited me on for the week.

We'd drive to the TV station every morning and I'd wear a dress and white gloves. All the mothers would sit up in a room, which looked down onto the studio, and watch from a window. I remember driving around in those cardboard firetrucks and a kid, Johnny, who liked me and chased me around the show.

I don't know how Romper Room programming worked because we lived in the Albany (NY) area--certainly not the center of national TV broadcasting. Perhaps each show was local.

[Eagle Eye]

I remember being frightened in the 67-70 years because of all the rioting that was shown on tv, Detroit, Watts, etc.

We weren't used to seeing stuff like that on tv and as a kid it seemed as if it was just a few miles away.

[HawaiianGecko]

_hg   That sure brings back memories... Apparently they still sell it too.
 

DESIGN HOUSE - Songo YEAR INTRODUCED - 1964 FRAGRANCE NOTES - citrus, cedarwoods and spicy florals combine with musk and vanilla. RECOMMENDED USE - evening

 

[linda_22003]

"FRAGRANCE NOTES - citrus, cedarwoods and spicy florals combine with musk and vanilla."

Musk is the reason we keep animals outdoors.

[Pietro]

I was a pre-teen (13 yr old in '69) but my memories were it was like the world was coming to an end. Everyday there was bad news on the tube; the war (35 American soldiers were killed and 398 VC were killed), assinations, race riots, hippies, Manson murders, on and on.

The music was great though.

[bankwalker]

Musk is the reason we keep animals outdoors.

Musk was supposed to drive the other sex wild for you. It was very popular.