Tell me about the '60s.

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was born in the '60s so I have only fuzzy memories of that time. I seem to remember lots of chrome – on cars, on toys, on other consumer items. I remember plastic. I see items from the era and I kind f remember them. (For example, the transistor radios the size of notebooks, with their coloured plastic bodies and horizontal grilles and chrome knobs.)

I remember the space program, and i thought it was neat-o that we had astronauts flying around in capsules.

I remember The Beatles. (My sister was a big fan.)

It seems to me that everything back then was “modern”. You know; “Modern”. I’m not sure how to explain it.

Of course I was too young to know about the war in Vietnam, Communism, or anything like that. It just seemed to my young eyes to be a shiny, new, “modern”, world that was rushing toward the Future.

So those of you who were maybe born in the 1940s or 1950s: Can you tell me about the 1960s? The Zeitgeist, if you will.

And to hijack my own OP, were there any good movies back then that displayed the contemporary world?

2

I was 5 in 1968.

I lived in Chicago.

My Dad went downtown to get several friends out of jail/the hospital during the Riot at the Democratic National Convention.

I clearly recall smelling the tear gas, even though we lived miles away from the Convention. As I had asthma, Mom kept me indoors most of the day.

3

Everybody’s kitchen utilities were either Avocado Green or Harvest Yellow.

4

I remember the '60s as being very Mod and New and Kooky and there being a feeling of “there’s nothing you can’t do, and the more far-out and anti-establishment, the better.”

But that could have simply been that I was a kid and a pre-teen at the time, and I’d have felt the same way in any decade . . .

5

If you can remember the '60s, then you didn’t fully experience them.

6

Ah the 60’s…, I remember the forced labor camps, the nationalization of small businesses, the forced exile and imprisonment of dissidents, the food rationing, the indoctrination camps. Oh wait, did you mean the 60’s in the US? Sorry, I was talking about the 60’s in Cuba.

7

Well, Mom would be in the kitchen frying up a huge steak, with a can of Tab in one hand and smoking a Salem with the other, and mixing up a third Martini “for the road” for Dad, and that was just at breakfast…

No, wait, hang on, didn’t Joel say all that during an episode of MST3K?

8

Which 60’s?

Selma or Haight-Ashbury?

Camelot or Cuba?

Landing on the moon or race riots?

Age of Aquarius or Cold War?

Sorry - no simple answers

[sub]you say you want a revolution, well, you know…[/sub]

9

Watch “Let’s Make A Deal” on Game Show Network. That oughta show you the fashion and trends.

But I have to agree with happyheathen, there are no simple answers. My experience as a caucasian from a small midwest town differs from urban or minority experiences.

For me it was escaping the right wing, conservative mentality that had been considered “normal” for a couple of decades. To find like-minded individuals who sincerely cared and hoped for a better world was mind-boggling.

I don’t know what you will find as I haven’t tried it, but try googling on “60’s radical underground newspapers”. They were a barometer of the times for younger people back then. Newspapers like the Chicago Reader would never have come to be without them…ergo, a case can be made that SDMB is a bastard child of those 60’s rags.

10

If there’s one thing that seemed to characterize it (in the US and probably most of the Western world if not necessarily the rest of the globe), it was a sharp decline in the extent to which people believed that things would continue to be as they had always been.

Change was very obviously in the air whether you embraced it or feared it.

11

You want to know about the 1960’s do ya? Well for and old guy who graduated high school in 1960 and left college for the Army in 1967, let me tell you it was eight or ten years of paranoia, when every rule of civil society was questioned and not a few were found lacking. The young people coming to maturity then simply found that we had just created our own pig sty to replace our parents sty.

We started off with John Kennedy’s election. A fair number of us thought that this was beginning of a new golden age with the levers of power taken by a generation younger than out parents. Then we had the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crises, the Freedom Riders, mob rule across the South and Kennedy’s assassination followed by Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam. Bob Kennedy’s murder and Dr. King’s murder, the catastrophe at the Democratic Convention followed. At the same time we got birth control pills, marihuana, LSD, the Beatles and god knows how many Fab Four wannabes and, God help us, Pop Art. The Russians were giving us the evil eye and mutual nuclear destruction seemed only hours away. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 propagated a new waive of repressive racists and the appearance of a whole new bunch of ax handle waiving politicians. The liberal consensus collapsed and we ended up the decade with the likes of Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and Timothy Leary. The whole hope for a just and free society disappeared with a generation wasted by drugs and war and with no confidence in our ability to govern ourselves. The city on the hill we thought we were approaching turned out to be just another one horse town run but the same self serving demagogues who had always been in charge.

12

I wish more of those kind people who so glowingly refer to that era and what it stood for (if anything) would remember what you do.

13

I can’t say I really miss pot pie and Fresca for dinner.

14

Hey, Johnny, one of my weirdly fondest memories is watching Walter Cronkite on the 6 o’clock news reporting from Viet Nam and hoping to catch sight of my Dad, eating popcorn and chewing on ice cubes with my granma (Mom and the two younger brats were usually napping)… Listening to the Lone Ranger on the radio as my granma made me silver dollar pancakes for breakfast before getting ready for school… Watching the coolest cartoon on TV, Jonny Quest, and wishing my name was Jonny… Finally figuring out how to load reel-to-reel tapes on my Dad’s hi-fi and jammin’ out to the ‘Stones, Beatles and the Animals… Spit-polishing 3-pairs of jump boots, two pairs of dress boots, and 5 pairs of dress oxfords for the ol’ man each week… Heavy, man…

15

The following is an impression…perhaps remembered with less than 100% accuracy. I was born in 1943, so the young fellow in the movie “A Christmas Story”…the one who wanted a BB gun…was/is pretty much my age.

A country divided. Values held by the older/more conservative segments of society being challenged and changed by the younger/more liberal members of society. Oddly enough, even though lots of the convential mores and ideas were demolished, not all of the new ones worked out…I think that the “90’s” and this decade are trying to readdress many of the things that were broken…hence the “back to basics” movements for education and families

Everyday life was pretty much the same as now for most of us: work, play when you can, try to get ahead, care about your loved ones

Many of the changes that started in the '60’s are part of the fabric of society now. Birth control pills and sexual freedom of women, widespread use of illegal drugs (excepting alcohol for minors), questioning authority, the “environmental” movement are a few that are well known. Another interesting one was the change in popular music…before the '60’s, nearly everyone shared the same music (big band, crooners, ballads and so forth), but there were some “fringe” musicians who were starting R&R.

Most of the movements actually had their roots in earlier times. Civil rights and desegregation actually got a big boost during and right after WWII. Women entered the work force in huge numbers during the same period. I would also include the breakdown of the traditional political areas of influence. the “good ol’ boy” network was beginning to break up in the South. The Cold War and the policy of Containment really started at the end of WWII, and Vietnam was a good example of just a part of the consequences of that policy. The black community had a rich history of music that continues on in jazz, rock, and country today.

Yes, there was a lot of chrome. Cars were large and gas guzzlers. Small kitchen appliances were coming on the scene and were usually chrome or avocado green. Most people had very little compared to now. TV was in black and white and on a 21" screen, at least at my house. Christmas did not start until after Thanksgiving. I think that 8 tracks were being replaced by cassette tapes. Stereo was a big thing. The first personal hand held calculators were about the size of a large paperback book, and either had paper printout, or showed their numbers with red lights…and one that could add/subtract/divide/multiply was very expensive. (I used a slide rule). Divorce was frowned upon.

If you srewed around in school, you were kicked out. Most minority kids in my area dropped out before completing high school. I remember gas at 22 cents/gallon. And I was making about $1.25/hr. We dated, rather than hanging out together at the mall. The ideal was to marry, have kids and a house with a car and a good job…the same goals that our Dads had when they came back from WWII. But at the same time, many people wanted to be able to define their lives without any restrictions of former values and even former laws.

All in all…many of the bad things have continued to improve. Race relations and women’s concerns are an example…but some haven’t. In retrospect, I think each generation brings its own baggage, strengths and foibles to bear on the times.

That’s why I have so much faith in the people here at SDMB! I can see it in action!

16

Born in '58, grew up in blue-collar south Chicago suburb

The first memory I have about the larger world (outside of my family) was when I heard about the assassination of John Kennedy over the PA system to my first grade class. A Catholoc school, the principal/nun cried as she made the announcement.

From then til 1968, most of what I rember is about TV programs. Hawaii 5-0, Mannix, Gilligan, Dick van Dyke, Carol Burnett, cartoons like Speed Racer, Riccochet Rabbit, Rocky and Bullwinkle.

I remember hearing about rioting in the city. There was a lot of rioting it seemed. A group of us kids had heard “the blacks” were heading toward our neighborhood to burn it. And we stood lookout at this viaduct underneath the Illinois Cetral tracks, because we knew (somehow) the blacks would come in from the west. But they didn’t come.

I was just becoming politically aware in '68, and in the next few years I gained a hatred and contempt for Richard Nixon that is very strong to this day. He’s the guy I love to hate. Even then I could see he was a thug.

I was bussed to a relatively distant highschool as part of a racial balancing program. But that’s another decade, the 70’s.

Oh yeah, music back then meant something, even if today a lot of it seems like drug-induced nonsense.

17

I don’t remember having black and white TV as the family set. The first TV I remember was a big wooden console with a round colour tube that was masked at the top and sides. I got a 9" B&W teevee when I was about ten.

I understand the political situations and movements back then, but at the time the world seemed bright and shiny. My mom drove a white 1966 MGB roadster with a red interior. Dad had a Navy blue (naturally :wink: ) Ford 7-litre Galaxy 500 with the police interceptor package. I think the interior was light blue or metallic blue vinyl. Before that we had a red Triumph Herald, but mom told me it used to be blue. Chrome. Transistor radios. Outer space. I remember I was impressed by Tokyo Tower and the big statue of Buddha you could climb inside. I liked saying “Tokyo Tower!” It was fun to say.

I remember seeing dad off on his cruises (he was a Navy Lieutenant) on cold grey San Diego mornings, and how the band played Anchors Aweigh. Climbing up the rear ramp of a 727. People dressed better then. Bonfires at the beach.

I remember how the world seemed to be in motion, with airliners and shiny cars. Watching Walter Cronkite, BF, as he covered the Apollo missions.

One memory that keeps coming back is, again, “Shiny”. I remember a public place. Maybe an airport, or maybe a department store. Hell, I don’t know. It was cold. I remember black-and-white houndstooth overcoats and chrome plated, transistorized consumer items. Had to have been Japan.

So I guess that’s my memory of the midfle-1960s. Shiny.

18

Ha! Johnny, I remembered we had a small snippet of the 500 Galaxy convo awhile back. We had the ‘66, with power everything, all the windows rolled down. Cruizin’ down I-80(?), from Seaside CA (Ft. Ord, between Turkey and ‘Nam, then Hawaii)to Iowa when my Dad had 30 days leave to visit G-ma and G-Pa. To me, big shiny metal stuff was getting clipped by a cyclist at Fisherman’s Wharf, landing on a table full of crabs, riding in the big, shiny ambulance, and getting a cool (plaster cast, for a friggin’ month) helmet after X-number of stitches at age 4 and a half, before two skanky brats invaded my turf and ruin’t my idyllic child hood… Then again, there was my way cool Uncle on his bright, shiny BSA750, stylin’ me around town with no helmet for either of us, all “Then Came Bronson”, ya know what I mean…

19

Guy born in '42 here. Spavined Gelding and sunstone covered specifics very nicely.

Generally, it seemed like a downer time. To me, the period that felt like the “60’s” could have been said to start with JFK’s assassination, and ended roughly with Nixon’s resignation. YMMV.

Lots of disappointments, lots of fears and concerns, and at infrequent intervals, a real bitchin’ high.
Nobody thought very much about driving drunk or driving while otherwise impaired.

Lots of stuff is different now. M-16’s are better than the M-1 carbines were.

bayonet1976: Were you in Cuba back in the day?

20

Sixty-eight or sixty-nine my junior high school experimented with letting girls wear pants to school for one or two designated days per semester. The next year it was one day per week, Fridays, I think.

Also in junior high fatigue jackets were cool things to wear. Everyone would sign them, like a cast. If you washed them, the messages done with Flair pens (which were new, hot items) would wash out and there would be more blank space available to be signed.

Now that I think of it, in sixty-seven, the dress code forbade nylons, which everyone wore, and makeup, which most girls wore. But those parts of the dress code were considered by the administration to be old-fashioned and weren’t enforced. Pants would get you sent home fast.

Teasing hair up into a bubble was big about then. Laugh-In was big about then. T-shirts were on the edge of being acceptable, instead of being thought to be underwear. Usually they had to be really thick cloth or had to have a decal to prove that they were outerwear.

Permanent press was new. The sixties were the end of Mondays as washing day followed by Tuesdays as ironing day. My Grandma remembered life without cake mixes and the newness of washing machines. My Mom got a drier when we were in grade school. Before that it was the clothes-line. I once amazed my children with tales of the first quarter video game.

Anyone else out there ever explained the lure of Pong to kids raised on good graphics? I didn’t see Pong until seventy-three.

And of course America was being destroyed by - fill in the blank. (My Dad could fill in the blank in many ways. The Smothers Brothers was one way.) Being in this thirties during the sixties did my Dad in, although being fifteen at the end of WWII probably didn’t help. He started ranting and never learned to quit. He could go from zero to holocaust in sixty seconds. The damdest things could set him off. Years later, the library getting a computerized card catalog did it, once.

The biggest new thing was television, though. Although it may be slightly pre-sixties - Soupy Sales got in trouble when he told children to get the papers with the pictures on them out of Daddy’s wallet and send them in. The idea that something on TV could act against a child’s best interest was horrifying! TV was what we watched all Saturday morning while the folks slept in.

TV was the reason that every house had a set of TV trays, which was also a handy way to deal with small children when more people came to visit than you had room for at the kitchen table.

TV was also what we watched in the fourth grade when Kennedy was killed. All three channels, all day, there was nothing on that wasn’t something to do with the funeral. That seemed to be the worst part of it to me, as a kid. We had the day off of school. But you couldn’t go anywhere because it wasn’t really a holiday. And there was nothing to watch on TV that wasn’t both sad and extremely repetative. The exact same scenes over and over. I resented it and felt guilty over resenting it.

Lava lamps were seventies. Was there a physical piece of decoration that was the sixties equivalent?