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I am wondering if there is anyone here who was an adult during the 1960s and would be willing to compare life back then to the lifestyle now in 2013.
Hmmm. I received my B.A. in 1960 and began my full-time, and independent working life on my own in this decade.
Considering the amount of animosity that ran through the 50's thread, I would be very reluctant to believe that this will not quickly turn into a this-was-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-all-that-was-good-holy-sacred....etc. dog fight.
Hmmm. I received my B.A. in 1960 and began my full-time, and independent working life on my own in this decade.
Considering the amount of animosity that ran through the 50's thread, I would be very reluctant to believe that this will not quickly turn into a this-was-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-all-that-was-good-holy-sacred....etc. dog fight.
I admire your courage, carry on.
Aye I see it that way. There is no doubt whatsoever that the 1960s was the time of big change. Thats how I saw it, and even Tony Blair among others commented in the same vein about that period.
Now whether for good or ill that is the debatable point. At one time I thought of the analogy of a pier that we will have to swing back the other way or else we'll fall off the end of the pier, But as somebody said to me when I mentioned that analogy...they've just kept adding on to the end of the pier.
We had Cromwell and the Puritans,but then we had the Merry Monarch Charles 2. We had the Hellfire Club and then the Victorians. So no, it hasn't happened that way so far and as one commentator put it ''Queen Victoria died in 1963''
As kevxu said, there will probably be a big fight.
Briefly, I worked as a teacher because, being a woman, that was one of the few jobs open to me. I graduated, got married, and started teaching all on one year. That same year I also learned how to cook and clean, do laundry, grocery shopping---the woman did all of it. The husband went to work and came home and read a book or newspaper.
Our heroes were getting killed off--JFK, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King. At the same time music was taking off and the world was charging forward at a frantic pace.
Everyone worried about Viet Nam. Amidst all the excitement of the times, you would almost forget that there was a war going on but you never really forgot it and most of us hated it and tried to stop it. No one wanted to go and we couldn't find any reason for going. We thought we had the power to change things but really someone else had the power.
Food-much like the 50s, homemade but many women were working and had to try to be "super woman" and do it all. It was before women's lib so we didn't know that it wasn't fair or at least it was only in the backs of our minds that we were doing it all and we didn't like it.
Huge changes in clothing, music, culture, everything all accelerating at a rapid pace. People smoked pot but I never knew anyone who did anything more than that. Essentially a lot of it was a rebellion against the repressive '50s. Things went too far and the baby got thrown out with the bathwater--such as lowering of standards in schools and too much of a relaxed do-whatever-you-want atmosphere.
There was a huge divide between us and our parents called the generation gap. Us=long hair, bell bottoms, smoking pot, talking openly about subjects such as sex, thinking of dropping out of society and living on a commune, thinking everyone could be equal, questioning authority, skepticism regarding the old order of things. A generation in which a lot of kids went to college and had been slightly spoiled by the older, Great Depression/World War II generation. We worked hard but it was not all about money because we were deeply concerned about creating a better world.
Someone else can tell it in detail, there is just too much.
Just reading a book now which says a lot of what went on in the 1960s was encouraged by the Soviet Union. Maybe more so the rebellious stuff which then led to Bader-Meinoff,Paris riots etc.
I wasn't an adult during the 1960s - I was born in 1962. But I clearly recall the 1960s as being a time of radical change in our society - some good and some bad.
My clearest memories are of the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam. My parents raised me and my brothers to be strong supporters of individual rights, regardless of the color of one's skin, so the Civil Rights movement made a big impression on me. Also, my dad flew missions in Vietnam for seven years and was gone for much of the 1960s. I recall both my parents desperately wanting the VN war to end.
My parents were sort of radicals. I recall a lot of Joan Baez, Peter Paul and Mary, and other folk music and a definite "anti-establishment" environment in our home. FIGHT THE POWER!
I was born in 1960. The early part of the decade was similar to the Fifties but with a more youthful component (Kennedy much younger than Eisenhower). I grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis and life could seem like the "innocent" 50's at times (when we were at our lake cabin, playing youth hockey or just enjoying the outdoors). Our home was walking distance to a forested park with a creek, but the parents never had to worry. I believe our neighborhood had milk delivered until 1970 or '71 if memory serves me right.
We would hear news reports of riots in large cities and think we are glad that was not life in our safe suburb. There was also an occasional protest at U of MN we saw on the news, but those were relatively tame compared to riots in places like LA ,Detroit, and Berkeley. It was definitely an era of change, dissent and protest compared to the '50's conformity. Probably the first three years (from talking to older people) were similar to the 50's. The malt shop gave way to independent coffeehouses. Go go bars replaced sock hops and I was too young to enjoy that scene, but still enjoyed a lot as a kid.
As a child my friends and I would sometimes eavesdrop on the adult conversations (especially our mothers) in the late 60's and would overhear some of the women tell each other they were so glad their child is only eight or nine years old. If they were ten years older they might actually have to consider going to Canada until the war is over. I thought for a suburban community the politics was fairly moderate in our neighborhood (not as conservative as the stereotype). The news footage of the carnage in Vietnam probably influenced that to some degree.
Even as a young person you could sense the change especially around 1967-68 with the longer hair coming in (even in the suburbs!) and it seemed to me children were starting to test their parents' authority in the latter part of the decade more in general (not minding right away, etc...still way better than today, though).
The elementary school I attended was very safe and the teachers were allowed to enforce discipline and did so. The bullying was minor compared to today IMO.
The most inspirational moment nationally was probably the Moon Landing in 1969. I was playing outdoors at our neighbor's lake cabin with a few others and my friend's Dad called us in. He said "You kids gotta see this! We are landing an astronaut on the moon." We came indoors and saw the Moon Landing and I was glad he interrupted our play time for that (even as a nine year old). I believe that real life event helped increase the popularity of Star Trek and similar TV shows.
Adults are more able to provide a sense of the decade but I was very aware for a child as to what was going on.
Most of all, thanks to Curmudgeon and many others for their service in Vietnam. They were treated terribly when they returned and that was wrong.
I was in public elementary school during the 1960s, but have a couple of things to add:
One of my third grade teachers (married) got pregnant and had to leave teaching as soon as she began to show. It wasn't until I met her as an adult that I found out why she left. It was never mentioned.
All through the 1960s, in my Texas school, no one was allowed to wear blue jeans. Boys had to wear slacks. Girls had to wear dresses or skirts. For modesty, some girls wore shorts under their skirts, but slacks were never allowed for girls.
I wasn't an adult during the 1960s - I was born in 1962. But I clearly recall the 1960s as being a time of radical change in our society - some good and some bad.
My clearest memories are of the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam. My parents raised me and my brothers to be strong supporters of individual rights, regardless of the color of one's skin, so the Civil Rights movement made a big impression on me. Also, my dad flew missions in Vietnam for seven years and was gone for much of the 1960s. I recall both my parents desperately wanting the VN war to end.
My parents were sort of radicals. I recall a lot of Joan Baez, Peter Paul and Mary, and other folk music and a definite "anti-establishment" environment in our home. FIGHT THE POWER!
Yeah those 'protest singers' had a lot of influence or to answer for depending on what way you look at it.
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