| 3 SEP 2006 at 2:10am |
Lady KestrelGuild Master
Posts : 4038
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, NJ
Status : Offline | Hmmm. Let's see, just off the top of my head, we had long hair, bell bottoms, big hoop earrings, granny shoes, sandals, lots of paisley, peasant blouses, fabrics from India, no bras, mini and maxi skirts, psychedelic colors, the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, folk music, acoustic guitars, VW buses, Vietnam, Woodstock, Laugh-In, and bikinis. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know.
"Where is the fountain that throws up these flowers in a ceaseless outbreak of ecstasy?"
-Rabindranath Tagore
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 3:06am |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Lady Kestrel: granted we had all those things (I was a wee child then and too young to get in on the ground floor of Haight-Ashbury. Google it.), but Ivinia - I wouldn't dwell on those items too much.
They are certainly clichés of the '60's era but have been used to the point of distraction. There are only so many Lavalamp©s one can take.
I wouldn't clutter up the game with too many obvious references to '60's clichés, and consider the non-clichéd stuff just as important as all those bellbottoms. "Hippie" teenagers wore the bellbottoms and bought that stuff - not adults, jocks, nerds, or preppies.
Most kids couldn't afford those trendy things and anyway, most parents refused to buy all that hip stuff for them. My parents and their friends didn't. They thought they were ugly and/or "for kids".
My older brother was the perfect age for bellbottoms, tie-dye, posters, etc., but he wasn't interested. So, there's that group that didn't buy into the (and no offense meant - I loved all that stuff) "hippie" junk.
Later, into the '70's - even though I tried to get away with wearing my hair as long as possible and playing music as loud as possible, I still had to put on a suit now and then. Tie-dyed clothes were hideous. Bead-y things? Not very interested.
I was more interested in technology, cars, amps, electronics, travel, people, and being out of the house and on my own than I was what was "popular" in San Francisco.
See, the point of all that was "nonconformity". But the real, underlying message was: "o your own thing." Whatever the heck that meant.
A lot of people forgot that, so as a result - the people (kids, teenagers, hippies, etc.) that wanted to look "nonconformist" ended up looking just like everyone else.
How about just normal surroundings? You might want to research popular colors of the '60's, for example. What the popular wall colors were used in kitchens, baths, bedrooms, etc. What did "normal" people drive? What did a toaster look like then? Even wall outlets: were they three-prong grounded outlets or just two? Did they collect Royal Copenhagen Christmas plates? Oh, shuddup. I'm kidding.
Not everyone read the Village Voice and The Rolling Stone (I did, though. Before I was ten years old. I bought subscriptions with my allowance. My parents and my brother thought they were pornographic. I was punished)
Sure, all that stuff Lady K. mentioned was around, but I think most people today - even at your (ahem) tender age, Ivinia - think that that's all there was to the '60's.
Wrong. The '60's were about everything else. The regular, day-to-day problems and solutions, necessities and luxuries, poverty, middle-class, and wealth issues that people ignore in writing about the '60's today.
I wouldn't dwell so deeply on only one glaring facet of the '60's. It wasn't all about drugs, Volkswagon mini-vans (they sucked!), tie-dyed clothes (hideous) and Viet Nam (a real war).
I think I would try to surprise people with the things about the '60's they have either: 1) forgotten about, or 2) never heard about because everything written about the '60's is so clichéd.
Whaddya think, Lady K.? You sewed up a sizable chunk of the '60's, but how 'bout the other stuff? Help me remember. I was little. Help me refresh my childhood memories.
I would like to try and remember more "regular" things about the '60's but, you know, it's all kind of a blur...
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 3:51am |
IviniaGuild Master
Posts : 4459
Joined: 7 JUN 2003
Location: US
Status : Offline | You are correct Mark. I do need to break things up a bit to keep things from getting a bit stale. Themes I have in mind:
- The hippie culture (tie-dyes, peace, flowers, etc.)
- Nasa space stuff (Rockets, moon landing)
- British spy shows ( Avengers / The Saint / Secret Agent Man type things)
- Music (Ummm, not sure where to take this one)
Was it during the 60's that people began to move out of the cities in droves and create the suburbs? Maybe that was the 50's.
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 4:15am |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | The 50s was the era of the satelite cities (suburbs).
In the 60s, I remember my mother wore bathing caps for swimming that were covered in tiny rubber flowers.
Our bathing suits were 'bubbled' that is shirred elastic throughout.
We had table-top record players that played a stack of six 45s.
Television was still in black and white (in UK).
No one was fat.
Children wore hand knitted jumpers.
PCV was a cool fabric for handbags and shoes.
PCV white boots were 'in'
Women still wore hats and gloves to church and formal occasions.
No one had heard of BBQs. in UK) If you had friends over you made tiny sandwiches and people drank tea out of small china cups that matched the tea pot. They hadn't invented teabags and coffee was an exotic drink.
Naughty children were taken away from home and put into juvenile detention centres.
Caning (corporal punishment) was still legal and commonly practiced in junior and high schools throught the UK.
Tupperware parties.
The Beatles.
Bathrooms had baths, not showers.
Formica tables and chairs.
And for the record. I was a little kid in the 60s.
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 4:24am |
BazzaLBPrivate Detective
Posts : 512
Joined: 27 AUG 2005
Location: AU
Status : Offline | Mercury, Gemini and Apollo
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 4:29am |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Ivinia: The hippie culture (tie-dyes, peace, flowers, etc.)
Okay, one t-shirt. One peace sign. What? Flowers don't grow anymore?
Ivinia: Nasa space stuff (Rockets, moon landing)
Okay, one from this section.
Ivinia: British spy shows ( Avengers / The Saint / Secret Agent Man type things)
One.
Ivinia: Music (Ummm, not sure where to take this one)
The "British Invasion" (but only one reference)
Ivinia: Was it during the 60's that people began to move out of the cities in droves and create the suburbs? Maybe that was the 50's.
I was watching Weeds the other night over at some friends, and there was a Weeds "extra" that talked about the first suburb in America. Interviewed some housewives. I can't remember the name of the subdivision or the time of its "invention", but it was rather interesting. May want to Google it.
How 'bout the price of things? Gas? Housing? Cars?
I remember when I was a poor student and had an old giant, wooden, A.T.&T. cable spool for a coffee table. It was a big spool for heavy-duty cables for phone cabling systems. By the time I had one, it was old news.
'60's mainstream comic books. Or underground comics. "Baby-doll" dresses for teen-aged girls. Puffy-sleeved shirts for guys. The advent of polyester. Imported Eastern Indian sandals that made your feet break out in a rash because they were cured in elephant wee-wee (no kidding). 2001: A Space Odyssey. The word "psychedelic".
The advent of ATMs. Touch-Tone phones rather than rotary dial. Zip Codes were new. The Empire State Building no longer the World's Tallest Building. Plastic credit cards rather than embossed-metal plate things. Fast Food. Cuisinart Food Processors.
Car Seat Belts were made mandatory (but sold as an "extra" before then - and an after-market vehicle add-on even before that). Real "pencil-pushers" - accountants - not "end-users". It was considered absolutely tasteless for professionals to blatantly advertise (giant billboards, TV, etc.): Doctors, Lawyers, etc.
No safety helmets or knee-protectors for kids on skates, bikes, etc. No disclaimers all over the place. "Teen Town"s. Drive-Ins. "Spider" houseplants.
The list is almost limitless.
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 4:32am |
| Deleted User | Mark poo-poos on the icons of the 60s, but I'm not sure I agree, Those are essentially the items you need to define the the pop culture of the era.
Reference the films and books of the era--that'll learn ya.
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 4:41am |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Not A Speck Of Cereal (3 SEP 2006 4:32am)
Mark poo-poos on the icons of the 60s...
I'm not poo-poo'ing them, Specky-Wecky. They pooped on themselves. We just thought they were cool and subversive in a non-harmful, tacky kind of way. They weren't that prevalent.
But think back, Speck. We weren't so self-conscious about those silly icons as people seem to be now.
Those icons do not define the '60's fairly, in my opinion. They're just a very small part of the entire soul of America and the rest of the so-called modern world at the time.
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 4:55am |
Melanie68Intergalactic Janitor
Posts : 83
Joined: 20 JUL 2006
Status : Online | http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade60.html
I was born in 1968 so I'm no expert.
What I resist, persists and speaks louder than I know.
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 5:06am |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Melanie68 (3 SEP 2006 4:55am)
http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade60.html I was born in 1968 so I'm no expert.
Ever hear of the word "cop-out"? Links are cop-outs, Melanie.
Please tell us in your own words what the '60's meant to you. Cloth diapers or Haz-Mat land-fillers? (etc.)
You are a child of the universe! Peace!
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 5:14am |
SirDaveGuild Master
Posts : 4941
Joined: 17 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | Notorious Murders & Assassinations:
The Manson Murders
Assassinations: JFK, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King
The future ain't what it used to be!
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 5:32am |
Melanie68Intergalactic Janitor
Posts : 83
Joined: 20 JUL 2006
Status : Online | Originally Posted By Mark (3 SEP 2006 5:06am)
Originally Posted By Melanie68 (3 SEP 2006 4:55am)
http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade60.html I was born in 1968 so I'm no expert.
Ever hear of the word "cop-out"? Links are cop-outs, Melanie.
Please tell us in your own words what the '60's meant to you. Cloth diapers or Haz-Mat land-fillers? (etc.)
You are a child of the universe! Peace!
I just don't remember the 60's so I did the cop out thing.
Now if the game were set in the 1970's, I would be of more help.
What I resist, persists and speaks louder than I know.
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 5:36am |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By SirDave (3 SEP 2006 5:14am)
Notorious Murders & Assassinations:
The Manson Murders
Assassinations: JFK, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King
SirDave, uh, "Family" game?
Oh, you're probably right. I saw (or heard about) all of these horrors on TV when I was very small. I saw Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald point-blank in the gut live on TV when I was eight years old. My mother was in the kitchen making dinner.
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 6:54am |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | What a traumatic memory Mark. I watched so little TV as a child.
And half those things you listed in your second post were not around in UK until the 7Os.
My mother wore fluffy mule slippers, and yes, the fake fur trimmed negligees were very 60s.
Heated rollers.
Tape recorders that were the size of small suitcases. I had one for my 6th birthday, it had 6" reels and I felt about it the way my kids feel about their computer.
Start Trek the Original Series.
Mass air transport with cute orange outfits on the air hostesses...
Steve McQueen
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 9:34am |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Caroline (3 SEP 2006 6:54am)
I watched so little TV as a child.
Neither did I. None of us did. There wasn't anything on 24/7/365 like there has been in the last thirty years.
Did you ever get rid of that old Knob-and-Tube wiring, by the way?
Originally Posted By Caroline (3 SEP 2006 6:54am)
And half those things you listed in your second post were not around in UK until the 7Os.
And half of those things you listed in your first post were here in the 1950's.
And there have always been fat people: "No one was fat." Really.
Ivinia, I guess you'll have to figure out whether to choose America in the '60's or England in the '70's.
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 9:56am |
IviniaGuild Master
Posts : 4459
Joined: 7 JUN 2003
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Mark (3 SEP 2006 9:34am)
And there have always been fat people: "No one was fat." Really.
I didn't want to say anything about that...but yep, that one stood out a bit didn't it?
Ivinia, I guess you'll have to figure out whether to choose America in the '60's or England in the '70's.
I think I'm just going to go with common ground here to avoid the whole "You Americans..." thing. :
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 1:30pm |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | There were no fat children in any of the schools I went to. I knew only one fat lady neighbour and she had a thyroid condition and was the size of a house.
Truly. There just weren't fat people - not like now. People walked everywhere. Kids walked to schools and did sports at school, mothers walked to the shops. People who had a car kept it for weekends only and cycled or caught the bus to work.
I left England in 1980 and MacDonalds hadn't invaded Liverpool yet (don't know about London or England generally but we didn't see them anywhere on our travels). Fast food was fish and chips or chinese take away (from the same shop). You never saw people eating in the streets - that was common.
First time I ever tasted a hamburger or french fries was out here. I'd never seen such skinny chips before and I came from Liverpool - capital city of chips...... big fat squishy vinegar coated chips....
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 1:41pm |
MaraPrivate Detective
Posts : 542
Joined: 6 JUL 2007
Status : Offline | I went to high school across the bay from San Francisco and Haight-Ashbury. In the sixties. We all wore our hair long and straight, and wore short skirts. Somewhat rebellious, the end of the Cleaver generation, and there was Vietnam (where my father was for part of that time).
Mara
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 2:14pm |
AlGrooverIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 40
Joined: 11 SEP 2005
Status : Online | It depends if you want to make things accurate or believable. So much from sixties has become iconic, the relative importance of stuff at the time is hard to gauge. Also there is a huge difference between early and late sixties. Compare the appearance of the Beatles from 1963 to say, 1968. See if you can research top 40 charts of the time and see what was selling in big numbers. Lots of boring, unrevolutionary stuff there. If you do run with the hippie thing, check the Wikipedia entry on 'Hippies'.
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 2:56pm |
HelenGuild Master
Posts : 3436
Joined: 12 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | Although I was just a kid in the 60's too, not only was there the "British invasion" for music, but "Soul music" or "Motown" was big.
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 3:03pm |
MaraPrivate Detective
Posts : 542
Joined: 6 JUL 2007
Status : Offline | I can't get this song out of my head since I read this thread this morning.
http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/forrestgump/sanfranciscobesuretowearsomeflowersinyourhair.htm
Mara
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 4:51pm |
gailSchattenjger
Posts : 1659
Joined: 19 JAN 2004
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Lady Kestrel (3 SEP 2006 2:10am)
Hmmml. Let's see, just off the top of my head, we had long hair, bell bottoms, big hoop earrings, granny shoes, sandals, lots of paisley, peasant blouses, fabrics from India, no bras, mini and maxi skirts, psychedelic colors, the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, folk music, acoustic guitars, VW buses, Vietnam, Woodstock, Laugh-In, and bikinis. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know.
I absolutely agree with you Lady K.
We ironed our long hair on an ironing board (burning hair stinks!)
Clothing Plaid blazers with jeans to "dress up"
Angora-like fuzzy sweaters
Laced 'granny' boots with those long skirts
Long dangle earrings
Unisex wool coats with hoods or Navy pea-coats to American football games
"Polyester pretty' paisley/printed pants were worn by some guys
Girls wore wide belts with hip-hugger jeans
We made macramé necklaces and bracelets with beads
Music
Some parents could not stand the "rock"music,"You call that music?!"...so headphones were a necessity. (Polka's and twangy country music didn't bridge the generation gap much.)
Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Iron Butterfly, Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, The Doors, Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Frank Zappa, James Brown, Bob Seger, Detroit Motown: The Supremes, Smokey Robinson etc. In 1969 my family moved into a home that had that a cement walled room in the basement that was probably used as an atomic bomb shelter.
"Skirt checks"...your school uniform skirt had better touch the floor if a nun told you to kneel
Cars: The Dodge Dart used push buttons for the transmission, heater and air conditioner. On vacations, kids traveled in the back of station wagons with the back seat folded down, so they could move around. Games while on the road: see how many people you could get to wave back at you; count the license plates from different states
Honda 50's were seen on the roads.
Disney movies were considered 'safe' for kids.
Televisions used vacuum tubes and could be built from a kit.
CB radios started to be used more
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other screaming, "WOO HOO what a ride!!!
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 5:17pm |
trudysgardenSorcerer Apprentice
Posts : 312
Joined: 19 JUL 2005
Status : Online | We did iron our hair and tape our bangs at night
Madras. Need I say more? It's actually making a comeback, ugh.
buffalo sandals - yeah, those cheap thong things from India.
Incense
Underground newspapers - loved the colored ones.
Transistor radios.
Phones that plugged into a jack in the wall and had a cord. Ours was in the kitchen. Try to have a private conversation on something like that.
MG's and Triumphs. You were either an MG person (I was) or a Triumph person (I was not). Note here: MG Midgets were a subculture of this.
Contact lenses were made of hard plastic, hardly ever really fit anyone properly and I had one surgically removed from my eye when I fell asleep with them on.
Albums. You either bought the Stereo version (big bucks) or the Mono version (a couple of bucks cheaper).
People starting to hook up amps to their stereos - late 60's.
Garage bands everywhere including everyone's basement.
Pot and lots of it. Even the straightest person you ever met smoked it. The alcohol thing passed us completely by - we were so busy smoking pot and dropping acid we never thought of it.
Ken Kesey - heheh, we had a lot to thank him for, although he was also an idiot at times.
Freeschool.
Road trips for no reason with people you'd never met. (pre Manson)
Gertrude Steinham
Howard the Duck.
happy trails,
Carolyn
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| 3 SEP 2006 at 5:57pm |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By trudysgarden (3 SEP 2006 5:16pm)
Madras. Need I say more? It's actually making a comeback, ugh.
I kind of liked madras, Crayola. The "bleeding" kind. The colors "ran" when washed, so it looked different after washing - but all it really did was just fade.
Mostly the preps wore madras. They were older than me. I was still in pedal pushers.
Originally Posted By trudysgarden (3 SEP 2006 5:16pm)
buffalo sandals - yeah, those cheap thong things from India.
I meant to say earlier, those Indian sandals were cured in buffalo wee-wee. Poor elephants. I blamed them for the rashes. I never wore those sandals, thank goodness. They smelled funny.
Originally Posted By trudysgarden (3 SEP 2006 5:16pm)
Incense
Incense: something my brother's friends said was burning when their parents asked them, "What's on fire?"
Originally Posted By trudysgarden (3 SEP 2006 5:16pm)
Phones that plugged into a jack in the wall and had a cord.
Hey! My main phone is a hard-wired, land-line phone, Kaolin. It still works when the electricity goes off, too.
Originally Posted By trudysgarden (3 SEP 2006 5:16pm)
Contact lenses were made of hard plastic, hardly ever really fit anyone properly and I had one surgically removed from my eye when I fell asleep with them on.
What? A hospital visit? Oh, my.
Originally Posted By trudysgarden (3 SEP 2006 5:16pm)
Pot and lots of it. Even the straightest person you ever met smoked it. The alcohol thing passed us completely by - we were so busy smoking pot and dropping acid we never thought of it.
I dunno, Caramel. There still seemed to be a lot of drunks around me when I was a kid. They kept their pot pretty well-hidden from my little prying eyes.
Originally Posted By trudysgarden (3 SEP 2006 5:16pm)
Road trips for no reason with people you'd never met. (pre Manson)
Oh, yeah. Hitch-hiking, too. People - even young ladies - hitched rides with strangers.
Originally Posted By trudysgarden (3 SEP 2006 5:16pm)
Howard the Duck
You got me there, Carotene. The only Howard the Duck I remember was that George Lucas-produced movie from 1986. SQUACK!
Originally Posted By trudysgarden (3 SEP 2006 5:16pm)
happy trails
Oooo! Trails!
"Happy trails to you...before we meet again..." [smiley=whistle.gif]
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
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