REMINISCING
Life Was Good Growing Up In The Sixties
It all started with “I Like Ike”
I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a child of the sixties. Yeah, that makes me a dreaded boomer. Life goes on, folks.
I’ll bet people of all ages look back on their childhood, thinking they were simpler times. Some are more complicated; young adults born in 2000 had to deal with social media, competing for attention on their cell phones. Having to deal with social media might have created a lot of pressure on adults of a certain age. Perhaps they don’t envy people who grew up watching television in black and white, stingray bikes with banana seats and no instant information at the flip of a switch. And that’s OK.
Maybe the sixties and seventies were simpler. This post isn’t a “my childhood was better than yours challenge.” We all had different experiences, and maybe we all cherish them just as much.
We didn’t have video games, X-Boxes, or PlayStations. We had baseball gloves, bikes with baseball cards clipped to the spokes to make a cool clicking sound, and Keds (sneakers). We played outside all day during the summer, seldom returning home until dinnertime. We went back outside after dinner until dark.
August was a time for camping out in a friend’s backyard or building a treehouse and hanging out in a stand of pine trees. The sap always made our hands sticky and was tough to wash off. Mom always had a bottle of Avon’s “Skin So Soft,” which could remove anything! There were also nighttime raids on local gardens, usually taking a few tomatoes and cucumbers.
Drive-in movies. Drive-ins are disappearing from towns across the country. As of this month, little more than 300 drive-in theaters remain. The Whalom Drive-In was one of the more popular theaters. The ticket price for a while was per person. We hid under blankets in the back seat or the trunk of a car until we were safely inside. I don’t think the theater cared. They made plenty of money at the snack bar.
Station Wagons. With six kids, my parents needed a big car. More often than not, that meant a station wagon with three rows of seats. The very back seat faced a rear window, which rolled down. Oh. And not a seat belt in sight.
Swanson frozen TV dinners. Turkey or meatloaf, mashed potatoes, tomato soup or mac and cheese, and peas or corn were my favorite TV dinners of the 1960s. But to be honest, the tomato soup wasn’t all that. Dessert was the best — a variety of fruit cobblers. Thankfully, TV dinners have come a long way.
Saturday morning cartoons. My dad often worked the night shift on the Boston & Maine Railroad, allowing us kids to take over the TV on Saturday mornings — after a bowl of Trix, Cheerios, or whatever was in the cabinet. The Saturday lineup included “The Bugs Bunny Show,” “The Flinstones,” “Tennessee Tuxedo,” “Popeye,” and “Rocky and Bullwinkle.”
The last salvo for Saturday morning was “BOOMTOWN With Rex Trailer,” a local guitar-playing cowboy famous in New England.
The Moon Landing. A lot has happened since men first landed on the moon. The internet, Air Jordans, electric cars, cell phones, and personal computers, to name a few. But nothing was as cool as landing on the moon.
On July 29, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to land on an object not named earth. The entire world watched as Armstrong stepped on the moon and said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” And it was. According to estimates, 650 million people worldwide watched Armstrong’s first steps. Astronauts from the U.S. would land on the moon five more times before the Apollo program ended in 1975.
I hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane. Do you have favorite memories of growing up? I’d love to read them.
If you’ve read this far, thank you for stopping by. Lay 50 claps on me and comment if you would please. I will return the favor. Cheers!
I accept tips, which go directly to Dining for Hunger, a recognized 501(c)(3) organization that looks to end food insecurity. If you can spare a dollar or two, I’d be grateful.
More stories from Bruce Coulter.