If only I was born in the 50's

[UndertheOcean]

I would have been a teenager in the 60's , thats the perfect decade for me.

Or is it too romanticized and those who actually lived through it found it unremarkable.

[Archae]

1. I was born in the 1950's.

December of 1959. :-)

[UndertheOcean]

2. well , are the 60's as awesome as they are portrayed ?

[Archae]

3. Not for me.

I grew up in a small town in WI during the 60's and 70's.

The 60's were mostly just noise, people yelling at each other and rioting.
Kept seeing that on the news during supper, in addition to Vietnam news.

The 70's were more fun for me, including the music and movies!

[Kali]

7. ha

me too

[abq e streeter]

4. Lived through it; most of my teenage years....Amazing time, but both good and bad

Stunning amount of great music. So many great groups and artists at the very peak of their creativity... Exhilarating level of REAL hope and REAL change in the air,not coming from any politicians ( though there were some who WERE with us)but bubbling up from the younger generation with a feeling of solidarity and discovery of a radically new and at least hopefully improved way to view and interpret virtually everything. But with that exhilaration came a crushing devastation from all the violent deaths of the leaders that could have effected so much permanent change for the better ( I am thinking , more than any others, of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.). I still, as I approach my 59th birthday , viscerally feel the despair and bewilderment at the seething hatred directed at those of us who , despite all our youthful folly and naivete, gently and with love in our hearts, tried to show America that there was a better way than war, racism,greed, materialism, environmental degradation etc. Did many of us end up selling out; going over to the dark ( repub) side? Absolutely, but from nothing more than my own experience and my own eyes and ears, the percentage of those that did that is as overinflated as a Fox news teabag crowd estimate. So in some ways, it's not romanticized at all; it was a special time, but it was also a time of an absolutely devastating disillusionment or at least a backdrop to it. I hope some others here who are more eloquent than I( and that sets the bar pretty low) will weigh in on this too. But just speaking for my 60's teenage self, as well as looking back, it WAS a remarkable time.

[LiberalAndProud]

8. REAL hope and REAL change ...

and yet, from that generation came George W. Bush.

So what was real about it?

[abq e streeter]

12. Excellent point--One asshole of course represents an entire generation

what an utterly idiotic post. And if you can't understand what was real about it, I couldn't possibly explain it nor would I bother. just saw your comment (excellent Galbreath quote) on your profile; disappointed to see the shallowness of your post. Oh well, your problem in failing to understand, and not my problem to explain what should be , but apparently isn't, obvious.

[LiberalAndProud]

14. Not what I meant, exactly.

The wars go on anyway. The racism is rampant anyway. I expected that out country would move left over the past 30-40 years, and we have moved right instead. The momentum has been in the wrong direction since the "summer of love". My observation was less about a generation, more about our civilization.

[abq e streeter]

15. Ok, my sincere apologies if I misinterpreted the intent of your post.

but my original reply to the OP pointed out the "seething hatred" we who tried to really change things attracted. It's not surprising in a way, that we frightened and threatened the powers that be to the extent that they had to do every in their considerable power to discredit what we were trying to do and crush it, and us, in whatever way necessary. The hope and the change was absolutely in the air ; "blowin' in the wind". It certainly wasn't all the young people, there were and sadly, always will be, plenty of idiots like Dubya in every generation. But we were absolutely on to something in a way that America ,and perhaps the world had never seen, and it freaked enough powerful people ( as well as a still to this day easily frightened middle America) out that it had to be stopped at all costs. I found it an almost inexpressibly exciting, if ultimately terribly disillusioning time to be young, and anyone who was part of it knows what I mean, and I don't possess the literary talents to even come close to adequately explaining it to those that don't understand. "It's like trying to tell a stranger 'bout rock and roll..."

[LiberalAndProud]

18. I believed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EegRh8Z4H-o


:disillusioned:

[abq e streeter]

19. I saw Hair on the last day of the 1960's....literally: Dec 31st, 1969

I refuse to stop believing in what I know is right, but yes, the disillusionment has never stopped hurting either.

[LiberalAndProud]

21. I remember that night.

I was 10. I think it was the moment I understood the meaning of the word poignant. I realized, even then, that an important decade had passed.

[murielm99]

20. I was born in 1948.

I was in high school and college during the 60's. It was an exciting time.

I believe, like you, that the PTB were threatened by "the sixties" and everything that they stood for. They were so threatened that they are still trying to discredit an entire decade.

It is not all that different from what the republicans and the conservative pundits are doing to FDR and the New Deal. George Will and his ilk are trying to rewrite history to make it look like none of the New Deal programs helped end the Depression. Part of that is fear that Obama will succeed with similar programs, and he will be held in the same high regard as FDR. Part of it is elitism, hatred for the common man, and the class warfare that they accuse us of conducting. Every republican from reagan on forward has been trying to dismantle all the New Deal programs.

We should not allow the conservatives rewrite the history of the sixties. It was a wonderful, and a frightening time to come of age. We should not let people who did not grow up in those times blame the boomers for every ill that exists today. Large numbers of us were trying to make the world a better place.

[Mopar151]

26. Agree 100%

I'm a '57 ... I remember some amazing things, and also remember getting stabbed in the heart. The assainations, Judge Julius Hoffman and the Chicago 7 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEFsBF1X1ow (watch tis vid if you can!) and, in general, the brutality and hostility by the PTB really stunk. I was one of "Teach your children well" kids, and it stuck - Thank you, world! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6pphVs8bF0&feature=related

"Woodstock local reaction" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LLFxaKcOgQ

[Kali]

34. ...

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dEzqBrvxr-IJ:conservativesarealwayswrong.googlepages.com/+conservativesarealwayswrong&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

[LiberalAndProud]

35. If my post was shallow,

please know that it was born out of a certain depth of dispair. I watch as our President tries ever so cautiously to steer our collective ship in the direction it should go, slowly, carefully he turns. The political direction in my lifetime from Kennedy through Obama is disheartening. If Obama could have started from where even Nixon left us, we would make REAL progress, rather than this seemingly endless struggle merely to return to where we were pre-Reagan. The damage the RepubliCons, in their fanaticism have wrought, abetted by the triangulation and placation from our side ...

I must stop, lest I go all melancholy.

Anyway, in the late of the night, I sometimes get despondent.

Sorry. I'll be cheerier today. 'kay?

[abq e streeter]

36. I realize this was a response to someone else, but felt I needed to say one more (positive) thing

I meant my apology above, and feel like saying it one more time...I understand despondence about the political situation we find ourselves in. That was actually one of the themes of my posts in this thread; the crushing disillusionment at the defeats of things we wanted that were ( in our eyes, and in my opinion anyone with a lick of common sense) so obviously good and decent. I just have seen so many posts at DU that inexplicably parrot the right wing line that the hippies and boomers were the cause of everything wrong in America, or conversely a cynical gloating that we all "sold out and voted for Reagan" or produced George Bush etc. After your explanations , I understand and empathize with everything you've said. We're on the same side LiberalAndProud , and I hope you will be OK with me saying: best wishes to you, friend.....abq e streeter

[LiberalAndProud]

37. Thanks.

Best wishes back at ya!
:hi:

:)

[July]

28. I think abq describes that time well.

Real hope, real change -- well, some of the change didn't come to fruition till the seventies, but voting rights for 18-year-olds, legalized abortion, and, as some posters downthread note, civil rights and women's rights advancement. Environmentalism, which back then was viewed as a bit kooky, mainstreamed (and I do remember when it was normal to throw trash on the ground). The Pill. If I spent an hour, I could come up with a lot more.

I'm not saying that the entire legacy of the sixties was positive, but I don't think that could be said of any period in our or other countries' history.

It felt like a special and exciting time, and it felt like a difficult and intense time. The nightly news was full of Vietnam, and then there were the assassinations.

The sense of hope was a wonderful feeling, and I think it informs my liberal views today. We may have been naive, but we were thinking about our world, our place in it, challenging the status quo, our rights, the war. I think that was a good thing for us as individual citizens.

We were lucky with the fun side of life, too -- the clothes, the music, art, literature, film. Plenty of dreck along with the good stuff, but it was a very interesting world.

[MiddleFingerMom]

10. Y'done good.

.
As for Sixties'
ambivalence,
you had eloquence
in abundance.
.

[abq e streeter]

17. Thank you for you kind words , MFM

I do my best, but always feel like I wanted to ,and could have, said so much more, and that I didn't really successfully translate my thoughts and intentions into words.

[tango-tee]

5. I was born in the early 1950s

and being a teenager in the 1960s was great! Lots of changes... in politics, in society. Many changes for the better, and the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK on the other hand.

The music! And being able to wear miniskirts and freak out the older ladies and gentlemen! Long hair, bangs, tons of black eyeliner. Or else washed-out, frayed jeans, an old US Army jacket and sneakers (to freak out my mom).

[abq e streeter]

6. ...and being a teenage boy watching the teenage girls in miniskirts...

:evilgrin:

[tango-tee]

11. ...and us girls watching you boys watching us....

It was a good time to be young.

:hippie: :smoke:

[abq e streeter]

16. WHAT ? You KNEW we were watching? But I thought we were so subtle

:rofl:

[tango-tee]

23. Ha! You guys only THOUGHT you were cool,

Sooo transparent... On the other hand, we girls really were - ahem - cool. Really! Trust me on this! Would I lie to you?

[Wapsie B]

9. Not everyone lived the counterculture of sex, drugs, and rock & roll.

Far from it. For many of us it was unremarkable; 70's too for that matter.

[tblue]

13. I was born at the end of the decade

but I had a sister born in 1952, so I sort of vicariously went thru the current events by being in proximity to her. I remember her being excited that RFK was coming to her college to speak and she got pictures of him, and her going to see the Stones in concert. I was jealous of all that, and her patched blue jeans and hippie friends. So I became sort of a late-blooming early 70s hippie, sorta. The 60s was an incredible time of unbelievable music, really informed and politically engaged students, protests that actually made the news and impacted even the president, actual news being on the tv, Walter Cronkite the most trusted man in television, free love, pot and civil rights. Some of our country's lowest moments (the assassinations, Vietnam, Bull Connor & the like opposing Civil Rights), but also an extraordinary number of the highest.

[LiberalAndProud]

22. actual news on the tv. Damn. Those were the good ol' days.

Not kidding. I miss it.

[proteus_lives]

24. The past is always romanticized or condemned.

[LanternWaste]

38. And looked at objectively also

And looked at objectively also.

[KT2000]

25. Far from unremarkable

It was intense and really living in my opinion. So many things were changing - civil rights, women's rights, changing the rules for relationsips (not always good), making decisions about these things and the war, and working for what we thought was possible - world peace.
The music was so good and compared to now, affordable to see often in person.
It was like the lid was off the country and people were aiming for the stars.
Idealism had its day.
Then the assasinations. Then came violence. Then came the abject power of the government.
It was not always easy and fun but many people felt and acted empowered.
Not like it is now for sure.

[LibDemAlways]

32. You are right about the music being affordable. The Byrds

played at my high school as did the Grassroots and Love. The Buffalo Springfield and Turtles played at another local school. Admission was probably 1.00 if that - and these were groups with #1 records at the time. I frequently tell my teenager she has no idea what she 's missing - not only the music but the sense of possibility and the idealism.

Life for kids her age today is a drudge. They face trying to get into college at a time when costs are out of control and then face the prospect of un- or underemployment as decent jobs are sent offshore. It sucks to be growing up today. Not too great for us 50 somethings either. Husband lost his job recently and looking for another one at 59 - with a teen about to embark on college - is something he never in his wildest dreams imagined would be happening.

[KT2000]

33. Yes - things sure have changed

Sorry about your husband losing his job. Best wishes for his job hunt. :hi:

[raccoon]

27. You'd have liked to live in your neck of the woods with NO AIR CONDITIONING?

I don't think so.....I grew up in SC without AC. TRUST ME ON THIS ONE, you don't want to live in a Southeastern state with high humidity and no AC. (It CAN be done, but it sure ain't comfortable.)

However, there was good & bad about those times.

[edbermac]

29. I was...it was good and bad

Good: best decade for music, space program, civil rights movement.

Bad: JFK/RFK/MLK assasinations, Vietnam, Nixon/Watergate.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

30. Don't believe everything you hear..

the best time to be alive, no matter what your age is NOW! :party:
Class of '68

[LibDemAlways]

31. I was born in the 50s. My daughter was born in

1993 and wishes she could have been a teenager in the 1960s. It was a turbulent decade and I wouldn't want to revisit the assassinations or Vietnam War, but the music was awesome. For that alone, I'm glad I grew up during that decade.

[av8rdave]

39. I was born in the late 50s...not all it was cracked up to be

I sometimes wish I were a little older and more aware in the 60s (I was only 12 when that decade ended).

I remember that my parents believed the Viet Nam war was a noble cause, the Beatles were the leading edge of the communist invasion, and the Kent State students got what they deserved.

Believe me, I had to work hard to save the few brain cells that survived all that crap!

[LibDemAlways]

40. I guess a difference in environment can really affect a person's outlook.

My parents thought Vietnam was a horrible mistake, gave me the money to buy every Beatles album, and were appalled by what happened at Kent State. I had friends whose parents shared your parents' outlook, however, so I understand where you're coming from.

[graywarrior]

41. If you were like me in the 60's, you wouldn't remember any of it anyhow

[trof]

42. In 1960 I was 19 and a frat boy.

A Deke at the U. of Alabama (ROLL TIDE!).
That was my world.
:shrug:

Classes were something you had to get through Mon-Fri so you could party 24/2 1/2 (Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday).

Our only available drug was alcohol (if you don't count tobacco), but we made various and extensive uses of it.
:evilgrin:

I've come a long, LONG way since then...baby.
;-)

[graywarrior]

47. We used alcohol as a base in a punch bowl that was filled with any kind of

drug that anyone happened to have in their possession. I don't know why I am not dead. Good thing I smartened up young enough to stop all that.

[trof]

48. There was this one party...

where the 'punch bowl' was a toilet.
Brand new and washed.
:-)
The punch was Everclear grain alcohol (100 proof) and lemonade.
Baby Ruth candy bars were floated in it.
Or maybe they were sinkers.
I forget.
It was hard to get the ladies to drink it.
;-)

[graywarrior]

49. I can totally relate.

And then there were enema parties. Yes, enema parties. I went to one, but did not participate. I was anal back then. Not that I'd enjoy that now, mind you.

[yankeepants]

43. I grew up blocks from Syracuse University

Hippies, headshops, The Woodstock exodus, the Vietnam War protests

We were in our early teens. It was the best. No romanticizing here.

[Walk away]

44. If you were born in the '50s your bones would be creaking now...

take my word for it.

But you are right about the sixties and very early seventies as being magic. I lived it in NYC and spent time at Alan Ginsberg's house in Cherry Valley, met Andy Warhol and lived on MacDougal St across from Bob Dylan. Every day in Washington Square Park was a freak festival. Great music everywhere for free. Happy hippies wearing exotic garb smoking hash and drinking coffee at the Cafe Figaro. Free sex for sure and imagine going to a Be In where a thousands of people drop acid and have a totally peaceful and fun day together.

I sublet an apartment on tiny little Minetta St and my entire building was fill with musicians. The street smelled like pot 24/7/365.

[WinkyDink]

46. I envy you retroactively!

[WinkyDink]

45. 1949. They were very remarkable: assassinations; new musical forms; and hey, a "Conflict"!

The Youth Culture was invented.

[Skittles]

50. I was born in the 50's but spent no teenage years in the 60's

no INDEED

[Old Troop]

51. I was born in 1954

The 60s were (to me) just like every other decade I've lived; we ate, sometimes were scared or angry with the news and we continued with our lives. Well TV was better.

[zanana1]

52. I'm very glad I grew up during the 60's.

They were remarkable. Everything was questioned. Individualism was encouraged, as was creativity, introspection and sharing the wealth. I lived in a commune for awhile. People were kind and giving. I happened to be the type of person who was just made for the 60's. I know some people didn't enjoy it but I'm so glad I experienced it. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

[Auggie]

53. I believe you had to be born in the late 40's to really live the 60's

As a '57 baby I wasn't old enough.

[Love Bug]

54. And worry about being drafted and sent to 'Nam all the time?

It was not an unremarkable decade by any means with all of the social changes that occurred. But it was a very troubling decade, too. Every guy I knew lived under the constant stress of the possibility of being drafted and sent to Vietnam. I don't think you know what you are asking for.