The 60s!

[sprawled out]

i wanted to respond to rhino's comments about the 60s without derailing the DDT thread.

i think the 60s were amazing. not perfect, by any means, but wonderful nonetheless. though i was only 12 in 1967, i remember that time as one of real hope. there really was this feeling in the air that positive change was possible, and that the world really was going to take a giant step forward. there has never been a time like it in my lifetime, so open and full of possibilities. some of it was wrongheaded. and it had its share of a**holes. but i hold to it as an incredible time--my memory of it is all bright and shiny and sunny and clear, like the most perfect day you can imagine. it still gives me hope, even in times like these.

you can condemn it if you want. i realize it's the christian thing to do. but it's the spirit (that's right) of those times, still reverberating inside me, that keeps me young at heart and hopeful. there's no way i'm gonna condemn that--so i'll still celebrate it.

[Abigail]

I missed out on the 60's. I always thought I was born too late. :(

[Out There]

I don't remember the 60's - I was there

[George Aar]

Well, I remember the '60s pretty well, being born in '52, but I don't think I remember them the same way you do, sprawled.

I remember a turbulent, unhinged, often aimless time. Everybody was trying to find their own path, their own drummer to march to. And I think we came damned close to anarchy.

Don't get me wrong, I really liked the '60s, but it was a really unsettled time. Certainly not for the faint of heart. The war protesters, the Weathermen, the Black Panthers, LSD, the whole counter-culture thing, the battle between the generations. It wasn't always pleasant, but it was exciting.

It burned itself out though, and slowly morphed into the malaise of the '70s and then the tech-revolution of the '80s and now the period of neo-imperialism (augmented by large doses of self-righteous religiosity), where the ultimate goal in life seems to be to invest wisely in real estate.

All things considered, I guess I would prefer to be sitting around, smoking dope with a bunch of pseudo-intellectuals and blathering on about the ills of "the establishment", but - unfortunately - I was forced to grow up. Oh well...

[rhino]

...my memory of it is all bright and shiny and sunny and clear, like the most perfect day you can imagine. it still gives me hope, even in times like these.

... but it's the spirit (that's right) of those times, still reverberating inside me, that keeps me young at heart and hopeful. there's no way i'm gonna condemn that--so i'll still celebrate it.

The spirit of the innocent people was great ... as was the spirit of the innocent people going out WOW. I don't know if I still have my "GROOVY" button, but I thought I'd do organic gardening and all that cool stuff. Like the Beatles said "We all want to change the world" But WOW ended up being the wrong Way.

TWI turned bad (or started bad), Rachel was wrong but only the movement mattered, the drug culture hasn't helped much, communism became cool, and it was probably the first time our military came home and got spit on. As far out as it was, I'm not sure it was all it was hallucinated to be.

Thanks for starting the new thread, this was kinda what i was thinking of for that really.

Edited September 20, 2006 by rhino

[T-Bone]

I don't remember the 60's - I was there

I'm with yah on that one - which is a pretty good indication that we WERE there!

[coolchef]

i agree with out there i don't remember much o the 60's either al though i graduated from hs in 67

damn it ws fun!

the day after i graduated i thumbed to the west coast{ i live in maine}

wish i could remember more of it but i'm sure i had a good time

[dmiller]

The 60's were just the 90's --- upside down.

[coolchef]

dmiller but who can argue!

[waysider]

Music tops my list of things I remember from the 60's. AM radio was still the main stay and everything had to fit a 3 minute timeframe to get airplay. There was, of course, an FM band but it was reserved mostly for opera and classical. To fill the ever growing void in listener interest, underground radio was born. We had a local AM station that featured an underground show from 10 to 12 PM on Sunday night. There one could hear the likes of "Light My Fire", "In A Gadda Da Vidda" and "Purple Haze". We would also make our pilgrimages to the local "head shops" where one could hear Frank Zappa, Blodwyn Pig , Joni Mitchell , CTA and Paul Butterfield all in the same visit.

Oh to listen once again to "Fathers and Sons" by Muddy Waters on my "click" eight track "click" tape deck.

[sprawled out]

you got that right, waysider! it did help that we had such a great soundtrack.

the beatles, motown, all that great stuff on AM...and then those early FM stations that would play whole albums (when whole albums were worth listening to!)--with those stoned-sounding djs who'd actually take requests...paying $3.50 to see THREE great bands at the fillmore east...

the more i remember, the better it sounds!

[Linda Z]

One word sums up the 60s for me: passion. Sometimes were were passionately wrong but, looking back from my older (wiser?) perspective, a lot of the time we were passionately right. Mixed in with the drugs and all the negatives people like to drag out re: the 60s, there was a lot of kindness and innocence and so much fun!

I don't totally romanticize that era as if it was perfect because I know I made some foolish mistakes then, as did many of my friends. But by golly, few of us made the kind of mistakes that come from just sitting on our butts waiting for life to happen. We were out there making it happen, damn near fearlessly and so very, very passionately.

I also had some of my best experiences and learned lessons about people that have served me well all these years. In fact, working where I did, I met lots of famous and infamous people. I learned (bigtime!) that people are, after all, just people, and not to expect them to be gods. Knowing that worked out pretty well for me when the screw-ups of twi started becomeing apparent to me in the 80s!

[Ron G.]

I might be a tad older than some of you.

I remember the 60's a little differently

The '60s began as a time of new promise with the election of a young new president who was a WWll war hero and ostensibly ushering in an era of "Camelot". I was twelve at the time.

I hit seventh grade and discovered girls, but that's a whole 'nother thread.

I learned fear in a big way when the radio and TV broadcast never ending reports on the Cuban missle crisis when that young new president faced down the venerable Nikita Kruzchev.

I enjoyed the TV show "Twilight Zone" more than any other...and pretty much watched little else.

I was 15...just 5 days before my 16th birthday... when I skipped school and went to Dallas to see the president. I didn't see much, but heard the shots ring out from Dealy Plaza...all four of them.

Being in the HS band, I was a music snob, so the Beatles held little interest for me. I was into Maynard Ferguson, Bud Brisbois, Wes Mongomery and Doc Severinson...Maynard even came and held clinics and did concerts with our band...and Doc held a big band fest in Eastland, Texas, I think it was.

I played, with my band, Hail to the Chief for LBJ at the opening ceremonies for the Astrodome in Houston when I was 17. Band trips were always such fun.

I was 18 and in college when I first heard about hippies...but not much interest in that sort of thing in Lubbock, Texas.

That was about when I got hooked on Star Trek. About the only TV I *EVER* watched was Star Trek and Twilight Zone.

Voted in my first election in '68. Had to go for Nixon cuz I figgered ol' Hubert Humphery was just gonna continue LBJ and MacNamaras aggressive war policies.

In '69, I changed schools to the University of Texas in Arlington. I took Russian language and had an instructor named George DeMohrenschildt. He and I became acquainted, carpooling for a while. Got WAAAAYYY too much information about things that were too much for a young guy like me.

And thus ended my 60's experience.

The only thing that really lasted from that era, as near as I can tell, was Star Trek and Twilight Zone which still air regularly on my Dish TV....and still about the only things I watch regularly besides movies.

[VeganXTC]

I was young in the 60's, but I have an older sister, who for me, personified the 60's.

I remember my mother telling her she couldn't play her new record album, "Hair" because there was too much swearing.

I remember my sister went to Purdue University. She wanted to go to Indiana University, but wasn't allowed to. IU had co-ed dorms.

I remember when my sister brought a young man home, with hair so long you couldn't see his ears. He's my brother-in-law now.

Lots of changes in the 60's.

[coupcake]

I have fond memories of the sixties as I suspect most people in any generation have fond memories of their young years along with memories of teenage angst. But I am still trying to figure out why it is the christian thing to do to condemn things...

[TOMMYZ]

Hey Waysider, I haven't heard Blodwyn Pig mentioned in ages ! ( For the rest of you, they were started by Mick Abrahms, the original guitarist of Jethro Tull ) I've still got a vinyl copy of one of their albums.

[SafariVista]

Ugh…, I HATED the 60’s! It was a very bad time for me. I had LONG hair passed my butt, that HAD to be braided at ALL TIMES, I was ONLY allowed to wear dresses and skirts, we had a strict 7pm bedtime all year long, and our family didn’t communicate at all. My Mom rewarded us with food, and she frequently let us know of all the people in the neighborhood, city, state and world that were WRONG in their choice of clothing, style of hair, choice of music, manners and words. :(

My first pair of pants were HOMEMADE from orange and white checked wool, and I was allowed to wear them for the first time during my BIRTHDAY party in 7th grade… 1973

All the years I begged for a Barbie like all the other girls were getting… I’d get a more MODEST type doll… finally got a Barbie… think I was 11.. By then, I didn’t want one AT ALL

We did get a TV, but were only allowed to watch a ‘little‘. Bewitched & I Dream of Jeanie were my favorite, but the Munster, Addams Family, Hogan’s Heroes, Gomer Pyle and the Dick Van Dyke were somewhat disturbing… we didn’t watch the Twilight Zone

Nope, I didn’t care for that time in life at all… there wasn’t much I enjoyed except getting away from my Mom, which meant being OUTSIDE! Snuck around the Asylum grounds that were behind our house, rode bikes, did Lemonade Stands, and put on gymnastic ‘shows’ for the passing cars.

When given the choice of ‘work’, I’d ALWAYS pick something OUTSIDE~ :)

phewww.... sorry about all that~

[T-Bone]

The 60's were just the 90's --- upside down.

No -- technically the 60's are the 09's upside down -

[tFloat]

'60s...

College

Tour in 'Nam

recovery that led to TWI

more recovery, still recovering... :P

harvey

[johniam]

I think the 60s were unique. When I consider each decade in my lifetime, the 60s stand out as having more drastic change from the beginning of the decade to the end. I also suspect that the one/two punch of Kennedy's assassination and the affect of the Beatles on America, which two things happened less than 3 months apart, started a doosy of a chain reaction.

[pond]

I remember two things that the kids today wont remember. Im northern. i lived way out in the country , we did not have the number of schools we have today.

#1 had to be to sit on the floor of a LONG hallway with the enitre school watching a black and white tv set at the very end on wheels on a platform, crowded and packed like sardines watching..

the first man ever to walk on the moon.

I kept trying to stand up and then we were all just spell bound like a place without time or space watching it.

it was soo wow! I will never ever forget that. the enitre school was just silent watching this lone tv way way down the hallway.

and I remember the bomb threats constantly we had opened a school without walls and the talk of segregation started and we would get bomb threats and had to evacuate and run run run down the street to a nearby church for safety. again in one room inthe basement teachers so frightened and scarded and no water or food. waiting to see if the school would blow up and we could go home.

I remember the sit ins (for peace?) and we would sit in the hallway all jammed together like we had the power ( I do not even know why but when every one sat we sat and they would bring in the police and the water and spray us down and drag some of the guys out. I remember bags of pot so big you couldnt even stuff them in the levi jeans without it making a big lump.

the teachers often just gave up and we did our own thing all day long.

then I remember the bus bringing in the blacks it was the first time many of us had ever saw a black person.. and i remember the hallways and the way we grouped up and the fear and the smell and the parents , it was a time.

today none of these seem like big ordeals but then it was it truly was changing the world.

YOKO and JOHN were on the news YOKO and her hair, and the lie in bed for a week for peace, I wondered how did they stay so clean. everything was white in the enitre room and they would make signs for the people down below with crayons and markers. How John was changing to suit this womangoing to be a HOUSE HUSBAND!!! and how the beatles had broke up over her and she was soo soo soo ok I will say it UGLY!!!! and old at the time!!! YOKO was big news and she had a power we all wanted and heard about but few from the country got very far with. i think ya had to be there to get this one.

Edited September 21, 2006 by pond

[Bluzeman]

I remember two things that the kids today wont remember. Im northern. i lived way out in the country , we did not have the number of schools we have today.

#1 had to be to sit on the floor of a LONG hallway with the enitre school watching a black and white tv set at the very end on wheels on a platform, crowded and packed like sardines watching..

the first man ever to walk on the moon.

I kept trying to stand up and then we were all just spell bound like a place without time or space watching it.

it was soo wow! I will never ever forget that. the enitre school was just silent watching this lone tv way way down the hallway.

I remember watching that and it was one of the most exciting things I had ever seen. Except I watched it at home cause it was in July and we weren't in school.

But the TV you mentioned...We had the same TV you are talking about in school. :) Hooked up to something that would receive PBS and not much of anything else if I remember correctly.

I remember bags of pot so big you couldnt even stuff them in the levi jeans without it making a big lump.

For about 25 bucks as I recall. Uh, I mean, so I was told.

Rick

[ex70sHouston]

The two most vivid memories of the 60's.

A wild crazy weekend family reunion in Lawn Texas. The town at the time consisted of one blinking light at the highway. That was the wekend of the moon landing. I remember watching the moon walk at 11:30 at night in an old farm house. ( I went back by that house 5 years ago. The barn feel down and the ceilings are caving in in the house). But the most fun was going to the local drive in movie. No one and I mean no one watched the movie. It was just one big party back at the concession stand. Breaking down and finnally going to sleep on the sleeping porch at some farm house.

The memory that sticks the most was watching Walter Cronkite every friday evening giving the casualty reports from Viet Nam. Us dead 200, ARVn dead 1000, NVA and VC 3000. That and ROTC changed my attitude toward the war.

I remember my draft card. I have green eyes but when it got to hair color it stated green also. Still wonder how no one ever made a comment on that.

I remember Kent State but I think that was 70 or 71. All that was talked about in class the next day was the shooting.

Memories are nice but I have learned to live with my eye on the future.

[pawtucket]

The 60's were, as Linda stated, a time of passion. A time of Great Hope and Great disappointment.

A man on the moon, a president shot down in his prime. New Leaders Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King -- passion, dreams and ideals for a new generation only to be shot down in their prime.

Music from the British Beat to the San Francisco scene. Most of my favorite music comes from the 60's and early 70's. (I have Blodwyn Pig's Ahead Rings Out on CD) From the Beach Boys to Zappa, there was something for everyone.

I remember protesting lettuce sales in support of Caesar Chavez. I remember working on the campaign of a local Senator to get involved. We learned to get involved I remember the announcement over the loudspeaker on Nov 22, 1963 like it was yesterday. I remember the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and buying the Mono version of Sgt Pepper because it was a dollar cheaper. I remember portions of my trip to Amherst on orange sunshine. I remember the Night that man walked on the moon, I still get shivers thinking about it.

[GrouchoMarxJr]

The 60's...

...puberty

...assasinations

...Hanoi Jane

...LSD

...Jerry Garcia

...college

...VW beetle

...sex in the back of a VW beetle

...rock concerts

...dope smokin'

...war protestin'

...more LSD

...Grace Slick

...Huey Newton

...long hair

...holes in jeans

...crash pads

...Old Gold filters

...The Moody Blues

...fallin' in love

...hangin' out in the park

...Kurt Vonnegut

...Bob Dylan

...water pipes

...lava lamps

...Mr Natural

...R.Crumb

...pigs

...peace signs

...hitch hiking

...AND...The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers (with Fat Freddy's cat).