sugarplumkitty | I'm a child of the 1960's

This started out as a reply to someone.

The society you're raised in has a lot to do with how you interpret and interact with life. I consider myself to be a product of the 60's. I only remember a little of the late 50's. I remember John Glenn's space trip. I remember Hawaii becoming a State. MMMM! Pineapples! Hawaiian themed parties were quite the fad. I remember singing about a one-eyed-one-horned flying purple people eater in the back seat of the family car. My parents loved rock & roll. A Chuck Berry riff can take me back faster than anything.

In the early 60's I remember a common sight was of men who were missing arms or legs. There were also a lot of people with a shrivelled leg and a huge shoe from polio. One of my friends had a grandpa (or a dad?) with a number tattooed on his forearm. I think he must have been the one who told me communists baked babies to see how long they'd live. My parents certainly didn't tell me that and I really don't think they taught that in school to first graders. My friends and I sang WWII song parodies about Hitler and Mussolini and French women who didn't wear pants. We had no idea what the songs were really about.

We caught measles, mumps and chicken pox. That was just part of being a kid. The brand new polio vaccine was a big deal. Whole neighborhoods would line up to eat a sugar cube with vaccine in it. My cousin Doug was just a toddler and such a fussy guy that he refused to eat it and had to get a shot instead. Schools had vaccination day where they'd line us up and poke us. My best friend in kindergarten was in front of me in line. She fainted at the first touch of the needle. I was so worried about her that I hardly noticed my own shot. Usually I would panic at the sight of the needle. Mary Katherine didn't come back to class that day. The last time I talked to her she said she was still upset that she didn't get to color the clown picture we had as a reward afterwards. LOL

School included "duck and cover" drills. We were terrified of the "commies" because they were evil and wanted to destroy our happy lives. Red alerts meant we ducked under our desks or if we were outside, against the walls of the school building. We'd kneel down in almost a fetal position with our hands folded over the backs of our necks. You were supposed to put your head against the wall outside. Yellow alerts were when we had time to go home to be with our families before the "commies" came to attack us. We actually walked the routes led by teachers once.

Kids got paddled by the Principal if they misbehaved badly enough. I had my mouth taped shut on a regular basis by my first grade teacher. You know, if you lick the sticky part you can get it loose really fast.

Every kid on the block went inside when it was time for Mickey Mouse Club. I still know the theme song.

My family learned to do "The Twist" with the newly released Chubby Checker album "Dance Party." All four of us were shining the seats of our pants with bathtowels by following the directions. LOL

We saw all the Elvis movies the first weekend they came out at the drive-in. My mom had such a crush on him. I got to wear my pajamas so I wouldn't have to wake up to change when we got home. I never lasted much past intermission. Yes, intermission. The drive-ins always had double features and cartoons. They had playgrounds, too. Kids could play before the first movie and during intermission. One had a little steam train the kids could ride in a big circle. We loved it. The first movie was always a family flick. The second was often something more adult. Booooring. zzzzzzz

My sister and I were glued to the black and white TV to watch the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I didn't know who they were the first night. I was an immediate fan and switched my TV crush from Ricky Nelson to Paul McCartney.

My sister and I also loved Friday night TV. Our parents square danced every Friday night, so we were on our own. We watched Alfred Hitchcock, The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits even though we weren't supposed to. It gave me nightmares but I loved it! In later years, we'd watch The Addams Family and The Munsters, followed by the scarier shows. We were both terrified by the shows. We turned on every light in the house to make sure nothing was hiding in the shadows. When we saw the headlights of the car pulling into the driveway, we'd turn the TV off, run to bed and pretend to be asleep. Our parents never seemed to notice the TV was hot and that we were still awake. TV's got hot back then. They were all radio tubes inside. Every grocery store had a tube tester and sold the replacement tubes. They were like fancy lightbulbs.

Sunday night was Disney night. We never missed it.

I remember with vivid clarity the day President Kennedy was assassinated. I was 8 years old. I remember being upset when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed because I didn't know who he was or what a good man he was until then. I was watching the presidential campaign speech of Robert Kennedy the night he was killed. My family stared at the TV through the whole thing, crying.

I gave up square dancing for a year when The Monkees premiered on TV. They were the same night as the children's club I belonged to. My sister still went, so my parents took her.

I loved playing hide & seek after dark in the summertime when I was an older kid. We also played red light/green light and Mother May I. Kids were everywhere. I could pack a lunch and ride my bike places all day. It was safe to do that. We didn't lock our doors until the mid 60's.

I started high school in the fall of '69 and it was a let down that my sister was involved in the culture of that time when I was barely too young to take part. She didn't do drugs or anything. (odd for a Californian, huh?) I knew hippies and was a wanna-be flowerchild, but it was all over before I had a chance. Heck, even the hippies were settling down by then.

I remember gazing at the moon in wonder when Aldrin and Armstrong were on it. We were glued to the TV for that, too. They didn't know if the moon's surface would support the lander or swallow it up. What a relief when they landed safely! I held my breath as the first human foot hit the moon's surface. Apollo 13 had us all praying for all we were worth for a safe return. We cheered in our living room when they picked up their capsule from the sea and we saw them get out. After a couple of lunar landings, they stopped televising it much. I've never lost my fascination for it.

The boys from my age group were the last to register for the draft during Vietnam. My senior class' gift to the school was an olive tree to commemorate the troops pulling out. That was 1973. The tree is still there. It's huge now.

So, I'm not really of the hippie era. I'm from the transition period immediately after it. I came of age listening to recordings of Woodstock, with legalized abortion, the pill and wholly embracing women's lib. My age group was wilder in a lot of ways, more conservative in others. We were sexually active and took illegal drugs but didn't leave home to live in communes. I was much tamer than most of my drama friends and wilder than most of my slumber party friends. A wild night for us was T.P.ing someone's house. tee hee! That was fun!

I never even considered not working for a living. I've been self-reliant and self-supporting most of my adult life. The fact that I'm not working right now rankles.