If You Were There...The Sixties

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 08:02 AM

you've probably done too much teaching!!

The most significant thing I remember from the 60's - the lady down the street sent a sympathy card to Mrs Kennedy & eventually received a Returned Thanks card signed by her!! I don't remember JFK's death, the card was a far more important event in the life of an 11 year old.

I sent most of the decade was spent in High School (64-69) & the nearest we got to the swinging 60s was one of the boys tried to smuggle a (single) bottle of beer in to the end of high school dance, unfortunately he dropped it & probably got what-for from the teachers!!

sandra

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: hilda fish
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 05:25 AM

I remember the festival "Sunbury" in Melbourne which was probably very similar to Woodstock? Lots of people took off their clothes and rolled in the mud, swam in the creek, lots of people benignly outta their tree, calls for 'watch the blue acid' and other calls 'freaking out brothers and sisters go to the red tent' and the music screamed and hammered and rolled all day and all night for the whole weekend. 'Juice freaks' were not admired and love, peace, and overwhelming kindness and tolerance was the order of the day, a new experience for very many of us very youngies. "Thorpie, Thorpie, Thorpie", (of the Aztecs) we yelled in absolute adulation and perhaps more because we needed to feel the unity of 'one voice' (screaming the one word all together was like some sort of amazing mantra). Anyway, Nimbin happened a year or two after that and certainly continues to impact on generations. Freda, there was a book released last year "Belonging in the Rainbow Region - Cultural Perspectives on the NSW North Coast about Nimbin and the Rainbow Region's impact.
"Our ancient tribal people
Have sat down and sang the spirits into this land
Giving it its physical form.
White men called our dreamtime a myth.
Our people know it as a fact.
It was before creation time
They sang the valleys, mountains, rivers and streams
All round, all round, all round.
They sang life in all its vastness into this brown land.
Ånd the spirit lives still
Never has it been silenced
By white man or his destructive ways.
And the young people came
And heard the song
Ånd the song had a beginning
And there will never be an ending
Until justice is returned
And all love requited
To all singers of the songs,
And ancient tribal people.
Åll round, all round, all round.
goes the song that my tribal mother wrote and which starts this book. I've got it if you want to have a look at it.
I always liked the "Woodstock" song in the same way "by the time we got to Woodstock we were (however many?) strong" - it's almost an anthem to a generation isn't it? and I have rejected many times the 'old hippie' nonsense in the same way I reject 'old commo' nonsense as stereotyping people as though it is all insignificant. The '60's had a profound impact on our (whoever) generation as it did on continuing generations and for all the flakey and self-indulgent behaviour that went on (we were young, we were young and stupid) the goodwill continues and is a reminder that it is possible. (Why do I always sound like a sermon? Someone hit me!)

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 04:35 AM

I was born in 1964 in a small village in the depths of Dorset, UK.... it was not exactly known for its modern lifestyle (my granfer had only stopped using horses on his farm 10 years previously) and the closest thing to a festival was the pub piano.

All I remember of the '60's: starting school on my 5th birthday; being allowed to watch TV in the morning (no such thing as 'Breakfast TV then and TV wasn't put on until I'd been home from school for 30 mins) when some man stepped out onto the moon, but I missed it because my mum was ironing and put the iron in front of the TV at the crucial moment; my big brother boring us rigid with his new record by some unknown group called 'The Beatles'; being fed medicine on a sugar lump, and biting my first dentist.

As far as we were concerned, the 60's happened to everyone else, and Woodstock was a village near Oxford!

LTS

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: dianavan
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 04:26 AM

Thanks Amos and all -

Did you notice the pic called 'navels'? Looks just like the girls today!

Loved the pictures of Taj Mahal! Also thought the pixelated photos of Jimi actually captured his essence.

The protest pictures show what we were willing to risk in those days. Up to a point, I guess. For me, the point was that I became a mother and could not risk jail. I no longer have that excuse. Whats your excuse?

To be fair, I think that none of us want to be out there without numbers to support us. In those days, we were all out there and we had strength. Today, nobody trusts anybody else and nobody has the courage to go it alone. How did we get so strong at such a young age? I'm amazed at how brazen we were. Bold and brazen and born to be free.

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: Haruo
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 12:44 AM

I missed all that; the '67-'68 school year I was in Japan, turning fourteen and transmogrifying from a gray-hatted syôgakkô rokunensei to a military-uniformed tyûgakkô itinensei. I do remember the day MLK was killed, and a headline about bombing Hanoi, but my involvement in the antiwar movement had to await my return to the States.

Haruo
Habemus gubernatricem!

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: GUEST,Claymore
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 12:08 AM

A couple of comments:

Yes, I was there in the sixties especially at the '69 Inauguration of Nixon as a 21 year old Lieutenant of Marines. My Platoon was assigned road guard duty near the Washington Monument. The Yippies were conducting an "In-HOG-eration" with a pig called Pigasus, in a tent in the Monument parking lot. It was cold as hell, and several young ladies in the tent were trying to entice some of my men into the tent by waving at them topless from the tent. All was good natured until one of the young men came out of the tent and spit on my sergeant, who promptly butt-stroked him with an M-14 (Marines had not been issued the M-16 yet). The cops moved in and hustled the young man away, bleeding from the mouth. I don't know if he was arrested, but he learned a lesson about spitting on Marines (one I was destined to reinforce against two hippies in Berkeley a year later upon my return from Vietnam).

Last year, my Job Corps students built the stage for a the local annual Country Roads Folk Fest, in which the headliner was Richie Havens (see photo #366). My students acted as stage crew and when Richie asked what one of the young men was going to do after the Job Corps, he told Richie was going into the Army. Richie then told a tale about Woodstock that I had never heard before.

Richie, who turned out to be the opening act, was not scheduled to get on the stage until much later in the day. Due to several malfunctions with the stage and the fact that Richie was a solo act with only a guitar, the promoters wanted him to get on stage immediately to calm the crowd, which was getting restless over the delay of the start of the Festival. However, the crowds were too thick for Richie to get to the stage from the dressing tents about a mile away. Then a pilot of a National Guard helicopter offered to fly Richie to the stage if only to prevent a riot. So as Richie Havens tells it, the Army National Guard was the reason that he started the Woodstock festival off, and the rest was history…

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 11:47 PM

I was runnin' the Center for the Performing Arts down Richmond, Va. when Woodstock came our way.... I couldn't book any band within 50 miles 'cause som many folks were going to Woodstock. So I asked my bandmates to stick around and we played both Friday and Saturday nights to crowds (ha) of like 50 'er 60 people...

Bobert

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: goodbar
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 11:41 PM

if i were there i'd be a dope-smokin' hippy. yyyyeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhh....

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: LadyJean
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 11:17 PM

My last roommate at O.U, Michelle the Acid Freak, was at Woodstock. She never told me anything about it. She dropped acid in Deth Valley once. You have to wonder about that. I didn't know why they called it tripping, until I saw her on LSD. She fell over the desk. The desk was big! But she didn't notice it. I don't know what she did notice. I presume it wasn't there, whatever it was.

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 09:54 PM

what you guys did miss out on
was that the 60's was an amazing decade
to be a child..

i was 1 in 1960
and 11 in 1970..

just at the right point in history to enjoy
the positive benefits of the past
before they were discarded;
and all the wonders of the modern space age
before it started to turn sour..

i had a fantastic childhood

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: freda underhill
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 07:57 PM

those were the days, Mark!

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 07:31 PM

Freda, I read the last line of your post and was instantly transported back to my freshman dorm room in Princeton. Thanks for that little blast from the past!

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: freda underhill
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 07:19 PM

sorry, here 's that last link!

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: freda underhill
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 07:17 PM

In australia, we had a similar festival in 1973 at nimbin . although it was a much smaller festival, it had a huge impact on people all over australia. a bunch of architrceture students from sydney uni went there and built teepees, yurts, whatever, before the festival for people to stay in (i was an 18 yr old art student and stayed in a teepee there) - it accelerated australia's organic farming industry, and a whole range of alternative villages, farms, communities sprang up in the area and nearby areas.

it is a magical landscape there, i revisited it 6 years ago, it was like walking into the past
.

Two years ago they had a 30th anniversary , which i regret not getting to.

there are some more photos of the area now, http://www.echonews.com/919/art_news.html

freda

("..may the longtime sunshine upon you, all love surround you, and the pure light within you, guide your way on..")

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: GUEST,DrWord
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 06:40 PM

So I follow your link ... the VERY FIRST picture has a typo in its caption! Oh well, the collection is interesting ...
cheers
dennis

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 05:33 PM

There was a great very long PBS series called Making Sense Of The Sixties. The title was designed (I think) to show those who were not there that, if they watched these nights of TV, they would understand what folks were talking about a bit better.

I thought it was a good and valuable look back, and I'm glad someone sent it to me on a video.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: Bill Hahn//\\
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 05:03 PM

Who was it that wrote "...if you remember the 60s you weren't there"?

Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: Midchuck
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 02:23 PM

Here's another good site for sixties folkies.

Peter.

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 02:15 PM

I went out with a girl known as Fliss short for Felicity in the 60s, a lovely reddish haired girl, unfortunately it wasn't meant to be!
Giok

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 02:13 PM

I was at Woodstock, and I remember it. Sorry, but I wasn't drugged out (and very few of my friends were either.)

Jerry

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: Fliss
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 01:58 PM

Wrinklies indeed, speak for yourself. Im growing old disgracefully and am definitely not wrinkly and my mirror doesnt lie... it still shows me as being plump!
fliss :)

Subject: RE: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 01:03 PM

Hours of enjoyment for us wrinklies.
Thanks
Giok

Subject: If You Were There...The Sixties
From: Amos
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 12:20 PM

This site offers pictures from the Sixties -- excellent pictures covering resistance, Woodstock, and all sorts of images that you probably don't remember, especially if you were there.

Enjoy!!


A