h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If you can remember the sixties you weren't there? I can remember long stretches and I was a student for about half of them. Definitely remember taking bets on whether we'd be around untilY2K (didn't call it that then) Unfortunately the stakeholder died, as hoped, "before I'm 30"

Hi! looked like a good place to ! I was born in the sixties, so my memories are rather vague. One month before JFK was shot, actually. My parents lived in a small town, the majority of which still believe that all the 'hippy' stuff was/is just a myth! Read your piece in the parents forum, and it made me think about how fast the kids are growing, Well, you can read it there, if you like.
Please, feel free to correct ant grammatical/spelling errors.
Luna

Thank you again - I presume "ant" = "any"
I have just had a sumptious - and glittery- kaftan made over the border in China, and am thinking of buying a long wig to go with it for the millennium party. Not sure my feet are now possible bare, but I do assure your doubting acquaintances that I went barefoot for most of 1964 (in Leeds at that. Spent a fortune on soap)

But why? Aren't feet -meant- to be in harmony with the earth (ie: dirt)? Soap is so establishment! Get with the groove, man!

Leeds in the early sixties was extraordinarily dirty Before the clean air acts the sulphur content of the air was enough to dye the white stripe in the university scarf yellow within one month of purchase.It was also extraordinarily cold. Can't remember if it was 61/2 or 62/3 when it froze every night from October first to March 31st. Not only did the inside of the windows freeze, but my breath froze on the wallpaper at the side of the bed. All this barefootery was rather foolhardy, but my feet still have straight toes, even if they are too wide to get into anything fashionable these days.

Given that I have just realised how close I am to being 30, this must seem quite a while ago...is 2000AD living up to the expectations then?

30? Long ago? Hrmph!

Actually, no... We thought our Revolution would actually -mean- something by now.. with results and everything. Instead, the lessons learned are quickly forgotten and far too many would like to think that those social changes never happened... The far left wing rears its ugly head again.

'Nonnie

Since we don't have access to a parrallel universe which didn't have the 60s, it is difficult to quantify the changes resulting from that decade.
I think that the hippy movement had a significant impact in changing peoples attitude to war...shortening the Vietnam war and making foreign incursions less likely. Some confort, maybe, for the olds?

Contrary to popular belief, the sixties were about more than just the Viet Nam war.

'Nonnie

I am much more worried about the far right's ugly head. It depresses me that we're still fighting the same battles - on race, abortion, health provision for the poor, pollution of natural resources. Most people still judge others, particularly young women, by what they look like and kids are still shooting each other all over the world. My personal circumstances are nothing like I thought they would be, but in the absence of a parallel universe, I can't tell whether this is a good thing or not

That you are here to have personal circumstances at all is a good thing, believe me. That you have the time to reflect on the question is a wonderful thing. And to be able to discuss it freely with the whole rest of the world here-in is just bloody marvelous!
As one who remembers every minute of the sixties with crystal clarity (even the multicoloured swirly bits) and continues to live there in a dreamy cloud of 'don't worry,be happy' I am always seriously amused by those who wonder what was accomplished. I am sure for example that those early training exercises you had for walking barefoot on frozen floors has stood you well in your later travels. Did I get it right that you are somewhere in the Himalayas now?

My head yes, my body alas not. Kathmandu is a spendid Nepali restaurant round the corner to which I should be delighted to take you if you make it to Hong Kong.

Nocandu just this mo'

Is Hong Kong still using those Candu reactors for power generation or have the Commies whisked them away and plugged y'all into the mains from Peking.

A lot of power, most of the food and nearly all the water comes from over the border - odd that we should still have one(with strict immigration controls)But nothing this side has been closed down. The amount of power needed to keep all these high-rise lifts in motion is colossal

A lot of power, most of the food and nearly all the water comes from over the border - odd that we should still have one(with strict immigration controls)But nothing this side has been closed down. The amount of power needed to keep all these high-rise lifts in motion is colossal

This may be old hat to you but I just became aware in a stunning way of just how difficult it is to talk to someone who is already in the middle of tomorrow afternoon. Sheds a whole new light on predestination. Not to mention assumptions.
Have a safe journey at christmas, I think you said it was 23 hours in the air before a long train ride.
Bon voyage!
-wanders off singing 'The Train That Goes To Morrow is a mile upon it's way...' -

Yes, it never gets to be old hat, especially when about to travel round the world the "wrong" way. It's now 06.40GMT, which means it's 2.40pm here on Tuesday 19th . Have a good holiday yourself. I'll be back to plague everyone the first week in January

Also, of course, it destroys any possibility of reading one's horoscope in a daily paper - not that I would, of course

Back to the question "did the 60s achieve anything". Well, yes. From a personal point of view I am definitely grateful that my older sisters fought for feminism. Sure, women tend to earn less than men, but in Western Europe, it is much easier for women to choose economic independence.

I quoted a little ditty the other day
"Whatever we wear, wherever we go,
'yes' means 'yes' and 'no' means 'no'"
to a colleague (we were going to refuse to do unbudgeted work for a client).

I described it as a "little feminist ditty" and he replied "my god, I hate feminisits". Well, he is a 30 year old all American boy, so I guess feminism means something different to him, than it does to me. To him I it probably means Political Correctness, and vindictive self righteousness; to me it means striving for rights and recognition.

When I look around me at my friends, from 60 to 16, and I see that we are doin' ok. I am proud of us. And we have options and choices our mothers and grandmothers never had.

So sisterhood was powerful. Thank you.

Incidentally it was the winter of 62/63. I know that, because the winter before I was a bump, and that winter I was a baby.

PS - when I hear about the brutality to women in the 3rd world, I realise that we still have a long long way to go. And I also know that the economic choices I talk about are only available to educated women in the west - but that is a start.

Serious stuff - Sorry

PPS - I liked the 70s too, I remember them better

To a 30 year old American male 'feminist' means ball breaking lesbian. The paternalistic white old-boy system has deliberately allowed the more radical elements far too much air time and they in turn have given feminism a bad name. The same tactic worked against the flower power hippies and the Black Panthers. In America, where freedom of speech is the holy of holies, you can't suppress or shut people up, so they control 'who' gets the attention. They can earn Brownie points for being so free and liberal by giving the highest flying radicals the spotlight. The wierder the 'spokesperson' the more they can discredit the rank and file of any new movement. It's the old give'em enuff rope and they'll get tangled routine. So today the mass market audience knows that peaceloving hippies are drugcrazed, feminists are lesbians who should be feared, and all blacks carry guns and would shoot you without provocation. These hurtful stereotypes have been created in the name of free speech.