What were you doing during the 60's

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Dennis K

New Member
This thread is not intended to judge what went on during the 60's, but rather open a discussion about what you were doing during that time.
You can say it was a revolution against the establishment, but whatever you call it, it was a most interesting period for our generation. This period resulted in major changes and the "baby boomer generation" moved in a direction quite unlike the "the greatest generation".

I was 7 on the onset and 2 years shy of having to get my draft card when the 60's ended. Not quite old enough to participate had I wanted to, but old enough to know what was going on. For better or worse, what was happening during this period did not seem to affect my day to day life much. My memories of this period mostly included the Kennedy assassination, the first moon walk, and of course the Beatles.
 

I still had a couple of years of high school to finish. Then went to nursing school to become an LPN. Floated around a bit from job to job until I found the one I really loved. Stayed until 1972 when I was married.
 
I graduated from high school in 1965. Went to college. Dropped out for a year and worked to get enough money to bum around Europe for a while. Went back to college. Dropped out of college again to get married at 21 in 1969. Moved to Turkey. That was my 60's in a nutshell.

I was the oldest of the family, so I obeyed my parents a lot more than my much younger sisters did. They got by with a lot....I didn't. When I left for college, my father told me that if he ever found out that I was involved in any anti-government protests, I could just pack up and come home. I assumed that if my dad said not to do something, I had better not do it. I think I was the last "group" of kids who thought they had to obey their parents.....I know my younger sisters didn't think so.
 

Started the decade riding a [homemade] skateboard, ended the decade riding the bus to Ft. Ord, Ca. for Army basic training.
 
I spent about 7 years in the USAF....mid-1960 thru 1967. After a year in training, I was assigned to Germany, and got to liking Europe so much that I took an early discharge and re-up'd, and spent almost 4 years roaming all over Europe, and eventually getting married to a Fraulein. Then, a few months back in the States, and finished out my tour in Thailand, as that Vietnam mess was moving into high gear. I took a job selling cars for 3 or 4 months while I was looking for a Real job, and finally landed a job with IBM, and spent 30+ years with them. It's been a good life.
 
Started out the 60s as a ten year old living a pretty idyllic childhood. Met my hubby five years after that (that sounds weird put that way!) and two years later we were married. So by the end of the 60s,I was married with a one year old. Because I was born and raised just 15 minutes south of San Francisco,as teens we spent a lot of time in the City. Our first date was there and my friends and I spent lots of time there during the Summer of Love (1967).
 
The 60's were a mix of both Wonderful and Sad days for me. In 1961 I was 15 and I met my Husband in High School. We married in 1966. 2 months before our wedding he got drafted. He went in the Navy and luckily was stationed in the States , so he didn't go to Viet Nam. He came home on leave and we got married. He served until the beginning of 1969. Sadly we lost a lot of friends who never came home from Viet Nam.
I remember the Assassination of President Kennedy like it was yesterday and the Moon landing.
 
I was out of the service and working as assistant manager in a grocery store. Move to Utica, NY and became an office furniture salesman. Towards the end of the 60s, I got into the bread selling business and worked this business until I retired in 1999.
 
I graduated High School in 1970, so the 60's were my school years. Seems like there was always something hitting the fan back then. I was going from a kid who thought the good guy always won in the end and road off into the sunset. To seeing the world in a much, much different way and just trying to wrap my head around it all. " The times they are a-changing .."
 
I followed the rise of the Beatles and the 'Stones'. I built my own stereo system and guitar amp. I learned to play bass guitar (badly) in a blues band. I learned to drive. I went to university and I met the girl who is now my wife of 43 years. Otherwise, nothing much happened.
 
I recall the 60's as a time growing up from boyhood into my early teens. During that time I recall Kennedy being assassinated (and running all the way home from school to breathlessly tell my mom), discovering music for the first time, moving to a new home where I made some dear friendships, being moved to tears when RFK was assassinated, playing youth-league football for four years, the riots of the late 60's, my dad showing me where he kept a shotgun in case the rioting spread to our community while I was babysitting my siblings, entering the new and exciting world of high school where we had a campus style model of separate buildings to walk between, playing a TON of outside sports all year long with my neighborhood friends. I can vividly remember New Year's Eve, 1969, going to a party at a friend's home and running through the streets shouting "Peace in '69". I'm sure the neighbors loved that!
 
first half of the 60's was school but the latter half was a trip, in the navy.
stationed on a frigate in long beach calif. there were trips to san francisco, san diego, monterey bay, and three trips to the tonkin gulf. After which we took the ship thru the panama canal to maine for overhaul. tripped to the scene on the haight(lol), been entertained by the USO in the hollywood bowl (elvis, among others), bobbed up and down thru super typhoon, fired upon by shore battery when we got to close to shore off north vietnam. there would be much more in later years after i reupped.
 
In 1962 I had my first of three sons. Got pregnant with second, husband vanished and in-laws kept us til baby came. At 19 I came to Charlotte, remarried and raised a family.
 
I spent the 60s in high school, university and then job. Of course during that time there was also lots of fun.
 
I was working as a Funeral Director/Embalmer at a Mortuary in Northern California/ married with small daughter.
I was driving a hearse over the San Francisco Bay Bridge when I heard on the hearse radio that JFK had been shot. All traffic came to a stop.
 
I spent much of the '60's in the military. Then when I got back to civilian life, I was married with a child on the way, and landing a good job was my highest priority. I remember seeing the reports about the hippie and drug cultures, and the anti-war riots, etc., and my only thoughts were...What a bunch of Fools.
 
I was a child during the 60s. I remember my older sister liking the Beatles and I liked the Monkees. I had a crush on Davey Jones. My younger sister was born in 65, I had to go to Catholic school until 4th grade was over. I remember JFK and RFK were both assassinated. I don't recall much more.
 
For some reason I remember this as if it was yesterday. It was in the mid 60s or a little later and I was around 12 or13 at the time.
I was sitting with my grandmother watching the news. The hot topic was the dangers of free love and premarital sex.
My grandmother calmly stated that this was nothing new and we did it when I was young. But no one talked about it back then.
 
Graduated from college and then enlisted in the Marines and sent to (you guessed it) Vietnam.
 

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