What it was like Growing Up in 1960’s and 1970’s America

Metallicman ^ | 23DEC18 | Editorial staff

[vannrox]

Here, I would like to relate a little about what it was like growing up as a boy in Pennsylvania. For, I am a native born American who lived through the 1960’s and through the 1970’s. I am pretty typical for my generation. The 1970’s was the decade of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. It ended on a whimper with Jimmy Carter at the helm. Here we talk about the 1960’s and 1970’s and what it was like growing up at that time. School

I attended elementary school. First I attended a private Catholic school in Connecticut, and then when my father was promoted we moved and I attended a public school in Western Pennsylvania.

Allowance

Before I started work, I was permitted an allowance. My sisters both received an allowance with no strings attached. Mine was contingent upon my successful completion of my chores, and usually meant that I would get “paid” after I mowed the grass on Saturday (shoveled the drive in the Winter).



As a kid, my allowance of $1.00 per week was given to me every Saturday afternoon after the grass was successfully mowed. The hardest part was deciding how to spend it and get the very most out of every penny. Of course, a trip to the corner store for candy always figured into the picture!

One of my favorite treats was Dubble Bubble – a hard piece of pink bubble gum that included a tiny printed comic tucked between the gum and the outer wrapper, all for just a penny. I remember my first experience with inflation – the day when the

[Labyrinthos]

in 1968, I ran the “Nixon Now” campaign when I was in the 4th grade.

[FrdmLvr]

The girls are all taller than the boys. The girls in the back and the boys in the front.

[sonofagun]

I killed many Nazis, Japs and Indians with my Dick Tracy tommy gun! I think I was influenced by Hollywood!

[PGalt]

‘50s kid here. Peak Americana. Euphoria of WWII still lingered, factories were booming, gas was cheap, suburbs were being built, etc., etc.

[broken_arrow1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soUG7NSgkTg

[Tennessee Conservative]

I grew up in the 60's and 70's. I was born in Petersburg VA at Ft. Lee where Dad was stationed in the army. The family lived in Chattanooga TN but due to my asthma and no good treatments we moved to Pompano Beach FL where I grew up near the beach. My childhood in sunny FL was spent walking several blocks to school and back, riding my bike and collecting bottles to redeem at the store for candy and gum. We played in the alligator infested canals. My dad worked and Mom stayed home. I got my first .22 rifle when I was 12. Dad believed in teaching all of us (5) to shoot and how to be safe with firearms.

Four of us on bikes in the 60's in FL.

We moved back to TN when I started high school. When we came back to TN in 1968 we lived on a farm. I had a horse and other farm animals plus numerous dogs and cats. We had laying hen houses. I got up at 5am before school each morning to feed and water chickens. There was a smoking area at school (high school) and the boys all mounted rifles on rack in their trucks. Fights were settled with fists, not guns.

Me and my baby brother in 1972 in Cleveland TN. I was 16 when he was born and 18 in this picture. If you can't tell, yes, we are Scottish, Irish, and Welsh. LOL

So, I'm 64 now and still live on a farm. I have a daughter that is 44 and a grand-daughter that is 23. I had a good childhood where I gained common sense through experience. I was taught real history in school. I feel sorry for kids now.

Me now.

[albie]

So Mick Fleetwood was your teacher?

[cnsmom]

We were out until the streetlights came on everyday. We had a trampoline so everyone was at our house.

[\/\/ayne]

I remember in the 60's they had "New Math" which I didn't understand. My newly minted engineer dad (who looked somewhat like Mr. Kline) was very happy to come and help me. After an hour of frustration where I heard many curse words for the first time my dad threw down the book and said "tell your teacher that's not math!"

Fast forward to recent Common Core times, they have New Math again. I met an engineer who tutored elementary children in a STEM program, told my story and asked "What about this new "New Math?" He explained he knew about the old 60s New Math and the Common Core one was even worse! I asked "What do you teach the kids, then?"

He replied "I just teach them real math!"

[outofsalt]

I grew up in North Jersey. My gig was running numbers for the mob. By the time I was twelve I could jump an eight foot fence with a color TV under one arm. The only reason I went to school was a certain Irish redhead named Maureen. As kids we would listen to the Yankees on the radio sitting on the front stoop but the only time I had a real baseball bat in my hands was during the "urban uprisings" of '67. Ah, those were the days!

I made all that up. Well, Maureen was real and gave me my first kiss.

[cnsmom]

Parents really did help each other out.We had 6 kids in our family and I remember many kindnesses showered on us. Being Neighborly was wonderful.

[albie]

We played war and smear the queer, gave out Valentines cards, had a Christmas tree in the class room, and the one black kid I remember in 3rd grade was named Chuck. He had a mom AND a dad. We’d have sleepovers at his house. He was a neighbor.

Race was not an issue. Race became an issue in HS as bussing was forced on us. Daily riots. Cultures clashed. I was sent to private military school as a result.

[PIF]

Since I was almost 20 by then, I’m sorry for your loss ...

[gunnyg]

I recall ozzie & Harry in the 60s.....b4 that w/me in the late 30s/40s it was the Dead End Kids! L8R became the bowery boy I think...
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GyG@PlanetWTF?
SemperTRUMP.45!
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[Bonemaker]

“Born in 1956 I grew up on a 240 acre farm with what became a national wild river running through it. In rural northern Wisconsin.”

I’ve got ya by 16 years..class of 1940. Too young for WW2 and Korea (I remember them) but just right for Viet Nam. I enlisted in 1963 but by the grace of the Almighty spent my time behind the Berlin Wall instead of Viet Nam. Virtually all my male cohorts of that era spent time in the military.

You grew up rural while I grew up south side of Chicago. Even at that, my father taught me to drive stick shift on those busy city streets at age 12. Chicago public schools were great at that time. I grew up loving guns, fishing and the outdoors thanks to my father and the boy scouts.

I will always maintain the opinion that the country turned the corner downwards with the election of Johnson over Goldwater in ‘64. Watched with dismay from overseas as America deteriorated during the later ‘60’s. We are paying dearly for this decades later.

Obama years were devastating. Often found myself tearfully reminiscing the earlier golden years of the ‘50’s. “The Day the Music Died” kind of summed it up...while watching old cars destroyed by Obama’s “cash for clunkers” disgrace. Damn the left.

[AppyPappy]

Psst...Ian Anderson. Jethro Tull was a literary character

[DOC44]

Thanks for sharing your growing up experience. Sounds familiar to me except moving to FL. Looks like lots of us who were kids back then have a picture of us and close friends standing by our bikes. Got one also.

[gunnyg]

s

[KSCITYBOY]

btt

[Susquehanna Patriot]

Your 1972 picture with your brother. Panel walls, organ, map on the wall, even “Uncle Sam” over your brother’s right shoulder - - captured good memories of a day gone by. And yes, when “real history” was taught by real teachers who were actually educated.

Thanks for sharing.