The sixties

"When I was seventeen, it was a very good year…"

I’ve loved reading the posts on this thread. The mid sixties were my teenage years, living in central London. Looking back it was so exciting, sunny days, colourful clothes and music everywhere.
I remember shopping in Church Rd Kensington, the original home of Biba and Bus Stop, spending Saturdays window shopping on the Kings Rd. if you were very lucky you might see a Pop star! Does anyone remember Harrods trying to be ‘with it’ when they opened the teenage department called ‘Way In’?
When I go back to that part of London, I remenber my school friends from very ordinary families, who lived in the houses and Mansion flats. Nowadays you’d have to be a millionaire to own a very small flat!
How things have changed!

I was in the Northern Highlands in the 60's. We had many of the pop groups of the day at the w/e's eg Wayne Fontana & and the Mindbenders, Pinkertons Assorted colours et al. But best of all we regularly had Irish Showbands (like a wee Big Band with a brass section & fantastic singing in harmony). They played all the hit songs of the day but much, much better than the original artists. We were all up there in our mini skirts dancing the night away. And we still had Ceilidhs, which were just as much fun but in an entirely different way. Live music in all the bars, Italian cafes with fabulous coffee (well before Costa, Nero etc came on the scene) clubs for everything you could think of. And yes we had electricity and could play LP's. Students enjoying the first free tertiary education mostly came home to work in the hols to enjoy the local scene. The Highlands were buzzing and the world came to us! I feel privileged to have spent the 60's there.

I was 4 in 1960 so they didn't have a great impact on me at the time but the Pill came in then and had a huge impact on my generation removing the fear of an unwanted pregnancy!

I remember JFK being shot and the endless news reports of the Vietnam war.

Late sixties early seventies figure top in my book but I was only concerned with having fun and I'd bet 90% of my generation were doing the same. We were conscious of Vietnam, N Ireland all the other politics of the time, that was someone else's problem.
Really can we say times are any better now, there is probably more war and killing globally now. Has there been a good period 1930s, 1940s, certainly not, 1950s ? , 1970s miners strike, 1980s Thatcher, 1990s Balkan War, 2000s 9/11 Iraq Afganistan

Yes, I used block mascara.

Did anyone go to The Kraal in New Brighton? (think ferry cross the Mersey)

Thank you callgirl1 and moonbeams

I am looking at the photo through different eyes now .

Love that photo Nannyjan53. You look fantastic!

Lovely pic NannyJan, you look rather ethereal.

Grandad1943 - something we agree about! Lifelong learning and good opportunities to work were the foundations of our lives.
There were also proper apprenticeships, lasting 5 years. It gave boys the chance to become young men, working alongside men who could be positive role models.
I was able to complete a professional qualification at one of the Poly's, in the late 70's - that qualification would now cost me about £65000. I was a single parent and couldn't have run up a debt of that size. I worked for 35 years in the area in which I qualified. My training was paid for by the Home Office and public service got its money back and more.

Despite very happy, sunny, optimistic personal memories of the 60s, I remember a friend of mine getting pregnant in the late 60s while still at school and being put in a place for single mothers prior to the birth, after which the baby was taken away from her for adoption; a few years later and it might not have ended so sadly.

The great thing about the sixties was the employment situation. I left a Secondary Modern School in 1960 at the age of fifteen with no qualifications whatsoever, and yet in the Bristol area and throughout most of the UK I believe there were more job vacancies than there were people to fill them.

That gave young people the opportunity to "try" different occupations and if you did not like the current job or employer, then move on. Eventually most found the industry that they enjoyed working in and settled down.

For me it was the Road Transport Industry at the age of eighteen and I have been involved with that sector right up until today were at the age of seventy-four I am still working with well over 50% of that work involving the Road Transport industry.

I feel that young people today who do not get the opportunity to work in various Industries at the start of their working lives sadly miss out on what was available to us. Also the opportunity of free of cost lifelong learning was also available to me and many others of my generation.

Yes the 60s where a time of great opportunity I feel.

Oops, sorry I posted twice. Senior moment ??

And I got married on the day that Radio 1 started. 30.9.67

"love Hurts" that's it, thank you Anitampl. I love the old Westerns too, many are on CBS now - Bonanza - the lost episodes and High Chapparral. Can't get over how young they look and how clean their shirts are! Read online that Hoss (Dan Blocker) was just like his character and all the cast and crew loved him. I had the LP of Hair 12Michael, kept it for nearly 50 years until we cleared out the loft last year and took it to the charity shop. Clearing out the loft was one of the hardest and most emotional things I've done.

I was born in the 60’s. Just saying .

Ha ha MissAdventure, I have been called many things, but never a flower fairy!

Thank you Anitampl, that's it Love Hurts.
Yes I'm watching the old Western series too. Love the High Chapparal and Bonanza- the lost episodes on CPS. Am amazed at how clean their shirts always are ? Also loved Z Cars with lovely Colin Welland and Dixon of Dock Green. Enjoyed a series called The Inheritance which doesn't seem to have been repeated, also Peyton Place. The Lotus Eaters with Ian Hendry and Cumberbatch's mother, they ran that taverna in Aghios Nicolios - or something like that!

Ah The NME my bible, I bought it religously? every Sat teatime at my local railway station kiosk, fancied the bloke behind the counter too

glammanana I'm from Liverpool and paid 2/6 to see the Beatles at the Cavern when they first released Love Me Do.I was nineteen then ,loved the 60's

Lovely photo, typical of those years.
Even I, 17 years older, had a miniskirt - pleated, yellow with flowers.

That's an absolute beauty, NannyJan.
You look like a fabulous flower fairy..

I was 7 in 1960 and 17 in 1970, so the 60's were my formative years.

I remember radio 1 starting with Tony Blackburn (listen to Radio 2 now

I used to love The Monkees, and spent ages trying to knit a green bobble hat that Mike Nesmith wore.

I loved the fashions, especially mini skirts and flower power. missadventre here is a photo is of me in about 1969 aged 16!

How else did anyone use their block mascara? I loved the eye makeup of the time, used to rush into college and put a couple of quick outer eye flicks on before I went to lectures. Probably mascara and lipstick too.
There was an odd rule that for PE classes we must remove jewellery (reasonable) and nail polish (what??). Also residents must not invite male guests into their rooms - lest they saw their washbasins!!
Our principal was a tiny, stern Scot who called us her 'colleagues' - junior colleagues, of course! She also said 'am't I' rather than 'aren't I' which I'd not heard before nor, I think since. Another rule was that we were not allowed to wear trousers.
We were a single sex teacher training college. A year or two after we left men were admitted and things changed!

Didn`t you spit on yours Telly? I thought we all did!