About The 1960's

[dnastrau]

Apparently the '60's started 1/1/61 and ended on 12/

This is interesting...

Since the Gregorian calendar didn't start with the year zero, the first decade is actually the year 1 through 10. That means that the sixties were actually from 1/1/1961 - 12/31/1970. It also means that when we all celebrated the Millenium we were a year early!

So jasonl, you were alive in the '60's!

Andrew S.

http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/mil2000.html

 

[joeinfl]

I was born in 64 so that's one great thing that happened in the 60's!

 

[mysteryclock]

NASA and the space program

I was just a little fellow in the 60s, but looking back I think one of the more positive things about the 60s was the space program! Not only did we get to the moon and back, but we are still benefitting to this day from all the spin-off technologies that resulted from the great national effort to get there.

Truly money well spent!!

 

[sudsmaster]

The 60's were my teenage years. There were lots of good things going on then. It was a great time for American cars (and for the VW as well). The music was epochal: Beach Boys, Beatles, Chicago, and all the so-called psychedelic bands. Folk music as well. I grew up near the Haight Ashbury district and so never had the aversion to the "hippies" that perhaps some people in other areas had. To me it was a sort of magical transformation of a hard bitten impoverished neighborhood into one alive with young people, art and human energy.

I think the nation FOUND its moral compass during the 60's. The Civil Rights Act of 1964; the defeat of arch conservative Barry Goldwater; the growing unification of youth against the Vietnam War; the turn away from crass materialism and trite, insincere established religion to a search for a higher meaning and purpose; the "return to the earth" movement (not new in American history, by the way), etc...

 

[charbee]

The 60s gave us the courage to say that the lies we'd been told all our lives were BS and the freedom of thought to explore what might really be the truth.

The 70s gave us the fallout of most folks' failing to figure it out.

The evil 80s gave us the beginning of the clampdown reaction by those whose felt threatened by the freedom of thought and questioning of the status quo, and the beginning of the "Dumbing Down" of the populace as a way to accomplish their agenda.

The 90s were an attempt at beating back the evil.

The 00's were the last hurrah, the ultimate expression of the evil.

We can only hope that the '10s will finally bring back the freedom of thought that gave us the courage to begin with.

The 60s were a magical time. Just because it was tumultuous doesn't make it bad. To me the most "evil" decade I've lived through has to be a tossup between the 80s and the last eight long years.

 

[everythingold]

Born in '74, so I grew up during the repression. WHAT WENT WRONG? matt

 

[jetcone]

Rocky Jones Space Rangers reruns

I was a kid so it was a great time to be a kid in the US.
I would not have wanted to be 18 at the time and knew that then too.

The whole Space Program was awe inspiring! I saw it from beginging to end.

The Cold War was a durge that overhung our heads literally. The idea that everything we knew could be gone in 30 minutes was a scary thing to carry in your head.

People were prosperous, everyone was making money.

We were still idealistic until the assasinations.

It was exciting and scary and everything was new.

Walter Kronkite every nite was security of akind, at least a stability.

 

[jetcone]

My gaff

Walter Cronkite~

 

[gizmo]

Bajaespuma and Sudsmaster said what I wanted to say.

I was born in 1963, as was my dearly beloved, as was our host, Robert.

The Holden EH came out in 1963.

I too believe the 1960s was a decade when people started to rediscover their "moral compass" - learning to question assumptions that were blindly followed in the closed-minded 1950s.

the 1960s gave us that great phrase, "subvert the dominant paradigm."

Chris
10 April 1963.

http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/car_info_holden_eh.htm

 

[rocketwarrior]

60's, Truly an Adventure

The 60's for me was a time of stimulating adventure. What fun! What excitement! What a trip! Free association:
Studied Chinese
Combat missions in Vietnam
Got laid
Occasional gentle buzz from Marijuana
San Francisco
Nepenthe at Big Sur
Nude beaches
Music, music, music
SAM Sites
Laugh-In
Hunter S. Thompson
Fillmore East
Calcium carbide fun
Mamas & Papas
Rocket attacks
Fringes
Wire rims
Hitch Hiking
Snorkeling, South China Sea
Peace signs
My Lai
Flowers
Akai, Sansui
Dodge Dart GT
Cushman Eagle
Dr. Pepper with Peanuts

 

[westie2]

60's

Good times
Meeting my wife in Jr High
Getting married 1966
First two children born in 1967 and 1969
Watching many good tv programs Time Tunnel was my favorite
First apartment with wife 2 bedroom for $45.00 month.
Watching the landing on the moon
Listening to the Beach Boys, Momma's and Poppa's, Superemes etc.
Sad times too;
Lost my last great-granddad at age 98.
Lost a granddad and a grandmother within one month
Lost my father-in-law at Christmas time 1967 at age 47
Had best friend killed in Veit Nam 1968 and a cousin in 1969
Listening to the radio in class (typeing) of the motorcade in Dallas when President Kennedy was shot.
Seeing on tv when Robert Kennedy was shot.

 

[rexaircollector]

60's

Good lists guys and here's a few more:

Drive-in Theaters
Car Hops
The Helms Man (bakery truck)
The Jewel Tea Man (home catalog shopping)
Unveiling of the new car models every September
Promotional model cars (sold or given by car dealerships)
Speigel Catalog
Queen for a Day
Roller Derby

 

[whirlaway]

Those 60s

Rob and Laura petrie invited you into their livingroom every week.Lucy was still funny and in color.You realized you had relatives like the Beverly Hillbillies.Cars went faster.Alot of life from the 5os had not gone away,people still had values.Gas was cheap.We found out jeannies actually lived in bottles.Perry Mason was still winning,he and Della still not married.Little Ricky and David grew up.Stone-age people smoked Winstons.Comics were funny and female.Any era you live in you can gripe and bitch about as long as you keep your freedom.But Im afraid this one down the road is where we lose.

 

[abcomatic]

60's- Far out man! Like, what's happnin'?

I agree with everyone here. Not a bad time to be alive.
graduated from hs in 1967
didnt go to vietnam, (my aunt ran the draftboard)
got laid ( I was 16 and he was 52)
got my drivers license (1965) finshed drivers ed in the afternoon, went up to the bureau and got my license
our first automatic washer and dryer (1963 Coronado)
Rinso blue, Rinso White, American family soap and detergent, Oxyodol,Breeze, Duz, Vim and Salvo,AD, Beads-o-bleach, Snowy bleach,Little Boy Blue bluing,Fab
first color tv.1968 RCA
first dishwasher (1967 Sears lady Kenmore with roto rack)
fiberglass curtains
new car's 1963 Mercury montery custom, 1964 Ford Galaxy 500, 1968 Ford LTD brougham ( what a car that was)
mom and dad still alive as well as grandmothers, aunts and uncles (all gone now except an aunt and uncle)
my parents were not my "best friend" made me mind and punished me when I did wrong. I was not the center of the universe and was not allowed to do whatever I wished. My mother often told me."Gary, I am your mother, not your best friend!" "Do what you are told, now!"
learned how to play the pipe organ on our new 1960 M P Moller organ at First Methodist.
the beachboys, kingston trio, beatles, 45's, etc.
new stereo (1966)RCA console
woodstock
peace demonstrations at the White House to end the war
tie-dyed shirts
polyester(mmm, not so good maybe)
dress codes at school.(that was a good idea)
JUST think: no computers, no cell phones, no copy or fax machines, no On-Star, no palm pilots or games, what did we ever do without them? and the list goes on.
Gary,March 1,1949

 

[mixergal]

Quote:

my parents were not my "best friend" made me mind and punished me when I did wrong. I was not the center of the universe and was not allowed to do whatever I wished. My mother often told me."Gary, I am your mother, not your best friend!" "Do what you are told, now!"

Unquote

Amen to that one, Gary! I was born in 1971, so just missed the 60's - but I got much the same speech from my mother. The ultimate answer to my incessant barrage of questions? "Because I said so, and I'm the mother!" (sigh) What I wouldn't give to hear a mother say that to their spoiled brats these days! If we don't teach our children to respect authority - is it no wonder crime rates are skyrocketing?? Sure, I'm a big proponent for "question authority" - but there's a time and a place for that - and when you're 10 years old, you don't have the tools in your toolbox to make proper decisions and sort out good choices from bad.

anyway - I don't want to derail the conversation - I just wanted to put my 2 cents in on that.

Optimism. I would say that's what we lost in the 70's - optimism.

-Sherri

 

[butch-innj]

Born in 1948

so I remember the 50's and 60's and up to the present.....
The 50's and earlier 60's were the best.
I came from a BIG family including Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and many cousins. We were all very close and lived within walking distance of each other.
Both of my parents worked. My Dad was a loomfixer in a cotton mill and my Mom worked in a sweatshop (which means she got paid by the piecework method and she sewed together clothes)
My Mom went to work at 5:30 AM and my Dad left at 7 AM and I got myself ready for school and was out the door by 8 AM.
My Mom got home from work at 3PM, I got home from school by 3:15 and Dad got home around 5:30 PM. In order to get an allowance I actually had to do chores around the house.
In the summer when I was out of school I'd vacuum and dust the house every day. I got more allowance money when I learned how to scrub and wax the kitchen and bathroom floor. By 1960 I was cleaning the whole entire house for my Mom and doing all the yard work for my Dad and was making $15 bucks a week for doing it all. Trust me, back then I felt like a millionaire !
But, I had a system and for me cleaning house was nothing.
Mondays I cleaned the living room really good from ceiling to floor. Tuesdays I cleaned the master bedroom from top to bottom. Wednesdays I cleaned my own bedroom from top to bottom. Thursdays I cleaned the bathroom from top to bottom and Fridays I did the kitchen and everything that was in it.
Saturdays I cut the grass with the ol pushmower and raked it.
I made $13 from Mom for doing the housework and $2 from Dad for cutting the grass and raking. My Grandmom taught me how to cook when I was 12 yrs old and one of my cousins husband taught me how to iron clothes when I was 15. The more I learned the more allowance I made. I LOVED IT !
In todays world it probably sounds like I did alot as a kid.
I wasn't made to do it, it was MY idea. If I did every room like I said I did, none of them really got all that dirty and it didn't take very long to clean any of them. Plus, it gave me something to do and kept me out of trouble and put money in my pocket.
I never see any kids cleaning anything today.
But their parents just hand them out money like it grows on trees.
Given the choice, I'd much rather be back in the 50's.

 

[sudsmaster]

What wasn't good about the 60's?

Well, for me it was a bit unique. We moved to San Francisco in 1963 (cross country divorce). I was 11. We had gone from small town Connecticut to big city West Coast. I was in a bit of a shock, at all the concrete, plus not much sun in the inner sunset from May to August. Eventually got used to it, even liked it.

But what was not so good was the grinding poverty. Mom worked a federal civil service clerk's job - all she could get - and one day around 1964 or 65 she came home and announced that after reading the poverty statistics in the newspaper, we were living under the federal poverty level for a family of five, in one of the most expensive cities in the nation. I really don't know how we got by. I didn't have new clothes for much of my teenage years... all hand me downs or stuff from Goodwill etc. I tried a paper route but my legs buckled under the load trying to go up those steep hills. After a few years I got an after school job at a local variety store, which paid little but it was at least something. My last year in high school I got a weekend/summer job through school at the post office - sweeping floors, mainly. It was demeaning work and it gave me a rather dim view of the PO, but it was the first real money I'd ever seen. I saved nearly all of it so I could move out of home and go to college far enough away that the financial aid office wouldn't suggest I live at home and commute to school. LOL.

I remember being teased in junior high school about my raggedy clothes. But when the hippies came to town all of a sudden my "look" became fashionable. Of course the school principle and counselors all made a big point of telling us to avoid the Haight and all, but we went there anyway. Hunger was usually with me - I remember starting to eat the biology class experiment - the center of an onion - which caused a bit of a stir with my classmates. I never took any drugs, and didn't have my first beer until I got to college (yes, I made to a campus 80 miles away so I lived in the dorms). I remember shocking the other dorm students when I announced that the food was superb - and for me, it was. I was finally able to gain some weight. Part of what sustained me was LBJ's Great Society and War on Poverty programs, that help me pay for tuition and living expenses. But I was still on a very limited budget through college - wearing patches on my clothes long after they fell out of fashion. To this day I can't bear to hear people denigrate what LBJ accomplished, or when conservatives start to dog-pile on the poor about what little assistance the government gets for them. They should try growing up and looking at a empty fridge every morning and realizing it would be another school day without a lunch.

Anyway, the 60's are a bit bittersweet. A wonderful time to be alive, and all that started happening in the counter culture made being dirt poor in a wealthy town a bit more tolerable.