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Things were cheaper then but they didn't SEEM cheaper then. They seemed expensive. In the 60-70's my siblings and I were ill-clothed, ill-housed and ill-fed. Now were not. So of course I'd never want to go back.
They may not have seemed cheaper, but they were. My mom once said that my dad's paycheck went farther in the '60s than it did in the '70s.
A quick note on that paycheck. From 1971 to about 1976 I was making an extra $30 to $35 a week on my take home check from about the second week of November to the end of the year. Back then when you reached a certain amount on gross wages you hit a certain amount where social security wasn't taken out of your take home pay. That extra money came in pretty handy come Christmas time. By 1977, mit got raised to maybe $30,000, and I have no idea where it is now.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,758,986 times
Reputation: 3587
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fleet
My parents bought a house in Oct., 1966 (for $44,500). It was (or is, I still live in it) 3 bedrooms plus a den plus a family room. The den was converted into a bedroom. Also a living and dining room. 2,618 square feet. On a 1/3 acre lot. A 2-car garage. Central heating and a/c. And, as a rule, houses in the 1960s were well-built. This one survived both the 1971 Sylmar and 1994 Northridge earthquakes with no structual damage. In a nearby neighborhood, with houses built in the 1980s, there were large exterior cracks on nearly every house.
Darn! Why didn't you tell me before I bought my 1969 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, of which I enjoy immensely? (See photos below.) I can post many photos showing severe collisions in which the occupants survived. And my family was a two-car family. Owned two 1966 Pontiac Grand Prixs during the mid-'60s, before that, a '56 Plymouth and a '60 Cadillac.
Many, including myself, consider the '60s the best decade for TV, especially for sitcoms. Back then, the shows had imagination, like "Bewitched" or "My Favorite Martian." Also, there was definitely color TVs in the '60s. The TV show "Bonanza" was broadcast in color during its entire run, which began in 1959.
Other popular TV shows... The Andy Griffith Show, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Rawhide, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Dobie Gillis, The Red Skelton Show, The Jack Benny Show, The Danny Thomas Show, Dragnet, Adam-12, Perry Mason, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Dean Martin Show, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Green Acres, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, The Donna Reed Show, The Patty Duke Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Munsters, The Addams Family, The Lucy Show, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Daktari, Gilligan's Island, The Wild Wild West, Get Smart, Ironside... just to name a few.
I'll take those shows over today's "reality" or "comedy" shows anytime!
School is supposed to be hard! What do you learn when it's easy? I am still well able to add, subtract or multiply without having to use a calculator (my brain is my calculator).
Oh, no... dial telephones! How did we ever survive that! There is still a dial telephone in my den, btw. Another point... those things lasted a lot longer back then.
The night rates made long-distance calling affordable.
Not sure what the rates were back then, but I can check with those who remember more from that era than I.
Each decade has both good and bad.
You were obviously from a well to do family and not a family of a Boeing plant worker.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,758,986 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fleet
No, a regular, middle-class family. And my mom stopped working in 1954, so it was a one-paycheck family.
In my neighbourhood- which was a blue collar neighbourhood, people did not live like that. I still remember in the mid 60s when the McNamara family got the first colour TV in the neighbourhood because we went over to watch it. And they financed the TV like you do a car!
I say easier then. Both my parents worked, but my grandmother raised us and lived with us (no babysitters or day care). This was common in my neighborhood, grandparents (from the "old country") helping with the family. There was more of a "village" mentality, even in suburbs and areas near cities. People cooperated more, and parents watched over each other's kids in the neighborhood.
I safely walked around and played outside, no problems, no worries. There were no "organized" play dates...get real. Out the door with you all summer in the morning, see you for lunch, see you at dinner...then get some more outdoor time with your mates after dinner. I never felt threatened by "strangers", traffic, etc.
Homework, school...don't get me started. I am not displeased with the higher academic standards of today (and there's simply more to learn), but there was not this pressure I see to do huge amounts of homework. Parental involvement? I think my mother went to two teacher conferences my entire "academic career." Am I saying this was "good"? Not sure...but I feel parenting was "easier." Parents put more trust in the schools and other institutions, misplaced or not.
Also, we definitely had some nuts and bullies at my schools, but there was no pressure re drugs, early sexual experiences, etc. I didn't see that happening untl college; before that, it was some kid brought Colt 45 Malt Liquor that his older brother bought, to the drive in movie. Wow. Now, I think the pressure on kids starting in middle school is pretty ubelievable.
Then again, as a kid, I probably was not aware of many of the pressures of the day. I feel parents had more of a boundary between them and their children...kids were allowed (had the time) to be "kids" and didn't become exposed or involved in adult issues.....money, jobs, personal problems, etc. Now, I think there's too much information out there (computer, TV, media), and kids can't process it accurately, anyway.
Overall, I remember a feeling of safety and security that I don't think many kids are lucky enough to have (or to that extent) today. I feel extended families were not all spread out over the country, as they are today, so you had your (sometimes eccentric but still) aunts and uncles, etc, to pick up any slack as you were growing up, or to
reinforce (sometimes only with a comment or two) what values your parents tried to instill.
We trick or treated in a big group, no adults, until well after dark, with no thought of anything tainted, etc....and we didn't have TV all summer, every summer, so we all went to the library once a week and had contests...who could read the most books...no computers, etc. There were always these daredevil deeds you engaged in all summer (outside the knowledge of your parents), which involved things so INNOCENT seeming today....
My father had one job the entire time I grew up....I don't remember ever hearing any talk about " job security", etc. I don't think there was any talk about him "liking" his job, either...that was not an issue. I felt parents just did what they had to do, without a lot of "talk" about it, at least around the kids. I think that's more healthy than the information and talk everything to death overload that we have today.
One more thing.....no carryout. Everything cooked from scratch by my grandmother...the only carryout we had was, my Dad would occasionally drive to this Jewish deli that was open on Sundays (hardly anything was.....) and bring back kosher hot dogs and french fries. A&W, maybe once every one or two weeks during the summer. No materialism, you got one pair of Keds a week before Memorial Day and those lasted until Labor Day. I don't remember "longing" for anything adverised, marketed, etc.
There was a very level economic playing field in my neighborhood, and I felt that was very healthy, also. Everyone was on the basic same level, and this removed any of this creepy materialism I see in some kids today.
In my neighbourhood- which was a blue collar neighbourhood, people did not live like that. I still remember in the mid 60s when the McNamara family got the first colour TV in the neighbourhood because we went over to watch it. And they financed the TV like you do a car!
Just because some people didn't live like you described doesn't mean all of them did!
Also, when my mom furnished the house, she paid for all of it in cash- no financing! And all of that furniture was a lot more expensive than one TV!
And she was not a doctor or a lawyer... she worked at several different factories assembling radios and other electronic items.
I remember my dad buying a Zenith 24" color console TV... we were the first on the block and that in itself made it something to remember because my Dad never had a new car or bought anything to keep up with the neighbors...
Anyway, it was a Saturday morning when the set was delivered and as soon as we had it set up... all of the neighborhood kids settled in to watch the Saturday Cartoons and nothing had more color than the Mighty-Mouse cartoon... By the end of the day... all the neighbors had come through and it wasn't too long before everyone had a color set...
By the way... that old Zenith kept working all the way into the 21st Century...
My first experience with "Bad" people came on a Halloween night... m brothers and I had each carved Jack o Lanterns and some "Bad" people went down the street and tossed everyone's pumpkins into the road... that was the end of my innocence...
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,758,986 times
Reputation: 3587
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultrarunner
The 60's...
I remember my dad buying a Zenith 24" color console TV... we were the first on the block and that in itself made it something to remember because my Dad never had a new car or bought anything to keep up with the neighbors...
Anyway, it was a Saturday morning when the set was delivered and as soon as we had it set up... all of the neighborhood kids settled in to watch the Saturday Cartoons and nothing had more color than the Mighty-Mouse cartoon... By the end of the day... all the neighbors had come through and it wasn't too long before everyone had a color set...
By the way... that old Zenith kept working all the way into the 21st Century...
My first experience with "Bad" people came on a Halloween night... m brothers and I had each carved Jack o Lanterns and some "Bad" people went down the street and tossed everyone's pumpkins into the road... that was the end of my innocence...
Remember the "TV man"? When the set went on the blink you called him up and he would come over in a big van and put his blanket on the floor and start pulling tubes and things out of the set to test them and we kids would set on the couch and watch him work in amazement because the younger kids wanted to see if he could get the "little people" out of the TV set!
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,758,986 times
Reputation: 3587
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultrarunner
The 60's...
I remember my dad buying a Zenith 24" color console TV... we were the first on the block and that in itself made it something to remember because my Dad never had a new car or bought anything to keep up with the neighbors...
Anyway, it was a Saturday morning when the set was delivered and as soon as we had it set up... all of the neighborhood kids settled in to watch the Saturday Cartoons and nothing had more color than the Mighty-Mouse cartoon... By the end of the day... all the neighbors had come through and it wasn't too long before everyone had a color set...
By the way... that old Zenith kept working all the way into the 21st Century...
My first experience with "Bad" people came on a Halloween night... m brothers and I had each carved Jack o Lanterns and some "Bad" people went down the street and tossed everyone's pumpkins into the road... that was the end of my innocence...
Our first coloured set was the Quasar "works in the drawer" thing. I remember when Eric's TV delivered it and we could not wait to watch it. It was in the middle 60s (maybe 65 or 66). But then we were forced to wait because the pecking order in the house was the adults and then my older sister and that night the "Patty Duke Show" was on and so she was going to watch the TV set with her boyfriend (who was later killed in Veitnam God bless his soul and all the wonderful boys we lost there).
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