Take Me Back to the 60's - Revisiting 60's Memories & Experiences

[Far Star]

For all of us of a certain age- what are your most striking memories of the 1960's?

Anyone younger than dirt, what do you think is the most interesting aspect?

Some of my favorites-cutting the waist band off Levi's (back in fashion recently). Flower Power stickers. Moby Grape. Hitchhiking to the demolition derby.

ttp://objflicks.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm

 

[Astronuc]

Steam locomotives and first generation diesel locomotives, and GG-1's.

Boeing 727 and 707's and DC-8's.

The X-15, B-58's, XB-71's, F-4s, . . . .

The Gemini and Apollo programs, and the first and second landings on the moon.

The Vietnam War.

Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, Orits Wenga.

Various towns/cities in which I lived.

Civil rights movement, segregation, and busing

Assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.

Riots of '68 in US cities.

The creation of the Penn Central from the Pennsylvania and NY Central RR (and New Haven). What a disaster that became (Bankruptcy in June of 1970).

Chicago, Richard Daley and the Democratic Convention

Woodstock!

Walter Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley, Howard K. Smith, Frank Reynolds

Geez I could go on and on.

 

[turbo]

Fleetwood Mac (the original blues line-up)
Supremes
Beatles
Buffalo Springfield
Hendrix
Byrds
Simon and Garfunkel

Vietnam/draft

Easy Rider (OK movie, GREAT soundtrack!)

Muscle cars

mini skirts

 

[hypatia]

Mini-skirts and fishnet stockings!
Coats with fringe on the arms
Black and white TV
AM radio
Flower power

 

[Astronuc]

Musicwise - my interests varied from the classical side (my father's influence) to The Beatles to Simon and Garfunkel to Moody Blues to Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix to Iron Butterfly to Marvin Gaye and Motown.

My father bought me an LP of Beethoven's 9th Symphony as a birthday gift. He had a very nice LP collection himself.

My first LP album that I bought myself was - Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida!

My parents were not pleased. :rolleyes. I then began collecting the Moody Blues.

Days of Future Passed, To Our Children's Children's Children, A Question of Balance (1970), On the Threshold of a Dream in order of preference and others came later in the early 70's

 

[D H]

My first LP album that I bought myself was - Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida!

My parents were not pleased. :rolleyes.

That was my first album as well. My parents were particularly displeased with the drum solo. Turns out the musician was so wasted he couldn't pronounce "In the Garden of Eden" without slurring during the recording. The slurred name stuck.

 

[turbo]

We had lots of albums like the Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers, etc, but the first album I bought on my own (instead of the more affordable 45s) was "The Sounds of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel. LOTS of nice tunes on that album.

 

[mgb_phys]

On the music theme, http://www.xkcd.org/339/

 

[Astronuc]

That was my first album as well. My parents were particularly displeased with the drum solo. Turns out the musician was so wasted he couldn't pronounce "In the Garden of Eden" without slurring during the recording. The slurred name stuck.

My parents objected to the volume especially when Braunn (Brann) did the guitar distortion. That was great though. I particularly like Ingles's electric organ. I had started piano and organ lessons but eventually gave up due to lack of patience, and frustration at not being able to do my own thing - which was rock.

 

[Evo]

Twiggy

sparkling eye shadow

mini & midi skirts

hot pants

gogo boots

baby doll shoes

bell bottoms

Bob Dylan

Underground FM Radio

psychedelic light shows

All of the underground bands

 

[D H]

I hereby nominate the mini skirt as mankind's the Best Invention EVER.

 

[turbo]

I hereby nominate the mini skirt as mankind's the Best Invention EVER.

The pill has to rank up there, too. It pill sure took a lot of the societal risk off the ladies and leveled the playing field a bit.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Kent State
Selma Alabama
MLK
JFK
RFK
POWs and MIAs
Cuban Missile Crisis

Moon landing and the space program generally. It was always such a thrill to watch those Saturn Vs launch.

 

[Astronuc]

I hereby nominate the mini skirt as mankind's the Best Invention EVER.

and halter tops. Girls started wearing those so the schools started imposing dress codes. Some schools had restrictions on hair length for boys. The codes varied from high school to high school.

When I was in 10th grade a senior girl, who was taking advanced German, sat next to me in my intro German class. She wore the shortest skirts! Geez, was that distracting. Her plunging necklines didn't help either. I could concentrate, but not on German.


I had some bell bottoms and tree pants, but stuck mostly with jeans. We could wear sandles, but I usully wore desert boots or sneakers to the point where the seams were mostly ripped.

With respect to the Viet Nam war I remember the Tet Offensive, then the My Lai massacre.

I got to know a Vet who lived down the street and spent a lot of time with him learning a lot about the war, combat, . . . . He had a Chinese AK-47 and some ordnance. Ultimately the FBI showed up, after one of friends discharge the AK through the second floor and roof, and confiscated stuff.

 

[Far Star]

Mother wearing a shiny silver dress with matching shoes, eye shadow and earrings.

Photographers that took your picture when you went to a dinner house for a special occasion.

Johnny Carson at his best.

Using (empty) frozen juice containers to curl your hair.

And, yes, "turn that down!" as a parental greeting.

 

[Chi Meson]

For all of us of a certain age- what are your most striking memories of the 1960's?

Mr. Roger's Neighborhood
Captain Kangaroo
"Blowin' in the Wind" as sung by Peter Paul and Mary
People in VWs flashing peace signs at each other.

 

[Far Star]

Mr. Roger's Neighborhood
People in VWs flashing peace signs at each other.

I see a few original VW Bugs in the city now and again. They always prompt a smile.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Wheelos
Hoola Hoops
Monopoly
Pogo Sticks
Yo Yos
Lincoln Logs
Rubber band powered, balsa wood airplanes
Walkie Talkies
Lionel Train sets
Cox airplanes

vacuum tubes
powered speakers
45s

 

[Astronuc]

Wheelos
Hoola Hoops
Monopoly
Pogo Sticks
Yo Yos
Lincoln Logs
Rubber band powered, balsa wood airplanes
Walkie Talkies
Lionel Train sets
Cox airplanes

vacuum tubes
powered speakers
45s

I remember all of that stuff! LOL.

Twister - with the girls from the neighborhood.

The Ed Sullivan Show!

Beverly Hillbillies
Petticoat Junction
Green Acres

The original Star Trek

Superman
Lone Ranger
Cisco Kid
Zorro

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Twister - with the girls from the neighborhood.

YEP! [Pam and Rita edit, okay, and Barbara and Judy...and Sue...]

The Wonderful World of Disney
Lassie
Wild Kingdom
King Family Christmas specials [which I never really liked. And why; what did they ever do besides Christmas specials?]

 

[turbo]

vacuum tubes

I had a cottage industry going repairing/restoring tube guitar amps (mostly Fenders) and when the perfume sensitivity problem got to the point where I couldn't play in bars anymore, I sold off a bunch of stuff at at a guitar show. During the show and as we were shutting down, I had to decline lots of offers to take on repair work. People would come up to me and say "that Tweed clone is the best-sounding amp at the show" or similar, but I just couldn't deal with the perfume/fragrance problems involved in retail operations, and most of these folks would want me to troubleshoot/repair lots of solid-state stuff, too.

 

[turbo]

More 60's stuff.

Roy Rogers
Roger Maris
Tom Terrific
Timothy Leary
Buffy St.Marie
the Mommas and the Papas
Laugh-In
Smothers Brothers
What's my Line
I've Got a Secret
Walter Cronkite
15-cent matinées with 10-cent popcorn
30-cent/gallon gas
Slinky
Jiffy-pop
Hemi-'Cuda
Studebaker GT Hawk
The man from U.N.C.L.E.
Get Smart
seatbelts
paper dresses
Nehru jackets
Beatle boots
Pete Seeger
The Journeymen
Johnny Cash
Sweet Tarts

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Dippity Doo.
Max Factor crew-cut cream
Coppertone

Raquel Welch

 

[turbo]

Ah, yes! Raquel, Brigitte, and Elke, to name a few.

 

[NoTime]

Wheelos
Hoola Hoops
Monopoly
Pogo Sticks
Yo Yos
Lincoln Logs
Rubber band powered, balsa wood airplanes
Walkie Talkies
Lionel Train sets
Cox airplanes

vacuum tubes
powered speakers
45s

With the likely exception of Walkie Talkies all of this stuff was 50's or earlier.
I have no idea what Wheelos were.

When I got my license MickeyD's burgers were 15 cents or 19 cents for a cheeseburger.
The Beatles on Ed Sulivan show.
Johnny Carson taking over from Jack Paar.
Buying 5 gallons of gas and getting change for my dollar.
The local FM station playing Pink Floyd on the air. Yea it was a big enough deal to make the newspaper.

 

[Astronuc]

Yardbirds -

Animals - The House Of The Rising Sun (1964)


Steppenwolf - Born to Be Wild (1968)


Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride (1968)

 

[turbo]

Great 60's stuff. I have tried to find videos of Buffalo Springfield, but every single one that I have found have been lip-synched to their recordings, some of them VERY badly. Stephen Stills was evidently not a big fan of having to mouth the words to their recordings. Clapton left the Yardbirds after similar pop success and crappy videos.

 

[Astronuc]

It's hard to get good quality videos of groups in 60's and 70's.

IRON BUTTERFLY IN A GADDA DA VIDA


IRON BUTTERFLY IN A GADDA DA VIDA (PART 2) of 2


I'm sure they're lip-synching since this is the study version

 

[turbo]

Yep, when you've got a a good match to the studio version with slightly off-synch lips, guitar, pickings, etc, that's a fake. American Bandstand, here we come. When I was performing music, it was always "on the edge", even if we had a new band member or if I was running an open mic jam. Just hang it out there, do your best, and hope you keep the audience happy. I was getting paid $30-40/hr to run open mic jams on Sunday afternoons in local taverns so that parents could bring their kids (17-20 mostly) into an environment where they could hang with older musicians and learn at an accelerated pace, and I used to get $50 or so per hour to play on weekend evenings with comparable pay for my bandmates in exchange for keeping the bars full and keeping the dance-floor hopping.

One time, a big local bar had a band cancel at the last minute, and the owner got hold of my sister and asked if her band could fill the weekend. She called me, and I called a couple of other guitarists/vocalists with some good shared catalogs, and we recruited a bass player and stole a fantastic drummer from another band. The owner of the bar had his best night ever, and promised to give us all his open nights and make us the house band if we would only agree to stay together. This was the first time we had all played together. We are all within a few miles from this hotel, but I had to play the spoiler. I was getting so sick from exposure to perfumes/fragrances (asthma, migraines, arthritis) that I had to bow out and the owner could not extend the offer to my band-mates. Sad, because they could have pulled off a lot of the music without me.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

With the likely exception of Walkie Talkies all of this stuff was 50's or earlier.

Well, see, I wouldn't know about that.

I have no idea what Wheelos were.

http://burlingamepezmuseum.com/classictoy/store.html

When I got my license MickeyD's burgers were 15 cents or 19 cents for a cheeseburger.
The Beatles on Ed Sulivan show.
Johnny Carson taking over from Jack Paar.
Buying 5 gallons of gas and getting change for my dollar.
The local FM station playing Pink Floyd on the air. Yea it was a big enough deal to make the newspaper.

I don't know if it was their first appearance, but I remember one of the early appearances of the Stones on the Ed Sullivan show. My mother just sat there shaking her head while saying something like, "that's not music". And in particular I remember her saying "they'll never amount to anything". Kinda missed on that one mom.

 

[NoTime]

http://burlingamepezmuseum.com/classictoy/store.html

Lol! I recall seeing that on the "Amazing scientific devices" page of comic books.

My mother just sat there shaking her head while saying something like, "that's not music". And in particular I remember her saying "they'll never amount to anything". Kinda missed on that one mom.

Lot of that going on

 

[edward]

I haven't read all of the posts, has anyone mentioned Dr Strangelove? The first 007 James bond movie , Goldfinger, also came out around 64/65

What was that gal's name ?

 

[edward]

The Ford Mustang.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7upBJ63qGwY&feature=related

 

[hypatia]

Scents..Heaven Scent, White Shoulders{yuck}, Channel # 5, Chantilly, Patcholli, English Leather, Canoe to name a few.

 

[turbo]

Hai karate! Ick! Right Guard was pretty darned nasty when overdone, too.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

60s trivia: Who was the little girl who ran out on the golf course to tell her dad that she didn't have any cavities?

 

[turbo]

IIR, the catch-phrase was "and I only had one cavity". I have no idea who it was, but if we're searching for someone the right age and a BIG smile Farrah would fit.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Nope, not Farrah. I think it was a Crest commercial.

I couldn't find that one, but here she is in a few other commercials



I was doing some checking... cool
Rock em Sock em Robots


Flintstones selling cigs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYvOgnabABU&feature=related

The First McDonald's commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krXP_TUZqsk&feature=related

Where's the Beef? [not the 60s but oh well]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug75diEyiA0&feature=related

The Drive-in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCK7FbWHUGw&feature=related

Noxzema shaving cream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpwzDO0gD1s&feature=related

'68 Shelby Mustang
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpUDrd8L9Hg&feature=related

Snap Crackle Pop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6TIsxTdrCU&feature=related

Rolling Stones Rice Crispies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZBmhEMFdl0&feature=related

Kool Aid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVA9qLBViPc&feature=related

Superman selling Sugar Smacks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g0z4q-vAeI&feature=related

Slinky


M&Ms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDEJAj40urs&feature=related

Crest ad

 

[turbo]

Jodie Foster was born too late to have participated in an 1960's toothpaste ad campaign. Who else have you got?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Jodie Foster was born too late to have participated in an 1960's toothpaste ad campaign. Who else have you got?

After appearing as a child in several commercials, Foster won her first role in the 1970 TV movie Menace on the Mountain, followed by several Disney productions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodie_Foster

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Okay, this was THE coolest cartoon made in the sixties.
http://www.gigantor.org/

 

[Astronuc]

Okay, this was THE coolest cartoon made in the sixties.
http://www.gigantor.org/

I thought the coolest cartoon was "Eighth Man". It was shown in the US probably about 1964.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EighthMan

I like the marionette programs like "The Thunderbirds" and "Fireball XL-5".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbirds_(TV_series)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireball_XL-5
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~bat/GA/fireball-xl5.html

 

[hypatia]

TV dinners that tasted like tin, cheese wiz, jiffy pop and fizzies{those little tablets you added to water}.
I was the youngest of 6, and by then old enough to help with laundry. Then gifts from the laundry Gods, permant press clothing and Tide with bleach, made my chores a breeze.

 

[Cyrus]

For all of us of a certain age- what are your most striking memories of the 1960's?

Anyone younger than dirt, what do you think is the most interesting aspect?

Some of my favorites-cutting the waist band off Levi's (back in fashion recently). Flower Power stickers. Moby Grape. Hitchhiking to the demolition derby.

ttp://objflicks.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm

I thought about this for a few days and I think I can sum the 60's: people had more class, culture, struggle, and intellect. I would have liked to live in the 60's.

I feel like everything now-a-days reverts back to the past to be cool because we are at a void of culture right now. Turn on the TV during any holiday and you see something like the beach boys or some other safe, boring crap, that's past its time and feels cliche being played infront of a crowd. Worst of all, its not even good stuff from its time. Just old, bad garbage, being played by young people to make it seem 'hip' -yeah, right.

60's: when people would dress up and had style, first class meant first class, science was important, smoking was cool, music was fresh and innovative.

 

[Cyrus]

Ahhhhhhhh, first class...

http://digilander.libero.it/guido_1953/pics/miniskirts-2/big-1972-hostess-hotpants.jpg

Today you get some ugly person dressed up in conservative clothes. No thank you!

These boots were made for walkinn...

Letssss Flyyy awayyy, come flyyy awayyy...

 

[turbo]

Today's hype about the 60's is about sex (or the lure of sex) and some appeal to style. The truth of the 60's was that sex was available widely (thanks to contraceptives) and STDs were uncommon and easily treatable. There was no need to fantasize about some stewardess in go-go boots when you had some cute huggers jumping you at every party.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I have thought that many times. I matured during the most sexually casual [and safe] period in human history. We had the pill, and STDs were only a shot away from cured.

But the popular line was still "coffee, tea, or me".

 

[turbo]

I have thought that many times. I matured during the most sexually casual [and safe] period in human history. We had the pill, and STDs were only a shot away from cured.

But the popular line was still "coffee, tea, or me".

I didn't use that line. My younger sisters' classmates (1-3 grades back) would muckle on to me. I had crushes on some older girls, but I didn't have the time or motivation to chase them, except for a senior in my sophomore year who was a cheerleader and who sat with me on every long-distance bus-trip. She was really pretty and she was the younger sister of a guy that I used to play blues/rock with. She's 57, still as cute as hell, and we still connect when we see each other.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I didn't use that line. .

I hope not! That was only for airline stewardesses. Actually, though, I don't remember where that line comes from...something back then.

I have lost touch with all female friends from my pre-married life. I did have lunch with a childhood friend once, but she had some serious mental issues [bipolar disorder]. Get this; after we had lunch about seven years ago, she called my poor mother and started talking about when her and I would take baths together as young children. What she didn't make clear was that she was talking about our childhood! Mom was all upset and called to ask if Tsu and I were having problems.

There are a few women from my life that I would like to see again but I have no idea where they are anymore. When we moved to Oregon, most previous ties were lost. I do know that my former fiance married a marine who was injured in the barracks attack in Lebanon [what, 25 years ago now?]. Not long before they got married it was found that he had some terminal condition because of his injury and they were only giving him a few years. That was the last thing that I heard from her.