Can you help me with a history project???

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madisoncb

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Hello, my name is Madison and I'm from Massachusetts.
Recently, I've been given a history project in my "Understanding the Sixties" class in which I have to research an event or topic related in the 1960s. I've chosen LSD for my project. Part of the assignment is to interview someone who was alive at that time and see what they thought about the event or topic. I would greatly appreciate a response from anyone who was a teenager or adult during the 1960s. Please answer the following questions in your response:
How old were you in 1960?
Did you ever take LSD? If so, when and where? How did it change your perception of yourself and America at the time?
What was you/your family's perspective on drug culture at the time?
Would you have considered yourself part of the counter culture movement, why or why not?
How did you feel about the Controlled Substances Act of 1970? Did you think it was good or bad? Did it affect you at all?

I would greatly appreciate any information you have regarding your personal experiences.
Thank you very much
 

madisoncb said:
Hello, my name is Madison and I'm from Massachusetts.
Recently, I've been given a history project in my "Understanding the Sixties" class in which I have to research an event or topic related in the 1960s. I've chosen LSD for my project. Part of the assignment is to interview someone who was alive at that time and see what they thought about the event or topic. I would greatly appreciate a response from anyone who was a teenager or adult during the 1960s. Please answer the following questions in your response:
How old were you in 1960?
Did you ever take LSD? If so, when and where? How did it change your perception of yourself and America at the time?
What was you/your family's perspective on drug culture at the time?
Would you have considered yourself part of the counter culture movement, why or why not?
How did you feel about the Controlled Substances Act of 1970? Did you think it was good or bad? Did it affect you at all?

I would greatly appreciate any information you have regarding your personal experiences.
Thank you very much
Click to expand...

Iwas 26 years old in 1960 , married with one child, had finished college on the G.I. Bill and was one year into a new Career & all through the 60's.
 
How old were you in 1960?
Did you ever take LSD? If so, when and where? How did it change your perception of yourself and America at the time?
What was you/your family's perspective on drug culture at the time?
Would you have considered yourself part of the counter culture movement, why or why not?
How did you feel about the Controlled Substances Act of 1970? Did you think it was good or bad? Did it affect you at all?

Hi Madison, May I suggest that you can add to your paper with an afterword about how 60's drug culture ushered in 70's drug culture. I was born in 1962, They call my generation the " Late Boomers" because we came late after the war years. I did not take LSD, but did take the less potent mescaline which was popular in the early seventies. It was just for fun, You didn't hallucinate anything dreadful...it was a very mild high.

My family were anti-drug across the board Republican conservatives. Even an ironic Cheech and Chong t shirt scared the willies out of them. LSD, even smoking cigarettes was forbidden. I don't feel I was part of any counter culture. One decade...1960 to 1970 and much that was counter culture was starting to go mainstream.

Now my cousin and her husband were popular writers for The Village Voice through the 1960's. I bet they would have a completely different perspective:) Good luck with your paper darlin'.
 

OK, I'm gonna take your word for it that your name is really Madison and you're really from Massachusetts (wow, there's alliteration for you!:) ) and I'm gonna answer your questions.

How old were you in 1960?
7 and then 8, with a sibling who was 10-11.

Did you ever take LSD? If so, when and where? How did it change your perception of yourself and America at the time?

No. Neither did sibling.

What was you/your family's perspective on drug culture at the time?

In 1960 there was no drug culture as far as I knew. That didn't hit my part of the world until 1967. I wouldn't have known what a "reefer" ('50s and earlier slang) was. I knew what rock and roll was, but never heard anything about drugs.

Would you have considered yourself part of the counter culture movement, why or why not?

The "counter-culture" movement did not start in 1960. AFAIK it started shortly after the start of the war in Vietnam. In 1965, just before I started high school, I went with some older kids to an "Affirmation Vietnam" rally. Five years later, my senior year, we participated (in a small way) in a moratorium about the same war.


How did you feel about the Controlled Substances Act of 1970? Did you think it was good or bad? Did it affect you at all?

I didn't even know there was one. I've never heard of it before your post.

There is a thread somewhere on this BB about doing drugs in the '60s. Might provide interesting reading and insight for you. Because several people here have experience of that.
 
Another helpful hint for your paper is a short introduction to recreational drugs in recent times. At the turn of the century opium, cocaine and alcohol were common in commercial medications. Even the most upstanding members of society might be addicts through patent medicines.

The 1920's was a decade of excess in some circles, especially with alcohol. But people had discovered cocaine could keep the party going. In the Southern US marijuana was common in home made medical remedies. Jazz musicians brought it to the cities but like heroin it wasn't as popular as alcohol.

The war years had soldiers mixing together and often experimenting with what pain relief they could find. LSD was basically discovered in 1943. But it was a government owned experimental drug for many years. The 50's had the Beatniks, weed and pills were their drugs of choice but heroin popped up again too.

Now I'll let you do some research...Google-Timothy Leary 1960 and go on from there.
 
Another helpful hint for your paper is a short introduction to recreational drugs in recent times. At the turn of the century opium, cocaine and alcohol were common in commercial medications. Even the most upstanding members of society might be addicts through patent medicines.
Click to expand...

Same can be true today, with prescription pain meds and antidepressants/anti-anxiety meds.
 
How old were you in 1960? 11.
Did you ever take LSD? No. I believed what was on the news about it and was afraid it might damage any children I might have, like they said it would. I had no right to do that to anyone.
If so, when and where? How did it change your perception of yourself and America at the time? N/A
What was you/your family's perspective on drug culture at the time? My family was very religious. Drugs were forbidden. Alcohol and cigarette usage was considered a sin.
Would you have considered yourself part of the counter culture movement, why or why not? I was not part of the counter culture. I was lower working class and didn't need to be any poorer than I was. Rebelling and starving had no appeal to me.
How did you feel about the Controlled Substances Act of 1970? I honestly don't remember it.
Did you think it was good or bad? I don't know. But usually wars on drugs don't work. People do what they want. The more something is made illegal, the more desirable it is to some. My grand aunt told me that Coke was named that because when it first came out, it had cocaine in it.
Did it affect you at all? Not that I'm aware of.
 
I was a corn-fed lass in the very middle of the Midwest in 1960 and I don't believe I had even heard of pot back then. A little later, our knowledge consisted of someone's older brother's college roommate had a friend who went to a party where...gasp...reefer was being smoked. Back in our day, beer was the thing. You had 24 kids at a party, someone had scored a six-pack and everybody had a couple of swigs. We all thought we were real cool cats and bragged about "getting drunk", hoping it didn't get back to our parents because we'd be locked in the basement until we were 35. Even when I went away to college in 1965, I never saw, smelled or heard of pot at parties, even wild frat parties. Of course, once again, I was at a corn-fed Midwest state university and, once again, beer was our thing.
 

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