The 60s Nostalgia Thread

Let's see how many of you can answer this question. Where were you when you heard that JFK had been shot? I was in my mother's car. We were going to someone's house for what is now called a "play date."

Alas I was born an 80s child, but I still have much nostalgia for the music cause I grew up with the oldies station and a lot of the pop of the era is embedded in my consciousness. I love the rock of course (I went though the obligatory Dylan phase as a teen and college student), but instill have a huge fondness for the pop, especially the Phil Spector produced girl groups.

Too young. Like Landy said, though, I like a lot of the music.

I do know that the JFK assassination made its mark on my father. He's told us repeatedly about hearing about it at school over the intercom and just sort of freezing in disbelief.

I was in Sister James Denise's classroom and the radio came on over the loudspeaker and we heard the announcement from the radio and then the principal came on and re-announced it.

Everything on television was coverage of the assassination.

I remember walking into the house and hearing my dad shout "They shot Oswald, they just shot Oswald!"

Next topic: Saturday morning cartoons. You can see them now on channels like Boomerang. Do shows like Jonny Quest and Magilla Gorilla still hold up? Does anyone remember Clyde Crashcup (backup to Alvin & Chipmunks) or Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent? Are the Banana Splits hopelessly dated?

I forgot all about Beanie and Cecil! I loved that show.

How about "To-om Slick! To-om Slick! Let me tell you why, he's the best of all good guys! Vrroooom vroomm screeeech crash" Or at least that is how I remember it.

Hong Kong Phooey.

Deputy Dawg.

Captain Kangaroo.

Mighty Mouse.

"Don't you know there's no such word as quit to Tom Slick"

backup to George of the Jungle

not to mention Odie the skunk & King Leonardo, backup to Dudley Do-Right

Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales

And the real cartoon Underdog not some creepy live action film.

And Superchicken and his sidekick Fred. "Caaa-aall for Superchicken, CALL FOR SUPERCHICKEN BWAACKAW"

Hey, anybody remember that movie Spartacus?

edited 31st Mar '11 8:10:11 PM by Wicked223

Next topic: movies. When you had to go to a theater to see a movie. My aunt took us to see The Sound of Music when it came out. There was a hailstorm, the back of the screen was apparently the rear wall of the theater, and we couldn't hear two or three songs.

Other great 60s movies: The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bullitt, Yellow Submarine.

The Sound of Music ran for a year at the movie theater downtown.

Up the Down Staircase although the book was better.

Going to the drive-in with my parents and three brothers and two sisters in a station wagon. We wore our pajamas and had sleeping bags and pillows and blankets and flipped all the seats down. There was popcorn in a brown paper grocery bag and milk in a glass bottle that mom kept in a cooler. We weren't allowed to have pop.

Throwing it wide open——the Beatles. Compare and contrast.

Last December I visited NYC for the first time. My wife and I visited the Dakota and, across the street in Central Park, Strawberry Fields. It was like the 30 years in between hadn't happened.

Saw Mc Cartney recently on Saturday Night Live. He's almost 70, and his voice was gone. Don't know if he was sick or tired. If not, it might be time to retire.

Well, Bob Dylan's about that age and his voice isn't exactly at its peak any more - no sign of him retiring though. As for Macca, it's a bit sad that there's going to be a generation now who think of him as the rich guy who unwisely married a one-legged model rather than the writer of Penny Lane or even Live and Let Die.

I wasn't born yet in the 60's, but here's what my grandmother said about the JFK assassination.

My grandmother had moved to Dallas from Little Rock to marry my grandfather. She heard about the JFK assassination when she was doing laundry with the radio on. Her husband (my grandfather)was at work, her daughter (my mother) was in her playpen. Shortly after, she got a call from her family in Arkansas. They told her "Come home! Those people in Dallas are crazy! They shot the president!"

A few days later, she was at a drive-in with her husband, brother-in-law and his wife. When a radio report said more about the assassination, BIL said "I'm sick of hearing about the Kennedys! They can shoot all of them for all I care!" Not long after, Bobby Kennedy was shot. Grandmother called him when she heard the news and he said "I was at work the whole time! You can ask my boss!"

Taking 'em in order:

JFK: I was just a couple weeks shy of 5, so home. Probably in the living room, either playing or reading. Other than that, I really don't remember much about it, except that Mom never watched TV during the day except for the noon news, but she did that day.

Saturday Cartoons: Rocky And Bullwinkle was the big one for us, and Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo (I preferred the Commander McBragg segments to Tennessee himself) and George Of The Jungle, although I have vague memories of Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle and Beany and Cecil. Magilla Gorilla, Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear were sometimes things — it was great if I saw them, but I didn't make a point of watching. Quickdraw McGraw, on the other hand, was a must-not-miss. I think I still have the old Quick-draw coloring book (or my sister may).

Other shows: Captain Kangaroo, of course, and Mister Rogers Neighborhood from before King Friday got married, although I was nearly 10 when that debuted (really? That doesn't seem right.) Garfield Goose, too, although I didn't like it as much as the others, and I hated the Diver Dan segments, but loved Clutch Cargo, creepy mouth animation and all.

Oh, and a Religious Edutainment show that I watched religiously(heh) on Sundays, called The Magic Door. It was this wee tiny man in a green Robin Hood-looking outfit who lived in an acorn. And even though his name was "Tiny Tov", I was out of college before I realized it was intended for Jewish kids. I thought it was just "Bible stories".

Movies: They were few and far between in the theatres. I do remember going to the drive-in a few times, and it was a running family joke that I had fallen asleep in the car during the buffalo stampede in How The West Was Won — not simply slept through it, but fell asleep during it. Which makes sense, I guess. I would have been 4-ish, and since it was a drive-in and during the summer, the movie probably hadn't started until 8:30 or 9:00 o'clock and that scene would have been somewhere around two hours into it — 10:30 11:00 at night? I probably did fall asleep. The only other movie I have distinct memories of seeing in the theater was Airport.

The Beatles? I was pretty much oblivious to them. I don't know how or why.

edited 25th Jul '11 3:49:44 PM by Madrugada

JFK: I was four; no memory. I do remember Bobby's shooting, though.

TV: my mom didn't want to have one in the house, but I was allowed to watch at friends' houses after school and on saturday mornings. Which I did all the time, but the I usually left the choice of show up to the friend. As long as I was properly Hip-Mo-Tized, it was all good. :)

My mom was also a huge SF fan, though, so during the entire original run of Star Trek, the whole family would go out to visit friends and watch.

Music: I didn't really start to develop independent tastes till the end of the sixties, but growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I listened to a lot of the popular local acts, like the Airplane, Santana, the Dead, Quicksilver, and Janis Joplin, as well as British Invasion acts like the Beatles, Stones, Who and Zepplin, and the folky stuff my mom preferred, like Dylan, The Band, and Fairport Convention. (I didn't really appreciate my dad's taste in classical music till later.)

Books: part of the reason for no TV was that there was no place to squeeze one in between all the bookshelves. For kids stuff, the main things I remember are Dr. Seuss, Edward Eager, and the Mushroom Planet series. I also read Cat's Cradle when I was probably much too young for it, but I enjoyed the parts I understood a lot. In the last couple of years of the sixties, I graduated to stuff like Heinlein, Asimov, and Andre Norton—mostly, but not exclusively, their YA stuff. I think I first tackled Lord of the Rings in 1970, which may or may not count as part of the sixties, depending on how you measure these things.

edit: typo

edited 16th Aug '12 3:39:22 PM by Xtifr

I honestly didn't know any tropers were around in the 60s! I will say that my grandma has told me a lot of stories, since she's in her late 80s. She already had a grandchild by the early 60s. Anyway she did tell me where she was when she found out JFK died (she was in Guyana, though, so not the same as an American's response). She remembers her mother running in crying. She asked her mom why, and she said that she heard on the radio that John F. Kennedy died. Then her mother started talking about how good a man he was, and kept crying. That's the only 60s story I have, my mom was born in the 60s so even she doesn't have any stories.

Obviously was not born in the 60s, therefore cannot answer the questions in the first post. But I do enjoy the entertainment/culture during its first half. Particularly the cartoons ^_^

Seriously, I don't know why people tend to dislike the tv cartoons of the 50s to mid 60s. Most of them are fun and creative. The limited animation (for the most part) was unique and done by professional animators who worked in the golden age of animation. And the voices were so distinct! I'm positive that kids loved watching them.

edited 15th Nov '14 10:23:10 PM by teddy

When Kennedy was shot I was in the second grade and they let everyone go home. I had never walked home alone before! Its a miracle I didn't get lost. all the teachers were crying.

I remember being in school and seeing all the buses pull in one after another. My parents told me what had happened (no dumbing down, they tended to talk to me like I was this college kid). I knew LBJ would take over, but as far as I was concerned Walter Cronkite and his cohorts were holding the country together until after the funeral.

I was in class at a Catholic grade school. We were told over the loudspeaker to go to the church (across the playground) and "pray for President Kennedy." I was eight. It was fairly confusing until later.