The Sixties Yes the fifties were the best time to grow up in America but the sixties are still so enigmatic. What do you say about, The Sixties. I say they began with such a spirit of hope and that people could change the world for the better, and ended in various quagmires of despair, feelings of impotence. What do you say ? Oh and did you live the sixties or just read about them (listen to the music) ? Moi CNN is gonna have a "Sixties" series. View attachment 27607
What do you say ? Oh and did you live the sixties or just read about them (listen to the music) ? I was a pretty young fella back in the '60s but I can remember the dates the music died.
I was Junior High, High School, College. What strikes me the most looking back is how they started with such hope, JFK, Peace Corp and ended in such despair, feeling like nothing made a difference. The system was too big and people didn't matter. In the mid sixties I was in High School in Newport Beach, California which is just down PCH from Huntington Beach. It was trippy to be driving Huntington Beach on a hot Summer night listening to the Beach Boys on the radio and realizing I was there in "Surf City USA" (not that I did more than body surf which is just riding a wave in as opposed to getting clobbered by the wave.) Moi No
Many generations have been through this. Look at the 1930's Finally the US is starting to climb out of the depression, a little optimism, have we turned the corner. In a flash the US is engulfed in a world war and a generation of young optimistic Americans find themselves dying in alien lands The 1990s - The Cold War is over, for the first time since anyone can remember the world is not staring down the barrel of nuclear war. And then 19 bastards fly planes into buildings, and once again we are engulfed hate and international tension. The 60s is often colored in rose colored glasses, but when we pick beneath surface we realize, as I sure you agree, was a very tough time to grow up and a very uncertain time
It was a tough time, for sure, but I think this generation has it a whole lot worse. I wouldn't have the patience for quagmire and logjam they seem to have.
The Sixties was the last time in American history people believed in something bigger than themselves. A purpose. A cause. Peace Corp or Anti Vietnam. The despair of the seventies is evidenced by all those OD'ed rock star deaths. Nothing groovy. It became all about selfishness, ME-ism. In your face replaced courtesy and now bossy woman object to the term, bossy. We all better speak, P.C. And the nations younger leaders have not known a culture beyond the culture of "ME". That is scary to ME. And that's the way, ME is, Sunday - the first of June, 2014. Moi No
The rock star deaths didn't bother me much. I'd hate to see Hendrix, Joplin or Morrison at 70+/- and we still have their music which was probably at its peak when they died. They'll be 'forever young'. But I was still on campus when the mood started to change from counterculture and "hippie" to "BMW" and "preppie". Gawd, what a nightmare the late '70s and '80s were.
The 60's were my time of 'coming of age' too: Middle School, High School, two years of college and two years in the Navy. I was born and raised in SF near Golden Gate Park and Kezar Stadium, just West of the Haight Ashbury Dist. Did most of my surfing at Kelly's Cove (Ocean Beach, SF) and when we had gas money at Steamer Lane, Surf City, Santa Cruz, CA.
Wow ! YOU were in the Thick of The Sixties. I visited Haight Ashbury in early '66 and it was like a Hippy & Drug Fair. Shoulder to shoulder people on those few blocks of sidewalks, every now and then, someone would whisper "weed", "acid", etc. as they passed by me. Police were evident every half block and the smell of incense was all over. I lived in the Sunset district for 4 years to attend Medical School, '70 - '74. And the Haight had become a dangerous slum neighborhood running on Amphetamines and Heroin. Sometimes a crazy, drug intoxicated person would board a bus and start attacking people. As a carry over of the sixties, I took part in an anti Vietnam march down a street and can only muse how today, Obama - Holder have changed the rules and such marches are no longer possible. Got FREEDOM ? Less and less. Moi r > g No
Moi is right about ME superseding WE in the 60s, although his political direction is backwards. The ones fighting for a cause were those who went to Vietnam to fight communism; who didn't sneer at patriotism or the Pledge of Allegiance. They believed in their country, and were ready to sacrifice for it. The ones in the anti-war movement were all about their selfish interests; they didn't believe in self-sacrifice, not for their country, their religion, or even their families. They believed in draft dodging, agnosticism, and abortion. They preferred anything to the dangers or self-limitations of war, morality, and parenting. Their core belief was in enjoying themselves without restraints of any kind - "sex, drugs, and rock and roll." Through the rosy glasses of nostalgia, many Boomers look on themselves as the high tide of principle, but the truth was exactly the opposite. We made a cult out of profligacy. Obama is the political realization of the 60s - all you need to do is show up, and your parents - scratch that - the government will let you party while they work.
Yes, I agree the 1950's were the best time to grow up. I do think that day in Dallas in November of 1963 ended the optimism and hope this country had. That day changed this nation forever. I do not think we ever recovered. JFK, RFK, MLK, the 60's were a decade of killing.
