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Thinking about the 60's....


Singin' Sue 71615

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There was so much different in the 60's (early).

And I was just thinking through to the mid 70's...

When did the mindset 'change'?

Hubby and I tend to migrate to the crowds 10-15 years older than we are. More in common.

Just makes me scratch my head.

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We seemed to know right from wrong. I don't remember being told not to eat the woodwork. Now kids are getting lead poisoning from eating their house's. Go figure!

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11 minutes ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

When did the mindset 'change'?

 

The change of mindset started becoming very plain around 1966 or 1967.  A lot of it revolved around the anti-war protests (which, at first WERE peaceful protests).  It really snowballed after the 1968 Chicago riots.

 

ADDED:

You could possibly make a case for the change coming with the Watts Riots.

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1 minute ago, Eyesa Horg said:

We seemed to know right from wrong. I don't remember being told not to eat the woodwork. Now kids are getting lead poisoning from eating their house's. Go figure!

 

There have beenmany of cases of lead poisoning from kids eating chips of lead paint for decades:
 

Quote

Child lead poisoning has been a major public health issue only for the last 20-25 years. However, awareness that lead-based paint is a source of lead poisoning in children dates back to the first few years of the twentieth century. Articles in medical journals and textbooks appeared in the United States and elsewhere, recounting cases of children poisoned by the lead paint in their homes on woodwork, baby cribs, and other furniture. The number of positively diagnosed cases was limited both by the imprecision of diagnostic tools and physicians' lack of familiarity with the signs and symptoms of plumbism in children. Nevertheless, a number of hospitals and at least one large city health department recorded numerous cases of child lead poisoning in the 1920s and 1930s. The mounting evidence in those years made it clear that child lead poisoning was a serious public health hazard. And the activities and statements of the lead industry's representatives left little doubt that they were aware of the dangers of lead paint. Nevertheless, the lead paint companies continued to manufacture and sell their product well past 1940.

 

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37 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

The change of mindset started becoming very plain around 1966 or 1967.  A lot of it revolved around the anti-war protests (which, at first WERE peaceful protests).  It really snowballed after the 1968 Chicago riots.

 

ADDED:

You could possibly make a case for the change coming with the Watts Riots.

That seems reasonable...my sister, although born in late 50's....started to really float off in HS in the mid 70's....

One teacher was a common denominator for several that had similar mindsets after HS.

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Baby boomers being spoiled rotten by their world war 2 generation parents, who also endured the great depression, as children.

  Kennedy assassination. 

I would say Vietnam, and all that went with it, was a major catalyst...which included drug use, which became the "in thing" to do.

  The military draft ramped up.  

Add in the "British invasion" of the groups like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, etc., and the music changed from doo-wop, and migrated to acid rock.

Chuck Berry, Rick Nelson, Elvis, were now old fashioned, and long hair for men came roaring on the scene.

  More availability of the birth control pill. 

Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. 

  Also add in Woodstock, and the music/culture featured at that venue. 

Don't forget the protests of Dr. King, and others, that ramped up in the '60's. 

  Haight-Ashbury District influence, out on the "left coast".

Canned t.v. "applause, and laughter", helped give a "positive reinforcement" to t.v. shows, and gave us some sort of subconscious approval to what we were hearing and seeing.

 

Like as not, it was not just one thing that changed the attitude/mind-set of the American people. It was a combination of things, over some time.

 

Try as I may, I can't forget that era. The effects of that time are still resonating today, and perhaps, to many, getting worse.

 

W.K. 

 

 

 

  

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Think about what you see on TV today.  Back in the day there was violence, but morals were also taught. 

Pinball machines were played, but video games hadn't been invented as yet.  Again, morals went down the tubes with many of today's video games.

Today no one is responsible for their own actions or their children's actions.

 

There are many things that make today better than back then.  But mindset is not one of them.

 

BS

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12 minutes ago, Waxahachie Kid #17017 L said:

Baby boomers being spoiled rotten by their world war 2 generation parents, who also endured the great depression, as children.

  Kennedy assassination. 

I would say Vietnam, and all that went with it, was a major catalyst...which included drug use, which became the "in thing" to do.

  The military draft ramped up.  

Add in the "British invasion" of the groups like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, etc., and the music changed from doo-wop, and migrated to acid rock.

Chuck Berry, Rick Nelson, Elvis, were now old fashioned, and long hair for men came roaring on the scene.

  More availability of the birth control pill. 

Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. 

  Also add in Woodstock, and the music/culture featured at that venue. 

Don't forget the protests of Dr. King, and others, that ramped up in the '60's. 

  Haight-Ashbury District influence, out on the "left coast".

Canned t.v. "applause, and laughter", helped give a "positive reinforcement" to t.v. shows, and gave us some sort of subconscious approval to what we were hearing and seeing.

 

Like as not, it was not just one thing that changed the attitude/mind-set of the American people. It was a combination of things, over some time.

 

Try as I may, I can't forget that era. The effects of that time are still resonating today, and perhaps, to many, getting worse.

 

W.K. 

 

 

 

  

I get that.

More than you know.

I feel the 60' to early 70's were the best years...

Kids had respect for others, listened to their 'elders'...no need for entertainment , we made our own. We were inside for eating, homework, and pre-bed time (after the street lights came on)

We walked, biked, skated everywhere...

Sigh....I can't imagine what changes my dad 'really' saw by the time he passed at 90.

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Dr. Seuss and the like, it really isn't your fault, everyone gets an award,  people like roseanne on television, ridicule the smart hard worker, praise the zero.  To name just a few. 

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It started with the legalization of abortion.   When society starts to legalize killing of the unborn, it was only a

matter of time before the value of life itself became worthless.

 

Man (society and civilizations) no longer find shame in acts of wrongdoing.   

 

If accused of a wrongdoing, you are often considered guilty without proof.

You are no longer innocent until proven guilty.

 

..........Widder

 

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In the 50’s communists infiltrated colleges and universities in the USA. It was easy to do and it was easy for them to sway weak minds in academia. Over time their influence spread and we have what we have today. 
 

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A lot of it started 57 years ago today. The start of a new type of revolution that led to protest and riots during the 60's

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For me, and from my point-of-view, being a child in the 1950's...I perceived that era as a wonderful time, on a lot of levels.

For me, it was a wonderous time. The country was trying to have a space program, and Sputnik came on the scene, by the Russians, and all of a sudden, we were lagging behind. We had Saturday morning cartoons, on .t.v. (Mighty Mouse, Heckle & Jeckle, etc.) We had a daily dose of Captain Kangaroo, and Mr. Greenjeans, and Bunny Rabbit, and Mr. Moose. We also had the movies on Saturday morning, with cartoons, pre-views, and a triple-feature. Admission was 25 cents, soft drinks were a dime, popcorn was 15 cents. You got in there on Saturday mornings, at around eleven o'clock, and staggered out at around 5 o'clock. We rode bicycles everywhere. Everyone had roller skates, and a roller skate "key" to keep up with. We went trick or treating, without parents having to tag along. I got my first Daisy BB gun, in 1957, a lever action, although I wanted the pump one. Hoola hoops were the craze. Only had one restaurant in town, the rest were car-hop places, or you ordered at the window, and ate in your car, or under an awning. Drive in movies, we had two of them. Two, maybe three channels on the black and white t.v.. At ten thirty, the t.v. station went off the air, and you had a "test pattern", on the screen, until the next morning. T.V. antennas, that I had to go outside and turn, and Dad would yell out the window to keep turning, or stop, or go back. No one, that I knew, had a color television set (which were all made in the U.S.A., by the way). Radio programs were still going on, like The Lone Ranger, or The Shadow, or Gangbusters. We had Mattel "shootin' shell" cap guns. We left our doors unlocked. We had no air-conditioning, at home, or at school, or in the car. We slept with the windows open at night. School began after Labor Day, and ended around the 28th of May. Three full months of summer vacation! Little League baseball in the summer, sponsored by the Y.M.C.A. (no, not the limp-wristed singing group). Every business was closed on Sunday. Gasoline was 28 cents a gallon. Before school started, we all gathered out in front of the school to recite the Lord's Prayer, and then we recited the Pledge of Allegiance. It was a great honor to be chosen to raise the flag, before school. We were eligible to be paddled at school, for misbehaving, with a note home to our parents to inform them of it, and I usually got a chewing out, and another spanking, to boot. Once a year we had a county fair, with rides, and games, and cooking contests, and cotton candy, and exhibits. I remember when the glorious '57 Chevy was new in the showroom. Some friends of my parents bought one, and it had the new fuel-injection feature, and had a metal decal on each side of the car, with crossed flags to indicate it was fuel injected. Elvis was on the Ed Sullivan show. My parents took me to see a live performance of Jerry Lee Lewis, one Saturday morning, in a nearby small city. The place was packed and we were on the forth row. Whole lotta shakin' going on, that day!!!

Playing each twilight, with all the kids in the neighborhood, chasing fire flies, while the parents all visited on someone's front porch. 

Having a sugar bowl on the table, and having iced tea for every meal, regardless of what time of year it was. A one door refrigerator, with a small little freezer compartment, at the top, in the middle, for ice trays, and maybe one package of meat. A new, and mostly different design of car, each and every year. Korea was over, Vietnam had not started. The girls wore poodle skirts, the guys white socks, and had burr, or flat-top hair cuts, and turned their cuffs up on their jeans. Penny loafers, with a penny inserted on each shoe. P.F. Flyers tennis shoes. Schwinn bicycles, 3 speed, with a generator attachment to power the head-light, plus it had hand brakes!!! Rock and roll. American Bandstand, with Dick Clark, every afternoon, from Philadelphia. All trains had a caboose...(my son has never seen one, outside a museum). Candy cigarettes'. Bubble gum that lasted all day. A real prize in Cracker-Jack. The reintroduction of the Colt Single Action, in 1956. Back then ALL Winchesters were "pre '64"!!! You had to open a can of something to drink with a can opener or "church key", as it was called. No screw-off caps for soft drinks in a glass bottle, either. The bottles were collected, and returned to the grocery store, or bottling plant, and you got two cents per bottle. Swimming at the local public swimming pool.   

  Do not get me wrong. It was not such a great time for everyone. Segregation was still rampant, and we did not mix in school, or in church, or at the various stores around town. We lived apart. Polio was also rampant, and we did eventually have polio shots, and later in the early '60's, an oral vaccine. You had to endure a small-pox vaccination, before you could attend the 1st grade...and that hurt like sin to receive, and if it left a scar, then they said it worked. If no scar, you had to do it again. 

There was no vaccination for measles, mumps, chicken pox, whooping cough. Every kid got these diseases. Having your tonsils out was the most popular childhood surgery. No flu shots. No Tylenol, or Advil...just aspirin, or Anacin, or Alka-Seltzer. Most all adults smoked. No disposable needles. They sterilized the needles, and used them over, and over again, and...they were big, and dull!!! It felt like they were pushing a pencil into your be-hind!!! Trust me!

No by-pass surgery available yet. Medicine was still discovering a lot that we now take for granted. 

As Dickens said...."it was the best of times, it was worst of times". 

For me, it was mostly better than not. Compared to the 1960's it was Mayberry, all the time.  

 

W.K.    

 

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Ya all mean it ain't Trump's fault?

 

;)

 

 

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30 minutes ago, Waxahachie Kid #17017 L said:

For me, and from my point-of-view, being a child in the 1950's...I perceived that era as a wonderful time, on a lot of levels.

For me, it was a......

 

Thank you for a well written and very well thought out summary.   

 

My brothers were born in 1945, 1947, and 1950.  I came along in 1957.  Other than clothes for school and shoes I wore hand-me-downs. Dad worked,  Mom was a stay at home housewife until I was in 3rd grade. We all had chores after school,  unless we had an after school job.  Family dinner every night and we rotated at setting and clearing the table and washing dishes. 

 

 

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3 hours ago, Waxahachie Kid #17017 L said:

Baby boomers being spoiled rotten by their world war 2 generation parents, who also endured the great depression, as children.

  Kennedy assassination. 

I would say Vietnam, and all that went with it, was a major catalyst...which included drug use, which became the "in thing" to do.

  The military draft ramped up.  

Add in the "British invasion" of the groups like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, etc., and the music changed from doo-wop, and migrated to acid rock.

Chuck Berry, Rick Nelson, Elvis, were now old fashioned, and long hair for men came roaring on the scene.

  More availability of the birth control pill. 

Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. 

  Also add in Woodstock, and the music/culture featured at that venue. 

Don't forget the protests of Dr. King, and others, that ramped up in the '60's. 

  Haight-Ashbury District influence, out on the "left coast".

Canned t.v. "applause, and laughter", helped give a "positive reinforcement" to t.v. shows, and gave us some sort of subconscious approval to what we were hearing and seeing.

 

Like as not, it was not just one thing that changed the attitude/mind-set of the American people. It was a combination of things, over some time.

 

Try as I may, I can't forget that era. The effects of that time are still resonating today, and perhaps, to many, getting worse.

 

W.K. 

 

 

 

  

I was a boomer, but raised very differently.

We were expected to weed the garden, help grandma at the Laundry Matt on the weekends, if we wanted money for the movies or swimming or really anything.

We did not get allowance, and we were expected to do 'chores' as it was part of being part of the household.

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1 hour ago, Smoken D said:

A lot of it started 57 years ago today. The start of a new type of revolution that led to protest and riots during the 60's

My parents were wonderful influences on hard work, morals, compasion and respect.

I lucked out!!!

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1 hour ago, Waxahachie Kid #17017 L said:

For me, and from my point-of-view, being a child in the 1950's...I perceived that era as a wonderful time, on a lot of levels.

For me, it was a wonderous time. The country was trying to have a space program, and Sputnik came on the scene, by the Russians, and all of a sudden, we were lagging behind. We had Saturday morning cartoons, on .t.v. (Mighty Mouse, Heckle & Jeckle, etc.) We had a daily dose of Captain Kangaroo, and Mr. Greenjeans, and Bunny Rabbit, and Mr. Moose. We also had the movies on Saturday morning, with cartoons, pre-views, and a triple-feature. Admission was 25 cents, soft drinks were a dime, popcorn was 15 cents. You got in there on Saturday mornings, at around eleven o'clock, and staggered out at around 5 o'clock. We rode bicycles everywhere. Everyone had roller skates, and a roller skate "key" to keep up with. We went trick or treating, without parents having to tag along. I got my first Daisy BB gun, in 1957, a lever action, although I wanted the pump one. Hoola hoops were the craze. Only had one restaurant in town, the rest were car-hop places, or you ordered at the window, and ate in your car, or under an awning. Drive in movies, we had two of them. Two, maybe three channels on the black and white t.v.. At ten thirty, the t.v. station went off the air, and you had a "test pattern", on the screen, until the next morning. T.V. antennas, that I had to go outside and turn, and Dad would yell out the window to keep turning, or stop, or go back. No one, that I knew, had a color television set (which were all made in the U.S.A., by the way). Radio programs were still going on, like The Lone Ranger, or The Shadow, or Gangbusters. We had Mattel "shootin' shell" cap guns. We left our doors unlocked. We had no air-conditioning, at home, or at school, or in the car. We slept with the windows open at night. School began after Labor Day, and ended around the 28th of May. Three full months of summer vacation! Little League baseball in the summer, sponsored by the Y.M.C.A. (no, not the limp-wristed singing group). Every business was closed on Sunday. Gasoline was 28 cents a gallon. Before school started, we all gathered out in front of the school to recite the Lord's Prayer, and then we recited the Pledge of Allegiance. It was a great honor to be chosen to raise the flag, before school. We were eligible to be paddled at school, for misbehaving, with a note home to our parents to inform them of it, and I usually got a chewing out, and another spanking, to boot. Once a year we had a county fair, with rides, and games, and cooking contests, and cotton candy, and exhibits. I remember when the glorious '57 Chevy was new in the showroom. Some friends of my parents bought one, and it had the new fuel-injection feature, and had a metal decal on each side of the car, with crossed flags to indicate it was fuel injected. Elvis was on the Ed Sullivan show. My parents took me to see a live performance of Jerry Lee Lewis, one Saturday morning, in a nearby small city. The place was packed and we were on the forth row. Whole lotta shakin' going on, that day!!!

Playing each twilight, with all the kids in the neighborhood, chasing fire flies, while the parents all visited on someone's front porch. 

Having a sugar bowl on the table, and having iced tea for every meal, regardless of what time of year it was. A one door refrigerator, with a small little freezer compartment, at the top, in the middle, for ice trays, and maybe one package of meat. A new, and mostly different design of car, each and every year. Korea was over, Vietnam had not started. The girls wore poodle skirts, the guys white socks, and had burr, or flat-top hair cuts, and turned their cuffs up on their jeans. Penny loafers, with a penny inserted on each shoe. P.F. Flyers tennis shoes. Schwinn bicycles, 3 speed, with a generator attachment to power the head-light, plus it had hand brakes!!! Rock and roll. American Bandstand, with Dick Clark, every afternoon, from Philadelphia. All trains had a caboose...(my son has never seen one, outside a museum). Candy cigarettes'. Bubble gum that lasted all day. A real prize in Cracker-Jack. The reintroduction of the Colt Single Action, in 1956. Back then ALL Winchesters were "pre '64"!!! You had to open a can of something to drink with a can opener or "church key", as it was called. No screw-off caps for soft drinks in a glass bottle, either. The bottles were collected, and returned to the grocery store, or bottling plant, and you got two cents per bottle. Swimming at the local public swimming pool.   

  Do not get me wrong. It was not such a great time for everyone. Segregation was still rampant, and we did not mix in school, or in church, or at the various stores around town. We lived apart. Polio was also rampant, and we did eventually have polio shots, and later in the early '60's, an oral vaccine. You had to endure a small-pox vaccination, before you could attend the 1st grade...and that hurt like sin to receive, and if it left a scar, then they said it worked. If no scar, you had to do it again. 

There was no vaccination for measles, mumps, chicken pox, whooping cough. Every kid got these diseases. Having your tonsils out was the most popular childhood surgery. No flu shots. No Tylenol, or Advil...just aspirin, or Anacin, or Alka-Seltzer. Most all adults smoked. No disposable needles. They sterilized the needles, and used them over, and over again, and...they were big, and dull!!! It felt like they were pushing a pencil into your be-hind!!! Trust me!

No by-pass surgery available yet. Medicine was still discovering a lot that we now take for granted. 

As Dickens said...."it was the best of times, it was worst of times". 

For me, it was mostly better than not. Compared to the 1960's it was Mayberry, all the time.  

 

W.K.    

 

Love it!

Hey...a bit of Waxa/SAGU history...

Jerry Lee Lewis had a crush on my momma!!!

He met her while he attended SAGU...for a very short time.

He was kicked out for lying about his age!!!

Funny...I coulda been JLL's kid!!!

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51 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Thank you for a well written and very well thought out summary.   

 

My brothers were born in 1945, 1947, and 1950.  I came along in 1957.  Other than clothes for school and shoes I wore hand-me-downs. Dad worked,  Mom was a stay at home housewife until I was in 3rd grade. We all had chores after school,  unless we had an after school job.  Family dinner every night and we rotated at setting and clearing the table and washing dishes. 

 

 

As was for us in the early 60's!

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He also left S.A.G.U. owning a lot of tuition money to the college, that he never paid back.

He comes from a very musical family...cousins....Mickey Gilley, and the disgraced preacher, Jimmy Swaggart. 

Yep....you could have been his kid. Had your Mom stayed around here, we could have perhaps met. Chalk up another loss for me. If it were raining soup, I'd be out there with a fork!!! 

 

I could never figure out why he was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but not considered for the Country Music Hall of Fame. He had a lot of country hits, over the years...that charted on the county side. Probably as many, or more country hits as rock and roll hits.

 

 

 

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24 minutes ago, Waxahachie Kid #17017 L said:

He also left S.A.G.U. owning a lot of tuition money to the college, that he never paid back.

He comes from a very musical family...cousins....Mickey Gilley, and the disgraced preacher, Jimmy Swaggart. 

Yep....you could have been his kid. Had your Mom stayed around here, we could have perhaps met. Chalk up another loss for me. If it were raining soup, I'd be out there with a fork!!! 

 

I could never figure out why he was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but not considered for the Country Music Hall of Fame. He had a lot of country hits, over the years...that charted on the county side. Probably as many, or more country hits as rock and roll hits.

 

 

 

Mom and dad married in '46 I believe.

She was at SAGU untill '44?

Yup...she often said JLL was a mess!!!

Her best friends teased her untill the 'day she died'!!!

Hmmmm...Anna and Joyce still live there in Waxa!!!

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Just now, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

Mom and dad married in '46 I believe.

She was at SAGU untill '44?

Yup...she often said JLL was a mess!!!

Her best friends teased her untill the 'day she died'!!!

Hmmmm...Anna and Joyce still live there in Waxa!!!

Oh...and mom's cousin Nancy Anderson!!! I kinda bet you might know of her.

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1 minute ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

Oh...and mom's cousin Nancy Anderson!!! I kinda bet you might know of her.

I'll have to think about that. The name is very familiar. 

I am from Nacogdoches, so I wasn't born here, and am not a native, although we have lived here long enough for my son to have graduated from W.H.S.

When I first moved here, I had a tee shirt that said: "I just learned how to spell Nacogdoches, and now we are moving to Waxahachie".  

 

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41 minutes ago, Waxahachie Kid #17017 L said:

I'll have to think about that. The name is very familiar. 

I am from Nacogdoches, so I wasn't born here, and am not a native, although we have lived here long enough for my son to have graduated from W.H.S.

When I first moved here, I had a tee shirt that said: "I just learned how to spell Nacogdoches, and now we are moving to Waxahachie".  

 

Now THAT is funny.

I think I learned how to spell it before I learned my last name!!

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32 minutes ago, Bailey Creek,5759 said:

I saw a Big Change around 1976 . 

I think Nam had a to do with it.

That was the year my sister graduated...and I also saw a big change!!! Even though I wasn't quite 15..,I was always called 'older than my years'

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3 hours ago, Waxahachie Kid #17017 L said:

For me, and from my point-of-view, being a child in the 1950's...I perceived that era as a wonderful time, on a lot of levels.

For me, it was a wonderous time. The country was trying to have a space program, and Sputnik came on the scene, by the Russians, and all of a sudden, we were lagging behind. We had Saturday morning cartoons, on .t.v. (Mighty Mouse, Heckle & Jeckle, etc.) We had a daily dose of Captain Kangaroo, and Mr. Greenjeans, and Bunny Rabbit, and Mr. Moose. We also had the movies on Saturday morning, with cartoons, pre-views, and a triple-feature. Admission was 25 cents, soft drinks were a dime, popcorn was 15 cents. You got in there on Saturday mornings, at around eleven o'clock, and staggered out at around 5 o'clock. We rode bicycles everywhere. Everyone had roller skates, and a roller skate "key" to keep up with. We went trick or treating, without parents having to tag along. I got my first Daisy BB gun, in 1957, a lever action, although I wanted the pump one. Hoola hoops were the craze. Only had one restaurant in town, the rest were car-hop places, or you ordered at the window, and ate in your car, or under an awning. Drive in movies, we had two of them. Two, maybe three channels on the black and white t.v.. At ten thirty, the t.v. station went off the air, and you had a "test pattern", on the screen, until the next morning. T.V. antennas, that I had to go outside and turn, and Dad would yell out the window to keep turning, or stop, or go back. No one, that I knew, had a color television set (which were all made in the U.S.A., by the way). Radio programs were still going on, like The Lone Ranger, or The Shadow, or Gangbusters. We had Mattel "shootin' shell" cap guns. We left our doors unlocked. We had no air-conditioning, at home, or at school, or in the car. We slept with the windows open at night. School began after Labor Day, and ended around the 28th of May. Three full months of summer vacation! Little League baseball in the summer, sponsored by the Y.M.C.A. (no, not the limp-wristed singing group). Every business was closed on Sunday. Gasoline was 28 cents a gallon. Before school started, we all gathered out in front of the school to recite the Lord's Prayer, and then we recited the Pledge of Allegiance. It was a great honor to be chosen to raise the flag, before school. We were eligible to be paddled at school, for misbehaving, with a note home to our parents to inform them of it, and I usually got a chewing out, and another spanking, to boot. Once a year we had a county fair, with rides, and games, and cooking contests, and cotton candy, and exhibits. I remember when the glorious '57 Chevy was new in the showroom. Some friends of my parents bought one, and it had the new fuel-injection feature, and had a metal decal on each side of the car, with crossed flags to indicate it was fuel injected. Elvis was on the Ed Sullivan show. My parents took me to see a live performance of Jerry Lee Lewis, one Saturday morning, in a nearby small city. The place was packed and we were on the forth row. Whole lotta shakin' going on, that day!!!

Playing each twilight, with all the kids in the neighborhood, chasing fire flies, while the parents all visited on someone's front porch. 

Having a sugar bowl on the table, and having iced tea for every meal, regardless of what time of year it was. A one door refrigerator, with a small little freezer compartment, at the top, in the middle, for ice trays, and maybe one package of meat. A new, and mostly different design of car, each and every year. Korea was over, Vietnam had not started. The girls wore poodle skirts, the guys white socks, and had burr, or flat-top hair cuts, and turned their cuffs up on their jeans. Penny loafers, with a penny inserted on each shoe. P.F. Flyers tennis shoes. Schwinn bicycles, 3 speed, with a generator attachment to power the head-light, plus it had hand brakes!!! Rock and roll. American Bandstand, with Dick Clark, every afternoon, from Philadelphia. All trains had a caboose...(my son has never seen one, outside a museum). Candy cigarettes'. Bubble gum that lasted all day. A real prize in Cracker-Jack. The reintroduction of the Colt Single Action, in 1956. Back then ALL Winchesters were "pre '64"!!! You had to open a can of something to drink with a can opener or "church key", as it was called. No screw-off caps for soft drinks in a glass bottle, either. The bottles were collected, and returned to the grocery store, or bottling plant, and you got two cents per bottle. Swimming at the local public swimming pool.   

  Do not get me wrong. It was not such a great time for everyone. Segregation was still rampant, and we did not mix in school, or in church, or at the various stores around town. We lived apart. Polio was also rampant, and we did eventually have polio shots, and later in the early '60's, an oral vaccine. You had to endure a small-pox vaccination, before you could attend the 1st grade...and that hurt like sin to receive, and if it left a scar, then they said it worked. If no scar, you had to do it again. 

There was no vaccination for measles, mumps, chicken pox, whooping cough. Every kid got these diseases. Having your tonsils out was the most popular childhood surgery. No flu shots. No Tylenol, or Advil...just aspirin, or Anacin, or Alka-Seltzer. Most all adults smoked. No disposable needles. They sterilized the needles, and used them over, and over again, and...they were big, and dull!!! It felt like they were pushing a pencil into your be-hind!!! Trust me!

No by-pass surgery available yet. Medicine was still discovering a lot that we now take for granted. 

As Dickens said...."it was the best of times, it was worst of times". 

For me, it was mostly better than not. Compared to the 1960's it was Mayberry, all the time.  

 

W.K.    

 

I loved growing up in that era

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The ‘60s was supposedly a time of free love and easy girls, but try as I might, I couldn’t find any.  Where were they?

 

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8 minutes ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

The ‘60s was supposedly a time of free love and easy girls, but try as I might, I couldn’t find any.  Where were they?

 

What were you using for bait?

:D

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16 hours ago, Dantankerous said:

Ya all mean it ain't Trump's fault?

 

;)

 

 

Nor Bush's either.

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10 hours ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

The ‘60s was supposedly a time of free love and easy girls, but try as I might, I couldn’t find any.  Where were they?

 

We were convinced by the Music that they all were "California Girls".

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