What was it like to be in the 60s?

Nice review, Cosmicdust.

Faded jeans were popular too. Don't forget elephant pants. There used to be a product in the 70s called Soft-N-Fade for softening up jeans and giving them an old faded appearance.

Some of the pop bottles used to be really fancy. I still have some old Squirt bottles that have a helical type pattern on the tinted glass.

In general, there weren't 24 hour shopping places like there are today. Stores were usually only open regular business hours from about 8am to 6 pm.

The concept of the suburb developed after WWII. The idea of having house-lined streets with a school and church within a few blocks of everyone developed in the 50s and 60s as a response to the baby boom. The children who grew up in the 50s and 60s were the first to enjoy that special type of environment. There were neighborhoods with many many children in the 50s and 60s. Today we take the concept of the suburbs for granted.

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I you look on Ebay you can usually find someone who sells old TV commercials from the 60s and 70s. It's a neat way of seeing what the pop culture was like back then, such as toys, food, clothing, and cars.

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Shaggie,


Thanks for adding a supplement to my 1960's memories. Yes, I remember elephant pants. I did buy a VCR tape of old 60's show clips and commercials, called THE HALLUCINATION GENERATION, on ebay. On DVD, I also bought: the movie REVOLUTION (1969) w/Today Malone (a documenatary on the HAIGHT-ASHBURY scene) and an old CBS documentary, entitled: THE HIPPIE TEMPTATION.

SOMETHING WEIRD VIDEO has weird 60's videos (mostly adult-orientated like: ALICE IN ACIDLAND and LSD PSYCHEDELIC FREAKOUT 2000). THE HIPPY REVOLT/ SOMETHING'S HAPPENING (1967) is another HAIGHT-ASHBURY and LA, CA hippie documentary. Hippie documentaries are not G-rated, some nudity and drug use. No suprise there.

Shaggie sounds like the character from Scooby Doo. The cartoon series was supposedly based on a group of Berkeley, CA college students, in the 60's. Check out "The Scooby Story" at: www.neuroatomik.com/?p=473. Shaggy's real name was supposedly SIMON (major: psychology) who met Timothy Leary, before Leary was famous (in Boston). Thelma was a chemistry major, who made LSD, for them to sell. They both smoked too much pot, Shaggy grew a "goatee" and Thelma ate too many munchies and put some weight on. Daphne was a fashion major. Fred was the son of a famous football player.

Simon (shaggy) turned on Daphne and Fred to "Electric Kool Aid". They bought a van, painted flowers on the side and called it "The Mystery Machine", which was going to carry them into enlightenment on a summer road trip. They ended up on the seaside hills of British Columbia, where Simon took 100 hits of acid and screamed about ghosts and vampires, while running away, with his dog Scooby following him. His travelling companions had to try and find him by "looking for clues" throughout the town and ended up finding him in a seaside cave. Simon was laying in his own vomit, saying: "the wishes of fishes".

Years later, Thelma got a job at Monsanto (chemical weapons division) and at a Christmas party, shared her wild, college adventures with Derrick Hannah (of Hannah and Barbara cartoon fame). Thus, the cartoon "Scooby Doo" was born. Derrick Hannah tried to convince Disney to make a psychedelic movie, which Disney eventually did, called: FANTASIA. Everyone knows that Shaggy was a stoner. Fiction is usually based on reality.

At an apartment complex, where I lived previously, some tenant painted his van, just like "The Mystery Machine". By the way, a "scooby" is another word for a marijuana cigarette, similar to a "dooby".

Groovy baby. Scooby Doo, where are you?

 

Thanks for mentioning that vintage video stuff. I wasn't aware of those and will check them out. I love vintage stuff, especially from the 60s. The Smothers Brothers were pretty good too. I wish we had that kind of political astuteness and defiance today. Everyone just sits around today and takes it from the government. Rather depressing.

BTW, the Smothers Brothers original shows seem very hard to find anywhere. I used to see a few on Ebay but it seems Ebay started cancelling the listings of anyone that tried to sell them.

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I saw a clip of Shaggy the other day where he was in a haunted house eating a sandwich that materialized out of nowhere, along with a jar of mustard too. He said, "Like, it's a good thing I'm hallucinating; otherwise I'd be scared stiff!"

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i remember the 60s with fondness too .basically i haven't changed much since then ..i'm pretty well still the same person .i was raised in massachusetts ..not far from where abbie hoffman lived ...i saw john f kennedy from across the street when he was on the campaign trail ..i remember the day he died ...the year after my dad moved to canada where i live now ......i had good times and bad times but mostly i remember the good times ..the clothes ..the music ..the social activism ..but mostly i remember the good people ..it's still like that here ..reason i have no plans of moving out ..lol................PEACE to you all

 

Now most of the 60's/70's 'hippies' have become the 50-60 year old money-worshipping, egocentric, Bush-loving conservatives. They own businesses that condone urinalysis, they go to church, they are anti-drug, and could care less about personal liberty because it doesn't benefit their estate. Funny how people change.

 

not much of the above pertains to me except the going to church part ...i go every day ...........................................but then again i'm the SEXton ....lol...for the illiterate that means the caretaker and gravedigger

 

The absolute best thing about the '60's, was that women wore skirts and dresses regularly. Hell, in high school, from 1962-1965, girls HAD to wear either a skirt or a dress. That gave us dirty-minded boys endless oportunities to see a garter-flash or a crotch-glimpse.


Those were the days!-- forget the music. (Though that was king-ass shit, of course!)

 

The music is the best glimpse we have to see what it was like for our past sisters and brothers. We need to carry on that revolution. When everyone wasn't about all the bullshit they are now. During a time when love and sharing and music worked and people even if it was just for a short period of time people just understood. Without the music of that time or the writings of great people it would be lost, we can't let it be lost. I think everyone should support their local revolution! one step at a time

 

Just on page 11 of this thread and decided to give it a post. This thread makes me so happy! There are people out there who think like me! I have always been a hippie on the inside. Maybe we will all come together in this generation. It's good to know I'm not the only one who thinks society is too competetive and doesn't have enough love and community feel.

No WONDER I always loved that show as a kid.... ;D

does anyone know how long it took Simon to come down from that 100 hit trip?




peace

 

uyou, get it?

 

Strong weed (Acapulco Gold, Panama Red, Wacky, Cheeba, etc). Double Barrel Sunshine. Purple Microdot. Seeing The Doors in 1967 in Asbury Park (I went to a Rave at the same place EXACTLY 30 years later). Speaking of Raves, I found the people at the Rave (PLUR) to be kindred spirits. I was like the old man sitting on the log, telling all the kids what it was like back then. To me, The Rave f people were carrying the torch (no wonder the Utah PIGS stomped that rave last summer. We scared the living crap out the straights, squares, pigs, and rednecks, and as one poster said, "Are you a gurl or a boy" was uttered many times when in 1969, I had hair down to my waist.





It was a turbulent time, much like now. The difference from then and now, is we had a social structure to fall back on. There were older folks (30+years..LOL!!), and we actually listened to them. Nowadays, you're an old fart, and "Get over it". SOrry, what I learned from the 50s and 60s was never to let the true feelings die with you, no matter what social changes occurred. We Non-Linear/Exponential people have always been at odds with the Linear/Straights, perhaps going back to The Cro-Magnons beating the superior but more passive Neanderthals over their heads and eating their brains. Does The Inquisition of the 1400-1600s come to mind? Witches and Pagans eating strange herbs, and getting burned by the State/Church.



What thing I see missing now is the acceptance of other cultures within the USA. I remember going to a concert with Richie Havens, Lothar and The Hand People, Ultimate Spinach, and Savoy Brown.....Folk, Electronic, Psyche, and Blues. Everybody accepted and grooved to the different types of art and music. We were basically all one, yet all very different. There were the Space Hippies, The Field Hippies, and The Urban Hippies. All pretty much got along, and cross-fertilized. Now, everybody has to say "that's crap" if they don't like your music. I think where it ended was when George Harrison noticed Haight -Ashbury in 1969 had more drunks and heroin addicts than Heads. The infiltration of our beautiful culture by these stupifying drugs helped end it. I knew Tim Leary personally, and he thought the same thing.



Anyway, my wife and friends still think like we did then, except older, and with more technology at our grasp.

 

im glad im not 60's thats too easy, its more of a challenge and to all you, lets play a game.....

Chiana20
ChloeRaine_1
Amanda's Shadow
nananie
DreamerSpirit
wildfire
groovychick1212
peaceloveandmusic
Eruna
WildChild67
WiSeViBeS
cue
and all the others hu wanna play
c hu can have the most positive impact on the world



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stoney69

when we see another human, we're not seein them for who they are - without the "hey man, hows it goin", we judge'em. we talk, debate our differences rather than celebratin our similarities.
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i just wanted to say i celerate differences, unless its to dramatical, e.g. dad wuld like the death penalty in england (4 out of 10 england want it according to the sun), i am completely against it, but if they are differences in things we like, e.g. tv programmes, different books, what charities are better etc i celbrate, that like now we both think different but im enjouying it, also similarities can also be good






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shaggie

I feel sorry for the younger crowd who have never known the vibrancy of the U.S. back in the 60s and 70s compared with the stifled conformist atmosphere today. Many today have been socialized into thinking that being libertarian and hippie is agreeing with Bush 99% of the time instead of 100%. It's difficult to know a world unless you've been there.
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then we shall create the vibrancy,



what i don't understand is, that lots of hippies in the 60's 70's must of been doing it to be cool, because you don't really grow out of belief do you?

i reccon nobody will know because if u r still hippie and were in the 60's u really must be a true hippie,

also people a great book, i havent read all the way thru yet but hope to soon, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/06...103-6021680-3292648?s=books&v=glance&n=283155, its It's Your World--If You Don't Like It, Change It : Activism for Teenagers (Paperback)




p.s. i want to find out why some people are against pre-marital sex, or just casual sex, if any one knows any reasons against that can u please tell me

 

i wish my time was full of love and not hate.

i wish i could've lived during the time when revolution was in the air . . .

but i've been told that this era needs people like me.

so i'm stayin' here, heh.

 

It was a beautiful time. Loveing and shareing,careing for each other. A time of openess;a time of living and let live/one to another. Not giving into violance,war or otherwise. Standing ones ground,as well as helping those in need ,anyway ya possibly could. The 60's are gone,but not foregotten. For most of us that have lived it;those qualities still exist. For myself,I'll take those same qualities with me when I leave this world. This is who I am!.................Rebel

 

Young boys were afraid of getting drafted for Vietnam. Some kids stayed in college. Some became school teachers. Some went to Canada. The Negro/black/colored folk population were clamouring for the emancipation promised them by President Lincoln (40 Acres and a Mule). I was forced to wear a crew cut. Had a mother who kept me in school forever (she loved the PTA). We ate frozen steak and canned vegetables. Unleaded gas was new and extremely expensive (sometimes as much as 70c/gallon). We started reading about phosphate levels in laundry detergent. Let's not even talk about the furniture!

 

I was born in 1961, so I barely remember it. But I'll pass along a few tidbits of memory that younger folks might find of interest, and which might fill in the picture a bit.

-I vaguely remember the Chicago '68 police riot; I can STILL visualize what I saw on television. As Jim Morrison put it, "ghosts crowd the young child's fragile eggshell mind..." and that line means a LOT to me.

-I was so young when Woodstock happened that I saw the TV news about a "rock festival" and at the time I had a rock collection and thought it was for geology enthusiasts. I now wish I'd stayed with my fascination with geology.

-My older brother went into the military in '66, and I wrote letters to him while he was in Vietnam, and I REALLY remember his homecoming. He grew his hair long, bought a VW Microbus, yet was the most responsible and wise person I knew. He decorated his room with bombs and shells and grenades (all inert) and hippie posters and blacklights... but when he moved out, he left it all for me. Even his records and tapes, Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane, Beatles... he left me the "coolest" (as it was spelled then) room imaginable.

-About a month after my brother got back from "over there," I overheard something deeply disturbing. My mother's cousin was living with us, after being institutionalized for ... I don't know the whole story, but she didn't cope with life well, and her son was in the US Marines and in Vietnam. One day I was ordered to my room, with the stern look that meant "don't ask questions." I listened at the door. My mom's cousin was getting the news that her son had died in Vietnam. She screamed the most awful stuff I'd heard in my life... it kind of scared me... I'd never met that cousin, but ... my memory is very very worn, but I remember the screams. You never want to hear that sound, trust me, you don't.

-My father was the kewlest guy possible. According to my mother (I've not gathered the courage to ask my brother about this), my father offered to pay my brother's way to Canada to avoid the draft... instead he enlisted. My father was in WW2, in the unit that saw the greatest number of days of combat of any American unit in the war, and he was proud of his service. But the man was just too fucking kewl for the real world... damnit I miss him... I never really figured out how great he was until he was gone... but anyways, he bought trippy posters, set up a room with a pool table and blacklights, he even bought fuckin Cheech and Chong albums. He subscribed to.. I think it was Screw Magazine, snooping kid that we all were- and was pretty fucking absolutist about First Amendment rights (only later did I learn that this zine was at the center of a case that I think went all the way to the US Supreme Court). In my snooping, I remember he also had books by Erica Jong (sp?) and Hunter S. Thompson.

-While I'm rambling crazily, let me sing another praise for my father: he let me read any book I could pick up and say why I wanted to read it, and no matter how late I stayed up reading, refusing to go to sleep, the man never ONCE took a book from my hands, and could never raise his voice to even yell at me for sneaking and staying up late to read.

-The main thing that kids today have no way to really "get" is the sheer numbers of young people in the 1960s and 70s. Youth ruled. Spontaneous parties at parks could include hundreds of people openly toking and drinking and blasting music, and such things occurred in too many places and with too many people for authorities to deal with at all, and it was the same in the small towns or suburbs or just anywhere. In the '70s we hardly even looked over our shoulders before lighting up a joint. We smoked joints and bowls in movie cinemas, bars, restaurants, pretty much just anywhere.

-The prevailing mindset was that dominated the 70s was "fuck you, we won, and we're going to rub it in your face." There was just "us" and "them." Freaks and straights. Cool and uncool. Burnouts and Jocks. In my own hometown (Cincinnati, OH), the basic statement of freakdom was ownership of a "frog sticker," which indicated you were a freak. But the us/them divide can't possibly be overstated, from what my developing mind of the time remembers.

The whole 60s phenomenon, it seems to me, was entirely due to the demographics, and there's just no realistic chance that it will ever happen again without an extreme baby boom. I wish I could find a way to believe otherwise. The only thing that gives me real hope is seeing the countries that are generations more advanced than the USA, culturally- and my hope that we'll someday, maybe even in my lifetime, make a few steps of progress towards catching up.

The memories there are scattered and not terribly cohesive enough to make any point about anything. But maybe that will help those who try to imagine what it was like- but again, my memory is a "childhood memory" and is by definition tainted somewhere with error.

 

Thanks for the thoughts, SunLion.

I went to the Kent State commemoration yesterday and it makes me think of the 60s so much. At the end there was a rock band playing and some college girls dancing in the grass and twirling about like the scenes from the 60s and it brought joy to my heart. I think about the 4 students killed at Kent, the tens of thousands of troops killed in Vietnam, and the million or more Vietnamese killed and the most recent war in Iraq. On one side I see the young girls today laughing and dancing and then I think about all those in the 60s that died young and aren't dancing with us today. It sometimes makes me so overcome with grief that I can't contain it.

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i'll be damned,someone finally got it...