The sixties

And if you lived in Scotland as I did, the Sixties did not reach us until well into the Seventies!

There were all those dreadful things going on but on the plus side the sixties were the decade where fashion, design, music etc were innovative and exciting.

Plus I met dh 12 days before the end of the 60s.

I agree Maw we were rather behind the times- London being the place to be. They had stopped swinging when I went to London to work and eventually get married.

I wonder if it's because the 60's were a time of optimism that people, particularly young people, felt that they could create change for the better? It was the first time since WW2 that the economy was buoyant and people had money to spend. It was also a time when young people started to voice their opinions on what they wanted for themselves and society at large, for example "flower power", demonstrations, music and fashion.

Also there was (for a while) the great feelings coming from Woodstock and California, hippie, anti-war etc. and great pop music, plus lovely hot summer in 1967..

I thought so, but then again I was only 16 when they finished. I felt it was all going on around me, but I was too young to be living it. Being somewhat vacuous at that age, my perceptions of that decade were seen through the prism of music, fashion and hair. Even the moon landings made only a brief impression, I was more interested in what I was reading in the NME. Crucial issues floated over my head, although I was aware of the trio of assassinations, JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Awareness of the Vietnam war kicked in for me in the 1970s I remember when I first met my husband, who is over 10 years older then me, I remarked "it must have been great for you because you were old enough to really appreciate the 60", to which he replied with a sigh "I was too busy paying a mortgage"

Ah tyes, the moon landing, another eally exciting episode in the 60s. Remember also that the assassinations were preceded at last with some hope for a better future..

Annie There where certainly some awful things happened during the "60's" but do you agree there where also many awful things happening in the world during every decade since ?
I must say I enjoyed the "60's" I had my first pay packet and my first foreign holiday with my friends.
Liverpool was the place to be to see up and coming artists who are still performing today but then we only paid 2/6d to get in to see them !!

among all the things annie mentions there was in the U.S
major changes in civil rights.not just for blacks.many good changes.and the wonderful aretha was singing her heart out for it all.
music in general was new every week.folk rock turned to rock and roll.jazz and other lesser known music became more mainstream with the advent of fm(album oriented rock long play songs)
and woodstock and the moon landing in one summer.
fashion was so much fun and you could be really different from your parents.
protests against all sorts of bad things.we tried so hard

glammanana, I think with the election of JFK the young who were active against segregation and apartheid were filled with hope, were we like the young now who have faith in Corbyn ! If I wasn’t demonstrating against the above it was the Vietnam war and otter hunting . Yes awful things happen every decade but all those assassinations in six years was frightening . On the bright side I married in 1968, even that proved a battle , marrying a police officer and being told no demonstrations, no public political activities , I carried on regardless

I haven't got any serious memories of the 1960s, only completely inane ones. Friends and I spent Saturdays going up to London, we lived in the burbs so it wasn't too much of a hike. When we were up there we'd make for either Carnaby Street or the Kings Road and walk up down there most of the day, of course we didn't have any money to buy anything significant but I do remember buying a Union Jack carrier bag and using it to take my school books to and from school instead of a satchel, until it got wet and the bottom fell out along with my books.

I also remember a friend and I, when we were about 13 going off to nearby Weybridge in the school holidays to look for John Lennon's house, which we actually managed to find. It was well known up on the posh St George's Hill Estate, which I'm not sure the likes of teenage fans would have access to now. It's landmark was a huge model of a Chelsea boot in the front garden, or should I say gardens because it was largish gaff. The boot was a magnet for the fans. It was a thrill to see this, but alas no smart phone back then, so no opportunity for a selfie with it. We knocked on his front door, but alas he wasn't there. It never occurred to any of us that what we were doing was an invasion of privacy

I think I also look back on the '60s, as a time of possibilities when the established elite got knocked sideways to make way for a lot of "working class heros" The Beatles, David Bailey, Terrance Stamp, I could go on and on, there just appeared to be a bit of a shift away from the old establishment rule, even Harold Wilson, wasn't he a grammar school boy? thus breaking the mould somewhat.

I was in my 20s in the 1960s. So after I graduated, did a Dip Ed and worked for two years, I was off to Kenya for a great teaching job. We had a lively social life too and played tennis and squash regularly. Lovely climate, even in the rains; safaris with colleagues; game viewing before the disaster of poaching; leisurely holidays at the coast. There were political assassinations in Kenya too in that decade which occasionally made us feel a bit insecure. I ended the decade by getting engaged and the following year we returned to cold old Blighty, married and expecting DS1.

That's the way I see it too, TerriBull. After all the dark days and deprivati0ns of wartime, into the 50s, it was a time of optimism. In England at least.
I lived and worked in London, Hackney, from 1959-62, and things were starting to look up then.
Apart from the Krays, who were operating just down the road.
It was a great place to live as a single person - music, nightlife, in Soho the foreign restaurants opening etc.

Ah, the Sixties and the Permissive Society! To my lasting regret I never actually found it.

I think in those days a lot of the news washed over us, it didn’t happen in this country, the News wasn’t on 24/7 and we were able to put it to the back of our minds.

At the time maybe we didn’t realise how important these events would be?

After all we were young,
we were free ..........

I managed the permissive bit too ?

After the dreary fifties it was exciting. Music and fashion was ours and not a replica of our parents' style. Pirate radio was the background of my life. I have watched The Boat That Rocked umpteen times and still cry when they are rescued.

By the end of the sixties the Isle of Wight was so laid back it's a wonder it didn't tip over.

Like some others here, the 60's mostly passed me by. I was married in 1961, had our first child in 1963 and second in 1966. So were were busy home making, paying the mortgage and generally keeping our heads down. (My only nod to the swinging? scene, DH did buy me a beautiful Mary Quant make up box, and I felt the bees knees). Then we moved here in 1968 and bought our first car.

I was 17 when the 60s started and went o university in 1961. I think Chewbacca hit the nail on the head when she talked about the mood of optimism, that we, war babies, would never let war happen again, that the world was our oyster and we would decide how our future went. That feeling of optimism was as evident in Newcastle, where I was at university as it was in London when I moved there in 1964. I didn't really see much difference.

However, I remember the 60s, so I understand that means I wasn't there. I loved the clothes, the fashion, the colour the really short skirts that showed my legs off to advantage, but that was as far as it went, I really wasn't in to the Woodstock, California flower power scene.

I was into real politics. Concern for the living conditions for West Indian immigrants and the many families, who had houses bought under compulsory purchase for derisory prices and then rehoused in tower blocks. I was working in the Paddington North constituency, home ground of the rack renter, Peter Rachman. You saw the other side of the 1960s and it was not pretty.

I have nothing but fond memories of the '60s. Yes some terrible things happened in the world. From a totally selfish point of view, I feel as though the '60s saved me. I was living with a violent, abusive, alcoholic father. I was afraid all the time. Afraid of what he would do. Afraid to go to school - a Catholic school with unkind and scary nuns and priests. No holidays, no days out. Yes, I realise there were many other children in the same boat. Then along cam the '60s and the Beatles in particular. A group of us from school were avid fans, seeing them each time they came to Birmingham, along with many other groups of the time. Having George Harrison (my favourite) speaking to us and sitting with them on stage at one point made me realise that the world was not such a horrible place. I loved the clothes, visiting the Biba store on a trip to London with my friend aged 16, paid for with my Saturday job at C&A, the hair styles, everything about it. The promiscuous bit passed me by as I had no confidence to talk to boys let alone anything else. I married in 1969 and became pregnant with my only child the same year.

I lived in London in the early 60s, and then Liverpool in the later 60s, so it was definitely an exciting time for me. The only unhappy bit was a year in Edinburgh, which at that date had not caught up with the social revolution and felt like going back in time.

I loved the fashion and the general art of optimism. I was never interested in pop music, so that side of the 60s more or less passed me by, but there was also great classical music. I went to opera and ballet, saw Fonteyn, and Nureyev when he was still young. I didn’t go to hear Maria Callas at the opera because the tickets were just too expensive, but I regret now that I didn’t just starve for a while and buy a ticket anyway.

Like Anniebach (is that right?) I got married in 1968.

I absolutely loved the 60s left school and went to Secretarial College and thought I was the bees knees. I followed the fashions but could only afford occasional new clothes. Was and still am a music lover of the fab music of the time. I too saw the Beatles in B'ham KatyK and Georgie Fame and Big D Irwin (Do you like to swing on a star).

I had a variety of different boys friends and loved going to dances or parties. I had a navy blue mini dress with lime green trim which was my going out dress.

I met DH in 1968 and calmed down a bit.

Would relive it all at the drop of a hat.

I had a good time in the sixties and my strongest memory is the live music in Liverpool. I used to go to The Cavern and various other clubs and jive like mad!