To those of you who were young in the 60’s - was it really ‘swinging’?

It was exciting, but I sometimes wonder if the excitement came from the life stage I was at. I left school in 1963, so experienced many firsts during that decade, including marriage. It might have been equally exciting in any any decade post-war.

I was born in 1946, so was of that era. I loved the music, couldn't afford a lot of the fashion and was far too shy to join the fun and freedom, so much of it passed me by. I was married in 1967 and a mother by 1970, which I loved.

It was a fabulous time! Born in 48, I went to Uni in 66 and had a ball! Loved the clothes, hitchhiked round Europe, saw some great bands, made some lovely friends. Felt passionate about causes - ban the bomb, Greenham, etc.

I don't think swinging was allowed in our house.
My mum wouldn't have liked it.

MissAdventure You didn't do it at home!

Haha MissAdventure - I wasn’t sure whether to use the term ‘swinging’ but it’s always referred to as the ‘swinging sixties’ ( swinging = ‘cool’ ‘hedonistic’ )

I was 20 in 1966, that’s when it really started. I worked in London, was single, lived in Greenwich ( obviously before it was trendy)
I suppose it was swinging but you don’t realise it was until you look back ?

Kandinsky It was the best time ever for me apart from having my children.
The music was fabulous with all the groups and it made it so much better with me living so close to Liverpool and being able to go to the clubs mainly The Cavern.
Girls where never frightened to go out & about on their own and everyone was your friend

Seriously, I'm the same age as kadinsky, so missed out on the 60s, really.

I was born in '55 so just that little bit too young to be a hippie but loved the music and fashion like you Kandinsky - I think they seemed to be exciting times with new ideas and technology coming along.

My parents were 20 when WWII broke out and I think the war knocked the stuffing out of them when it came to any enthusiasm about new ideas. It was felt that the new freedoms were all right for the rich and famous down South but not for the likes of hard-up ordinary folk in the Midlands. Those ideas sounded all right on paper but weren't really practiced - you still had to worry about what the neighbours thought.

My Dad was very 'old school' and thought that much that was wrong with the world started off in the 60s. Mum still remembered that women had to leave their jobs when they married. Women still didn't have equal pay and had to choose between marriage or a career - you couldn't have both. Dad wouldn't have been seen dead pushing a pram or changing a nappy - he smirked about young men who did. Things were changing, but very slowly.

My dad's younger sister was the epitome of the 60s to me.
She drove a tiny white sports car, had persion cats on leads, a black bob, and spiky long false eyelashes.
She was always barefoot, too.
She bought me a budgie; I don't know how she persuaded my mum to allow it!!!

Although I didn’t have any money and couldn’t take advantage of what seemed to be on offer, I left school at 15, there was an atmosphere that made you feel anything was possible. Everything seemed to be moving to the future, there was hope.

I had this same feeling in the 90s in China and Australian in the 2010s.

Yes, but I think it depended where you were. or the first thre years I was at university, and although I was ever partf any 'scene' or anything it was a fantastic time. There was a sea change in the music we were listening to and many new playrights like John Osborne who started in the 1050s, but flourished in the 1960s.

From university in the north east I returned south and lived and worked in London, again I wasn't part of the flower power, CND scene or any arty group, but everything on the cultural front was changing; music, plays, ballet, clothes and furniture, politics and there was a real 'feel' of a new promising life for us putting the war in our past.

This was in London, I think the further from London you were, life changed a lot more slowly.

Different parts of the country had different levels on their swingometers. It was certainly a lot more interesting for young people than the ten or fifteen years from 1945 to the late fifties, which followed the end of WW2. Those previous years had been filled with economies due to the lingering on of rationing and the way that war had destroyed so much of the physical structure of cities and the careers and finances of those who had been in the forces - which was almost every able-bodied man in the country and many of the women. There had been a grey hue over emotions too, with most families having lost a member or having someone affected physically or emotionally by the experience.

By the sixties, a generation had grown to late teens without those personal memories, who were ready to enjoy their youth. As a pre-war baby, I was a little old for the hedonism, particularly as by 1960 I was living well away from London, where it all seemed to be happening. I do remember plenty of good music of all kinds, a lot of dancing, and above all a lot of good humour and optimism. By the middle of the decade I was raising children so the dancing was on the back burner and never really got going again.

Reading back up the thread, I do think, on the otherside that there was much less money around. No matter what you did, salaries were lower.

Even as a graduate with a higher salary than most. I might walk round the shops, but I bought new clothes only after careful thought and expected them to last.

Biba, the big shop of the period charged £5.00 for a dress and that was considered a terrific bargain. How much is that in modern terms £50 - £75 ?

youtu.be/7I0vkKy504U

I think it was Jilly Cooper who wrote, ‘The air was alive with the sound of popping hymens.’ ??

I was born in 1946 and loved the 60's ; the fashion, the music, Radio Caroline, the new dances, the makeup, Carnaby Street. I enjoyed the freedom of being away from home and we were passionate about everything - the bomb, politics. I so understand the young people nowadays being passionate about climate change because you are when you are young.
The only thing I hated was my hair - blond and frizzy. I so longed to look like Mary Quant.

I married in 1967 / it was often the case we married v young if we didn’t go to university. It was a way of gaining independence but I wasn’t alone in finding it a straight jacket tho I did love the clothes, the music the anti war and growing feeling we young people could change the world for the better.
The 70’s were fantastic, women’s movement - real freedom.
Fabulous music and clothes

I was a teenager on the '60s. I loved every minute of it. Mini skirts, great fashion, The Beatles, Twiggy, Mary Quant. However, the drugs and the love ins passed me by!

I had a great time in the 60’s. I lived near Central London, and spent most weekends up at Carnaby Street and Kings Road, window shopping.

All things felt possible then, it felt a happy time.

Great clothes and music.?

The 70’s were a good time for Women’s rights to be progressed.

It wasn’t all the land of milk and honey, but it felt more positive than it does today. ?

I thought it was! it seemed to be! but as I was still only sixteen when the sixties drew to a close, my experiences were limited. I do remember wearing mini skirts, false eyelashes, albeit at week ends, the uniform strictures of my convent school didn't allow much freedom of expression. My peers and I were were well of the music and fashion scene, flower power going on around us. Growing up in the suburbs, Swinging London was just a mere train ride away so lots of walking up and down the Kings Road, Carnaby Street visits to Biba without having the money to buy anything I realise I experienced the '60s though the prism of publications such as The NME, Melody Maker, Petticoat magazine somewhat vicariously rather than actual participation. Sadly the '70s was more my era, but they weren't as Swinging imo.!

I became a teenager in the 60s. I was in London, had a Saturday job in the Kings Road - so the centre of Swinging Chelsea but, although I loved the music and the clothes and I watched the beautiful people, I was busy doing my job for 15 shillings a week and was more likely to save up and spend it on a pair of shoes from Freeman Hardy Willis or Saxones and the bus fare home than to frequent Mary Quant's "Bazaar".

Monica I put your £5 for a Biba dress into one of the "money value now and then" websites and the answer was £107 now.