Psychology of People Who Grew Up in the 1960s

[BH liberal]

49. My youth was spent...

in a very small town in the Midwest. Can relate to the post above about kids roaming loose from breakfast to dinnertime, especially during the summers. We did all sorts of things that seem to be pretty rare now with the proliferation of helicopter parents terrified at the prospect of their children being snatched from playgrounds and swimming pools. Sports and physical activities were our main focus...all the levels of youth baseball, for example, that allowed for all skill levels to participate. Very few overweight kids at all...and, yes, they did at least get teased to no end or worse.

Our school was never very big on duck and cover drills, and I think the focus was as much on tornado protection as nuclear. One of our neighbors had a bomb shelter in their basement, but I was never curious enough about it to ask to see it. For many of us, our parents' relationship with alcohol was a greater source of anxiety. Not much to do for them in our small town...only a bowling alley, movie theater and a dozen or so bars and restaurants that served liquor within a 10 mile radius. Private parties on weekends centered around drinking were also popular. In fact, one of my first-ever memories was reaching up as far as I could on my tip-toes to grab off the kitchen counter a glass full of what I thought was Coca-Cola and taking a drink. Turned out to be booze and I gagged on it.

Most of my uncles served in WWII, yet I never heard one war story from them. One survived D-Day and subsequent duty in France and another participated in a handful of the Pacific island-hopping landings and survived them all. Alcohol became a big part of their lives as well. I started work at 12 years old in a grocery store for 25 cents an hour after school and on Saturdays 7 AM to 7PM. Watching what was happening all around me made me want to become independent as soon as possible. Bought my own used car at 15 and worked summers on vacation fill-in jobs on the railroad that my father found for me. Got out of there at 18, worked my way through college and rarely returned.

That was my 50's and 60's experience...