The sixties

Well I loved the 60s.
Biba, Carnaby St., The Stones ( never liked Beatles-too comercial) great clothes, great clubs & parties, cheap flights to continent.
We just had so much fun. I don't remember much about politics then but I did go to protest at Vietnam War at US embassy in 1967 or was it 1968.
We had a great time.
Then I got married in 1970 aged 20 & life took over.

I loved the sixties for its feeling of freedom. I lived and worked in London at 18 and loved it, the music, the fashion, ban the bomb demos and the pure feeling of life. Went abroad as an au pair and my social life was with the young Americans who living in the area to keep out of the Vietnam war. Loved it.

Oh Anniebach, you're making me chuckle today. lol I was born in 1954 and remember Aberfan disaster being on the t.v and the assassination of President Kennedy. My best friend and I each made a paisley hipster mini skirt in needlework class at school. We teamed our skirt up with a ruffled front white blouse and a 'cow bell' long thin leather necklace round our necks and thought we were the bees knees. I remember the Flower Power songs on the radio, 'Are you going to San Fransico' Scott Mackenzie? Mama Cass. My happiest years were the 70's. Wish I could go back and live those years again.

Yes the 60's were amazing. I was 16 when they began so was up to the minute in all the music, clothes, makeup etc. I used to listen to Radio Luxembourg every night, try to turn my curly hair into the latest Sassoon styles by ironing it, wore blue eyeshadow and white lipstick. I loved the winkle pickers and mini skirts. I couldn't afford Mary Quant clothes but made my own copies. I also could take advantage of the Pill although I was anything but promiscuous.
There were tragedies but there are in all decades and they don't define it.

I loved the sixties, living in Liverpool it was fabulous.
I started Nursing 1960 and had some of the best times of my life, times I will never forget, I was lucky during the swinging sixties.

Linamillion. I remember watching the devastation of Aberfan. We were living in Scotland. Aberfan and Moors murders were the two events i remember deeply upsetting my mother. I think we were more badly affected in those days because we rarely heard tragic reports. Whereas now there is something on almost every news report.

I was born in 1955, but i remember the news of Kennedy's assassination. I was watching Bonanza on the telly and they interrupted coverage to rely the awful news. Stayed up all night to watch the moon landings and nearly fell asleep and missed it. I was at school near Neath the day of the Aberfan disaster and we heard lots of sirens during our lunch hour, the emergency services must have been enroute for Aberfan as they were from all the surrounding areas we discovered later. Saw my parents in tears when they watched the news in the evening, will never forget it. Remember Radio Luxemburg and Radio Caroline. My first record was an EP of 'She Loves You'. My decade was really the seventies, went to uni in 73, met DH during that glorious summer of 76, married in 77, children in 82 and 86. Taught for 30 years at the same school, saw many changes in teaching, very few for the better. Should have let the teachers get on with teaching and caring for their pupils and not introduced league tables, SAT's, ASLevels - I could go on. Schools were happier places until all this nonsense. Kenneth Baker has a lot to answer for, not least his B days ?

brothers plural, sorry.

Stiffening those net petticoats with sugar ?
In the bath.
and brother were muttering about it as we only had one bathroom (as did most people, if not a tin bath like my Granny).

Legs55. I actually do remember more than I realised from the 60s. I remember the horror of the Moors murders and JFK assassination, Tate murders etc. I guess those things were so shocking at the time. Remember watching the moon landing with awe. Like you I wore very short skirts. Would leave the house with knee length and would roll the waist over and by time I got to school my skirt would be very short. We lived in Germany from about 64-67 as my dad was in the forces, but back in Scotland after that. Would listen to BFPO radio and can remember listening to Radio Caroline. I would record the charts every week from the radio. My school in Scotland used to produce a little news magazine every week. There was always a page dedicated to the lyrics of one of the latest chart hits. We couldnt wait to get our hands on it. How things have changed. Happy days.

The keywords were hope, optimism and change. I loved them. We had much less money than today - in fact were very poor, shared bedsits with almost complete strangers. But it was SO exciting and there seemed to be so many possibilities.

Oops. Sorry, major strike-out fail there.

OMG Sue01 I had no idea PJ Proby was still alive, let alone performing!
I was at a strict boarding school in the 60s (boo) and my friend and I snuck out on a Saturday afternoon (stricly verboten) to go and see PJ who was opening a record store at a town a fairly long bus-ride away. God knows why, it just seemed like a good idea at the time.
When we got there it was bedlam, crowds of screaming girls surrounded his limo and I got my foot crushed by some huge copper's size 12s in the melée. I got just a glimpse of PJ in the back of the limo before he was hustled into the store.
I lost both my friend and my bag in the crush but somehow got back to the school in the early evening to find all hell had broken loose. My friend had got back before me but still quite late so our escape was clearly spotted and when bedraggled me arrived the brown stuff had well and truly hit the fan. We were gated (i.e. not allowed out AT ALL) for the rest of the term.
I was really into flower power and remember having driving lessons barefoot (WTF!) and with a flower in my hair at the age of 17, much to the bemusement of the middle-aged instructor -- but he still allowed it!
I was fortunate to get to University in 1968 at a time when only about 10 pct of the population did so, and loved every minute of it (free at last!) But I did work hard at school and did well in my A levels.
Mostly I remember it as a time of hope for the future, things were getting better despite the Vietnam war which we demonstrated against, of course. For me the era continued into the early 70s when I was living and working in London, loving the shops had a gorgeous Biba frock and Mary Quant makeup -- music, restaurants and parties.
Wordsworth's lines have never been bettered.
"Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive. But to be young was very heaven."

Stiffening those net petticoats with sugar ?

The only news item I remember well from the 60s was the Great Train Robbery.
I do remember all the music though and collecting cards with pop singers on them from the ice cream van.
My neighbours had four teenagers and oh how I loved their bell bottoms and hotpants.
I was born in 59.

I remember making a circular skirt using the circumference of the top as my waist measurement and cutting a bit down for a zip. Then it was net petticoats! I can't remember the year and fortunately don't have a picture.

Oh I love these threads!
Is anyone inclined to post a picture of themself in the 60s?
I would love to see.

I was a teenager in the 60’s and for me it was all about the music (I was lucky enough to have a Saturday job in a shop which sold records), dances, leaving school and going off to teacher training college. Happy days!

I wore the flower dresses, had a go at smoking pot, thought we could save the world , peace and joy , failed didn’t we

I just loved the sixties, Twiggy was my fashion icon. It took me ages to do the eye makeup with false eyelashes and all. I was a Mod and loved all the scooters. I worked in a hairdressers on a Saturday morning and got 5 shillings. My first full time job age 15 also in the same hairdressers i got £2 - 7 shillings and 6 pence. My first perfume was Avon Topaz. Does anybody remember sitting in the bath with their Levi jeans on to try and fade them.

I was 10 in 1960 and spent all my young and teenage years in the sixties...... met my husband in '71 and my life has been downhill since then. I lived in London then and why oh why was I ever enticed to leave ....especially to live in the sticks!! If I could do it again I would. My husband came from the sticks we now live in and he never 'approved ' of the sixties. You'd think he was 20 years older than me but no ... just 4 years. Not 'approving' should have told me all I needed to know about him . He doesn't approve of much!

No, I don't think looking back that the sixties were all that great, but we were young then and that makes all the difference.

I remember the grown-ups being worried by all the things OP mentioned and disgusted by the mini-skirt etc. but I was a teenager raring to get out of school and be a grown-up, so I just found it exciting.

No doubt today's teenagers feel the same about life and are not worried by our feeling that the world is going to hell in a handcart!

Yes Annie I remember hearing about this tragedy, was pushing DD1 round a supermarket- one of the first to open. I heard it over the loudspeaker and could hardly finish my shopping. Later I realised that being a mother had made me so sensitive to the fact of losing a child.
I think I grew up that day.

On more cheerful note foreign holidays were lovely, no huge hotels and lots of room on the beach and famous buildings to see and no queues and crowds. Perfect.

And in 1969 I left for a new life with my German husband to live there. He'd got a new job with a flat for us.
My mother died and I was glad to get away from dreary Sheffield.

I turned 12 in January 1960 so had all my teens in the 60s. I remember Bay of Pigs, the political shootings, Mandela, the Vietnam war etc etc, but I also remember the freedom, the music, the foreign travel, the optimism, the I'm Backing Britain Campaign and the fun, oh so much fun!! I met my first husband in 1962, but didn't get married till 1969 so still had the lack of responsibility so I can honestly say the 60s were the best for me.

anitampl I was also born in 1955, I do remember the 60s. We got our first tv in 1963, radio was always on, Home Service at Breakfast & Light Programme for the rest of the day. First record player in 1963 also + a Beatles record for Christmas.

I remember the Kennedy Assassinations, Martin Luther King & Malcolm X. Sharon Tate murder by Manson etc. Aberfan disaster & Moors Murders, I lived in a small village in Yorkshire.

By the time I went to Secondary School mini skirts had reached my part of the world. I remember listening to Radio One as we travelled to & from School, Tony Blackburn playing Flowers in the Rain on that first broadcast (we had a private hire coach & a driver who knew how to keeps teenagers happy)

I started part-time jobs in catering in 1969 & left School on my 17th Birthday in 1972. I discovered boys & although a bit too young for the permissive society in the 60s the 70s were a different matter, the Pill became available to 16+ if you had a sympathetic GP.

Loved the clothes, the make up & the music. Happy days