Please click on the sidebar link and join us every Wednesday for our walk down Memory Lane!I remember when........life seemed easier in many ways........it was the 50's and 60's........
In most families, Moms proudly stayed at home and raised the children...
...children did not go to Kindergarten until age 6 or 7...because
educators AND parents understood the concept that
"Play is a child's work" (Dr. David Elkind)...
...children played outside with other children until supper time, climbing
trees, riding bikes, playing 4-Square and Hopscotch. jumping rope...
...the Internet did not exist, so people had to actually talk to one another via
phone, handwritten letters, or face-to-face...it was awesome!
...girls played "house" with dolls, while boys built forts and played G I Joe...
...men were proud to work and support their families, and women were honored
to work in their home...
...girls dressed like girls, and boys dressed like boys...and people knew the
difference...
ENTER THE
The 1960's...called 'a time of change'...hhmmm, that sounds like something we have recently heard ~ "time for change"....
...the conservative way of thinking evolved into ore revolutionary ways of thought, bringing about a significant change in the fabric of American life...
...minimum wage was $1.00; average salary was $4,743; population as 177,830,000...
...the time of bouffant hairdos on women...men usually wore plaid shirts buttoned down the front...women wore skirts and dresses at least to the knee in length......surfers switched to skateboards in California, and the fad soon swept across the
country as a way of fitness...Barbie dolls were all the rage for girls...
...G I Joes and troll dolls...
...The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was amended to include gender...John F. Kennedy was
President until his assassination in 1963...Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were
also assassinated i the 60's...King delivered his famous "I Have A Dream" speech
in 1963, the same year that Lyndon B. Johnson became President...
...Musicals included "Hair", "Camelot", "Man of La Mancha"; musicals made into movies
included "My Fair Lady", "Sound of Music"; Disney produced "101 Dalmations" and
"Pinocchio"...
...Radio was the primary means of listening to music...and FM became primary rather
than AM...
...the twist, the swim, the monkey, the mashed potato and the jerk were the dances of
our time....and, my, how I enjoyed dancing them all! We had "combo" parties with
a lived band, often out on someones driveway, and we danced until we could not
stand up...
...some of our favorite TV shows included:
Alvin and the Chipmunks, Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, The Addams Family, My Favorite Martian, I Dream of Jeanie, Laugh In...those were the good ole days....................THEN 'CHANGE' COMES...
......WOODSTOCK ~ 1969..........changes in clothes: now it's gone from mini skirts and go-go boots in the mid 60's to unisex dressing, with bell bottom jeans, embellished t-shirts and love beads; women sometimes wore peasant skirts; men often had long beards and moustaches; and afros were common...
...change in music: Acid Rock and psychedelic rock, including groups like The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, to folk music of Woodstock with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary...following earlier music of the 60's including Gladys Knight and the Pips, Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Hendrix, the Supremes....
...change in pastimes: marijuana and LSD use increased; interest in mystical religions, sexual freedom, communal living, and an opposition to violence...
For Lynnette...and anyone else interested... Children's Books of the 60's include:
Newbery Award Winners - Began in 1922 (awarded to the most distinguished children's book of the previous year)
1960: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold
1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
1962: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Wojciechowska
1964: It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville
1965: Shadow of a Bull by Maia
1966: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino
1967: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt
1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
1969: The High King by Lloyd Alexander
Caldecott Award Winners - Began in 1938 (awarded to the most distinguished children's picture book of the previous year)
1960: Nine Days to Christmas, illustrated by Marie Hall Ets; text: Marie Hall Ets and Aurora Labastida
1961: Baboushka and the Three Kings, illustrated by Nicolas Sidjakov; text: Ruth Robbins
1962: Once a Mouse, retold and illustrated by Marcia Brown
1963: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
1964: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
1965: May I Bring a Friend? illustrated by Beni Montresor; text: Beatrice Schenk de Regniers
1966: Always Room for One More, illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian; text: Sorche Nic Leodhas, pseud. [Leclair Alger]
1967: Sam, Bangs & Moonshine by Evaline Ness
1968: Drummer Hoff, illustrated by Ed Emberley; text: adapted by Barbara Emberley
1969: The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, illustrated by Uri Shulevitz; text: retold by Arthur Ransome
Yes, life was easier then..............or was it? What are your thoughts?
I'm grateful to have had a childhood where children were allowed to be children until they matured past it; and I'm grateful to have grown up in a time where we could walk to school, ride our bicycles through the neighborhood without fear; where we played actively and outside until dinnertime; where Mom's stayed home and raised their own children and Dad's worked hard to provide a living for their families; I'm grateful and blessed that I grew up knowing my parents loved me, and feeling a sense of safety and security always!
6 comments:
Interesting to read... That was before my time. :) But my parents were raised in those years. :)
Great Post! I feel like I'm in a foreign land sometimes...because even though I come from the generation after the one you spoke of...I long for those values. I long for the time when Mom's stayed home with their chilren and Dad's were proud to provide for their family. We have tried to live like the G-rated 50's and early 60's in our home. We are conservative and have family values that aren't always shared in today's society. Raising children in this generation presents unique challenges. I so wish that I could say my children can ride their bikes without fear and walk to school. And, while we enjoy some of that in a small town...there are concerns and precautions that we must wisely take for their saftey. The internet and television and moral decay of our society certainly has changed the world for my children. And, it is heart-breaking. I press on prayerfully as a mother...trusting our big God to protect them from the things that I cannot. You speak of a time of sweet innocence that I wish I had lived in. Thank you for these memories of a sweeter, safer time. I know God has plans for this time, as well...and I trust Him to carry us through as the winds of "change" swirl around us once more.
Thank you for the memories!
I was born in 1960, so your memory lane was quite familiar to me. We certainly lived in different times!
I don't think politicians were QUITE so corrupt back then, I think there was less crime. Instead of playing video & computer games we played outside. I think things were better, not to say there aren't good things about these days. Like Blogworld!
Well Lisa, I know you're a wee bit older than me, but I also grew up without internet, cell phones, vcr's (they came late childhood), video games (unless you went to the arcade)...
I was a perfectly happy child. I loved playing outside all day. I came home to a momma who loved me, supper on the table, sisters to play games with etc.
My children do have video games, internet, cell phones, ipods, etc. BUT they still love to play outside and still have momma to come to. They have fresh cooked meals. They have siblings to play with. They have friends. They also play video games, use their ipods (just my girls actually), they get on the internet now and then - but they're still enjoying the joys of childhood.
My biggest complaint about the modern world is that these things create a busy life. Everybody is always doing something, including me. I love to just sit and look at a magazine and drink a cup of coffee, but it's like I have to force myself because there's so much to do! Multitasking is taking over the world! I don't like it for me or my kids.
Yes, a simpler life is one I crave, but I'm not sure life in the 60's or 70's was all that simple either. Less busy though.
This post was thought provoking.
I printed the list of books. THANKS! I'll have to go to Amazon and look them all up! I'm excited to do so too!
Hi Lisa "Lolli",
Sometimes I am amazed that I even touch this computer, because I am so NOT into technology and don't understand so much of it. Ha! Everything changes so fast to make way for bigger and better stuff! ha! And I can't keep up.
I am from the times you spoke about, and to me they were wonderful and happy times,...yet maybe I think so because I was a child then,...I am sure they were also often "hard times" for parents who had to work hard and face life's trials.
And I am sure there was lots of evil in the world back then too. Every decade brings with it, the good things and the bad things.
Just this morning in our devotion time my husband and I were discussing the computer age, and how much evil is out there online.
But I reminded him that even in Biblical times the evils were always lurking. (Women trying to lure men into partaking in the stollen pleasures, saying they were sweet.) And nowdays the women are just popping up on computer screens seducing men to click here for a good time. etc.
Our devotion book said "If you are not on guard against evil, you will be influenced by evil."
And there was this little poem by someone named Thomas, that said:
"Help me to guard my troubled soul
by constant, active self-control.
Clean up my thought, my speech my play;
Lord, keep me pure from day to day."
I think whether it was the "Good Old Days", or "Today", life is full of good things, and also full of struggles we can only win with surrender of ourselves to God.
The one thing that was the same then and now is,..."God is God!" And He is always with us. He is our sense of safety and security.
I am so thankful that I belong to Him, and He is Faithful! Amen?
But, having said all of this,...I loved those days, and the things that you said in your post brought me back some very happy memories.
I love You Sister! Have a great day!
Linda @ Truthful Tidbits
Post a Comment