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

It was a wonderful time, parties, boozing and hugging each other and loud singing in the pubs. Short skirts , crop tops, bell bottoms and garlands of flowers round your neck. I am so glad I was alive then.

I was born in 1953 and can very well remember the 60’s and longing to join in but too young and didn’t dare. My father made his disapproval of just about everything to do with it very clear, and I didn’t dare rebel. My mother was slightly less draconian but had very clear ideas of how we should look and behave and along with convent schooling I was pretty much squashed down and repressed.
Rather sad in retrospect.

I was born mid 50’s so was ‘aware’ of a lot of the sixties. I really enjoy the music. I keep watching movies from those two decades. Not too certain about the fashions. Architecture was a bit pathetic. So, not everything was great. However, I had a great time.

I was born in 1942 and was a great Barbra Streisand fan, couldn't believe that the Beatles made more money per show than she did! But I went to the States in 1964 so missed out on the British "swinging sixties". My first look at a mini skirt was on Shirley MacLaine in a restaurant I worked in. So far out and fabulous legs.....when I left California to come home, I missed out again on the Flower Power. Guess my timing was all wrong!

I was born in 1951 and absolutely adored the 1960s - still do. It was a time of optimism and possibility .... we really did believe we could change everything with love and peace. And we tried !

I can remember one of my cousins coming back from holiday, wearing a bell on a chain round her neck - one of the Hippies favourite accessories!
I was not allowed to buy one similar while we were on holiday, so when I got home I nicked the budgies and put it on a cord!

Wakefield was stuck in the 1930s, I think.

I was born in 1957 so was still only a child in the 60s yet even I can remember it as being a new and exciting time. Probably because my parents who had lived through the war etc were enjoying the era so much. The radio was always on and I think I can still sing along to every 60s song when they come on the radio these days.

Yes it was.

I was born in 1944 and went to art school in 1960. Loved it, jazz clubs, folk clubs , dances. Beatniks etc. Was it swinging , Yes !

As the saying goes “ 60s was the party” 70s was the hangover”.
I loved the music cloths make- up the whole vibe. Visits to Mary Quant shop in Kensington to get my false eyelashes.

I lived on the outskirts of London so only a few stops on the train. A friend and I would go dancing every week at Hammersmith Palais dancing to Joe Loss and his orchestra. Wonderful times. Ice skating at Wembley with all the girls I worked with on our Weds afternoons off. Great fun. We used to pile into the back of the boss's daughters mini van. Wouldn't be allowed to do that today.

lovebeigecardigans1955

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.

Absolutely on the nail LBC55! For soppy southerners with too much money (even then) it may well have been one long hurrah but for most youngsters and teens it was dismally boring! The only highlights for us (at 7&10 in 1963). Was the pop music! Amazingly exciting even more than usual because? THEY WERE ALL FROM THE NORTH WEST HURRAH INDEED!!!!??

Oh I loved the 60s, wonderful times, loved the music and the clothes. It was the start of something different, I met my dh at a party and we had 2 great years of clubs, pubs. We got married in 1968 and until we had our children we continued to enjoy ourselves with our friends. We both also think we had the best life. Coming home from a pub or club on Christmas eve or new year greeting strangers in the street and laughing. Can’t do that now. Lovely memories..

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBq7icqGxB4

London 1960s video thought everyone might find it interesting

I was born in 1957 so a child in the 60s but loved the music of the time and C&A in Oxford Street stocked mini versions of the 60s fashion for children which was a big change to the girls clothes of the 1950s which we still wore in the early 60s.

I can remember queuing for Beatles tickets with my heart in my mouth in case I didn't get one. Playing truant from school to hang around outside Birmingham Town Hall to try to see them arriving. We saw Paul on a coach and chased it through the streets. George (my hero) coming to a window to talk to a few of us.
At 16, I got on a train to London with my friend to try to find Carnaby Street. We didn't find it but did find Kings Road, Chelsea. Oh what sights we saw. Happy days.

I was born in 1950 so my teens were in the mid-late 60s. Loved it all. Early on in the 60s I was a mad-keen Beatles fan (still have my fan club membership card) and then later discovered Stones etc. I had a Saturday job in a library so read everything going. Bought clothes from Biba and Bus Stop, shoes from Anello and Davide (quite cheap Mary-Janes, dancers' character shoes). Spent Sunday & Wednesday nights on Eel Pie Island watching blues bands. Sometimes went to the Arts Lab in Covent Garden. Great times. I was living in SW London but for my cousin who lived in the north - all this totally passed her by!

In 1962 I was twenty years old and had 3 children. While I loved the music and loved to dance I was tied to the home so did not have much chance to get out and about.

I'm intrigued by eel pie island.
I didn't know it existed until I was in my 40s.
Would love to see it.

I was born in 1950 so the 60s was a great time for everything. It was so forward looking with great music, fashion, opportunities. I loved Twiggy. Went to see The Beatles, The Rolling Stones etc. I would save up my hard earned money and shop in London at The Bus Stop, Biba, Ravel sales. I wore mini skirts, hot pants, left home at 17 to be a nanny then to teacher training college at 19. It was a glorious time to be involved in everything.

Kate1949

I saw the Beatles in Wolverhampton and The Hollies at Trentham. Oh, and I saw Manfred Mann walking through Trafalgar Square (thin, pale and not at all inspiring, unlike Paul Jones!)
My cousin lived round the corner from John Lennon but she wasn't interested in the Beatles. She said girls used to hang around outside the house.

C&A was wonderful for those of us not London-based because before then, in the 1950s, we wore clothes similar to our mother's.

Lovebeigecardigan1955 It's interesting the varying age gap between children and their parents. My parents were 21 in 1947 when I was born. My Dad was too young for WW2 but old enough to be called up as part of the peace keeping force in Palestine - based in Jerusalem.

That time was the most wonderful. ..Everything was new and the Clothes were so Hip. I went to school in Chelsea and bought a trendy tweed Pinafore dress in Biba ( when it was a room in an ordinary house ) I loved that dress and went crazy when my Mum CUT OUT THE LABEL as she said it looked scratchy!

It is interesting Dinahmo my parents were in their early 30's when I was born after the war I however, as I said earlier had my daughter at 21. The GC arrived when their parents were in their late 20's to early 30's. I do like to be different!