If you remember the 60s...

[msgsing]

I spent several years in the Marine Corps some of it in SE Asia during the 60’s. A lot of it was just news stories from far away. Sometimes I wonder if I could have been a hippie attending Woodstock or doing crazy stuff on Haight Ashbury. My lost youth perhaps?

[nicet4]

I was born in Redwood City, California in 1948 and growing up I lived in San Carlos, Menlo Park, Atherton (grandparents), East Palo Alto and Santa Clara.

Much of my entire family was located in California because I had a great-great grandfather who jumped a Russian whaling ship in San Francisco bay in 1846 two years before the gold rush. We traced my great great grandfather back to Ekaterinburg, Russia.

Didn't know you had a Ruskie onboard, did you?

In the 1950's and 60's California was the place to be.

I remember when the El Camino between Sunnyvale and Santa Clara was a two lane road with orchards (prunes and pears) on both sides.

I remember when the Cabana Hotel, now known as the Crowne Plaza Hotel, was built. It was here The Beatles stayed on their first trip to San Francisco in 1964 where they played at The Cow Palace. Does The Cow Palace even exist anymore? My sisters were in front trying to get a glimpse.

We rode our bicycles everywhere and it was nothing for a group of us to leave our neighborhood in Santa Clara[/url] and head up to Stevens Creek Reservoir a distance of 12 miles on way. In the summer it seems we did this LOT.

Bicycling was easy because back then all we had for most of the way was orchards and not heavily traveled two lane roads.

It was a whole lot safer back then than it would be today.

I remember when the population of san Jose passed 200,000 and everyone made a big deal out of it.

In the early 1960's I used to pick string beans in several huge fields surrounding the San Jose Airport. The airport was there but there weren't any houses or buildings anywhere in that area.

Our neighborhood? My parents purchased the brand new 4 br 2 ba home at 2338 Dundee Drive in Santa Clara in 1960 for the astounding sum of $29,900. Staggering amount of money!

My memories go back 60 to 70 years ago and did it ever change. Most of the family has moved out of state but I do make it back on occasion and I can't even recognize where I grew up today.

In my teen years we spent a lot of time in Santa Cruz.

[Lodestar 77]

Originally Posted by rodentraiser

...what was it like then?

Was there shock that things could change so quickly in 20 years? Did people think the end of the world was here? Did people think humanity was doomed because of the long hair, the civil rights, the drugs, and rebelling youths? Or was it considered just a fad that would blow over and go away? Did all these things seem to happen in another galaxy and your world was never impacted? Or did you come eyeball to eyeball with all the change that was going on?

What were your experiences and those of your parents and especially the experiences of other older people like during this time? What did you think of those times?

I was born in 1955 and came of age in the world of "Women's Lib", ie Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan. I was 11, 12 when the hippie movement was in full swing. To this day I don't like the hippie movement, I was always more mature for my age and thought the hippies were weird. I dressed as a hippie one day in High School just to see how it felt. Braided my wet hair the night before so it came out in ripples and frizz. Wore gold rimmed glasses, hip-hugger jeans, a crop top that showed my belly button, and fringed moccasins. I did not like it at all. I guess I was more "establishment" than that even at 16. And I cannot stand the peace sign......

[Nodpete]

Ask me about the 40's !

[EllieKay56]

I was born in 1956. Grew up in Chicago. I remember the riots when MLK was assassinated. You could see the smoke for miles. Same thing, remember the Democratic convention.
As a kid growing up in Chicago-we had fun. Swam at the lake in the summer. Ice skated in winter. Could jump on the "el' and go see a double header at Wrigley. We went with $5 and came back with change.
The music was great. I remember my dad saying-no one will remember this music-its awful. He was wrong.
Overall, a good time to grow up.

[shamrock4]

1963 was the turning point to me with Kennedy’a assassination, later followed by King and Robert Kennedy. The race riots and Kent State shootings - it was all shocking. The moon landing was a more optimist event.

The duck and cover drills in school made an impression as a child. I remember during the Cuban missile crisis walking home with a friend and saying goodbye as we might die overnight. Otherwise we were much more free as kids to roam, play outside, bike wherever and just appear home for dinner. It felt much safer.

Another big change seemed to be 1967-68. Vietnam was really on people’s radar, particularly with boys we knew getting drafted and some returning hurt or dead. If you had no money (or interest) for college or flunked out, you were drafted if you couldn’t get in elsewhere. The average age in Vietnam was a teenager.

Some guys I knew with low lottery numbers (somewhat later) went directly to the reserve units to enlist, even leaving college for basic training and the return a semester later. Fear of Vietnam at the point was of being killed or maimed in a losing war. I later read Robert McNamara’s book basically admitting and apologizing for that drawn out situation which was maddening.

We went from wearing Villager and Ladybug preppy style clothes to jeans. Many girls had long straight hair parted down the middle, same as today. Few that I knew went all out hippie although the boys did wear longer hair too. Folk music (PP&M, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, etc.), Beatles, Rolling Stones, Rascals, Beach Boys, Motown (Temptations, 4 Tops, Supremes, etc.) were popular along with 8 track tape systems. Best music ever.

My parents took the style and music changes in stride. But they also turned against the war, even though Dad had spent 4 years in the service during WW2. We listened to Walter Cronkite every night and the death toll and body bag scenes every night were horrific.

That said, I honor Vietnam veterans and felt the way they were treated upon return (and later trying to get treatment) was disgraceful. With Watergate, the Saturday Night Masacre, and the resignation of Nixon (plus Spiro Agnew), faith in government began its downturn then, I believe, or it did for me anyway.

[skeddy]

Drew a high draft lottery number, lucked out. Packed a lot of fun into the late 60's early 70's. Continued some bad habits in moderation...

[in_newengland]

We were probably kind of arrogant, thinking we could change the world. Love, peace, end the Viet Nam War.

We marched and rallied against the war. "What do we want?" "Peace!" "When do we want it?" "NOW!"
Most young people weren't full fledged hippies living in communes and taking drugs. We did smoke marijuana at parties, we wore love beads, our cars were decorated with stick on flowers to signify Flower Power.

We hated communism but we knew we weren't going to win the Viet Nam War. It was a huge waste of young men's lives.Boys made sure to go to college and even to stay for grad school because it prevented them from getting drafted.

We thought the world had gone mad and we could fix it. Our parents were pro war until it got really obvious that it was an outrage. Body bags, lives cut short. For what?

President Kennedy had told us that we could do something for our country and that's what we wanted to do. Then they killed him. Our response was to become active and try to improve the mess we saw all around us.

We'd match, we'd chant, we held out fingers in a V formation to represent Peace. We rallied with a reverend on the New Haven green. We boarded buses to NYC to match for Peace. Martin Luther King was there at the head of the massive crowd. People threw bottles and bricks at us but we still marched, shouted for Peace, then stood and listened while ML King gave his speech.
After a few years, some intruders, maybe communists, maybe just antagonists wanting to make us look bad, began fighting, taking hard drugs, taking everything too far and that's when it all went downhill. Although we never really gave up, the extremists took over and the official Death of the Hippie was announced. MLK and RFK were killed. It was too crazy for us. Our mission had been love and peace. We were sadly disillusioned.

When the peace movent started our parents were against us. They were for the War. This was the generation gap, old ways vs new ideas. I think our parents were too influenced by what they read or saw on TV and they didn't understand that we were well intentioned. And, of course we got a little too caught up in marched, guys with long hair and beards, girls with long skirts and love beads. Anyway, the war finally ended, way too late, and a lot of us were left feeling sadly disillusioned with our government. BTW a lot of us saw the Broadway show, Hair. I can't remember the songs but I think they must have expressed the way most of us were feeling. ... something about the age of Aquarius and letting the sun shine. Maybe it's on You Tube.

We had great music like The Eve of Destruction, The Universal Soldier, and we had the Beatles and many other groups. Our parents hated our music because it was so different and they just didn't understand.

[rodentraiser]

Originally Posted by ChessieMom

What things are you referring to? You mean from say, 1965 to 1985? I don't think anyone is shocked by changes in 20 years. I mean, you sort of expect it.

I meant in the 20 years from 1945 to 1965.

I still remember my friend's grandmother talking about how disgraceful it was how women dressed with these skirts above the knee. For some reason that always stuck in my mind.

Originally Posted by nicet4

I remember when the El Camino between Sunnyvale and Santa Clara was a two lane road with orchards (prunes and pears) on both sides.

We had a picture on our wall at the bank I worked at that showed the intersection of Camden and Union, looking south, I think. Nothing there but a two lane road, some fence, and a couple of trees. I remember my manager saying she could drive the length of Curtner Ave early in the morning and never meet another car. This was before they put 280 in.

Does The Cow Palace even exist anymore?

It's still there. I used to show my dog there during the 80s. That was always so much fun.

Originally Posted by in_newengland

BTW a lot of us saw the Broadway show, Hair. I can't remember the songs but I think they must have expressed the way most of us were feeling. ... something about the age of Aquarius and letting the sun shine. Maybe it's on You Tube.

We had great music like The Eve of Destruction, The Universal Soldier, and we had the Beatles and many other groups. Our parents hated our music because it was so different and they just didn't understand.

My dad had a personal hatred for rock and roll. He was just nasty about it.

The person you see on the poster for Hair was named Bert Sommer. He was the third act at Woodstock and you can see him on YouTube performing "Jennifer" there.

[Bayarea4]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

I was 15 in 1968, and thought the world would change if Nixon would just take LSD. I still think so.

Yes, we thought we were the generation that was going to change the world. We thought that if all the world's leaders would just sit down together and smoke a bowl, there would be peace on earth. We thought we had all the answers, if only they'd listen to us.

We also thought that Beatles were communicating profound wisdom through their music. I remember toking up, listening to their albums with friends and wondering "What are they really trying to say?"
"Free love" was the order of the day, young women were on the pill and there was no panic over catching sexually-transmitted diseases.

Mass media celebrated the Baby Boomers then. Now it's just the opposite. The younger generation makes fun of us and resents us because they believe that we have it so much better than they do.