Jacob Petersheim
Well-known member
Flattering, as intended to get views, but some memories and realities here:
Kids in the '60s
- Thread starter Jacob Petersheim
- Start date
Marie Mallory
Well-known member
I watched the whole video since I was eating and had nothing else to do, enjoyed it and boy, is it true!
Jacob Petersheim
Well-known member
@Marie Mallory one part that struck me was about walking to school. But I agree, a lot of it fits my own experiences.
Krystal Shay
Well-known member
I remember the duck and cover. We also said the Pledge of alliance to the flag every single morning. I remember watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show. I think I was 8 or 9 years old. I sat so close to the TV my parents hollered at me to scoot back or I would ruin my eyes. I remember my parents said," Why that is terrible! They looked like girls with all that long hair!" 
We were never shielded from the news on TV or anything else unpleasant. If someone that my parents knew, or a family member had died, we had to go to the funeral home for visitation and give our condolences. I didn’t like looking at the dead person but I still had to go because my parents made us. They were always other small children with their parents coming in and out of the funeral home too. We had to wear our Sunday church clothes to go to the visitaions, and be very very quiet.
As kids, we did all kinds of creative things to make us think. We had some wild imaginations too. Kids have no imagination now; not much anyway. They have their heads down playing video games or messing with their phones. AI does all the thinking for them now.
I’m old and a cynic now! Get off my lawn!!
We were never shielded from the news on TV or anything else unpleasant. If someone that my parents knew, or a family member had died, we had to go to the funeral home for visitation and give our condolences. I didn’t like looking at the dead person but I still had to go because my parents made us. They were always other small children with their parents coming in and out of the funeral home too. We had to wear our Sunday church clothes to go to the visitaions, and be very very quiet.
As kids, we did all kinds of creative things to make us think. We had some wild imaginations too. Kids have no imagination now; not much anyway. They have their heads down playing video games or messing with their phones. AI does all the thinking for them now.
I’m old and a cynic now! Get off my lawn!!
Madge Bumstead
Well-known member
Roughly a decade or so ago when teachers started handing out gold stars for young and growing children's work in school, giving all a passing grade even those that failed to hit the passing mark, it was then that it really hit me, so grateful I was to have experienced life and enjoyed the era I did growing up.
Life and the manner in which people go about their daily affairs and raise their children today has become namby-pamby. "Good job Johnny or Jane", clap, clap, clap, regardless of a good job or not. I'd make for a poor mother today, not that I didn't support and praise my children when they were young and growing and deserving of, but when someone stepped out of line there was consequences, real consequences, and if severe enough, lasting consequences. Same when I was growing up.
As for the 60's generation, we took spills on our bicycles, skinned a knee, we had a quick cry, wiped the dirt off the scraped area, hopped back onto our bicycles and pedalled off. Troopers we were.
Sure, there was allowance, when mom and dad could afford it, otherwise we knocked on doors and put our names out there for whatever was up for grabs. For us girls once we reached the age of 10-12, there was babysitting, and for boys there was lawn-cutting, snow-shovelling, and paper routes. Seemed everyone had a job of some kind, and laziness wasn't included.
Chores were a fact of life, at least in our house they were. Mom would relegate the job of taking out the garbage to my baby brother or another younger sibling, as for me, I spent many years on washing and drying dishes duty, and that doesn't begin to scratch the surface. If we wanted spending money or wanted to buy something, we have to earn it, and no one I knew of cast any crocodile tears over it, we did what we did.
There may have been a rare exception when I was growing up, where a parent or two would drive their kids to school, but for the bulk of us, walking both to and from school each day, rain or shine, snow and cold, was all in a day's work. We took it all in stride. I remember days where the temperature was so cold, us kids would walk to school backwards, because walking backwards helped shield our faces and from freezing cold and wind. We arrived at school with wet and snow-covered pant cuffs, our pants dried, and we did it again at the end of the school day, no warm and waiting vehicle for us to hop into to chauffeur us around.
As for venturing out to catch a Saturday matinee, we planned in advance for the walk, nailing down walking time so we were on time, no hopping into a car and being driven to and from, and yes, rain or shine, cold or hot, we made the trek wearing smiles from ear to ear.
Going it alone on a Saturday to Woolworths department store was a treat. Even if we didn't have the money to buy anything, working our way through the store, department by department rewarded us with all sorts of enjoyment, and if we had a little extra spending money in our pocket, sitting down at the luncheon counter for a milkshake and plate of piping hot french fries was the crowing glory of our Woolworths adventure.
We learned about saving, at least I did. In my teens, when I wanted something that I didn't readily have the money for there was layaway. I used layaway a lot, and on the day when the last layaway payment was made, arriving home with that special something was living the dream.
As much as I love many modern conveniences and technologies, I'd go back to the 60's again in a heartbeat! 60's and 70's.
What a walk down memory lane! Thanks for this Jacob!
I am glad that I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, and that I did this in a rural area, where we didn't even have television in my early years.
While not everyone makes the same choices for their children, it seems to me that, given how much is available to kids, much of it does not require or even allow for creativity.
Schools, community groups, and parents often schedule their children's day for them, whether it's sports, other organized activities, or educational stuff, kids would be helpless if it came to having to figure out what to do with themselves. I had Boy Scouts once a week, plus a few camping events each year, and there was Little League, though I only participated for 2 years and really sucked at it. There was school, of course, but I lived just over a mile from the elementary school I attended through the 8th grade. Sometimes we'd walk to school, but usually we'd take the bus. However, after school, we were simply dismissed. We could decide for ourselves whether to take the bus home or walk, and often we'd walk, usually through the woods. Nobody panicked if we played around for a couple of hours and got home late.
Evenings, and nearly every day on weekends or in the summer, we were on our own. I'd tell my mom that I was going to Calvin's, to Robert's, or to Jerry's, wherever I planned on going first. But that was just a starting point, since the four of us usually ended up together. If we built a shack in the woods, we wouldn't have to tell anyone where we were going to build it because kids in Wallace were like cats; we didn't recognize property lines. If we were going camping, I'd just tell either of my parents, and they wouldn't typically want to know exactly where we were going to camp, and the woods weren't small.
We decided what we wanted to do: whether we were going to swim in one of the rivers or lakes, pedal to Lake Michigan, or do something else entirely. We tried various mechanisms for creating a bomb, and while that was something we would probably have been told not to do, there was no fear of the ATF coming for us. None of our bombs actually exploded, at least not with a lot of noise, but we had some impressive fires, and we did that in the gravel pit, so there was no reasonable chance of starting a serious fire. Had we been caught, no one would have considered it to be a big deal.
I had a .22 rifle by the time I was twelve, and a .30-30 when I was about sixteen, and could borrow my dad's 9 mm or shotgun if I asked. I did have one friend who lost his right hand putting a loaded shotgun back in the case when he was in the 7th grade, but I wasn't involved with that. Other than that, no one worried that someone was going to become a school shooter. Among people I knew, there were far more gun accidents among adults than among kids.
I lived in a rural area, so we didn't have a crapload of non-profits deciding what we should be doing with our time, and I am happy about that. I think kids are harmed more than they are helped by some of this stuff. Your experiences may well be the opposite: even if you grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, if you were in a big city, you might have had some of this stuff and enjoyed it.
Then, there is the technology. Like AI, technology offers a whole lot, but it also takes away a lot, and I think that what it takes away is the ability to think, plan, and do things for yourself. Is there even any reason for anyone to learn anything anymore?
While not everyone makes the same choices for their children, it seems to me that, given how much is available to kids, much of it does not require or even allow for creativity.
Schools, community groups, and parents often schedule their children's day for them, whether it's sports, other organized activities, or educational stuff, kids would be helpless if it came to having to figure out what to do with themselves. I had Boy Scouts once a week, plus a few camping events each year, and there was Little League, though I only participated for 2 years and really sucked at it. There was school, of course, but I lived just over a mile from the elementary school I attended through the 8th grade. Sometimes we'd walk to school, but usually we'd take the bus. However, after school, we were simply dismissed. We could decide for ourselves whether to take the bus home or walk, and often we'd walk, usually through the woods. Nobody panicked if we played around for a couple of hours and got home late.
Evenings, and nearly every day on weekends or in the summer, we were on our own. I'd tell my mom that I was going to Calvin's, to Robert's, or to Jerry's, wherever I planned on going first. But that was just a starting point, since the four of us usually ended up together. If we built a shack in the woods, we wouldn't have to tell anyone where we were going to build it because kids in Wallace were like cats; we didn't recognize property lines. If we were going camping, I'd just tell either of my parents, and they wouldn't typically want to know exactly where we were going to camp, and the woods weren't small.
We decided what we wanted to do: whether we were going to swim in one of the rivers or lakes, pedal to Lake Michigan, or do something else entirely. We tried various mechanisms for creating a bomb, and while that was something we would probably have been told not to do, there was no fear of the ATF coming for us. None of our bombs actually exploded, at least not with a lot of noise, but we had some impressive fires, and we did that in the gravel pit, so there was no reasonable chance of starting a serious fire. Had we been caught, no one would have considered it to be a big deal.
I had a .22 rifle by the time I was twelve, and a .30-30 when I was about sixteen, and could borrow my dad's 9 mm or shotgun if I asked. I did have one friend who lost his right hand putting a loaded shotgun back in the case when he was in the 7th grade, but I wasn't involved with that. Other than that, no one worried that someone was going to become a school shooter. Among people I knew, there were far more gun accidents among adults than among kids.
I lived in a rural area, so we didn't have a crapload of non-profits deciding what we should be doing with our time, and I am happy about that. I think kids are harmed more than they are helped by some of this stuff. Your experiences may well be the opposite: even if you grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, if you were in a big city, you might have had some of this stuff and enjoyed it.
Then, there is the technology. Like AI, technology offers a whole lot, but it also takes away a lot, and I think that what it takes away is the ability to think, plan, and do things for yourself. Is there even any reason for anyone to learn anything anymore?
Good post, Ken.
I always rely on my childhood remembrances when it comes to my grandbabies. Technology has consumed our children's minds that they don't think how, why, what, when, who, and where much. They help me with the smart tv and I teach them how to tell time on analog clocks.
I always rely on my childhood remembrances when it comes to my grandbabies. Technology has consumed our children's minds that they don't think how, why, what, when, who, and where much. They help me with the smart tv and I teach them how to tell time on analog clocks.
Marie Mallory
Well-known member
Exactly, I can't add anything to this. I had to laugh at the " walking backwards to avoid face and body chill".
Marie Miller
Well-known member
It was different. We changed it by embracing technology, growth and giving the next generation what we thought we should give. In some ways this backfired. Now the genie does not go back into the lamp. We can enjoy our memories which are part truth and part embellishment. Did you really enjoy riding a bike to school in a snow storm? It was white flakes dancing and covering the ground or cold, damp and you were slipping and sliding?
Marie Mallory
Well-known member
Marie, we did enjoy the snow for a while anyway. Of course, in north Georgia we only had snow every 10 years or so.
I agree, too much tech now. Nobody wants to go back to the basics, mothers now want big homes and autos, no desire for rural where kids can release energy and lean to care for animals.
All generations change so guess, thats just life.
Marie Miller
Well-known member
We moved from an Alpine summer place, a bee keeper cabin dated 1798 according to the beam carvings, to a place in town in one of the first industrial worker neighborhoods. I do not miss one toilet for a family of four with three women.
Please look around. Back to the basics but not back to post WWII is growing momentum.
We live in town. Without a vehicle it is 10 miles to a grocery store. Lifestock has to be grandfathered so no burro to go shopping with. There are plenty of K10 projects, kids’ livestock displays and competitions everywhere here.
We are seriously looking at building downsizing again. Back to 2000 sqf house and about the same garage/shop. Where do you put an aging parent who demands a suite?