 The Decade of Peace and Love
In the early 1960’s John F Kennedy was elected President and gave his famous speech – “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Peace and War were high on the debating list and the Vietnam war had started. Later in 1963 President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. A country was heartbroken. Civil rights was big at the time and White and Black racial tensions were high. Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Jr. made his famous speech “..I have a dream…” More than 200,000 demonstrators were present to demand equal rights for both White and Black people. Five years later two Civil Rights leaderes were assassinated, Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy (John F. Kennedy’s brother). I was a young hippie at the time and one of the events of the time was Woodstock. Music, Love and Peace – It was held on a 600 acre farm in New York and nearly half a million people were there. It lasted three days and sometimes it’s hard to remember it all. I spent a bit of time back then with Commander Vermont and Mrs Vermont and we like to catch up and remember the hijinks we used to get up to.. Fashion The 60’s certainly had it’s own fashion – at the time it consisted of all the hippest gear – hotpants, miniskirts, vinyl pants, long beaded necklaces, peace symbols. The beehive hairdo was a sight to see! Women would spend hours putting their hair up and the men were into growing their hair long, and peeking out through some round John Lennon glasses. The body was for decorating and the brighter the clothes the better! Denim jeans were making a big impact and a certain person I used to know called “The big D” owned a pair that are quite famous now. The Beatles Wow! The Beatles were hot! The Fab Four – John, Paul, George and Ringo. Everyone my age couldn’t get enough of them. They broke out into the music scene with hit after hit like: - Love me do
- Can’t buy me love
- A hard day’s night
- Eight days a week
- Yesterday
- Yellow Submarine plus so many more!
Music was huge at the time and psychedelic music started with Pink Floyd – long instrumental solos and different electronic effects made up their style. Dancing was also popular with so much music around – The Twist, and the Locomotion were made famous during this time. I’ve never really grown out of the sixties – there’s often a time in your life that you’d love to re-live and this was certainly my time. It was a tough decade but an exciting one. | 