1957-1965 (or 1963)

[Quigley Brown]

When I try my hardest to think of my earliest childhood memory it's always Huntley and Brinkley reporting the day of JFK's assassination.

 

[Atomic]

Though I do have to admit my favorite era of cars is like 1955-1975 or so. I don't really like the cars of the 30s-40s. Too big and bulky for my liking. I love the 60s cars with their round headlights; they have a very nostalgic look to them.

I love 60's muscle. I'm a fan of 50's cars, but my favorites, even compared to anything made today, is the 60's cars. I like the 64 you brought up, but my favorite (YES OF ALL TIME!!!) is the 66 GTO.

I wasn't around back then, I'm only 27, but my parents speak fondly of the 60's and 70's. They admittedly hate the fashion, loved the cars, and like some of the music. But they talk about how it was such a simple, enjoyable time. Everyone was broke, there was the Cold War, then Vietnam, and all sorts of political garbage, but they had fun. My parents also lived in Southern California, so maybe that had something to do with it.

My mom once said she feels sorry for my generation because we weren't allowed to be kids like her generation. She said that things will never again be that simple or easy nor are we able to have the kinds of fun they had. Too many police, creeps, and crazy politicians now. She looked almost heartbroken when she was saying it...

 

[Chasseur]

Perhaps its because I do a fair ammount of my professional research work on the period of the 1950s and into the early 1960s, I also find the period very fascinating. I know frankly this board is more a 30s and 40s place, I really find the period from the late 1940s to the early 1960s to be more interesting and its more the period that I like for fashion (in particular the Continental suit and women's fashion in the late 1950s). But again while not a period I "idealize" or look at with rose coloar glasses, there is something quite fascinating and terrible (I think the two often go together) about it: the height of the Cold War, the wars of decolonization, the Suez Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis, etc. Also, great personalities of the era: Charles de Gaulle, Eisenhower, MacMillan, Khrushchev, Kennedy, etc.

 

[jamespowers]

...and those songs have been played, and played, and played ever since. Apparently, you had to be there to appreciate it.

You must have---could have been the drugs though.

 

[Paisley]

What's that saying--"If you remember the 60, you probably weren't there"?

 

[jamespowers]

What's that saying--"If you remember the 60, you probably weren't there"?

lol lol lol lol Damned hippies!

 

[AtomicEraTom]

lol lol lol lol Damned hippies!

^^lol lol lol lol

 

[dhermann1]

Or, if it's the 50's, "Damned beatniks!"

 

[jamespowers]

Or, if it's the 50's, "Damned beatniks!"

Same thing---just shorter hair without illegal drugs.

 

[Lincsong]

McHale's Navy, The Munster's, Car 54. All the great shows. Sure beats reality t.v.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Leave it to Beaver and Bachelor Father should go on that list too.

 

[Diamondback]

lol lol lol lol Damned dirty stinking Comsymp hippies!

Fixed it for you, sir.

 

[Feraud]

Or, if it's the 50's, "Damned beatniks!"

Who were the "damned _______! " of the 30s and 40s?
There must have been a young, political, musical, etc. minority with no economic or political influence we can blame the ills of society on.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That would be "the damn suede-shoe-wearing goldfish-swallowing Jitterbugs." Although they smartened right up once they got drafted.

 

[Yeps]

Who were the "damned _______! " of the 30s and 40s?
There must have been a young, political, musical, etc. minority with no economic or political influence we can blame the ills of society on.

This is a little off topic, but fits this query and I think it is mildly entertaining.

A couple of years ago, when the term "metro-sexual" was becoming everyday parlance, my grandmother asked what it meant. We explained to her, and she nodded her head in understanding and said, "Back in my day we called them zoot-suiters."

 

[Feraud]

No it is not off topic. It fits the tone of the thread very well.

Skyvue said it best -

That era, like every other era in the history of man, had its great accomplishments and its great injustices. It was no better and no worse than today. One might prefer the clothes, the music, the movies, etc. of that era, and that's reason enough to celebrate it.

Most of us (98%) are not historians and certainly not qualified to judge the morals of an era. We like the hats, movies, cars, etc.
To extrapolate morality based on what someone wore or drove is kind of silly, no?

 

[Paisley]

McHale's Navy, The Munster's, Car 54. All the great shows. Sure beats reality t.v.

I liked The Untouchables and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, too.

 

[dhermann1]

Just to clarify, the Zoot suits were popular in the 30's, and had a revival during the war. They were especially popular among Latinos in LA, and you could actually get beat up for wearing one. A lot of the men in uniform thought they represented an attitude of not caring about the war.
But I don't thinjk there was anything that would be identified as "counter culture" during the 30's. There wer people considered "reds", and there were plenty of them. But they were purely political. They didn't look different from anyone else.
I have to say, I don't think the "metrosexuals" and the "zoot suiters" had very much in common.

 

[jamespowers]

That would be "the damn suede-shoe-wearing goldfish-swallowing Jitterbugs." Although they smartened right up once they got drafted.

And before that there were *gasp* Flappers.

 

[Chas]

I like the link that Lizziemaine set up. Interesting, the juxtaposition of the punishment for domestic violence alongside a reminder to young women that they need big breasts.....

Unfortunately, it seems in many ways that it was also the beginning of the opposite, where age and wisdom no longer mattered...

Age and wisdom don't always go together. As the saying goes, there's no fool like an old fool.