[colorado tanker]

It was a very interesting time.

Life Magazine did a shocking expose of "the arrangement" I think they called it - college students shacking up. The sexual revolution was taking off with Cosmo and "Sex and the Single Girl," Woodstock and all that.

The Civil Rights Act passed and the walls of segregation tumbled down, although not growing up in the South I don't know how that felt. The old segregationists forgot about their opposition and fell all over themselves courting votes from their new black constituents.

Except George Wallace. He left the Democratic Party for a time and split the Solid South away from the Dems. It never really went back, especially after the Dems turned pacifist.

Vietnam was raging and the country was beginning to divide over that. That's the real issue that split the Democratic Party and threw the neocons and Reagan Democrats over to the Republicans.

The violence. The Kennedy, King and Kennedy assassinations. Chicago convention riots. The race riots. I remember bypassing Kansas City on a vacation (people mostly drove those days) because cars were being fired on on I-70.

The tremendous low of the Goldwater rout and then the Nixon win just four years later giving hope to the cause.

The whole country absorbed network TV as part of the popular culture. Most adults watched Johnny Carson - at least the monologue. You got your news from Cronkite, or maybe Huntley/Brinkley, if you liked Beethoven. The country believed the MSM was giving it to us straight, although after Cronkite told the country we'd lost the Tet Offensive battle and the media went negative on Vietnam, doubts began to emerge.

The draft. People were obsessed about the draft. Guys who couldn't get deferments joined the Navy, Air Force, Guard or Reserves, unless they were the guys with swagger who wanted a taste of combat.

It felt like the country was out of balance. Some thought the country was about to fall, either to civil war or to the communists. Except for that irrepressible optimist who was elected Governor of California against all the odds in 1966 - Ronald Reagan.

[pollyshy]

Well--in the sixties, you were considered a child until you were 21 years old. Women could not get credit on their own (husbands or fathers had to cosign). Women were paid less than men, and all the want ads were divided into Help Wanted-men and Help Wanted-women.

You were either college-prep or not. No zip codes. Cities were divided into mail zones, and you put the city, then the zone, then the state in the address. Rotary dial phones, and most usually you had to get the operator to help you dial long distance. No 911 - the operator helped you when you had an emergency.

Ladies wore nylons or socks - bare legs and bare feet were not acceptable. Dinner out meant getting dressed up. Cocktails with lunch, and salads were always a side dish. Jackie Kennedy shocked everyone the first time she wore a dress that came to the top of her knees.

Real estate ads discriminated. Church required gloves and hats, regardless of denomination. Not only were there S&H green stamps, but there were Raleigh coupons as well.

HG, if you watch the Twilight Zone reruns you will learn what people were afraid of - if you watch That Girl reruns, you'll get a pretty good idea of what a "career girl's" life was like in those years.

[elkfersupper]

One could ride one's bicycle to the drug store on Sunday afternoon with a rifle on the handlebars, buy ammunition, and go rabbit hunting without attracting the attention of a SWAT team.

9-year-olds could drive loaded grain trucks (90,000 lbs. +), on state highways without attracting the attention of a SWAT team.

Everyone, including 9-year-olds, could smoke anywhere they wanted without attracting the attention of a SWAT team.

Juveniles caught in possesion of alcoholic beverages had their beverages poured out or confiscated, and asked to drive home.

Adults caught with alcoholic beverages in an automobile were encouraged to not throw the empties out, and be careful.

Gasoline was $0.23 per gallon, and people complained it was too high.

Anyone could buy premium brands of cigarettes from vending machines on the street. Some brands put pennies inside the pack for change.

Cops were a source of help, if you needed it; not a source of fear.

The cheapest family sedan would do 0 - 60 in less than 10 seconds while getting 8 MPG, and nobody cared.

There were no seatbelts in automobiles, much less mandatory seat belt laws.

The federal, state, and local governments were involved in providing services, rather than extracting revenue.

I could go on.......

[Joan Kerrey]

60s? I remember the 50s and then the 70s but for the life of me I'm not even sure there was a 60s. I just can't remember. Are you sure there was one?

[bannie]

We had a party line with neighbors two houses down. They picked up when it had one ring, and we picked up when there were two rings. Our phones were all black and were owned by the phone company (one phone company!). Also our phone number had just four digets.

[bannie]

Girls were supposed to be flat like Twiggy.



I was out of the loop.

[TomSmedley]

Let me cite an insightful quote from a graphic novel, Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

(Hollis Mason Under the Hood, p. 13) All the cases I ended up investigating during the '50s seemed sordid and depressing and quite often blood-chillingly horrible. I don't know what it was ... there just seemed to be a sort of bleak, uneasy feeling in the air. It was as if some essential element of our lives, of all our lives, was vanishing before we knew entirely what it was. I don't think I could really describe it completely except maybe to sometbody who remembered the elation we all felt after the war: we felt that we'd taken he worst that the 20th century could throw at us and stood our ground. We felt as if we'd really won a hard-earned age of peace and prosperity taht woudl see us well into the year 2000. This optimism lasted all through the '40s and into the early '50s, but by the middle of that latter decade it was starting to wear thin, and there was aa sort of ominous feeling in the air.

Partly it was the beatniks and the poets opening condemning American values whenever they opened their mouths. Partly it was Elvis Presley and the whole Rock 'n' Roll boom. Had we fought a war for our country so that our daughters could scream and swoon over young men who looked like this, who sounded like that? With all those sudden social upheavals just when we thought we'd gotten everything straight, it was impossible to live through the '50s without a sense of impending catastrophe bearing implacably down upon the whole country, the whole world. Some people thought it was war and others thought it was flying saucers, but those things weren't really was was bearing down upon us. What was bearing down upon us was the 1960s.

[G Larry]

He had two parents, still married to each other.
Mom worked at home.
He had 2 brothers and 2 sisters.
Lived in a 3 bedroom, 1 bath house.
1 car in the family.
1 black & white TV w 2 channels.
Walked or took a bus to school until his Junior year.
He still feared authority, even if he didn't respect it.
Acting up in school could result in "hacks".
Only 5% of the kids didn't graduate from High School.
One kid in a class of 500 had a new Mustang.
'57 Chevy's were still pretty cool.
Cultural divides included kids who liked the Beatles vs. kids who liked the Monkey's.
Fights rarely escalated beyond fists.
Public schools still taught American History that included 'Dead White Guys'.
You could mention God in school and even sing real Christmas Carols.
We learned what "assassinate" meant.

[Trteamer]

We took apart our metal roller skates, screwed them onto two foot 2 x 4's and had "skateboards". It was groovy.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

I went to the University of Texas in the late 60's. Best time to ever go to college, after the pill, before AIDS. The largest Young Republican club in the nation, inside a nest of liberal hippies.

[foreverfree]

Well, I was born in 1961. "Batman" is one of the first TV shows I remember. And "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" BION (albeit vaguely). Vietnam was just a place on the map to this GIJoe doll player-wither (not now, back then. :-) ). (Now THERE's a crumulent word.) We lived in suburban Philadelphia and got three networks plus NET (PBS's predecessor) (and by the time my folks divorced and I moved out with my mom, three independent stations). We had on in the house WIP-610 where I remember hearing Ed Ames and Al Martino but also the Cowsills and Smokey Robinson. My mom had a Trini Lopez LP. I enjoyed drawing telephone poles, high tension wire towers, and PA Railroad catenary poles on the blackboard at my grandmother's across town.

Hope that helps. (:-)

ff

[bannie]

Delano, California
Cesar Chavez
Police surrounding the high school during lunchtime
Riots on campus at noon
Riot at my high school graduation

[woofie]

I love the flower girl, Oh, I don´t know just why. She simply caught my eye. I love the flower girl, She seemed so sweet and kind. She crept into my mind.

I knew I had to say hello (hello, hello) She smiled up at me She took my hand And we walked through the park alone

Then I got hay fever

[Zman516]

I graduated from HS in 1963..
At that time, the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean type surf music was big. Elvis came thru every 6 months with a hit. "Folk" groups like The Kingston Trio, The Limelighters, The Brothers Four, Peter Paul & Mary were hot items. The Smothers Brothers were the big comedy item, Bill Cosby was just breaking into popularity.

Bought a '64 Pontiac GTO in 1966, was drafted into the Army in 1967, and by then it was a different world altogether. (The shifting point seemed to be from Nov 22,1963 [Kennedy death] through Feb 1964 [Beatles hit charts in US])

Spent the "summer of love" (1967) in scenic Ft. Bliss TX in basic training. There were a couple of self-professed hippies in our outfit who were mercilessly abused, not just by the cadre, but by the rest of us too.
One guy ended up committing suicide.

By the late 60's, music was dominated by Motown, Hendrix, and pretty much anyone British. CCR & Big Brother & the HC were my personal fav's.

TV hits --> The Wild Wild West, I Spy, The Untouchables

[Don Carlos]

My young adult years in the '60s were as follows;
USAF on Jan 1,1960
60-Dec 61 California
62-Dec 65 Spain
66-Jun 67 Kansas
67-May 69 Italy
69-Jun 70 Spain

Boring, huh? Actually, the decade was among the best 10 years of my life.

Learned my USAF specialty in California, and spent the remainder of the decade in various assignments practicing Commo/Cryptography.

Met and married the gal of my dreams, got a choice assignment to Rome, Italy in 67, avoided Nam (although I was disappointed at the time), and fathered my first child.

That about sums it up. Oh yeah, never smoked dope or took anything not prescribed by an MD. Never got spit on, but did get some stick from campus punk types in Kansas, left the decade only about 10 pounds heaver than in 1960.

Can you write a book about that mini-history? Mebbe Brad Pitt could play me in the movie...

[Miss Didi]

It seems like we were always "making" something, too. Crafts, paint-by-number, Creepy Crawlers. Or those braided plastic rope things. How about gum wrapper chains???

Remember flipping through those huge pattern books(especially Simplicity Jiffy) and sewing our own creations for fun--a halter top, a skirt, a vest, a pillow?

[Not now, Not ever!]

Dick Dale and the deltones, the Studebaker Avanti, wake-a- thons, walk-a-thons. AM radio disc jockeys.

[SnarlinCubBear]

Graduated from HS 1965, married same year. First child in 1967, 2nd in 1969.

Read about VietNam in Time magazine and wondered what it all meant. Not being in college, I missed the wild child revolution and drugs. Went to church a lot, and had fun.

Hubby was not on top of the draft pick list because he was a student in a Bible college.

Early 60's were wonderful. Great music, good life style. The Beatles came, changed the music and did drugs and ruined it all.

I turned off the radio and enjoyed the church music.

Really, missed the 60's.

[Rte66]

I just want to say a big

to the 1960s veterans (and some spouses and support) on this thread!

Tax-chick's dad
USMCVet
lapdog
brazzaville/Michael Frazier
Al Gator
stumpy
Stashiu
antisocial
ExtremeUnction
Nam Vet
bert
PSYCHO-FREEP
BIGLOOK
alice_in_bubbaland's hubby
Zman516
Don Carlos

Apologies if I overlooked anyone - I just made notes as I was reading the posts!

[daler]

My fondest memory of the '60s was the Polaroid "Swinger" camera.

And Bonanza on Sunday nights was in color.