Please Tell Me What the 60's Were Like

If anyone here has lived through the 60's or the civil rights movements, would you be willing to share your knowledge with me? I have a school project I am working on and I need to interview or ask someone questions who was impacted by these movements in some way.

I would really appreciate talking with you, thanks.

 

Ask away!

Zen

 

Great. Again I appreciate it. If you would rather that I email you a list of questions I would be happy to. Otherwise, maybe we can do this one question at a time and I will let you sort of take the discussion wherever you want to.

First of all, can you tell me where you lived during the 60's and what your occupation is/was?

This is for a dissent and democracy class, so my first question is:

1. In your experience, what were the impetuses that led your generation to rebel from the established norms of society?

 

Or anyone else for that matter?

 

60-62 Camp Lejeune, N.C.
63 Washington, D.C.
64 Virginia
65 N.C.
66-69 Phila-NYC-Utah-the road

Woodworker, Boatbuilder, Ordained non-Christian Minister and General Smartass.

The assassination of Kennedy.
The Civil Rights Movement.
Rock and Roll/R&B
Murders of Dr. King, Medgar Evars, Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X...
Vietnam and THE DRAFT
EDUCATION!!!!!

Education was put last because I see that as the great secret to the 60s. As a nation we were at the pinnacle of our system and many young teachers were asking questions that none dare asked before. This was shared with students (like myself)
The 60s were also a time of technological advances that allowed for more info to be available as never before.
There is also the awakening to how we were damaging the planet. Smog, litter, polluted rivers etc. led many to understand, along with the fore mentioned reasons, that something was terribly wrong with this entire system.

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Zen

 

1. So you would say that the schools were sort of a breeding ground for dissent? Do you think that maybe once the luxury of being a student was unavailable and students started enerting into the 'real' world of jobs and having families that you guys had some second thoughts about how wrong the entire system was?

2. As a hippie, how would you define the 'real' world and how has it changed/evolved since the 60's?

3. Did you participate in any movements (like the black power, womens, gay, anti-war, environmental, or American-Indian movements)?

 

Chi. Student, tell you what...I'm a pretty slow typer and easily distracted. If this is important to you I''l give you my cell# and you can ask your questions live and record it if you wish. It would get your answers a lot more quickly and possibly/probably get more in depth info this way.

Zen

 

I would appreciate that if you can do this either tonight or tomorrow morning.

 

Sorry, I missed your post.
If your still interested...252-726-1691

Zen

 

I was in Illinois in the early 70's I hung around campus town in Champaign, It was a wonderful time for me. Campus town had all these really cool hip shops where you could trade clothes, buy music, eat at Health food coops all run by hippies. There was a park,,Carl Park and every good weather sunday they had bluegrass and folk. We had people from all over stop in there. There was these great coffee houses, one night they had John Hartford. I made a lot of very close friends there, there was Debbie,Doc,,Hard hearted Hanna, fuzzy,and many others.. let me know if I can help you

 

Number one: the draft. It affected all young men of the time, and brought the war home to each and every household. If we had a draft today, you would have some of the same "dropping out" aspects.

Number two: drugs, mainly LSD. There is a great book about the cultural and political impact of LSD, called "Storming Heaven." In it, you realize that the government and the capitalist system had real fears about its effect, how it seemed to awaken people to the absurdity of their straight life, to redirect minds towards aesthetic concerns and away from merely being another consumer. I recommend it.

Number three: the economic situation. Back then - before the Vietnam War bankrupted the country (as Afghanistan and Iraq are doing again) - it was easy to work a job for a short time, make enough money quickly, and quit just to "hit the road" or hang loose for several months. Money went much further. Actually, it is not coincidental that now people are enslaved by jobs, afraid to lose them, barely able to make it from week to week. It keeps them passive and uncomplaining. It is not an accident that the great periods of bohemianism in the U.S. all flourished during times of financial opulence: the jazz era, the beatniks, the hippies. All good economic situations, which offered the opportunity to disengage from work and live for experience.

 

1. Colleges certainly were incubators for dissent - as they have historically been, because - after all - there intellectual discourse is encouraged, and leading edge ideas are the norm, and the social networking is part of the ecology. When I finally left college, I had no second thoughts about my involvement with the Movement. Each year since has only deepened my criticism of what passes for "normal" society, and the dangers inherent in personality cults, militarism, conservative thought, unfettered capitalism, etc.

2. The "real" world? That's difficult, since I don't know what you are specifically referring to. I felt the world my friends and I were living and attempting to promote WAS the "real" world, and that hasn't changed for me - I believed then in a series of truths, and I still think they are true. The "real" world of "normal" society: it's still there, only less energized by hope, and more ingrained by a cynical power structure, a whore media, and a capitalist system that turns citizens into consumers.

3. I was involved in the anti-war movement, and was certainly aware and talking of the others you mentioned. But - in my experience - there was a sort of nonrigid boundary between the politicos (who were rigorous in their theory and action, and who organized the rallies) and the hippies, who were basically non-dogmatic utopians. For my part, I lived the life I envisioned for the world; self and group reliance, a real place for pleasure and creativity in daily life, a loose and impetuous lifestyle, and - of course - drugs as they related to personal discovery, adventure, and experience.

 

Oh My God Where do I start? - To start with a generalised description - It was one almighty big whirlwind...............

 

Very nice RC. I think you caught a lot of the essence - of course there was so much more and it was different to everyone.

One of the big differences between now and then is the desire to accumulate sh** - lots of sh** and to hold on to it like grim death when you got it. In the late 60's and early 70's we were not bound up in the desire for stuff. Transportation - sorry - I'd catch a ride, food - worked at a fast food place and we shared, clothes - that's a laugh, entertainment - it came in the form of little pieces of paper and baggies - but even then we all shared - housing - one room is all we needed. Stuff is the great ball and chain that holds us to the grind-stone of others.

I too am now bound by things - and they are more important than freedom of spirit or freedom of body. If things could be taken out of the equation I think the movement could re-emerge. But it has to come from the young - before they are enslaved. I am a slave.

Of course the war led to desperate circumstance - we knew what the consequences were when the man pointed at us and demanded we come.

And there emerged hope - hope for a new age when people were not enemies but just people. No rich, poor, black, white, beautiful, homely - just people - An Age of Aquarius. We believed that - and it filled our souls.

Sorry - this is too long - but oh - those were the days.

 

http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=338333&f=12
Check out this thread of pictures I put together

 

They were better than the fuckin gay shit of today!

 

Me....in San francisco 1967 "Summer of love" was best of the 60's. The flower children and LSD. Nothing before or after can compare.

 

Rock on Sage I was stuck in Toronto during those times and well I was only 10 in 67 but shit I would have been all over it if I was living in SF haha

 

Summer of Love.....just happened to graduate from high school in 1967, free drugs were everywhere, nothing to do but experience....I was all over the Bay Area of San Francisco and really made the most of my experiences.

 

Cool man... even back then I wished I was older so I could party with the freaks. But it wasnt long until I was there and man I took it too as much as it gave.