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.

[Carolinamom]

It wasn't until the 70's that those hideous leisure suits for men were fashionable. lol

[svcw]

Engineer Bill....did you eat dinner in front of the TV doing the go-stop with your milk?

[Arrowhead1952]

No homogenized milk; the bottled milk (delivered to your house) had cream at the top.

The milk I drank, came from cows that I had to milk before going to school.

[HawaiianGecko]

_hg

I was in college in the late '60s and trust me, drugs and love beads were limited to a very small minority of people on campus and damn near nobody that wasn't actually in college.  The "hippy type" wasn't as prevalent as history would lead one to believe. Not even at Berkeley.  They were simply so hung up on themselves that they believe they were a majority.  The media, being the media, gave them a lot more press than the well groomed kids.

I was interested in dressing sharp, chasing girls, playing sports, muscle cars and music.  Getting my degree, a high paying job, a house with a yard, and an interesting woman to bear my children were important to me.  

I never spent a moment wondering if a barefooted Paul McCartney on the Abbey Road cover meant he was really dead, never played any of my albums backwards in search of the words of the devil. Never protested the war, never protested LBJ or Nixon, never subscribed to the "grassy knoll" theory.

I remember the '60s vividly and I lived it as full as any young person could. I traveled Europe and Africa for 14 months with a friend, met many people, befriended a few. People that don't remember the '60s probably don't remember the '70s, '80s or '90s either.  Being in either an alcohol or drug induced stupor is not an environment conducive to "living" so I'm not sure what is meant when people say you didn't "live" the '60s if you can remember them. It's more than likely a cop-out explaining why they turned out to be losers.

"Expanding my mind" through the use of drugs simply didn't make sense to anyone that was educated.  After all, if it were true, older, wealthier and smarter people would be doing it and that simply wasn't the objective reality on the ground at the time, or even now for that matter.

The decade of the sixties was truly a fun time. America and Americans seemed to have an unlimited potential. We were about to land men on the moon, the magic of microwaves was emerging, plastics were changing lives.  It was a period ('50s & '60s) of sustained and real growth for all sectors of the economy and all social classes. Taxes were fair, government worked, and America prospered under both Democratic and Republican administrations. The Peace-Corps was spreading good will around the globe, the civil rights movement was alive, well and progressing.

Above all, doctors made house calls.

[colorcountry]

You're a woman, so I'll tell you the girly things.
We wore eyeliner and go-go boots. England was "Hip". We ratted our hair. There were stories told about girls that had spiders building webs in their hair or finding rats nests. . I don't think any of them were true.

We wore hose - and garters, and girdles. There was no such thing as pantyhose, until the close of the decade. The first ones were called "Little Prunes" and came in an egg shaped container. They looked weird, but they were wonderful!

We had sanitary belts and pads. Need I say any more? YECH!

It was actually '69 or '70 before we became liberated in my town. Women rarely worked. Divorce was unheard of within families of my small town. Oh, they occured, you just never spoke openly about them, it was such a shameful thing.

The country was optimistic. We looked forward to the future, and decorated our homes with gold, avocado greens, stripes, and paisley. We bought lots of new gadgets for the kitchen. Small appliances were everywhere and designed to make your life easier....and they did.

I hung my laundry on a clothesline....and my clothes smelled great! We said prayer in school. We prayed for our boys in the war, and we wrote to them. He sent pre-sweetened koolaid to them so they could stand the taste of the water.

On television we watched protestors of the war, we watched the racial tensions, we watched man walk on the moon. We mourned the Kennedy's and Martin Luther King......and we dreamed that someday we could leave our small town and go out into the world and experience it all.

Of course once we got there, in the 70's, we wanted to return to the country and our roots. We went "back to basics." We bore our children at home, raised a garden, and some natural pharmaceuticals, and elected a man of God to run our country....(that didn't go as well as we expected).

[alice_in_bubbaland]

We had a Chevy Nova station wagon and there were pull up seats facing each other in the "way back". Of course there were no seat belts and we survived.

[PUGACHEV]

I graduated from high school in 1968, and consider that I grew up in the '60s. To quote Dickens, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.." It was a sea change in attitude such as never been seen since on music, dress, and grooming, on morality and manners, on what defined success or failure, and on how we looked at government. It was a changing of the guard from those who had grown up in the era before WWII, to those who were little more than teenagers when it was fought: it was a change in tase from Eisenhower to Kennedy. Everything seemed new; everything seemed possible, if only we took a fresh look at the world -- and drugs helped that along especially later in the decade.

One would have to spend a considerable amount of time just to make a list of all the things that changed in the '60s, some for the good and much for the worse. One thing, for example, that struck me the other day was hair cream. No well-groomed man or boy failed to put some form of grease on their hair every morning up until the late '60s. Proper hair styling demanded it; slicked back hair, butch cuts, duck's asses and pompadours weren't possible without a head of grease or wax. .... unbelievable, huh?

[RockinRight]

Most families had one car.

Which is why most homes built before 1960 have narrow driveways where nowadays, anytime someone wants to leave someone else has to put on their shoes and coat and go move their car to let them out.

[353FMG]

We had three TV channels - at 11 PM the National Anthem was played against the background of Old Glory, while a formation of F-100 Super Sabers flew by. Then the screen went blank.

Oh man, I pity those who did not know what America once was. I'd better stop for now before I become sentimental. America you were beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

[Carolinamom]

To heck w/sterilization....and you survived! lol (I once tried to milk a cow and couldn't get a drop out of her.)

[wtc911]

It would take a decade to describe the sixties fully but as one who graduated HS in 69 I will try to give you a sense...

First, forget everything you believe about hippies. The truth is that there were very few of them and I'd bet that nobody here ever even knew a real one. The media hyped them into legend status.

Second, forget everything you heard about drugs in the sixties. A very small % were getting high on pot and a miniscule number were tripping (mostly those counter-culture posers in NY, LA, SF). Most (95%) guys I knew on LI never saw a joint until 1970. That was the year the drug thing really started (probably because Woodstock was July '69). By 1971 drugs were everywhere.

Third, forget everyhing you read here about the boomers screwing the pooch. America got ugly in the sixties. The culture degraded significantly, opening the door for what we see now. But the average boomer was in 8th grade. It was liberal 'greatest generation' types like Norman Lear who opened the gates in the media and LBJ in the area of welfare.

Abortion was a crime.

Eighteen year olds did not have babies out of wedlock (at least in my world).

Parents seldom divorced (although many should have).

Everybody knew which girls were putting out and it was very common to see 19 year old virgin guys.

Race relations sucked and Black America had a legitimate beef.

Gay still meant happy.

Feminists could be counted on two hands.

No Mexicans.

Viet Nam Draft. Screwed if your number was called.

Assassinations.

Low prices.

A HS graduate could get work in a factory that paid enough to start and raise a family.

Everybody in the family could watch everything that was on TV.

Much less angst.

Much less technology.

Much more fun.....

That's a start.

[Last Dakotan]

We sat in a long hallway of our school and watched the Apollo moon landing on the school's only TV. A 19 inch black and white model.

[sionnsar]

The only time we locked the door to the house was when we went away on vacation.

[linda_22003]

It always is and always will be. You are letting nostalgia color your memories; every time is difficult, and every time has its beauty.

[Rte66]

Or S&H or Gold Bond trading stamps that you got with everything!

The kids in the family licked them and pasted them in books so Mom could get household things for free with them.

[cll]

Has anybody mentioned that there was such thing as a cloth diaper pickup and delivery service?

[Howlin]

We still do S&H at Lowe's Foods here in NC!

Not the stamps though!

[budgetbabe]

Shock Theater!! Pajama parties. Annette on the Mickey Mouse Club. What was that show after school that had the monster (Barnaby?). Hardy Boys and Sky King

[RockinRight]

Even as a kid in the early 80s I got that from my dad. I actually tried to prove to him with diagrams and engineering info that the speed at which the knob was turned made NO difference.

He didn't believe me.

[LibWhacker]

It was all about the music. And bell bottoms. And Vietnam. And dope. And free love.

What a f'n fantasy!