What was it like to be in the 60s?

What was it like to be in the 60s(The hippie era)?

 

Turbulent! Folks dying in Nam,Kent State. Protests. 'Hippies',bikers,straights. "Are yew a boy or a gurl?" "Heh,heh,do yew believe in Free Love,heh,heh?"(common phrases uttered by 'rednecks'.) Cosmic conciousness.Truly caring for one another as brothers & sisters.Concerts in the park,and yeah,they played for free(thanks Joni!) PopFestivals. I was young,the world was new.It was a fabulous time to 'grow up', I use that term ever so lightly!...precious memories!

 

sounds so amazing...

 

That sounds great, wish my time was like it...

 

y do i feel that i so should have been a part of something so amazing. the world today is full of war and hate. what happy lives people used to live in this country. maybe someday i can brag about how awesome it was to live under a corrupt govt., a world with endless war, and an ever rising number of murders amongst my own people. its really hard to find happiness in this world that has became so fucked, at least the drugs are still here.

 

I think we have a tendency to sentamentalise it all a bit too much. My parents had it tough, sure there was love and drugs, peace and creativity going around but there was also prejudice and hardship and alot of kids getting fucked up. The 'rents were part of a big scene in London, and alot of the scene aren't around anymore for various reasons. Even people who were around me and my sister when we were kids are now gone. It was an amazing time, no one I know has ever denied that but I'm sure alot of people will tell you it wasn't all flowers and incense.

 

All I can remember about the 1960s is watching lots of television & sitting on the potty!.


But boy the television was groovy & that potty was outa-sight man!!.Woooooeee!!!.

 

Amazing? Sure man it was that, but it was a bummer too. It
was a time of great social change, and a time to rebel against the
establishment, it was a time when you could get killed just for
wearing long hair and brightly colored clothes, you could land
in jail just for thinking that there was something wrong with
the established government, it was a time when the average
Joe Citizen was afraid of us.

Many of us didn't go with the flow, we protested the establishment,
some of us died then, some of died back then and didn't even
know it.

It is said when you have nothing you have nothing to loose so
we worked hard at changing the status quo, and we did.

We shook the establishment to its core. Some of us are still
in hiding today.

Old hippied didn't die, they just lie low util the laughter stops,
and their time comes around again. And that time is comming
sooner than most people think.

If it wasn't for the 60's you would not enjoy the measure of freedon
you have today

 

Happy,
Hmm-quick thought but like... being really ON to something and then on the other hand being mercilessly harrassed for the fact. The energy was incredible...
Tundrahopper4

 

Right On

 

Happy,
Well my reality is an ancient one. At any rate...The Day! My late friend "Fred" once had a dream that he and all his friends were all together in this wondrous field? Well the field was also being shelled and terrible things were happening there. "BUT!" Fred was saying of the dream "we were all having such a great time. We would not have been anywhere else!" As good an allegory on the situation as I can think of!
A coupla decades later I got tossed into alchohol treatment for pretty good reason I guess? Well my "counciller" (jailer/controller in reality and if these "programs" do do any good for people they sure lean more towards the "contol 'em, fleece 'em and keep 'em coming back!" cult type model) Really really hated my guts. I started getting an idea as to why when she started probing me about the day. She was some right wing Ann Coulter type idealogue and was still mad as hell that people like me flew the coop back then. Turn on the talk radio for a while and you will hear the same old cliches. At any rate; when I "graduated" she told everyone that I was "the scariest person" she had ever met. Hmmm...OK..... I guess she was baffled that all the old tricks did not work with yrs trly. Well fuggemall!
haha,
Tundrahopper

 

Life it seems to me was alot simpler and people were alot more open about being kind, you could hitch hike anywhere with out too much worry and folks were usually pretty quick to give a person a ride. Pot was easy to get for 15$ or less an ounce and hash was 5$ a gram and fairly plentful. I'd say there was probably folk partying in every park around and the parks did'nt have gates to lock folks out after 10 at night. I tried to use a pay phone on the street one night recently and found out they even shut them off after 10 or so for fear somebody might be trying to make a dope deal. Of course the country was'nt over run with meth and crack back in the 60s either or gangs for that matter. It's still a beautiful world with plenty of love though.

 

I was born in the wrong time...I was suppose to be alive then

 

Hey,

The sixties...magical words for all of us
I was young in these days..started hitch hiking in 1969..
first trip to Amsterdam..in these days Amsterdam was different
then it is now..1500 people sleeping in the open air in Vondelpark..
music gigs in Paradiso..good booze and dope..easily available..
but not legal..so lots of risky deals on Zeedijk by pushers..
Had a great time in Amsterdam..we were all sitting lazying around on
Dam Square where average tourists started gazing at this hippie lot..
After Amsterdam I made 15 trips on the road..
mostly hitch hiking..except Asia starting from Turkey..
and sleeping rough just out on a sleeping bag..
lots of adventures..met great people all over..
India+Nepal was an eye opener for me..
Even in the 60's there was hardship,discrimination..
the establishment was against long hair,free sex..
and any protest to damage the ruling elite..
Now we are almost 40 years later...world has changed..
it has been fucking commercialised(excuse me for the word)
but...the MUSIC+HIPPIE ideas..
nobody ever will take it away from us...
and whether you are over 50 years or just 13..
It doesn't matter..the ideas in our minds..that's important..
old tiger

 

do the movies portyray the 60s the wrong way? or was it really like they say?

 

Some aspects of the 60s seemed more free than today's society in the U.S. You mentioned parks. One of my favorite nature centers used to be open to the public for free with a number of walkways that led into the park. Now there is a black iron bar fence surrounding the park and you have to pay admission to get in. It seems that much of U.S. society has become this way. It wasn't like this in the 60s and 70s.

What a sad state of affairs that bridges over highways have to be encased with chain link fences to keep people from throwing rocks on cars.

.

 

im so jealous. my goal is to turn my life into the 60s haha any one want to join me?

i think its similar thoguh right now. Its just that there isnt enough peace and love. This time lots of people are for the war. Of course thatll change if anyone gets drafted......

oh well

peace love and laughter
amanda

 

I was a kid in the 60's. We didn't have kids in schools shooting each other. We sure didn't have the murders and mayhem we have today. Even with all the potests, war, and racism. People cared for each other, and didn't fight each other like today. We got together and made changes. It was some of this change that made it so I could vote when I was 18. Or choose a caree in jobs that were traditionally for men.
I wish we could all have this kind of USA today. Now the gov spies on us in ways they couldn't back then. I find it scarey, and unconsitutional. We seem to just take it these days. What is up with that?

 

Cool,
I guess I really don't understand why people are not SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER about this pee testing craze that has been on us since Nancy Reagan. It's even more incomprehensible that the Supreme Court found all this Constituitional? It is not. I think that the "enemies of the Constituition" sitting on the Supreme Court should be removed on this issue alone.
Tundrahopper4

 

it seems to me that everything that is different about the sixties compared to now is negative. for instance free concerts in the parks in the sixties opposed to really expenive concerts in closed in arenas nowadays. obviously there are still plenty of hippies left and new hipies born everyday so i dont understand why the hippie movement has decreased so dramatically since the sixties- i dont understand why everone doesnt come back togethor and just have a sixties experience reincarnate- i would love nothing more than to bring back a bunch of old hgippie traditions and hang out with other hippies from across the country