| 3 SEP 2006 at 9:04pm |
Terry PenrodGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 6693
Joined: 16 OCT 2004
Location: US, Texas
Status : Offline | .
From an American perspective, you really can't go down the whole sixties hippy peace movement road without at least acknowledging the drug culture and anti-war violence. You also can’t ignore the JFK and other political assassinations, the Civil Rights movement or many other major events that shaped that decade. But there was a whole lot more going on back then.
Just a few (generally male oriented) details that I don't think have been specifically mentioned yet...
Pop Tarts and Instant Breakfast mix changed the way America started the day.
Johnny Carson really was King of Late Night TV and he had no competition.
Rod Serling's Twilight Zone began in 1959 but didn't reach its peak until the sixties.
Arnold (a.k.a. Arnie) Palmer was a household name.
The Beach Boys and several other groups from the California surfing craze dominated top 40 radio early in the decade and it wasn't until later that The Beatles overtook them. Also, Elvis was still huge.
Bob Dylan was a relatively new type of protesting musical poet known to few at first (although Woody Guthrie and others preceded him). But then he got discovered and many, many more talented singer songwriters tried to follow in his footsteps.
Jocks and Preppies wore 100% cotton, longsleeve Gant brand shirts in solids, pinstripes and occasional plaids. The richer ones had their initials embroidered on the chest pocket and penny loafers were still “in”.
The Z-28 Camaro was perhaps the most readily identifiable muscle car back then but don't forget the Shelby Mustang, Trans Am Firebird, GTO, 'vette and several other models that were everywhere you looked. We loved our muscle cars and never ever worried about gas prices or pollution.
We also loved hotrods ala' Big Daddy Ed Roth, dune buggies and Harleys.
Cadillacs still had fins.
Albums were still made of plastic and early 8-track tapes sucked.
Woodstock may have been the ultimate hippydome event, but don't forget the Monterey Pop Festival and others that preceded it.
The Ravi Shankar connection that George Harrison helped promote was significant. It was instrumental (forgive the pun) for popularizing a whole new / old musical form and a new religiously based sub-culture.
British Rock, Hard Rock, Acid Rock and Folk / Folk Rock may have reigned supreme with most younger people in the sixties but more conservative composers and musicians like Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick, Tom Jones, Englebert Humperdink were also VERY big. And do NOT forget the hugely popular R&B and soul genres that were filled with mega stars from James Brown, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, and Wilson Pickett to Aretha Franklin, (Little) Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, and The Supremes to name just a few top sellers.
Comedians also ran the gamut from Jonathan Winters, Bob Hope, Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca and Carol Burnett to the brilliant but tragic Lenny Bruce.
Ed Sullivan promoted and/or introduced them all (as well as most popular musicians, etc.).
Get a good Sports Almanac and look up the top amateur and professional athletes and teams in every category. Also make special note of the really big Olympic events, as that decade had many memorable ones.
Read / reread The Organization Man by William H. Whyte. Although first published in 1956, it served as a bible for understanding the whole corporate movement in America all through the sixties and beyond.
The Saturday Evening Post and Life magazines were on virtually every coffee table, in every doctor’s or dentist’s office and Norman Rockwell was the most beloved artist in America. Boy’s Life was a right of passage and all real men subscribed to Popular Mechanics. Fewer but still many millions also read Popular Science. Almost all families above the poverty line with any formal education collected National Geographic magazines and every “decent” home had a full set of expensive encyclopedias.
Building plastic scale models (especially cool cars, military planes and battle ships) was still enormously popular with boys and many men, and model racecar tracks finally overtook train sets as the fantasy transportation system of choice for millions. But the space race also took hold big time, so all things sci-fi began to flourish too.
Frito-Lay Fritos brand corn chips and good old Lay’s Potato Chips were eaten by the truckloads and fast food outlets sprang up like weeds from coast to coast. Coke was it and home delivery pizza, etc. barely existed. Swanson’s TV Dinners were sold by the millions. They required 45 minutes of cooking time after pre-heating and practically nobody had a microwave oven until the late sixties to mid seventies.
Also, Colgate toothpaste was bigger than Crest, Prell Shampoo was everywhere and cheap men’s cologne like Brut, Old Spice and High Karate stank up the air surrounding millions of Playboy reading Hugh Hefner wannabes.
Cheers, Terry
|
| 3 SEP 2006 at 9:19pm |
Lady KestrelGuild Master
Posts : 4038
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, NJ
Status : Offline | There definitely was a huge difference between the early and late 1960s. I started high school in '62 and college in '66, and Mark is correct that the times were much more complex than the symbols used to represent them. Personally, I wasn't much of a rebel. I preferred folk music to rock, didn't pierce my ears (although my younger sisters did), never smoked pot (although some of my friends did), and didn't get involved in politics because I was too busy trying to get an education. I had one pair of bell-bottoms but rarely wore them.
To show some of the changes, I dug out these photos:
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v618/Lady_Kestrel/1962.jpg[/IMG]
Summer of 1962 (age 14) just before starting high school; note the conservative, non-cling bathing suit and the flip hairdo, which required sleeping in rollers or sitting under a hair dryer with a plastic hood for an hour.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v618/Lady_Kestrel/1965.jpg[/IMG]
Nov. 1965 (senior in high school); I look like a member of the horsey set but never rode; note the Peter Pan collar and the chinos; the hair is about the same length but now curls under in a pageboy.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v618/Lady_Kestrel/1967.jpg[/IMG]
Summer 1967 (age 19) The dress is a pretty peach paisley made by my mom, and the hairdo, a bit shorter, is the result of using hot rollers; I'm dressed for a movie date.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v618/Lady_Kestrel/1969A.jpg[/IMG]
September 1969 (college dorm room) Note the shorter hair (less time to fuss), bright lime green mini dress, and the Indian print bedspread; until that year, no men were allowed in the dorm rooms except for dads and brothers hauling stuff in and out; no drinking was allowed on campus, either.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v618/Lady_Kestrel/1969B.jpg[/IMG]
October 1969 (on campus) Even shorter hair (even less time with play rehearsals and student teaching approaching); slacks (polyester blend) have orange and bright yellow flowers and a matching jacket.
"Where is the fountain that throws up these flowers in a ceaseless outbreak of ecstasy?"
-Rabindranath Tagore
|
| 3 SEP 2006 at 9:27pm |
trudysgardenSorcerer Apprentice
Posts : 312
Joined: 19 JUL 2005
Status : Online | Good ones, Terry! Who can forget the forerunner of the Poptart - Space Food Sticks!! Tasted like genuine plastic and we ate em up.
You also made me realize that before we started wearing bell bottoms in the late 60's we 'pegged' our jeans - sewed them so that the legs would be skin tight all the way down to the ankles.
"hoods" wore all black and had ducktailed hair.
There were cigarette machines in every public hallway, diner, front of the grocery store - everywhere. A pack of Winstons was .30.
You could smoke everywhere including hospitals and everyone did.
I remember seeing "Little Stevie Wonder" on Bandstand. He was 12 years old.
happy trails,
C
|
| 3 SEP 2006 at 9:55pm |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | Lady K
What a a great set of photographs. Just brill...
I remember The Monkees and my sister having a crush on Davey Jones. She put his picture over the chimney.
The Addams Family. The Munsters. Petticoat Junction. The HillBillies. Batman & Robin.
The Big Valley. Bonanza.
Also, it snowed every winter - something it stopped doing in the 70s.
And pantyhose. I was too young to ever do the suspender belt and stocking thing but my sister did.
|
| 3 SEP 2006 at 10:01pm |
Terry PenrodGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 6693
Joined: 16 OCT 2004
Location: US, Texas
Status : Offline | .
Of course the early sixties and late sixties barely resembled each other. At least here in America, we really did go from Happy Days to tie-dyed, acid-soaked bliss. All along though, the older establishment held firmly to icons like Frank Sinantra and Bob Hope who remained very popular for many more years to come. But as the decade progressed, JFK's assassiniation, growing protests to the Viet Nam War, the first moonwalk, Martin Luther King's inspired speeches and other sweeping events altered our perceptions and politics in all sorts of ways.
Science and technology also began to become ever present influences in our daily lives, which led directly to the later explosion of gadgets, gizmos and finally the whole PC/web revolution. In the process, music, films, TV shows, art, fashion and a variety of other things reflected these changes and our once homogenous society splintered into a wide array of special interest groups - while at the same time we tried to heal from years of racial and sexual discrimination.
We have come very far in many ways since the sixties. But the jobs started back then are far from over as we still see strong holdovers of racial bias, gay bashing, broad social / financial inequality, renewed drug problems, failing public schools and general unrest. The issue of illegal immigration, the horror that Katrina poured on mostly poor blacks in New Orleans, the rise of ultra conservative, hardline, right wing Christian activists, a virulent new strain of Neo Naziism and a recent spate of anti Muslim hatred as a backlash to 9/11 all serve as reminders that our work is far from done.
As far as Ivinia's new game goes, none of these things will play much if any role. But in discussing the little details, we need to remember the big stuff that caused all those changes.
Cheers, Terry
|
| 4 SEP 2006 at 1:17am |
SirDaveGuild Master
Posts : 4941
Joined: 17 OCT 2002
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Terry Penrod (3 SEP 2006 10:00pm)
.
Of course the early sixties and late sixties barely resembled each other.
Man, is that ever true. I think one could almost say that the '50s ended in 1965 (or thereabouts)!
The future ain't what it used to be!
|
| 4 SEP 2006 at 1:35am |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By trudysgarden (3 SEP 2006 8:48pm)
Carrot top
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get your name wrong, Cardamom. :-[
Originally Posted By Lady Kestrel (3 SEP 2006 9:18pm)
To show some of the changes, I dug out these photos...
Lady K.! You sure are purdy! [smiley=love.gif]
I love that one of you in your dorm in 1969. So demure. So...so...green!
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
|
| 4 SEP 2006 at 2:27am |
Lady KestrelGuild Master
Posts : 4038
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, NJ
Status : Offline | Awww. Thanks, Mark. :-*
Caroline,
When pantyhose was invented, we had a garter belt & girdle burning.
"Where is the fountain that throws up these flowers in a ceaseless outbreak of ecstasy?"
-Rabindranath Tagore
|
| 4 SEP 2006 at 3:19am |
IviniaGuild Master
Posts : 4459
Joined: 7 JUN 2003
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Mark (4 SEP 2006 1:34am)
[Lady K.! You sure are purdy! [smiley=love.gif]
LOL, I didn't want to say anything, but <insert whistle sound here> [smiley=whistle.gif]
|
| 4 SEP 2006 at 4:53am |
Lady KestrelGuild Master
Posts : 4038
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, NJ
Status : Offline | Thanks, Ivinia! Whistles are gratefully accepted on behalf of my much younger self. :-*
"Where is the fountain that throws up these flowers in a ceaseless outbreak of ecstasy?"
-Rabindranath Tagore
|
| 4 SEP 2006 at 6:57am |
alkis21Schattenjger
Posts : 2112
Joined: 23 OCT 2002
Location: GR
Status : Offline | Obviously I can't help you with the 60s, but my advice to you would be not to go too far with the stereotypes.
|
| 4 SEP 2006 at 10:58am |
MarkGuild Master
Posts : 3803
Joined: 10 OCT 2002
Location: US, Georgia
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By alkis21 (4 SEP 2006 6:57am)
Obviously I can't help you with the 60s, but my advice to you would be not to go too far with the stereotypes.
Yeah, maybe just a few here and there.
For example, the phenomenon of bra-burning may be of interest.
Please proofread your posts carefully to see if you any words out.
|
| 4 SEP 2006 at 1:22pm |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | I never understood that. Why destroy something you paid good money for? And unless you have the build of Twiggy, you jolly well need a bra....
Talking of which, I heard on the TV tonight an appeal for Adelaide women to decorate the city with unwanted bras as some sort of support for research into breast cancer. Still trying to figure that one out.... :-?
|
| 5 SEP 2006 at 4:01am |
| Deleted User | Okay, I'll join in here (and will do so before I read anymore, which are leading).
Watching lots of TV reruns. Many of them started their seasons in black and white and moved to color in the middle of their run.
Moon walk live broadcasts.
The new packaged/processed foods of the 60s, Hamburger Helper, TV dinners, frozen pot-pies, Velveeta cheese, Cheese Wiz and the jars they came in that got turned into drinking glasses.
Getting dinner-wear from the gas station when filling up (not new to the 60s, but you asked what the 60 mean to me).
My big brothers records.
Clothes: Hush Puppies. Bell bottoms, which got soggy at the bottom in the Seattle winters. Keds sneakers. Bikini swimwear. Hot pants. Nehru jackets. Paisley. Pea coats. What to you call those light-weight leather jackets with long fringe on them?
"on't trust anyone over 30"
Plugging guitars into home stereos by various means.
Most of my grade-school years, including one year I had to do twice because the first time around, we moved around too much.
Films: The Sound of Music, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (came out in the 50s, but it was perhaps my first big screen viewing--wow), 2001, The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Burning of the bra.
Sonic booms. They were frequent here in Boeing's home turf.
The body count every day on the news during Nam.
Fake wood panels on station-wagons, with rear seats that faced the rear and read doors that opened two ways. My father hooking up a Radio Shack "reverb" unit up to his car radio (such ambiance!). Push button car starters or transmission gear changers (probably cars older than the 60s).
Envy of my uncle (8 years my senior) for coming into adulthood doing the 60s, while I had to wait for the 70s (which was cool in it's own regard, but I'd pick the 60s if I had the choice). He was a hippie, when to the first Pacific Northwest outdoor rock festivals (which pre-dated Woodstock), road a Triumph bike, and he was just cooler than snot.
|
| 5 SEP 2006 at 4:07am |
IviniaGuild Master
Posts : 4459
Joined: 7 JUN 2003
Location: US
Status : Offline | Anyone mention muscle cars yet?
Most of my knowledge of that period comes from the TV shows back then. I'd like to think that Britain still looks like what I see on The Avengers and the Saint, but I'm afraid I'll be disappointed to find it doesn't.
|
| 5 SEP 2006 at 4:20am |
| Deleted User | [reading more of yours reminds of these.]
Light organs. Those boxes that had Christmas lights in them, with prismed plastic cover, and the lights would pulse to the music.
Television tube testers at the drug store.
American BBQs with boxes that contained two bags of BBQ chips
Aqua Velva: "Thanks, I needed that". And of course, a million other marketing vehicles that were unsubtle and stuck in your brain.
Live television broadcast of violence at various race riots, people smashing shop front windows with garbage cans and looting the store, televised live (or at least filmed that day).
James Bond films and all the gadgets, which devolved to Roger Moore Bond flicks in the 70s ... which I loved and ate up, of course, but the gadgetry did get really silly, lending to the required spoof by Austin Powers. But in retrospect, even the '60s bond films can look silly. Still, I own them all now.
Mark:
Hey! My main phone is a hard-wired, land-line phone, Kaolin. It still works when the electricity goes off, too.
Of course, you can still buy one of those for $10-20 at a variety store and keep it somewhere in case the power goes out.
Oh, yeah. Hitch-hiking, too. People - even young ladies - hitched rides with strangers.
I logged 10s of thousands of miles cross-country hitch-hiking, but that was in the 70s, well past the Manson era. Even then it was more commonplace. Now, when I drive up the west coast of the US and seek out those old haunts (like the 4 block stretch in Santa Barbara that would have sometimes a couple dozen hitch-hikers), they're all dead.
Terry, Johnny Carson was THE king! Still
I once owned a '68 Firebird, 350, bored out to 400. That thing had a nose that extended way off towards the horizon.
Lady Kestrel, wow, that was a great photo spread. Yes, amazing how much change can happen in a decade.
Caroline, bra burning was symbolistic of the feminist movement, of course. It was also used as a vehicle in situation comedies. "But, you're my wife!", retorted with "Oh, so now I'm your property?!". I'm sure you remember all of that nonsense.
Chris
|
| 5 SEP 2006 at 4:48am |
Terry PenrodGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 6693
Joined: 16 OCT 2004
Location: US, Texas
Status : Offline | .
Although the whole 60's counter culture has been mentioned several times already, I don't think anyone has listed Day Glo Paint, Day Glo Posters and Black Lights - which sold like hotcakes to millions of suburban teenagers in America, not just to hard core hippies. These and many other interesting articles were originally sold through "Head Shops". But after a short while they were also carried at major retail stores.
Of course The Jimi Hendrix Experience was a true revelation for many and in retrospect, I think the guy was a pure genius.
Cheers, Terry
|
| 5 SEP 2006 at 5:59am |
| Deleted User | Oh yes, not to mention the Farrah Faccett and Nixon/Johnson "we blew it" posters.
|
| 5 SEP 2006 at 8:33am |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | And little cars.
[img]http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/4817/minicooperredul2.jpg[/img]
|
| 5 SEP 2006 at 8:49am |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | And little dresses that created big waves. Jean Shrimpton, English supermodel, turned up at the Melbourne Cup with a dress above the knee, no hat, no gloves, no stockings. It was 95° and the society matrons were OUTRAGED.
[img]http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/6795/jeanshrimptonminidressmw7.jpg[/img]
|
| 5 SEP 2006 at 8:59am |
IviniaGuild Master
Posts : 4459
Joined: 7 JUN 2003
Location: US
Status : Offline | Where's the picture of Caroline from the 60s?
That could entertaining...having people post pics of themselves from that era.
|
| 5 SEP 2006 at 9:21am |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | You have only yourself to blame.... as requested.... Caroline in the early 60s. I'm on the right. That's my big sister with me.
[img]http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/756/yvonnecarolineym3.jpg[/img]
Me, aged 11, 1968.
[img]http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/580/carolinelonghairaged11rp9.jpg[/img]
Sorry it's fuzzy. My parents didn't take a lot of photos of us during these years. The whole point behind this photo was my stunning likeness to my deceased Grandma.
|
| 5 SEP 2006 at 10:11am |
IviniaGuild Master
Posts : 4459
Joined: 7 JUN 2003
Location: US
Status : Offline | Awwwww....
I take you've worn glasses for just about your entire life?
|
| 5 SEP 2006 at 12:46pm |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | Yes. And when I was very little they used to tape up one lens to force the 'lazy' eye to do more work. I have a stigmatism in one eye. Basically eyes are egg shaped but lying on their sides. Except one of mine. It's egg shaped all right, but upright. It's a common fault. I used to love the appointments at the eye hospital to get my eyes tested. The machines there were great fun and it meant a day off school, a trip into the city and my mother all to myself.
So when are we going to see someone else's pictures. on't be shy. We can't all post cute and sexy fashion shots like Lady K.
|
