To think the 1960s were a great time to be alive?

[firstcape]

Having watched some documentaries on life in the 60s,

it seems to have been a brilliant time to be alive, (being middle class)
nice large modern houses, seem to have pretty much everything needed. People seemed far more polite. The fashion was brilliant, and so very smart. Men seem so much more handsome too!

It was a very invigorating decade. Swinging Britain, great music, people beginning to have some spending money (after the austerity of the war and the drab fifties), car ownership spreading, legalisation of homosexuality and abortion, the summer of love, mini skirts, full employment, youth culture, Moon landings... there was a huge positive spirit of innovation and optimism. I was a kid in high school at the time, but I loved the buzz.

My parents were in their teens in the 60s and based on their memories of it, I'd have to disagree with you. No central heating for a bloody start!!

I was born in the mid 60s so can't remember anything. But, my parents built their own house, we had a nanny and a maid, my father went to work and mum stayed home.

Now if you think of someone today in a similar job, they'd struggle to get a 2 bed flat with both parents working!

My (much richer than me) cousins had central heating back then, Fatted! We had a cosy gas fire in the sitting room, a coal boiler in the kitchen and an electric convector upstairs, so it wasn’t too bad. I remember my bedroom was completely unheated in the 1950’s.

I don't think it would have been great if you were black (or from any ethnic minority) or gay, or an unmarried mother.

Nope! It wasn’t swinging everywhere. Abortion was illegal, the Pill only for married women, women’s rights, forget that! Pregnant before marriage, shunned by society or, at least in the early 60’s faced with the possibility of being sent to an institution.

The 60’s only really swung for a tiny proportion of society which was mainly London centric.

But, my parents built their own house, we had a nanny and a maid, my father went to work and mum stayed home.

In the U.K.?

It was becoming very unusual to have staff beyond a nanny by then, and even nannies were for the privileged few.

Oh no sorry! Ought to have said, it was in South Africa, (hence my name)

I did wonder about the NN.

Well apartheid made a wealthy lifestyle - and servants - possible for the minority in SA, didn't it? That's not about the 1960s, per se.

Difficult to use 60s South Africa as a beacon of a great time to be alive when you consider apartheid.

I think in the UK the decade saw the continuing growth of the middle class ie living standards were raised for more people than in previous decades. However there was also a kickback against the certainties that arose from that in the rise of the counterculture albeit on a small scale. More british people had leisure time and a choice of leisure activities in a way they hadn't before - discretionary spending rose. That's the headline though and many people only had small slices of that. I guess it was an important template to set for what to aspire to.

I think a lot of people would argue quite strongly that the 1960’s was not a great time, in South Africa

Well, probably a limited number of people on here able to comment on 1960s South Africa, but Apartheid tends to suggest it wasn't a great time to be alove for most ?

I was born in the 50s so spent the 60s in school. There were things that were good but plenty bad. Plenty we wouldn't put up with now like wolf whistlers, bum pinching, and general putdowns just because you are a woman.

I was born in1960.
As a child it was great .We lived in a Victorian terrace,2 up 2down but a decent garden.
We were wrapped up and played what ever the weather.It was safe to play Inthe streets with other kids in the area as there were so few cars and everyone knew everyone else.
It may have been the swinging 60s but as my mum said'Doris Day has a lot to answer to' as girls were also supposed to marry and be good little housewives.
I remember very few cars until I was a teenager ,ice on the inside of upstairs windows,polishing floors with dusters on our feet,sitting on the spin dryer to stop it flying around the kitchen,getting a telephone in the house when I was a teen,playing with friends(no mobile phones so we could just turn up),we had harsher winters but that may be down to colder houses but warmer summers especially in '75/6.
So as a child with more freedom and a simpler life it was great but it must have been very hard for adults.My parent were unusual in that they divorced and we became latchkey kids as my mum had to work(no childminders).This was normal then and we were fine.
I do remember as a teen we were supposed to have 50p for ingredients in home economics and every week I had to say I'd forgotten it but it was because my mum didn't have it.
Up until then families lived in the same towns,we were the generations hat had to move for jobs or uni and didn't return to our home towns.

Born in the late 50s so a child of the sixties.

It was an idyllic childhood in a village on the west coast of Scotland.

We were sent out to play after breakfast and came back at teatime, or later - I loved those long summer evenings.

It was very Enid Blyton. No dangers, just tree climbing, thrilling treks out to the lighthouse at low tide, roasting spuds in the embers of a makeshift camp fire and endless adventures with other village children just like us. The happiest time of my life. It all changed when parents split up. I could cry at how it all changed after that, but nothing can take away that magical time. Nothing. I have it in my memory forever and it sustains me still.

Love your descriptions, hotterthanhot. :)

I was a child in the 60’s, from a working class family, lived in a council house in London. I had a great childhood. We were poor but so were most of the other people in my street/school. A treat was Saturday morning pictures and a lolly. Food was basic, home cooked and filling.
I had to get a Saturday job at 14 in Woolworths so that I could buy myself a pair of Levi’s, otherwise clothes were hand me downs, or cheap and cheerful, from of all places Woolworths. Luckily I had to wear school uniform so that meant you didn’t need too many “best clothes”.

I remember seeing the Beatles on TV, Man walking on the Moon, extreme weather, floods and then cold winters and snow that went on for months. I played out in the street with my friends until called in at bedtime. We had no central heating but somehow survived and we had an outside toilet. Bath time was once a week on Sunday night as water was expensively heated by an immersion heater.

60’s Music was interesting The Beatles, The Kinks, The Zombies, The Searchers, The Hollies, Elvis, Motown, Tom Jones, P J Proby, Matt Monroe, The Monkees, The Beach Boys.

I used to get a Red Rover Bus ticket and go up to Carnaby Street and Oxford Street for the whole day when I was only about 12. There was an exciting vibe about London at that time. I even went to the Palladium a couple of times as a Christmas treat to see a pantomime. I think I saw Charlie Drake in one, I can’t remember which pantomime.

Personally for me I preferred the 70’s when I was a teenager. The music was so varied from Motown to Progessive Rock. The long, hot summer of 1976. I’m really glad that I was born when I was, it would have been great to have had more money, but I was loved and had a really happy childhood despite being poor. What more could I have asked for?

I was born in '64 and remember very early memories.
My Dad was a 'foreigner' a 'darkie' and he worked very hard to provide for me and my younger brother. My Mum stayed at home for a few years with us and we lived in a rented converted house and our flat had the bathroom/toilet out in the hallway! We had an open fire in the living room come kitchenette and another in the bedroom.

I loved that there were so few vehicles on the road, and a traffic jam was 4 cars long! My Mum traveled on the back of Dad's motorbike with me in her arms at 2 weeks old.
Everyone spoke to everyone else too and people respected the law. Shops weren't open on Sundays or Thursday afternoons and petrol stations were serviced by a man who would pump your fuel for you and you'd give him your money (cash) at the pump and you got Green Shield Stamps on top too and not just for petrol purchases.

Downsides were that there were packs of dogs roaming the streets because everyone just opened their front doors in the morning to let the dog out to meet his mates for the day and of course there was a lot of dog mess on the pavements. Being an unmarried mother was a terrible thing. No one ordinary had a house phone. Kids clothing was handed down (I always got the neighbours clothing).

I loved what I remember but, I was young.

The 60s and early 70s were great for me.
Living with my parents on the outskirts of a thriving seaside town within easy reach of London, there was so much going on. Funfairs, beaches, discos, coffee bars, famous bands (we called them groups then), great clothes and music, good public transport and the sense of everything opening up.
Loads of seasonal holiday work and an influx of holidaymakers every fortnight, so you could have a new boyfriend every week, if you wanted... then things like “happenings” and festivals, alternative press and counter culture, squatting in London and so forth.
I know most people are nostalgic for their youth, but I think my generation were lucky to be young in those times..

I was born at the end of 1949 so had my teenage years in the sixties. We didn't have central heating, but at the time we were used to coal fires and oil stoves, so didn't miss it. We went everywhere by bus and train.
It was exciting. The music, the clothes, the shopping. My family were not at all well-off, but they were outward looking and found the money for me to go on school trips and study weeks in France (I was in Paris at the start of the demonstrations in '68). I read books that explored social issues and became increasingly left-wing and argumentative. I went to university in 1968 which was a political education in itself.
With friends, I used to go to London and buy clothes from Biba with money from my Saturday job. We ate curry and spaghetti bolognese using the spaghetti in the long, blue packets.
I remember it as a time of change; it certainly shaped me as a person.

'...It seems to have been a brilliant time to be alive, (being middle class)...'

In the UK there was still very few people who were middle class. Most people, the vast majority, were working class. Millions were still employed in factories and coal mines.
One thing I do remember though was the food, especially school dinners. It might have been cheap cuts of meat and very bland compared with today, but it was certainly much healthier. No snacking between meals, no takeaways, no fast food (apart from fish and chips). Meals were made from scratch, you appreciated them more and very few people were overweight.
Not as much traffic on the roads
People walked more
Slums were being torn down and new 'council' housing built, with hot running water and inside toilets for more people
Women's lives were also made easier by contraception, more awareness about domestic violence and practical things like twin tub washing machines and fridges.
Popular music on portable radios
'Kitchen sink' dramas on TV that portrayed real people with regional accents, instead of the previous posh clipped accents in the media
Welfare state and big wage rises for millions of people in jobs that had been badly paid for centuries

Plenty of downsides too though, but I think there was a general feeling of excitement and optimism that hadn't been seen before

My mum grew up affluent in rural Scotland and had a lovely time
My dad grew up in a sort of poverty that doesn’t exist now (I’m sure it will come back round if the Tory’s have their way) in Manchester and did not have a nice time. It was fucking hard and added to that was the fear about the moors murders

Being denied education because you were a girl. Being paid less than a man even doing the same job. Losing your job because you a) got married or b) became pregnant.

No maternity leave.

If you needed something like a hysterectomy your husband had to give you permission. The same for the pill.

Rape in marriage was legal.

Racism was legal (in UK).

Not being able to buy a property because the banks wouldn't let you have a mortgage unless you were married and then it was in joint names.

Not being able to get a loan without your husband signing the paperwork.

No refuge/shelter if you were in a violent marriage.

If you were an unmarried mother your baby would be taken off you and you would never see your child again and not know what was happening to them.

But hey fashion where you could flash your knickers made up for it.