What is the difference between the 1950s and 1960s?

Answer 1

There were numerous differences between the 1950s and 1960s.

The 1950s were characterized by:

• WWII was forgotten by younger generations
• sock hops in school gymnasiums
• sock hop music (beginning of rock 'n roll before rock)
• dance was still mostly separate and "respectable"
• going steady was expected before engagement
• engagement was expected before marriage
• marriage was expected before parenthood
• few homes had TVs but this was increasing
• most homes had radios and was the source of entertainment
• newspapers were the main source of local, state, and national news
• the soda shop, movie theater, and pool hall were main hang-outs
• boys who got into trouble in groups were "ruffians" or "hoodlums"
• teen boys drooled over their first cars
• the car and the girl were status symbols
• getting "honors" in high school really was an honor
• "Sweet 16" for girls really meant something

The 1960s were characterized by:

• disillusionment with authority figures and "the establishment"
• movement toward folk music
• The Vietnam War brought protests
• John F. Kennedy was adored; the country believed he would save and redeem us all
• from grade school children to old age, people were affected by JFK's assassination
• JFK's assassination was followed by Bobby Kennedy's assassination; the world seemed to have gone "crazy" (insane) in that short time
• Martin Luther King was gone
• "conspiracy" theories began about the deaths
• Roswell's UFO conspiracy had already been going on for more than a decade
• adults viewed younger persons as being the "Hippie" generation; many "hippies" joined hippie "communes"
• the majority of "hippies" felt they were working toward social changes
• Woodstock! most of us from the 1960s-1970s generation need to say no more
• however, drugs, pot, LSD use became widespread
• guys grew long hair and beards
• girls wore Indian-style headbands
• the mini-shirt was introduced
• young men became draft evaders, refusing to go to Vietnam
• other young men were being killed daily in the war; silver-colored POW bracelets were worn by many in schools
• uniforms were still required in many schools, but more could dress as they wanted
• Vatican II changed the rites of the Catholic Church
• disillusionment entered even among "religious" orders: Catholic priests and nuns left the profession
• Nuns who stayed in the profession changed from the black habit to street clothes

The 1970s kinda limped in. The USA was wearied from the Vietnam War. As Don McClean wrote in American Pie, the dream had died; a new generation would need to carry on the fight for justice, equality, social change. But the young adults of the 1970s didn't have the remarkable political and social figures that the 1960s had. MLk, JFK and Bobby were dead. Many top Rock 'n Rollers had died from overdoses or airplane tragedies. If the kids from the '50s had been holding a collective breath that was forced into balloons held by the kids of the 1960s, then the young of the 1970s just didn't know what to do to keep the balloons afloat. The balloons lacked direction... sputtered... deflated... until the wind just swept all those lofty ideas away. The youth of the '70s benefited from the ideals of the '60s youth, yet we also paid a price, caught between adults' "I told them so" and a certain cynicism we couldn't overcome. Kids in the '70s had access to drugs, but only as if riding coattails of the 1960s' ghosts. All the mighty words seemed to have already been said; the country (establishment) had been pushed as far as it would go. The "pigs" (police) of the '60s were, seemingly, back in charge (even though many had been the counter-culture of the 1960s). The Age of Aquarius and the Both Sides of clouds and clowns were musical, but not very applicable by the mid-70s. The 'real world' intruded too much: veterans coming home to jeers instead of cheers; MIAs and POWs thought to have been left behind; political corruption; overseas leaders to be feared; and, the fear leftover from the 1960s that at any time some overseas dictator would blow up the world with an atomic bomb. So, while many in the 1970s wished and wanted to carry on the goals and fights of the 1960s.... we instead just sang along to "Bye, bye, American Pie, drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry... Good old boys drinking whiskey and rye singing 'This will be the day that I die...this will be the day that I die..."

Yet, most of us teens from the mid-70s carried on as though life was "normal": we graduated HS, went to college or got jobs; got married, had kids; started pension funds... and wondered, "Is this all there is?"