Speaking as someone who wasn't born then, what was the 50's and 60's really like?

Just interested in hearing from people where either alive or born then, at that time.

Television was in black and white, the modern day technology was forming to what we know as today, and for me happier.

I am curious, what about day to day, life?

???

I was only 9 (in 1969) ... but I remember riding my bike to and from school. Came home to watch tv shows like The Forest Rangers, Gentle Ben, Flipper, The Munsters, Addams Family, My Favourite Martian, Mr Ed etc etc etc.  We only got tv in about 1966.

My older brothers and sisters were listening to Elvis, Tom Jones, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, Neil Daimond, Dusty Springfield and Dionne Warwick records and, of course, The Beatles (among many others). I listened to the same stuff...we only had an old radio and (for some reason) we weren't allowed to have it on all the time..so I listened to the same music as my older siblings. I do remember Mum and Dad playing records though (like the musical Camelot).

When not watching tv or listening to music...I was outside playing .. down in the bush/forest behind our house.  Sometimes Dad would pile us into the car and we'd all go to the beach (it was only 7 miles away). If we were good ...he'd buy us an ice block on the way home. Simple times spent doing simple things... yet I was rarely bored.

My older sisters were began wearing mini skirts and Mum hated the fashion of the day. Most people I knew went to church on Sunday too...

My older brother was fascinated with Elvis Presley...which probably explains why I also own CD's of all his movies!

In our small town... I only saw glimpses of what we came to know as hippies. The young hip women were called widgees and the guys were called Bodgees... (not certain why).  :-\\ My brother seemed square because he didn't have long hair...

I remember early footage of JFK's assassination ... but it couldn't have been in our house (as we didn't have a tv then). Maybe the memory came from a mid sixties news report or something. :-\\  ....and, of course, the moon landing.

Then we turned the corner into the 70's...

Thanks for the feedback so far! 

The reason for my curiousness, is that being someone who was born in the mid 70's, and experienced the 70's (sort of), the 80's, 90's, and so forth, I was interested in knowing what things were like back than.

Thanks, yet again!

I am curious, what about day to day, life?

???
No Internet, books were read to learn anything.

Family togetherness was more secure than the single parents of today.

I lived in a great neighborhood for kids. Almost every house had kids (I only recall one house across the road that had an old couple living there). Everybody knew everybody and everybody looked out for everybody else. It was not unusual for kids to wander the neighborhood without an adult. I remember when I was still in diapers and wandered down the street and ended up about 3 doors down and playing with the "older" kids (they must have been really old-you know, maybe as young as 7 or 8-maybe as old as 9 or 10.  ;D ;D ;D )

The playground was the center of the neighborhood. In the summer we had a councilor who would provide games, sports and such for all the kids. Once or twice a week, the kids got to go on a "field trip" to go swimming at a local pool. I only got to go once because you had to be at least 8 to go and when I turned 8, that is when we moved away.  :\'( :\'(  We would always have different contests (Hat Day, Costume Day, Decorate Your Bike Day, etc.). The BIG contest was the Scavenger Hunt. We had a list of stuff-each item was worth so many points. We would then go around to all the houses in the neighborhood asking for the stuff. Usually the stuff was small like flower seeds or pet food. There was one year when the bonus was the return of the councilor's baseball glove. I teamed up with one of my sisters and she knew exactly where the glove was and that was the first house we went to. (These people were not liked by anyone.) When we told them about the extra bonus, the girl who stole it decided to return it herself hoping that she would get the bonus points (but she wasn't a participant-but that was beside the point)-so my sister & I-who had a hand in getting the glove back didn't receive any bonus points for it.  :\'( :\'( :\'( 

Halloween was GREAT! It was always the Saturday adjacent to Oct. 31st. We would start off with a parade-the fire truck led the way-followed by all the kids in their costumes. It would end at the playground and we would have judging of the costumes. Then all the kids went around trick-or-treating. By the time the sun went down, all the candy was handed out and all the little ghosts & goblins were safely at home once again. (After I moved from that neighborhood, kids would tell me that they planned to start trick-or-treating AFTER the sun went down and I thought all the candy would be gone by then. It was such a foreign concept to me to trick-or-treat in the dark!  ??? ) 

At Christmas, there were usually a party or two and there was always caroling.

We moved away in 1971 or 1972 so my memories of the '60s was THAT neighborhood.



Cat

When I was a kid, my older sister told me that the world was in black and white until 1967 when it exploded, but we got a new Earth in color because it was still under warranty.

When I was a kid, my older sister told me that the world was in black and white until 1967 when it exploded, but we got a new Earth in color because it was still under warranty.


Sort of like The Wizard of Oz movie?

On the dark side.... On television you could watch Freedom Riders being maimed and killed for trying to sign up black voters in the south.  There were air raid drills in school and you had to get under your desk to save yourself from the radiation("duck and cover").  You were on the lookout for communists around every corner, they could be a neighbor, or the guy who owns the corner store, you had to be vigilant because they were out to brainwash your parents then take you away.

On the dark side.... On television you could watch Freedom Riders being maimed and killed for trying to sign up black voters in the south.  There were air raid drills in school and you had to get under your desk to save yourself from the radiation("duck and cover").  You were on the lookout for communists around every corner, they could be a neighbor, or the guy who owns the corner store, you had to be vigilant because they were out to brainwash your parents then take you away.



Isn't that still true today only you have to be on the lookout for Muslims and/or gays.  ::)  Some things never change does it?  :\'(



Cat

There was a lot more emphasis placed on proper behavior rather than self-esteem.  There were much greater contrasts between people in different regions of the country.  People went to church a lot more.  Real church, not Pat Robertson stuff.  The communists were dirty rats, but you were proud to be a union man.  Parents couldn't understand all that horrible noise rock 'n' roll rubbish their kids listened to.  It had no cultural precedent for them.  Today a 50-year-old guy sees Alice Cooper when he sees Marilyn Manson.  He remembers how much his parents hated Alice Cooper, even though the whole thing's an act and everybody gets it except parents and priests.  How much influence did Alice Cooper have on my life?  Probably nothing to worry about, this Marilyn Manson.

Some random stuff:
-- Cigarette commercials that made smoking look cool.
-- Lots of open space/woods in places that are now housing developments.  We spent a lot of time outside, playing games, reading books.  No computers and no remotes and no cell phones.  Ha - no cordless telephones!  Trying to get privacy on the phone from your parents and stretching that long cord into the bathroom so you could close the door!
-- Elementary school:  Teachers could do things like knock over your desk if it was too messy; in the 60's teachers made us line up and hold out our hands so they could check if our fingernails were clean; bomb drills; girls wore dresses to school regularly.  Good manners were highly valued.
-- 70s: funky-shaped portable radios were modern; my portable record player was very cool; kids were wearing jeans to school en masse.  The fights between the disco guys and the metal guys.  Funny.
-- Lots of political protests by young adults.  That was inspiring as a kid.  People really speaking out about things that mattered to them in a public and often intelligent manner.  Sit-ins and walk-outs and even riots.  Outward and active involvement by younger people. 
-- Watching the first moon landing on our first color tv. 

Some random stuff:

-- Watching the first moon landing on our first color tv. 
In black and white!

I was born in 1965 and remember there being hippies.

On the dark side.... On television you could watch Freedom Riders being maimed and killed for trying to sign up black voters in the south.  There were air raid drills in school and you had to get under your desk to save yourself from the radiation("duck and cover").  You were on the lookout for communists around every corner, they could be a neighbor, or the guy who owns the corner store, you had to be vigilant because they were out to brainwash your parents then take you away.


Speaking of Duck and Cover...

-2kdpAGDu8s

I would like to see the 60's in person, but being born in 1982...I'll have to watch stuff that was from the 60's.... :\'(

Speaking of Duck and Cover...


Before my time, before the Emergency Broadcast System, there was Conelrad.  (Actually, there was CONELRAD, as in, the acronym, not the website.)

Obligatory Pop Culture: Atomic Platters: Cold War Music from the Golden Age of Homeland Security!

(I will neither confirm nor deny adding these tracks to my installation of Fallout: New Vegas :)

Wow........ difficult to convey what life was like back then.

1960s found me in transition from crawling and drooling up to junior high.

Early 1970s saw me graduate high school and be present for the end of an era;  the evacuation of Vietnam.

Born a Generation Joneser.... the "middle Baby Boomers"     http://obbop.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/generation-jones/

In many ways I view, with hindsight and as an amateur historian, the 1950s to encompass, in many ways especially socially, the early 1960s up around 1964/1965.

And the 1960s carried forward in many but not all ways up to 1974 or so.

Location within the USA had a HUGE impact upon one's experiences.

I was in the San Francisco Bay area where assuredly life was experienced differently than that of the kinfolk we visited yearly back in rural Nebraska where they were isolated from much of what were near-daily events for me.

Another regional difference was my having to confront frequently the "machismo culture" of the Chicanos in our area.  From 4th grade on life was a regular occurrence of street fights mainly after school and on weekends.

That grew tiresome but the schools were overwhelmed by the tidal wave of Baby Boomers cascading through the classrooms, overwhelming the educational system.

Teachers had much more power at least partially due to parents being more submissive to "authority;"  even when that authority was undeserving or respect.

Government was generally trusted more.... in my opinion the masses of citizenry were brainwashed better back then.

Today, after decades of life experience and scholarly and semi-scholarly research I am convinced that class war exists within the USA and commenced at its current level around 1972 though class war is an inherent aspect of the USA since the Founders purposefully intended the USA federal government, our society in general and lesser governing agencies to be "owned and operated" by a wealthy/elite class and, later, by a "natural" rise to power thanks to the USA's judicial (legal) systems, corporate America (with exceptions).

"There's class warfare, all right, Mr. (Warren) Buffett said, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."

Life was "simpler" back then mainly due to the majority of citizens not questioning "Why are things the way they are?"

There was no pushing for accepting "openness" of gays in the military back then. It was just accepted that the gays maintain a low profile!!!

Many other examples but the civil rights movement was one exception.

The 1960s was an "ancient era" regarding technology in comparison to today.

Pre personal computing.  The mass media had a lock on mass distribution of ideas, news, etc. "Freedom of the press is a wonderful thing for those who can afford the presses." (forget the author of that oh-so-true phrase.

Nightly, on TV, especially from 1967 on, the broadcast TV news show scenes of Vietnam. The "hot years" were from 1967-1969" when in-country troop strength peaked and the military actions were the "meanest."

The Cold War was prevalent in many folk's thoughts.

Unsure to what extent we truly had to fear from the "Commie Hordes" and to what extent the USA elites found the "Commies" as proverbial "bad guys" to help our elite class to cement their power and wealth-gathering powers within the USA.

Not that the "Commies" were a nice, friendly bunch but I wonder if things in general were handled differently if the fear that cost We, the People many trillions of tax dollars over the years could have been reduced?

The rise of "green" began.  I recall the first "Earth Day" held in, I believe, 1970 but was preceded by a growing awareness of pollutions many costs to people, plants, critters, etc.

Oh my.... so MANY aspects of life back then.

Most folks, even in our major metropolitan area, had only a very limited selection of TV channels.  Three main offerings;  ABC, NBC, CBS and KTVU channel 2, the local independent TV station.  A mast-mounted TV antennae top the roof with a "rotor" that allowed moving the antennae from inside the house to fine-tune reception was prsent from 1966 on or so.

Unsure when cable was finally offered but, at first, a minimal number of stations were available even on cable.

I don't think our house had a color TV until 1972 due to the exorbitant price!!!!  Most folks in our lower middle class/working class neighborhood had black/white TVS until prices for electronic goodies began declining with the flood of imports from the orient.

Even up to 1975 a stereo receiver of 50 watts per channel, a name-brand decent quality Pioneer brand was $500 back then...... gosh, around $1,200 in "today's" dollars?????  It is difficult to compare prices over time due to the way inflation has affected all money.

Minimum wage was worth far more "back then."  Various articles upon the Web, even those written by those with a pro-elite class stance but use facts and figures and convey what I believe to be the truth state various dollar amounts but for TODAY'S minimum wage to be worth what the minimum wage was back in the 1960s it would have to be around $17 or more dollars per hour!!!!!!!  The dollar amount varies.

Another way of looking at this aspect is that financial experts in the "old days" for a lengthy period proclaimed the typical USA family/household should not pay more than 25 percent of income for housing, whether renting or buying.

In the 1970s that percentage basically, universally, was increased to 33 percent of income and, in reality, for many of the working-poor socio-economic class, rental costs can be 50-75 percent of income then there are utilities, etc!!!!!!!!!

Life in general was cheaper in those days in many but not all ways.

One reason the "hippies" (definable and interpreted in many ways... some of the hardest-working folks I knew were "hippie-like" in behavior and appearance) were able to exist was due to low basic living costs.

Buying a basic house was cheaper back then.

The USA was not nearly as crowded since the HUGE flood of legal immigration did not commence until Ted Kennedy suckered (in my opinion) Congress into altering the legal immigration paradigm that (in my opinion) has, over the years caused immense harm to the USA.

A million and more legal immigrants yearly at a level that did not allow assimilation into our society and with too many immigrants from poverty-ridden cultures/countries who mostly competed with the USA's own working-poor citizens.

Life was simply more fun for us younguns back then with ample "green areas" a bike ride away... creeks to frolic in, the local fishing hole (seasonal) in the dry-in-the-summer environment of the San Francisco Bay area.

The places I used to frolic are now SOLIDLY covered by houses, multi-lane freeways and mass transit.  Creeks are now fenced-off concrete channels inaccessible and the population of the entire Bay Area is FAR greater than the "old days" and there is much more fear in society.

Far fewer illegal aliens back in those days.  The relatively few arriving for the summer jobs (met more of those folks after the early 1970s move to a small agricultural town in the San Joaquin Valley but even then their numbers were FAR smaller than those seen today!!!)

Those I did meet in the Bay Area were usually seeking me out due to their kinfolk pointing me out as the Gringo to beat.  That was tiresome, being forced to fight due to a, to me, foreign culture of "macho, machismo" requiring a male to fight or cower down and just accept domination.  My old man would have made my life miserable if I backed down so fight I did and became very adept at it and spent an inordinate amount of time and effort to maximize  my street fighting abilities.  I usually won but some of my opponents overwhelmed me with numbers.

Luckily, unlike today, there WAS a different "morality" back then.  I have heard the term "OGs... Old Gangstas" used in modern parlance to describe those Chicanos back then, many who did not belong to an organized actual gang but were held together by family/clan relation and/or culture that was often anti-Anglo and, at times, anti-USA citizen.

Generally weapons were rather rare with fists and feet the main threat.  Nowadays... bang bang, you're dead.

Oh my!!!!!!!!!!  So many subtle AND not-so-subtle differences between then and now.

There is what I term the "cult of diversity" so prevalent now.  I believe it exists due to encouragement by those engaged in class war against We, the People; the "commoners of the USA.

Divide and conquer is an ancient wartime tactic.

Diversify the masses and the USA society/culture and pit the people and the MANY groupings within against each other and a minimal number of wealthy/powerful/united "others" can exert great influence upon the USA.

Note that as "diversity" is promulgated within the USA there is an obvious lack of promoting, really pushing for and demanding, that "ties that bind" are created.

As I look around the world, at events over time and space, I view areas with ample "multi-culturalism" as being areas with typically extreme amounts of violence and strife.... often constant warfare.

Iraq, the mid-east in general. Sri Lanka, the borders areas between Pakistan and India. ALL OVER the world are "diverse" and "multi-cultural" zones lacking peace and safety.

Areas with a definite lack of unifying bonds.  I see THAT happening within the USA.  Why?  It is being purposefully done via actions and propagandizing by the USA's elites, legal systems, much of our corporate infrastructure and conveyed to the masses via a barrage of propaganda we are immersed within from our earliest age.

The general term "political correctness" applies here though, in some ways, some of the changes between the 60s and more modern times have resulted in improvements BUT, many of those improvements were created by the "common" USA people themselves.

So VERY complicated!!!!!!!!!!!

I recall with delight the "underground newspapers" of the 60s and 70s.... with perhaps their hey-day being the mid-60s to early 70s.  The Berkeley Barb was the local BIG one with our high school even having its own underground paper the "system" the administration attempted to quash with threats of suspension and even expulsion for those involved with creating or distributing the paper.

Reviewing, seeking grammatical errors, I am adding this.

Girls wore skirts and dresses much more back then.... required to in some schools since girls were forbidden to wear pants.

In 1970 at our high school there was a "student strike" with at-school protests and other incidents, including a student boycott.  Cool!!!!  It led to "the man," a term used back then to describe authority systems, to alter the school dress code that forbade females from wearing pants.

The cross-town high school was known as the "cowboy's" high school while our high school was known as the school that attracted the "hippies."

There were incidents, some conveyed via the town's newspaper, of "cowboys" assaulting "hippies out and about and using various implements to cut off long hair.  Not a huge number but enough for the "long hairs" to attempt to travel in groups themselves to fend off attacking "cowboys. None of the attacks resulted in major physical harm that I recall... mostly fear and minor scrapes.... and, at times, a loss of hair length( "Long hair"  a term also used to designate those who smoked pot... that generally sold for $5 per "lid"[roughly one ounce and often measured by the width of the number of extended fingers held out with a four-finger-lid considered adequate).

(end of addition while proof-reading)

Bah!!!!!!!

Too lengthy to delve into here, after budget cuts led to elimination of the official school newspaper, we were invited to become the new official school newspaper since paid our own way.  A deal was eventually arranged with minimal interference from "authority."

Another aspect..... the budget/funding problems of today were not as invasive back then.

From my view..... the economic changes from 1972 on....accompanying the main thrust of the ongoing class war, led to many alterations within the USA.

Funding for public works, education, school cafeterias, local parks, and so many things were not as problematic in the "old days."

I find the ever-increasing FLOOD of immigrants, legal and illegal, as being at least a partial causative factor though that belief is typically shunned, even condemned, by the MANY who have been successfully indoctrinated by the "politically correct" mind-set.

Hey, go devote many multi-thousands of hours dedicated to massive research before judging my subjective opinions that are not easily proven and would require many volumes of books to even scratch the surface of the topics and opinions/beliefs covered in this mere message board posting!!!!!

Be aware I also tossed my TV out the window around 1978 until the early 1990s and substituted non-fiction reading for TV, most partying and other entertainments.  An overwhelming desire to understand "why things are the way they are" within the USA led to my efforts. Rare was the times I purposefully peered at TV output.

Oh how shocked were my peers when during general conversation I replied in the negative regarding seeing the latest episode of this or that TV show. "You have NEVER seen ANY episode of Seinfeld" the mini-mob mumbled in abject shock.  "Nope." I replied with most unable to believe me.

Later, when I resumed TV watching, but minimally compared to most folks, and with cable access this time, I was able to "catch up" with the most popular shows... well those that appealed to me and they were a small portion among the whole.

Anyway...........

It is extremely difficult to convey much about the days of yore.

I WAS younger and that greatly affects how I perceived the past but life experience does allow one to view the past differently than only the much smaller mentality I possessed back then.

Oh if only we had maintained the basically Zero Population Growth level the USA had attained back then. The people of the USA had achieved it on their own initiative!!!!!  Thanks to intrusive government and certain social segments the USA was condemned to a growth level that will eventually result in a population of a BILLION and more HUGE herd clamoring, fighting for X amount of resources.

Sigh..... do your own research for what the future holds for a USA resembling a 3rd-world cesspool more than what We, the People, could have been if not forced to become what our own natural tendencies, our own social constructs, would have created.

We could have avoided/evaded the current economic crisis. Our minimum wage could have allowed at least a basic decent lifestyle vice the current grubbing to acquire health insurance and/or pa the medical bills and even allowed a poor working-class person to buy a small house and save up some wealth for retirement.

MANY changes over the decades and though, admittedly, some of the changes over time from the 50s and 60s HAVE been improvements it is my GENERAL opinion that, on the whole, life was better back then, in many was.

Oh, before I amble off..... Am radio was king!!! In the Bay area KFRC and KYA were the BIG stations with KFRC the most listened to.

Far fewer music venues.

Radio station DJs had more "power," more influence back then.  They were a unifying force among youth. More influential by far, I believe, than DJs or radio is nowadays.

There are various books available that can assist in understanding those wild wacky crazy times.

I omitted most of the 50s aspect of life I encountered mainly due to the 50s "experience" I underwent was during my youngest years. Envision the Sunday viewing of the Lawrence Welk show.

The HUGE influence the World War Two generation had on us youth and society in general.  Heck, when I was born WW2 was only a decade prior and the Korean War a mere 3 years prior.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis the old man, who worked for the then Atomic Energy Commission, had to  undertake daily "suicide missions" as he roamed the east bay regions, outside expected atomic blast zones, in order to monitor radioactive fallout and relay the info via secure methods so "authorities" (in their safe, secure bunkers" could plot "hot spots" of radioactive fall out) for planning and what post-attack reactions to take.  Considered "suicide" since obtaining those readings would result in fatal exposure levels.

Our family was told to just stay inside the trailer we were dwelling in at the time and accept reality since there was no effective defensive measure(s) to speak of. It was just part of our reality so no great thought followed.  Obviously, the feared never occurred but the always-present nuclear facility in the town (Lawrence Radiation Laboratory then, later the LLL, that is still there) made the area a prime first-strike target along with the then more industrialized perimeter of the San Francisco Bay, all upwind of our area AND being right on the coast where submarine-launched nuke-tipped missiles could impact within minutes after launching.... (shudder).

Hey!!! What happened to that "peace dividend" spewed by so many pundits after the Berlin Wall fell??? (A shocking unexpected event for so many of us who grew up in and with the Cold War?)

Opinion time, again..... those making class war against We, the People NEED a viable enemy to divert the attention of the USA commoners..... We, the People.

The "terrorists" are needed, as are mega-millions of legal immigrants and illegal invaders.

I remain convinced that a multitude of problems facing you and I and our friends and neighbors were created, purposefully done by a powerful few with the assistance of their minions and lackeys who place pay, pension and perks above concepts such as We, the People (one fearful group are the increasingly militarized jack-booted thug enforcement arms of the ruling elites... many but not all who will follow their master's orders).

Sigh.................

Knowingly departing with having mentioned a mere minute portion of the intoxicating era the likes of which will never be seen in the USA again..... just as it is likely most to all of today's life will not be able to be experienced at a future date, I hope I was able to convey some of the realities I experienced.

There are a multitude of books that can offer glimpses into the past, written by many types of people but, often, by those who TEND to have belonged to certain socio-economic levels that TENDED to be "higher" up the pyramid-shaped socio-economic structure than where I was located.

For the record....... the old man ascended the "pyramid" via his job, eventually jetting around the parts of the planet, from the Nevada testing grounds to the H-bombs detonating above Pacific atolls.

As he learned more about how the general elite class and corporate America were screwing the citizenry and some of the atrocities committed against We, the People, he resigned his lofty well-paid position and plummeted down to a low-paid non-"powerful" hoseman manning a fire engine within that exposed-to-radiation daily nuclear facility.

He was careful in his talk about his action(s).  He did not want to unduly influence me or our family but actions are LOUD!!!!!

I arrived at my own conclusions over time and realized much later, after he died, that he had arrived at conclusions akin to mine and acted upon them at great economic cost.

He was FAR more of a 'hero," admittedly a very subjective term, than many of those declared "heroes" by froth-spewing politicians and their lackeys.

Before I go, I will repeat what a far-better mind than mine spoke not too long ago..... a belief I arrived at around 25-30 years ago and was delighted when I learned another developed also.

"There's class warfare, all right, Mr. (Warren) Buffett said, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

I hope I made sense.

I love the fashion of the 50's!  8)