# everybody's favorite decade: stories takes place in the 1960's **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 17, 2010, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424 "2010-10-17T07:59:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2010, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/21 "2010-10-17T23:32:00Z")
This is more what should be happening. [The right level for nostalgia…](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNMhl7YuKEY) ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/22 "2010-10-18T01:18:45Z")
The sixties were fun–the news was on so I got to watch people being napalmed while I ate dinner. For years I wondered why I had chronic heartburn. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/23 "2010-10-18T01:45:35Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > we made the best American-made tools, guns, tvs, computers, appliances, etc. in the world. Despite all the naysayers, America _still_ make the best American-made stuff in the world. Nobody comes close. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/24 "2010-10-18T02:11:17Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > Actually, the best decade was from the **mid** -1950’s to the **mid** -1960’s. > 1955 to 1966, in America was a great time to live. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Darn you, JC. You said exactly what I was going to say better than I would. > The 50s sucked, big-time, except for the favored few. The 60s are my favorite decade precisely because it was then that the U.S. began to overthrow Susanann and her ilk’s notion of what the favorite few constituted. > And that notion will never return. I know she hates that, but I celebrate it every day. The **mid** -1950’s to the **Mi** d-1960’s , as I said, was the best. It was the decade that gave us a surplus of good jobs and wealth, and low taxes, to the middle class; it was the decade that the Motown Sound from Detroit, Elvis, the Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, and the Beatles ruled the airwaves; it was the decade that we fought for and won real equality and equal rights for blacks culminating in the 1965 Civil Rights Act; it was the decade that we re-established American military and space exploration superiority, it was the decade of cheap energy, cheap college tuition, surpluses in foreign trade, and a strong U.S. dollar, it was the decade that ended the good ole boy male superiority and allowed women to become the new majority of students in American colleges. I am proud to be a part of what we accomplished in that decade, and I dont care if you dont like what my generation did in that decade… …frankly, I think a lot of you now, are starting to mess up what we accomplished, and not just in today’s music ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/25 "2010-10-18T03:47:03Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > I am proud to be a part of what we accomplished in that decade, and I dont care if you dont like what my generation did in that decade… What’s this “my generation” business? I was there for the 50s and 60s, too. My opinion of it therefore counts just as much by that criterion. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/26 "2010-10-18T04:28:09Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Medicine was limited, drugs weren’t available for almost anything, and dentistry was a horror show. > Unbelievably crappy restaurants with no variety. (I didn’t taste Chinese food or pizza until I was in college.) > > …The music was good but you couldn’t listen to it. (My first radio was a crystal kit from Heathcraft. It didn’t have a speaker, just an earpiece. It got one station.) > . > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > What’s this “my generation” business? I was there for the 50s and 60s, too. My opinion of it therefore counts just as much by that criterion. No. Apparently you were no t really there from the mid-1950’s to the mid-1960’s. You yourself admit that you only had a crystal radio that only got 1 station, so you of course necessarily missed nearly all the great popular radio shows and the great music from 1955 to 1966(apparently including a guy named Elvis Presley). You say you had no good restaurants and no pizza. You also say you had limited medicine, no drugs, and a very incompetent dentist (who must not have had access to lidocaine and high speed drills?). From your comments you seem to not have heard songs by The Supremes, Ray Charles, Ricky Nelson, “Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison, nor “Surfin USA” by the Beach Boys. No… you werent there. I dont see how your opinion could count if you, as you say, were not able to personally experience the decade, if you did not partake of the greatest economic boom in the history of the world, and if you didnt even know what we were doing with civil rights and making college available very cheaply to blacks and women. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/27 "2010-10-18T10:58:19Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > With an understanding that women as people didn’t exist. > > With an understanding that blacks didn’t count. Or latinos. Or asians. > > With an understanding that non-heterosexuals could be arrested or beaten or both simply for existing. > > With an understanding that only christians counted. Jews could be tolerated for their usefulness but if they get out of hand they could be beaten, ostracized or even killed. > > With an understanding that drinking while driving was a minor offense. > > Or that cheating on your spouse (who lacked other options) was just ‘boys being boys’. And that your kids were property and could be beaten severely without much consequence. It was ‘good for them’. > > I think you meant to say that it was the greatest time to be male, white, straight, and adult. And as long as your politics didn’t get you in trouble. Or the art you liked. Or the music you listened to. Or the friends you had. That’s funny. As I recall it the 1960s were the very decade when the idea began to get about that the things you mention are wrong. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/28 "2010-10-18T12:08:40Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > the idea began to get about that the things you mention are wrong. The operative word being “began.” IOW, people were vaguely aware thast things sucked, but nothing much was done about them. I’m a child of the 1960s, and I’m completely with Jonathan Chance–we began to oppose things that were WAY wrong, but that does;'t begin to make them right, or fun, good.n ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/29 "2010-10-18T15:35:24Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > No. Apparently you were no t really there from the mid-1950’s to the mid-1960’s. > > You yourself admit that you only had a crystal radio that only got 1 station, so you of course necessarily missed nearly all the great popular radio shows and the great music from 1955 to 1966(apparently including a guy named Elvis Presley). You say you had no good restaurants and no pizza. You also say you had limited medicine, no drugs, and a very incompetent dentist (who must not have had access to lidocaine and high speed drills?). > > From your comments you seem to not have heard songs by The Supremes, Ray Charles, Ricky Nelson, “Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison, nor “Surfin USA” by the Beach Boys. > > No… you werent there. I dont see how your opinion could count if you, as you say, were not able to personally experience the decade, if you did not partake of the greatest economic boom in the history of the world, and if you didnt even know what we were doing with civil rights and making college available very cheaply to blacks and women. Wait. My opinion doesn’t accord with yours, so it doesn’t count? What a perfectly 50s attitude! Thank you for a slab of irony that towers like the Burj Dubai. I have nothing that could possibly top that, so I’ll just let it stand out there in all its glory. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/30 "2010-10-18T17:23:08Z")
The mid-1950’s to the mid-1960’s was not a good time for food. High-tech artificial foods were trendy. I’ve tasted several such, and… well, taste is not generally their strong suit. Space superiority? That period featured the Soviets beating the Americans at a lot of space milestones. At the end of that period, Americans thought the Soviets might well win the race to the moon. They might have, in the opinion of some historians, had Sergey Korolyev not died from a botched hemorrhoid operation in 1966. We all lived under the threat of nuclear war at that time, in a way that we don’t now. Notably, the Cuban Missile Crisis happened in that timeframe. I’m old enough to remember the threat of nuclear war in the 80’s, and the threat of terrorism today just doesn’t compare. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/31 "2010-10-18T18:37:40Z")
My parents bought a house in, I think, 1964 or 65. Both of them were working, and they had no children. Even so, the bank wouldn’t count my mom’s income toward calculating how much of a mortgage they could qualify for, because she might get pregnant and quit working. :rolleyes: He had to get a second job so the bank would say they had enough income to buy the house. She didn’t get pregnant for another 10 years. Prior to 1967, states could have laws against interracial marriages, and many did. Before 1965, states could make birth control illegal. We’re all better off without those laws. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/32 "2010-10-18T19:30:43Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > I’m completely with Jonathan Chance–we began to oppose things that were WAY wrong, but that does[n]'t begin to make them right, or fun, [or] good. Opposing them, however, was all three. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/33 "2010-10-19T07:48:20Z")
> [@cactus\_waltz](#): > > What can be ignorant however, is the uncomplicated idea of the 1960’s that is inherited down to the generations[who weren’t around to experience it themselves](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoxqHIUlyFo). In a way, though, it was a simpler time. That’s not meant to diminish anything that happened, but a lot of things can end up seeming tame after 40 years. Especially when the changes these events effected **are** still being felt. Today, there are orders of magnitude more freedom of expression, protection of civil rights, and so forth than there were in 1968, and that’s because of changes that got started around that time. And today, trying to allow every voice to be heard gets to be a PITA sometimes. So when the struggle was simply for the right of anyone except a straight white male to get fair and equal treatment, to me, that is a simpler time. I’m not saying it was easy. But it’s pretty cut and dried compared to nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/34 "2010-10-19T14:17:53Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > 1. The mid-1950’s to the mid-1960’s was not a good time for food. High-tech artificial foods were trendy. I’ve tasted several such, and… well, taste is not generally their strong suit. > > 2. Space superiority? At the end of that period, Americans thought the Soviets might well win the race to the moon. > > 3. We all lived under the threat of nuclear war at that time, in a way that we don’t now. Notably, the Cuban Missile Crisis happened in that timeframe. I’m old enough to remember the threat of nuclear war in the 80’s, and the threat of terrorism today just doesn’t compare. 1. Actually, the food was much better back then, BEFORE all these fast food places that now serve high calorie cardboard. 2. No we didnt. Nobody I ever knew ever thought. We all knew that the Russians has inferior technology except for the things it stole from us. There was never a doubt that we would not win the space race…not 1 single doubt. 3. Nobody gave much thought to nuclear war back then, it was so very remote, and the United States too superior. In fact, there is much more threat of nuclear war today, esp since so many countries today have nuclear weapons, and esp since there are now unstable countries that have nuclear weapons. The biggest threat of nuclear war, or of a nuclear bomb going off, is today…not then. There were no terrorists threats back then. It is **today** , that there is a possibility of a terrorist act against the United States, it is today that there is a possibility of a terrorist nuclear or chemical weapon being used. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/35 "2010-10-19T14:22:10Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > My parents bought a house in, I think, 1964 or 65. Both of them were working, and they had no children. Even so, the bank wouldn’t count my mom’s income toward calculating how much of a mortgage they could qualify for, because she might get pregnant and quit working. :rolleyes: He had to get a second job so the bank would say they had enough income to buy the house. She didn’t get pregnant for another 10 years. This was such a ridiculous policy. There were tales of single women bringing in their senile fathers from nursing homes to sign for their mortgages. Apparently the only qualification was that the signer had to have a Y chromosome. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/36 "2010-10-19T14:27:59Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > With an understanding that women as people didn’t exist. > > With an understanding that blacks didn’t count. Or latinos. Or asians. > > With an understanding that non-heterosexuals could be arrested or beaten or both simply for existing. > > With an understanding that only christians counted. Jews could be tolerated for their usefulness but if they get out of hand they could be beaten, ostracized or even killed. > > With an understanding that drinking while driving was a minor offense. > > Or that cheating on your spouse (who lacked other options) was just ‘boys being boys’. And that your kids were property and could be beaten severely without much consequence. It was ‘good for them’. > > I think you meant to say that it was the greatest time to be male, white, straight, and adult. And as long as your politics didn’t get you in trouble. Or the art you liked. Or the music you listened to. Or the friends you had. Well, one thing is still worth feeling nostalgic about: The Early '60s Folk Music Scare! 😃 (I’m the only one I know who has the Chad Mitchell Trio on vinyl. The albums date to just before I was born.) ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/37 "2010-10-19T15:18:51Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. No we didnt. Nobody I ever knew ever thought. We all knew that the Russians has inferior technology except for the things it stole from us. There was never a doubt that we would not win the space race…not 1 single doubt. > > 2. Nobody gave much thought to nuclear war back then, it was so very remote, and the United States too superior. In fact, there is much more threat of nuclear war today, esp since so many countries today have nuclear weapons, and esp since there are now unstable countries that have nuclear weapons. The biggest threat of nuclear war, or of a nuclear bomb going off, is today…not then. There were no terrorists threats back then. It is today, that there is a possibility of a terrorist act against the United States, it is today that there is a possibility of a terrorist nuclear or chemical weapon being used. Are you serious? The very reason there was such a thing as a “space race” was because Americans felt threatened by the very real possibility that the USSR was beating us on the technological front. The meme of “failing American schools” came as a direct result of Sputnik, starting with the National Defense Education Act of 1958 which pumped a billion dollars into science education. And the “nobody paid attention to nuclear war” paragraph… laughable. No “duck and cover” in your schools? No neighborhood race to build the best bomb shelters? No “missle gap” campaign talking points? All the sci-fi movies that dealt with the theme of nuclear bombs, the effects of radiation, or nuclear war (Them! Day X, Godzilla, Dr. Strangelove) and books (too many for me to list, but you can start with _On The Beach_) You missed _all_ that? To paraphrase: I dont see how your opinion could count if you, as you say, were not able to personally experience the decade, if you did not know about the perceived Soviet threat in space, and if you didn’t even know about the decade’s attitude and fear of nuclear war. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/38 "2010-10-24T16:14:52Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I dont see how your opinion could count if you, as you say, were not able to personally experience the decade, if you did not know about the perceived Soviet threat in space, and if you didn’t even know about the decade’s attitude and fear of nuclear war. You are obviously speaking for yourself, and yes, YOUR opinion would not/does not really count since you did not live thru it, you seemingly have no idea what happened, and YOU are only going by what you read on the internet or comic books and incorrectly thinking that everyone in America was ignorant back then and believed what some fools says today. You are also right that “MY” opinion is the most reliable, since “I” was the one who lived thru the 1950’s and 1960’s and it was I who knew what really happened and what people back then really thought. NO, nobody I knew owned a fallout shelter, and also nobody even wanted one. Everybody should ask their own grandparents if they had a fallout shelter or not - I am sure you will find out that your own family did not have one, and didnt give any thought to it. Rewriting history seems to be a favorite pasttime of young nerdy blog posters who live in their mama’s basement and had absolutely no idea what the people back then thought. \*(the only exception, of course, was John Kenedy’s foolhardy game threatening nuclear war with the Soviet Union. It was only for a couple of weeks in 1962, and was a freakish single instance/flluke that was NOT!!! representative of the 1950’s and 1960’s) \* ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/39 "2010-10-24T16:26:52Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > And this being Cafe Society, let’s not forget that in the 1950’s/early 60’s radio stations would not play “colored” music. not would white venuses book them. And since rock is a blend of \*R&B & C&W," it’s no wonder it had to come out of England. That’s an oversimplification, and things were changing rapidly then. There was a gradation of RnR from “safer” white acts to “colored” unsafe-to-air acts. For the latter, it could only be heard on black blues stations. For the former, more mainstream stations (Top-40) were playing a lot of it and they followed the money which followed the teenage crowd. It didn’t require the English invasion (although it didn’t hurt), and the music coming out of the UK was ignored by the all-black stations, anyway. How many Herman’s Hermits tunes did Ike & Tina cover in the 60’s? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424/40 "2010-10-24T16:28:23Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I’m the only one I know who has the Chad Mitchell Trio on vinyl. Not any longer. Now you know at least two. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybodys-favorite-decade-stories-takes-place-in-the-1960s/557424.md?page=3)