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.

[Zman516]

Cars didn't have seat belts but they did have tailfins and double headlights starting in 1957(except for Cadillac which had tail fins about 1952 if I recall.)

Not trying to be nit-picky, but the 49 Cad was the first with the "fins". Also, it was the 1958 models (introduced in fall 1957, true) with the dual headlights.

[Howlin]

Same thing with me.

[beckysueb]

Yeah but they didn't get the reception that the outdoor antennas got. You had to put them on top of the house. The higher the better. And you always had a hole in the screen od one window where you run the wire in to hook it to the back of the tv. It was really easy to hook up. Only 2 wires and 2 places to put them.

[geopyg]

Here's part of an email that my older brother just sent me that fits right in!:

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[My daughter] did lots of online research before replacing her broken IPOD and chose to get a ZEN- not a Zune. She thought there were some really neat features about it. They are all the same price. $250. Interesting that I've bought 4 Ipods/Zens, etc and 4 digital cameras but STILL don't have either of them for ME!!!

[Your son] saving up reminds me of when I was a kid and small hand held transister radios were brand new. I couldn't wait to buy one and saved my money. Got a black and white RCA for about $15-20 when I was 12 and in 6th grade. Dad and I went to buy it.

Would take it to school and listen to the World Series at recess and fall asleep listening to KDWB (63-- THAT'S easy to remember!- was their slogan) or WDGY with Johnny Canton. When at the cabin [Northern Minnesota] we got WLS from Chicago real clear. All the stores and their addresses being advertised in Chicago made you feel like you knew the town!

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Me? I remember when Kennedy got shot (I had just turned three!!) and was at my godmother's house watching T.V. on their three-season porch. I liked it over there 'cuz she would give me half a twinkee and we never had stuff like that.

Being gone all day riding bikes, fishing, floating on the creek, etc.

[beckysueb]

I grew up in west central Minnesota. The Fargo Moorehead area. I remember listening to WLS, too. Wow! So many memories.

[Florida native]

I was born in '57, so my childhood spanned the 60's thru '75.

1. Grew up without any A/C

2. TV got only 6 channels (Miami area) - more than other areas

3. Played outside when not in school

4. Climbed trees (my favorite) and rode bikes all over

5. Stayed out late on Halloween and mom never worried about us being kidnapped; she worried about us getting run over

6. Watched Huntley/Brinkley report (mom didn't like Cronkite)

7. Loved to watch -

Car 54, where are you?

Beverly Hillbillies

Lost in Space

Brady Bunch

The Monkees

Batman!

Green Hornet

Time Tunnel

The FBI

8. Learned to drive in my mom's 1967 Dodge Coronet 440

9. South Florida was still a nice place in the 60's and fun too!

10. Saw the Apollo 11 blastoff in person from Cocoa Beach in '69.

[JCEccles]

Even though people on TV and in magazines would talk about liberation from old-fashioned values, real life was still straight for most people, as I said earlier. At least most everyone I knew. There was usually one or two "bad" girls and wild boys, but they were considered out of the mainstream and not acceptable.

And everybody know who "they" were and what they were supposedly doing (smoking marijuana etc). But no one was really sure because no one had first-hand knowledge.

The year was 1969. One of our high school's reputed druggie counterculturists was a student with me in second-year French. One day the teacher put on an instructional LP, and we slapped on those plasticky headphones and commenced to drone our way through repitition drills. The teacher left, as she always did, for about 20 minutes. Our long-haired druggie counterculturist, wearing square pink lensed glasses waited until she was gone, walked nonchalantly up to the teacher's console, removed the instructional LP, and replaced it with an album by the group Spirit. Suddenly we all heard the psychedelic pulsations of the song "Fresh Garbage" (Look beneath your lid one morning, see the things you didn't quite consume, the world's a can for your fresh garbage . . ."

Yeah, he lived up to his legend.

[Cementjungle]

Not everyone hated President Nixon.

My HS held a mock election (with a real voting machine even) and Nixon actually won. Of course it was a military HS so some kids were a bit right-wing to start with.

[confederacy of dunces]

When Nixon won the '68 election, most of the kids in my class were wild with joy.

When Watergate started to gain steam, my mom cancelled her subscription to Time because they were too hard on the President. :)

[rimtop56]

I haven't read every one of the 900+ replies to your posting, so maybe someone has already mentioned this, but there was a dark side to the 60s (and previously) that people hardly talk about. In finances, economics and other areas, women were treated like second-class citizens. I'm not in favor of many things that the women's movement pushes. In fact, I think it has done great harm to women. But, it's true that women were kept down and treated in derogatory ways. For an example of what I mean, just look at many of the movies from the era. Although I was mostly a kid (4-14) in the 60s, I heard this message from many sources.

As an aside, I remember that variety shows were popular on TV. There was one--I don't know, genre/act(?)--in which a man would mimic throwing a woman around and dragging her by the hair, etc. It was really disturbing to me as a child. Even though as the decade progressed, the media would more often feature the idea that a woman could have her own life of dignity on par with that of a man, the message from many other sources was that a woman needed to "get" a man. If she didn't, she had failed. She must be ugly or deficient in some area (and therefore not worthy of the dignity of a married woman).

[foreverfree]

I remember things like going down to the 5 and 10 and buying penny candy and 45 RPM records, the cool toys like Hot Wheels, G.I. Joe, Johnny Lightning, Super Balls, Silly Putty, and Slinkys to name a few. And the occasional sonic booms that would rattle the windows.

I played with HW, GIJ, Johnny Lightning and Slinkys back then. :-) Can't remember SP or SB though, though I may have handled a Frisbee back then.

ff

[foreverfree]

Remember those little wax bottles filled with colored liquid you would drink and then chew the wax?

The corner store half a block from my house in Chester, PA sold them. They were called Mik-Niks.

ff

[foreverfree]

In high school, girls could not wear pants or jeans and skirts had to be at the knee (at least in my NJ public school.)

That was the case at my HS too. Except that it was a) in Pennsylvania b) an evangelical Christian school and c) in the late seventies. :-)

ff (June 1979 HS grad)

[foreverfree]

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" or "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" sound like they were recorded inside the sub on Voyage - after it morphed into a disco. :-)

ff

[bmwcyle]

The cars had small V8 engines or large V8 engines.

[foreverfree]

I am convinced that if the 60's did indeed produce a decline of civilization, it started with "My Mother the Car".Why? All that was about was Jerry Van Dyke and a talking, steel and upholstered close relative. :-)

BTW I caught a rerun of MMtC on TV Land while channel surfing a few years ago.

ff

[RightOnline]

For one thing, the image of young America all wandering through the ‘60’s stoned out of their gourds is utterly wrong and ridiculous.

It was a difficult time in America; the Vietnam War, assassinations, race riots, Black Power (which utterly corrupted any prior efforts at fighting racial discrimination), anti-war riots/campus building takeovers, radicals running rampant (Weathermen, Yippies), etc. I was glad to see them end.

[WorkerbeeCitizen]

LOL

I had completely forgotten this thread - thanks - lol

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The sixties were when popular music transitioned from AM to FM. Remember when FM was a big deal? Most radio recievers were AM only. FM receivers were a lot more expensive than AM and most FM programming was “long hair”, meaning classical, since the kind of people who owned FM recievers in the 1950’s were the kind of people who own Bose Wave receivers today, older and more prosperous. Technology made FM receivers competitive with AM and rock migrated to the FM band.

[Trteamer]

At 10 years old, I’d ride my bike down to the Coast-To-Coast hardware store and buy a couple of boxes of .22 ammunition. Then I’d ride over to my buddies farm and we would shoot cans. No big deal, we were well trained.