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I think it's interesting that finding voices of people who remember the 1960s as *adults* is becoming increasingly hard. Seems like almost everyone in this thread who remembers the time remembers it from the perspective of a child or teenager. And the math checks out of course. If you were 20 in 1968, you're 75-76 now, if you were 20 in 1960, you're 83-84 now. If you were an established adult with children, well into their career, a house and a car and so forth in the mid 60s, you'd be at least into your 90s now.
I say that because it feels to me like most of the questions asked by OP would be more easily answered by someone who was in their 30s/40s at the time and thus actually could compare the 60s to previous decades rather than being a 'child of the 60s' who understandably could only get to learn about the world as it was unfolding in front of them then.
If I could find 90-year-olds to ask, I would. In fact, if any of you know anyone who is that age, please ask them for me and post their answers here. Once those people are gone, our only first hand memories connected to the 50s and 60s will be mostly gone.
Regarding Vietnam, it was very much a presence in everyday life. I had a huge crush on my neighbor, a really nice guy who looked at me as his little sister. He was the first but not the last that I knew that was KIA. He was just 19. Years later I went to The Wall in DC & did an etching of him & 6 others that I knew. That was a lot from a small town. But, it was a military town.
If I could find 90-year-olds to ask, I would. In fact, if any of you know anyone who is that age, please ask them for me and post their answers here. Once those people are gone, our only first hand memories connected to the 50s and 60s will be mostly gone.
My father died about four years ago. He was 93. He and I avoided rehashing the battles neither of us would ever win. I was in high school during most of the turmoil. I graduated in 1970 and he and I often engaged in heated arguments. The Vietnam War, Civil Rights, the Protests, the Baltimore City Riots after MLK was assassinated, etc. He was, however, active in the Labor Movement, and I was totally onboard with that. In the late 60s, I helped him hand out leaflets at the polls. "Vote for Hubert Humphrey".
*Dad was about 90 years old when I observed him returning a purchase after he discovered the product was made in Vietnam. Yep, the old man held a grudge for over forty years.
Biggest change to me is that children have virtually disappeared from city streets compared to the 1960s. Every single block had dozens of kids playing on lawns and sidewalks, and most blocks had kids out playing games in the street itself, every day. No school busses so hundreds of us kids walked, no parents drove us or hovered over us. At most, some kids took a city bus to school if they lived a distance away. Schools were overcrowded, with extra desks squeezed into classrooms. While the younger kids played out front at home or on the streets, older kids and teenagers congregated in parks, street corners, and those businesses that didn't kick them out. Most homes had 3 or more kids (I was youngest of 4). Our homes were small and overcrowded, so our parents would send us outdoors at very early ages, and the only rule was to come back home by a given time (usually when the street lights came on) or sometimes no instructions at all. I lived near some active railroad lines, and we would play on the sidings and in the coal yards adjacent to them. One of the few rules I remember being given was "don't hop on a moving train" when I was about 7 or 8.
Growing up in the 50’s and early 60’s in Ohio. Kids didn’t stay home in the summer. Everyone I knew had a bicycle and we pedaled our way for miles far from home. I don’t think I ever in my youth saw adults on bicycles. They were for kids.
Homes were small in newly developed suburb communities. Dads were WWII vets and had no down payment mortgages. And they were modest. Our house was a prefab. Three bedrooms, single story about 1,000 sq ft. If you wanted a garage that was extra.
No internet or smart phones. In the summer near our grade school the local library system had bookmobiles that drove out once a week. Spent hours on school break just reading. Just boys, adolescents growing into maturity. There would be Vietnam for many of us. Marriages and children. My mind wanders back to those days.
Biggest change to me is that children have virtually disappeared from city streets compared to the 1960s. Every single block had dozens of kids playing on lawns and sidewalks, and most blocks had kids out playing games in the street itself, every day. No school busses so hundreds of us kids walked, no parents drove us or hovered over us. At most, some kids took a city bus to school if they lived a distance away. Schools were overcrowded, with extra desks squeezed into classrooms. While the younger kids played out front at home or on the streets, older kids and teenagers congregated in parks, street corners, and those businesses that didn't kick them out. Most homes had 3 or more kids (I was youngest of 4). Our homes were small and overcrowded, so our parents would send us outdoors at very early ages, and the only rule was to come back home by a given time (usually when the street lights came on) or sometimes no instructions at all. I lived near some active railroad lines, and we would play on the sidings and in the coal yards adjacent to them. One of the few rules I remember being given was "don't hop on a moving train" when I was about 7 or 8.
Kids had street smarts back then....you can`t learn that in front of a computer, or on a cell phone.
The 60's... wow! A cultural tsunami happened simultaneously while I was approaching adulthood, or at least leaving childhood's concerns.
Father experienced the Great Depression, had to drop out of high school to help the family, he slept on a sofa in the living room of a five-story, walkup tenement apartment. Then he went to WWII. Mom grew up on a dirt farm in Europe & couldn't wait to escape the bleak countryside, when they married post-war, stability, material comforts & security were their goals.
But growing up in security, stability & some small level of blue collar materialism, I reckoned the 1950's as conformity & repression. So the tsunami that started with the murder of JFK, followed shortly by the Beatles & all their musical/cultural descendants for the next 10 years, the Pill, the counterculture, Vietnam, LSD & weed (and the growing realization that the "authorities" were deliberately lying to us about those last three) led to a pretty self-centered attitude of not trusting "anyone over 30" & being suspicious of authority.
Add in the draft, where males were being forced into the military to fight a never-ending undeclared "war" on some country that didn't attack us & we couldn't even find on a map, turned definitions of patriotism upside down between generations & caused mostly poor boys without connections to be drafted. Protesting students in Kent State are gunned down by National Guard, the primary "peace" candidate for President gets assassinated... Whew!
I played a bit in bands the last half of the 60's & spent a lot of time going to concerts, living in NYC the Fillmore East & various clubs in the Village got a lot of my time & focus. And that's the part that I choose to remember most, the creative explosion in the arts that happened then. I feel lucky to have experienced all that energy as I matured, the good & the bad.
The 60's... wow! A cultural tsunami happened simultaneously while I was approaching adulthood, or at least leaving childhood's concerns.
Father experienced the Great Depression, had to drop out of high school to help the family, he slept on a sofa in the living room of a five-story, walkup tenement apartment. Then he went to WWII. Mom grew up on a dirt farm in Europe & couldn't wait to escape the bleak countryside, when they married post-war, stability, material comforts & security were their goals.
But growing up in security, stability & some small level of blue collar materialism, I reckoned the 1950's as conformity & repression. So the tsunami that started with the murder of JFK, followed shortly by the Beatles & all their musical/cultural descendants for the next 10 years, the Pill, the counterculture, Vietnam, LSD & weed (and the growing realization that the "authorities" were deliberately lying to us about those last three) led to a pretty self-centered attitude of not trusting "anyone over 30" & being suspicious of authority.
Add in the draft, where males were being forced into the military to fight a never-ending undeclared "war" on some country that didn't attack us & we couldn't even find on a map, turned definitions of patriotism upside down between generations & caused mostly poor boys without connections to be drafted. Protesting students in Kent State are gunned down by fellow students who are ROTC, the primary "peace" candidate for President gets assassinated... Whew!
I played a bit in bands the last half of the 60's & spent a lot of time going to concerts, living in NYC the Fillmore East & various clubs in the Village got a lot of my time & focus. And that's the part that I choose to remember most, the creative explosion in the arts that happened then. I feel lucky to have experienced all that energy as I matured, the good & the bad.
The Kent State shootings took place on May 4, 1970 by the Ohio National Guard, not by fellow ROTC students.
I think it's interesting that finding voices of people who remember the 1960s as *adults* is becoming increasingly hard. Seems like almost everyone in this thread who remembers the time remembers it from the perspective of a child or teenager. And the math checks out of course. If you were 20 in 1968, you're 75-76 now, if you were 20 in 1960, you're 83-84 now. If you were an established adult with children, well into their career, a house and a car and so forth in the mid 60s, you'd be at least into your 90s now.
I say that because it feels to me like most of the questions asked by OP would be more easily answered by someone who was in their 30s/40s at the time and thus actually could compare the 60s to previous decades rather than being a 'child of the 60s' who understandably could only get to learn about the world as it was unfolding in front of them then.
We purchased our first house in 1964, our son was born a year later and I was 24 years old.
Also, purchased my first new car an Olds 442 after returning from Vietnam in 67. Served for almost
9 years in N. Africa, Congo with the UN, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos without US citizenship.
Started work in 67 at $1.20 per hour, this included a $0.15 shift premium. Retired at 50 with a
net over $1m, never inherited a dime. Only a young 83-year-old today, the net has increased substantially
since.
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