Were you alive in the 60s or 70s?

Now, I know about the problems in the 70s with oil and everything like that, but I kind of wanted people's perspective on the general atmosphere in the 60s and 70s.

The only experiences I have of the 60s and 70s is the music and the portrayals in movies and TV shows that I've seen. So I wanted to pose this question about the general atmosphere, was life slower paced? Were people nicer? Were things really cheaper or do they only seem cheaper now in hindsight ignoring inflation? Was it pretty much the same as it is now? I ask this because I am old enough to remember when they banned smoking indoors and I hate going to restaurants now because I can't smoke after my meal. Were there things like that in the 60s and 70s that went away or were banned that people were kind of down about?

Im just curious and I see that this site has some older members so im here for the nostalgia. I love it. Did you guys watch the moon landing live on TV and what was that like? Did people hook line and sinker buy the lone nut Oswald theory at the time? What did people say about his short interview where he says he's a patsy? Really, what were people's general opinions at the time?

I have been told that today's Republicans are more like democrats from the 60s so I wanted opinions on that too. Society has gotten more and more liberal over the years so I can kind of see the truth in that too.

Anywho, I just wanted to read people's general opinions about the 60s and 70s and whether or not you think society, not the government has gotten better or worse or just your general experiences of the 60s and 70s in real time.

a reply to: Shoshanna

People read books, trusted the news, saved money to buy things, and we didn't have lots of "stuff".

I was home with the Measels so I got to watch the moon landing in 69.

We listened to records. I had an 8-track player, my parents had a reel-to-reel player.

Bullies were still around then.

Clothing was annoying (I hated turtle-neck sweaters)

My school had a smoking area for students.

Stuff like that I suppose . . . . .

a reply to: Shoshanna

50's n 60' s....playing in Rock bands

a reply to: Shoshanna

I attended a public high school from 61 to 65. Males were not allowed to grow beards or have long hair. That battle with society was played out in the latter sixties and early seventies. Colleges though permitted them but until the Beatles grew out their hair it was still unfashionable.

The music scene at that time was highly regulated. There was only one band to broadcast music on and that was AM radio. FM radio as a means of broadcasting music for the youth came later in the sixties. AM radio could not play longer tunes as it interfered with the commercial messaging, so, short songs reigned. Most of the pop music at that time was about girls, or boys or cars, and folk music for the more thoughtful crowd.

Musical genres were pretty isolated from one another. Pop rock was the money maker. Blues in the first half of the sixties was not mixed in with the programing of those stations, nor was country, you had to turn on a country station to hear country or western. If you wanted to hear blue grass you pretty much had to live in the south. I didn't and so could not hear it until later in the seventies. RB was mixed in with the pop music as was Detroit music.

It was a desert musically and very antiseptic. It pretty much took the revolution to FM radio broadcasting to open up or broaden the available music to those who would like to explore it.

In the 50s rock and roll faced a huge push back from the older society that claimed it was the Devils music. Rock that was played by black singers like Chuck Berry and Little Richard could not be heard by white audiences until white singers performed that music, making the way for the black singers.Anything that involved singers on stage moving their hips was just too much. Elvis faced censorship because of his grinding and gyrating. And suits and ties or uniforms were the standard attire for rock singers until the hippy explosion of the latter sixties. Even then there was music that just exploded the minds of the earlier generation. En A Gadda Da Vita blew bunches of minds as well as Time Has Come Today.

I could go on and on but I have to run now.

a reply to: DBCowboy

When i was a kid my dad had a 1978 Datsun RV/camper that had an 8 track player. I played the loving spoonful 8 track over and over and over again. He had several reel to reels too because he would sell them. Even in the 90s for some reason people wanted those reel to reel players.

Turtlenecks on men are weird. I hate turtlenecks myself and im a woman. They seem to be totally out of fashion now but I'm sure like everything else fashion they'll make a resurgence.

If only I could have smoked cigarettes in school. I might not be such a degenerate now. Hehe.

a reply to: BingoMcGoof

is that why all the songs are like 2 minutes long hehe? I love Elvis so much and Patsy Cline and it seems like so much good music came out of the 50s, 60s and 70s. I'm a music freak so im really into actual good music not the robot music they make today.

a reply to: DBCowboy

What was your feeling watching the landing live? Were you awestruck? Did it seem kinda fake? Inquiring minds want to know.

a reply to: Shoshanna

Me and my friends were busy trespassing in backyards skating empty swimming pools (the great California Drought) and sneaking onto Federal land to skate the Colorado River Water Project. The Marshalls arrested us shortly after this pic was taken.


Totally worth it

originally posted by: Shoshanna
a reply to: DBCowboy

What was your feeling watching the landing live? Were you awestruck? Did it seem kinda fake? Inquiring minds want to know.

I was in awe.

Like any kid watching, I wanted to be an astronaut from that day forward.

a reply to: Shoshanna

The 70s was definitely different than today.
The world felt smaller.

You could change as you got older and moved on with life but today every move you make is documented for all to see.

Social media has ruined relationships

a reply to: Shoshanna

I remember the USA riots after the assassinations of MLK and the Kennedys. I was in a school bus heading with my father as a young boy to a NFL football game. The rioters began pushing the bus trying to flip it over. I dont know how the driver got away wih us. Later at the game we were at the bathroom and I remember the rioters stormed the stadium trying to climb over a barb wire fence. I recall the police using their battons to strike the hands of the rioters who were grabbing the wire.

I also remeber the riots on the floor of the 1968 DNC convention in Chicago, the Moon landing, hippies and excellent family gatherings at holidays and parties. I hated the clothing, high heels for men and Bell Bottoms.

Gay, Lesbian and Transgenders were still in the closet.

Family was much closer back then before the economy sank. Then people had to move 100's of miles away just to get a job. Did the poor people back then lose their familiy like we did? I remember the Watergate Hearings.

J Edgar Hoover controlled much of the USA.

Bullies were around big time along with the Dago and Polack jokes. We were never privaledged, nor wasc anyone in our extended family. It is a ruse by either by the BLM nation or the other grpups who are attempting to overthrow the USA as in drive the wedge.

IMO we are at more of a critical juncture today than back then. Just look at the ongoimgs here with all the trolls

a reply to: underpass61

That is such a cool picture. It almost looks like another planet! What an experience to have. This is what I'm talking about these kind of experiences don't seem to exist anymore.

Also something to reflect upon, we knew people, friends relatives etc that fought in WWII, even knew WWI vets.

Grandparents went through the great depression.

Spoke with people and knew people born in the 1800's.

a reply to: Waterglass

It seems like family has just gone away. Even in the 90s when I was a kid, the entire family all aunts, uncles, cousins anybody and everybody was having Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter at my gramma's house. When she died it's like nobody gets together at all. She would always have the Christmas tree in her master bedroom because it had a picture window at the front of the house and it was a real experience watching the 10 commandments every Easter at her house. I miss these things. Or maybe my family just sucks now hehe.

a reply to: DBCowboy

I WISH! I could talk to someone born in the 1800s. My grampa was born in 1899 and died in 1978 and i always wished I could ask him questions about the 20s and 30s. I guess I'm just fascinated with history. I know my uncle was in ww2 on the USS Hopewell and he had some wicked flashbacks. You did not want to wake him up from sleeping because he woke up fighting.

a reply to: Bluntone

Yeah I feel like ultimately the internet ruined the world. And society.

a reply to: underpass61

What a memory! Thanks for trailblazing for the rest of us.

Was there a long haul trucking craze until the oil problems in the 70s? I keep seeing this everywhere that more and more truckers were starting in the 60s and 70s because they idealized the freedom of the open road and thought they could make good money doing it. Was it similar to the current craze of social media influencers? Where people are going to make money for what turns out to be not that long a time until it busts? Was that like a fad job in the 1960s and early 70s?

I was born in late '64, so I don't know if that makes me a Boomer or Gen X.

Either way....

Language Warning

a reply to: Waterglass

so many riots! I never knew people were rioting over the assassinations. Well except MLK but that's because I'm black. You want to know anything about MLK, his membership in the black boulee and his real name Michael let me know. I have the conspiracy scoop on Michael King Junior.