Better in the 1960's

[Crabtownboy]

In another thread MB posted a reply that set me thinking. His post read:

Nothing compared to the punk generation that still exist. I'm not defending hippies but I grew up in the 60's and have been a Christian through all those years and your insulting statement isn't true as usual. The 60's generation isn't any worse than yours. In fact it just happens to be better back then that it is now.

Let's dwell just on the 1960's and what was better then. Let me mention one area where it was much better.

That was the country was still taking care of the mentally ill in state run hospitals. I am referring here to the severely mentally ill. Under the Reagan administration funds were cut and these folk were, IMHO, dumped on the the streets. This is when we began to see homeless folk wandering the streets, living under bridges, etc.

What are your memories or ideas on what was better, beside the music, in the 19601's?

 

[Salty]

That was the country was still taking care of the mentally ill in state run hospitals. I am referring here to the severely mentally ill. Under the Reagan administration funds were cut and these folk were, IMHO, dumped on the the streets. This is when we began to see homeless folk wandering the streets, living under bridges, etc.

Not Feds job to handle that. My question is what did individual States/Commonwealth do to assist those in need?

 

[Thomas Helwys]

In another thread MB posted a reply that set me thinking. His post read:



Let's dwell just on the 1960's and what was better then. Let me mention one area where it was much better.

That was the country was still taking care of the mentally ill in state run hospitals. I am referring here to the severely mentally ill. Under the Reagan administration funds were cut and these folk were, IMHO, dumped on the the streets. This is when we began to see homeless folk wandering the streets, living under bridges, etc.

What are your memories or ideas on what was better, beside the music, in the 19601's?

No vulgarity on television.

Family values and families still intact.

No ho******** agenda.

I'll stop there.

 

[padredurand]

"The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9

This was true in 1960 as well. There were drugs, alcohol and all sorts of thing going on in backseats just like today. Mama was fond of saying, "Things just ain't the way they used to be and probably never were."

 

[Thomas Helwys]

"The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9

This was true in 1960 as well. There were drugs, alcohol and all sorts of thing going on in backseats just like today. Mama was fond of saying, "Things just ain't the way they used to be and probably never were."

The filth that is shown today on network primetime television couldn't have been shown in the 50's and 60's.

 

[padredurand]

The filth that is shown today on network primetime television couldn't have been shown in the 50's and 60's.

Just because you couldn't see it on TV didn't mean it didn't exist. Evil has been with us since the Garden. Two decades of American television is a poor gauge of virtue.

 

[Thomas Helwys]

Just because you couldn't see it on TV didn't mean it didn't exist. Evil has been with us since the Garden. Two decades of American television is a poor gauge of virtue.

And that is not the point.

Surely you can recognize that there is a difference in the moral standard of the 50's and 60's which would not allow such filth on the airwaves and that of today which not only allows it on the airwaves but promotes and glorifies it.

 

[Salty]

No vulgarity on television.

Family values and families still intact.

No ho******** agenda.

I'll stop there.

Do you remember the seal of good TV

 

[Crabtownboy]

I feel the philosophy and theology expressed in some of the popular music was far and away deeper and better than popular music before or since that time.

Several examples:

The first is a description of all of us if we are honest. Don't take the words literally ... but we all are contradictions ... there is good and bad in all of us. From Kris Kristofferson's "The Pilgrim".

He's a poet, he's a picker
He's a prophet, he's a pusher
He's a pilgrim and a preacher, and a problem when he's stoned
He's a walkin' contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction,
Takin' ev'ry wrong direction on his lonely way back home.

I have also found much meaning in Kris Kristofferson's "Why Me Lord" and the words:

why me lord?
what have i ever done,
to deserve even one,
of the pleasure i've known,
tell me lord,
what did i ever do,
that was worth lovin' you,
for the kindness you've shown,

chorus:
lord help me Jesus,
i've wasted it so help me Jesus,
i know what i am,
but now that i know,
that i needed you so help me Jesus,
my souls in your hand,

I also have found comfort and meaning in The Birds, "Turn, Turn, Turn".

Cat Stevens, "Morning Has Broken"

Just a few, there are more.

 

[padredurand]

And that is not the point.

Surely you can recognize that there is a difference in the moral standard of the 50's and 60's which would not allow such filth on the airwaves and that of today which not only allows it on the airwaves but promotes and glorifies it.

You can't judge the moral standard of a nation based on television. Folks watch TV to escape from reality. Not every sheriff was Andy Taylor in Mayberry. Not every father walked in the house smiling after a day at the office like Ward Cleaver. Television has always been and will always be a false reflection of society. Whether it is flaunted in media or not does little to deflect the reality that evil things were happening in the 50s and 60s. Pornographic images have been found in pottery and paintings dating to the time before Christ. Hundreds of lewd pictures have been uncovered in the city of Pompey. Take a close look at Greek or Roman culture. When I have some time I could tell you the story about a young woman who was conceived in the back of a '37 Pontiac during the Fifties... :thumbsup:

 

[Jerome]

You could turn on primetime network television and hear some wunnerful gospel music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg

Myron Floren introduces: "Gail Farrel from Durant Oklahoma, Dick Dale from Algona Iowa. Let's listen to Gail and Dale and one of the newer songs."

The duet sing "I'm One Toke over the Line, Sweet Jesus."

Lawrence Welk: "And there you heard, a modern spiritual by Gail and Dale."

 

[just-want-peace]

Well, I'm not familiar with this terminology - what is a "toke" ?
Other than having a good rhythm I made no real sense of the ditty. Perhaps knowing what a toke is would clarify; or not!

 

[Winman]

What was better about the 60s?

We used to go outdoors and play when we got home from school instead of playing on a computer.

Most kids were skinny in the 60's.

We rode bicycles without helmets and very rarely did anyone get injured.

You could drive a car without a seat-belt if you chose to do so.

You could recognize different cars from a distance in the 60s.

Generally, one income could take care of a family.

They still talked about God and godly values on TV.

Most folks were still very independent and did not live on assistance.

People could figure their change at a store without a calculator, many could figure a square root on paper.

Not everything was better in the 60s, but many things were.

 

[JimmyH]

The mentally ill were released on to the streets because of a supreme court decision IIRC, not because the Reagan administration cut funding..... although I don't doubt that they did. The text below is from the Wiki 'Supreme Court Rulings on Mental Health'

1974 Connor v. Donaldson ; In terms of impact, Connor v. Donaldson, may be the single most important decision in mental health law. It has been used by opponents of involuntary commitment to argue that civil commitment be limited to only mentally ill and dangerous persons. This interpretation has been important in hampering efforts to implement changes in commitment law (limiting access to treatment).

The Court stated, "A finding of 'mental illness' alone cannot justify a State's locking a person up against his will and keeping him indefinitely in simple custodial confinement… In short, a state cannot constitutionally confine without more a nondangerous individual who is capable of surviving safely in freedom by himself or with the help of willing and responsible family members or friends."

1982 Youngberg V Romeo ; Each individual has a due process protected interest in freedom from confinement and personal restraint; an interest in reducing the degree of confinement continues even for those individuals who are properly committed. freedom from undue physical restraint and from unsafe conditions of confinement

 

[LadyEagle]

Well, I'm not familiar with this terminology - what is a "toke" ?
Other than having a good rhythm I made no real sense of the ditty. Perhaps knowing what a toke is would clarify; or not!

Has to do with drugs. Google. :flower:

Yes, the 1960s were better, but the 50s were better than that.

The old days were better. Hiding under my desk in school Civil Defense drills was better than having a dictator rogue government shoving unconstitutional laws down our throats.

Taking prayer and Bible reading out of schools started the decline and drugs & Viet Nam only furthered the drug & violence culture. The draft for an unconstitutional war was implemented with my schoolmates being shipped off to the rice paddies in a strange land in a politcal war they were supposed to die for and not win. There was no justifiable cause for them dying and rotting in a rice paddy and now we buy the goods from our enemy under some government imposed trade agreement.

The worst TV was Peyton Place, where things were only suggested, not shoved into your face. Where are you Rodney Harrington? And I used to have to sneak over to my girlfriend's house to watch American Bandstand in black and white and we danced and be-bopped holding our door frame partners. Good stuff.

The worst movie was The Birds where they went goofy and pecked out your eyes, Tippi. The Best was the Sound of Music and the Ten Commandments.

Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare were the icons of the day and swivel hips Elvis, "Love Me Tender." The drug culture in music really entered America with the Beatles, (1963/1964?) (otherwise was confined to ghettos and gangs in big cities (Sharks/Jets Westside Story), as I recall, and the flower children/free love was an outbreak of women burning their undergarments, pushing for legalized abortion, and equal rights. If the blacks got equal rights (NAACP was a big flame thrower then for "block busting"), then women were "entitled" too. And hyphenated Americans took root, assimilation died, and the intrusion of government shooting Americans in America, started with Kent State, I recall.

Big, beautiful, wonderful automobiles with lots of chrome adorned our city streets. Who ever heard of a "latchkey kid" back then? Life was simpler, then. Freedom was palpable. Americans started to come apart and divide in the 1960s, so that's why I say the 1950s were better.

 

[Salty]

From the Actors of "Father Knows Best"

Billy Gray - who played Bud: "I wish there was some way I could tell kids not to believe it - the dialogue, the situations, the characters - they were all totally false. The show did everybody a disservice. The girls were always trained to use their feminine wiles, to pretend to be helpless to attract men. The show contributed to a lot of the problems between men and women that we see today....I think we were all well motivated, but what we did was run a hoax. "Father Knows Best" (1954) purported to be a reasonable facsimile of life. And the bad thing is that the model is so deceitful. It usually revolved around not wanting to tell the truth, either out of embarrassment, or not wanting to hurt someone....If I could say anything to make up for all the years I lent myself to that kind of *&%$, it would be: *You* Know Best."

From Jane Wyatt who played Mother: Our shows were written to be entertaining, but the writers had something to say. Every script always solved a little problem that was universal. It appealed to everyone. I think the world is hankering for a family. People may want to be free, but they still want a nuclear family.

 

[saturneptune]

What was better about the 60s?

We used to go outdoors and play when we got home from school instead of playing on a computer.

Most kids were skinny in the 60's.

We rode bicycles without helmets and very rarely did anyone get injured.

You could drive a car without a seat-belt if you chose to do so.

You could recognize different cars from a distance in the 60s.

Generally, one income could take care of a family.

They still talked about God and godly values on TV.

Most folks were still very independent and did not live on assistance.

People could figure their change at a store without a calculator, many could figure a square root on paper.

Not everything was better in the 60s, but many things were.

A good picture you paint there. I will say also, another indicator I see is quite stark in the retail industry. Look at the rude, demanding customers today compared to the customer fifty years ago that expected good service, bought his product, and left the store. They did not linger around a store for no reason expecting to be lavished with attention by a passing clerk. Look at the anger on the roads towards each other. Look at holding doors open for others at a store, and they walk through without a thank you.

We have grown more self centered, ruder, and more arrogant than anytime in history. In other words, to put it into Biblical terms, our love is growing cold. Our eyes are on ourselves, not Jesus.

There is nothing that sets me off more than self centered arrogance in a person. That is why I stay away from customer service type jobs. For example, if I worked at McDonalds and someone came up to the counter screaming the mustard was put on the wrong side of the tomato, it would not be "Sir, I am so sorry, I will fix it yesterday" it would be the hamburger smeared on their face.

 

[Thomas Helwys]

You can't judge the moral standard of a nation based on television. Folks watch TV to escape from reality. Not every sheriff was Andy Taylor in Mayberry. Not every father walked in the house smiling after a day at the office like Ward Cleaver. Television has always been and will always be a false reflection of society. Whether it is flaunted in media or not does little to deflect the reality that evil things were happening in the 50s and 60s. Pornographic images have been found in pottery and paintings dating to the time before Christ. Hundreds of lewd pictures have been uncovered in the city of Pompey. Take a close look at Greek or Roman culture. When I have some time I could tell you the story about a young woman who was conceived in the back of a '37 Pontiac during the Fifties... :thumbsup:

Difference between then and now is that it was not the rule, and it wasn't accepted and glorified.

If you can't see that there was a difference between the moral standards then and now, you're blind by choice.

 

[padredurand]

Difference between then and now is that it was not the rule, and it wasn't accepted and glorified.

If you can't see that there was a difference between the moral standards then and now, you're blind by choice.

The Fifties and Sixties brought us all sorts of wonderful things: the Korean War, Senator Joseph McCarthy, Psycho, the Bay of Pigs, the lunch counter sit-in, Rosa Parks, Freedom Riders, Montgomery, Cuban Missile Crisis , 16th Street Baptist Church , JFK, RFK, MLK, Malcolm X, Vietnam, NOW, Woodstock, mini skirts, hippies, LSD, race riots, civil defense drills, fallout shelters......

I'm not the blind one in this conversation. Morality, outside of Christ, is relative. Those two decades thought it was immoral to show a belly button on TV but okay to tell a person of color they could not drink from a water fountain, ride a bus, or eat at a Woolworth's lunch counter. It was a decade that thought it immoral to have Andy raise his voice to Opie but okay to burn our flags, draft cards and bras. Folks were dropping out, dropping acid and dropping leaders we didn't like with bullets. Americans were dying in Korea and Vietnam while we laughed at F-Troop and cheered on Marshall Dillon.

If that is moral then I need a new dictionary.:tear: