67 Vintage Photos of Life in America during the 1960s 

Rude

who asked doug?

Haha! You tell ‘‘em Doug! I was born in 57! It was a GOOD year! Peace and Blessings to you and your family from Australia.

@@wendyryder2708 he is just sharing photos who cares? he didn't claim taking any of them

Take your meds, Doug.

I agree I was born in 1959, and as kid too, 👍👍

Agree also I'm 67 Those were the good Ole days

Born in 61. Going outside to play all day…. Nothing better.

...and going swimming in the lake during summer, & ice skating during winter, attending parades the whole town would show up for, climbing trees & throwing crabapples at the train tracks, drive-ins to see Clint Eastwood films, walking to UDF for ice cream cones, etc.,etc... 🥰 the "good ole days" in my opinion!

1958 here same thing for me. Great childhood!

no debbie downers--they just had a suckee life--we had a great life then

@@dethray1000 Exactly!

Better than worsted Now I think what about you?

I agree 100%

...and food tasted better too. Before they started replacing fat with sugar based chemicals into everything we eat now. 🤢🤮

It's not their fault😠😠

Also born in '49. Lots of great things to remember and lots of terrible things, too. Nostalgia is all good and well but it wasn't all that idyllic for everyone. One way it was vastly better is that we had not yet been attacked by the scourge of social media.

We did!!

Born in 1946 and for the most part it was a lot better than today.@@ConwayTwitter

@@ConwayTwitter TY I didn't want to ask but I couldn't figure it out for myself. :D

Yep 50 here and the country I grew up in is in my rear view mirror never to return.

For me and my brother TV was our babysitter.

Graduated hs in '63. You are so right. Grew up in the Miami, Fl area but did get to some of the east coast places depicted here. '64 World's Fair. NY beaches. Old NE towns. No 24/7 news to destroy our country. So nice then.

I was born in 1953, and I have 3 siblings and the last was born in 1958. I remember a lot of these times. I turned 13 in 1966. I still remember a lot of the old stores. My sister and I wish we could step back into the 1960's for a vacation from all this turmoil.

@@dianewilson5516 You really can't be serious. No turmoil in the 60s? Read a history book of that time.

And the cars!! Masterpieces on wheels..

Well stated. Note none are overweight and not a tattoo in sight. People were happy and took pride in their country A great time to grow up in America which had a common denominator of faith, family, and traditional values.

I would go back in a heart beat as well.

@@atlanticantiquesltd7372 I'm right behind you...before the internet, you could only see stuff like this (if you were lucky) in someone's garage or perhaps in a library or an attic. All of us can go "home again" with the click of a button.

Me too Kathy!

YES BUT THE LINES ARE GOING TO BE LONG 😬😬😬😳😳😳

So would I

There was a segment on 69 min. or one of those shows a couple decades called, "The Malling of America". That and big box stores were are the downfall of small business.

What small town ?

@@groodman1 Beaver Falls... west of Pittsburgh. And Eastvale, which was even smaller!

I was 11 in 62 grown up in San Diego and it was wonderful great times I miss it

The surface is simple. Human life is never simple.

@@BlueBeeMCMLXI because we make it ridiculously difficult.

Me, too!

I was 10 in 62 too!

I was born in 1956. The 1960's were the best years of MY life. Sometimes I don't want to live in these times. It's a big fake and phone world.

I'm a 1954 baby, too. It was a good era.

I'm enjoying the good looking cars in the pics.

@@anthony6631 I know, I'm a 58 baby and I so miss those days too. Never used to think about growing old until recently because of how fast time is flying by, so fast it's scary.

Born in 1954 also!… loved growing up with all the kids in the neighborhood, roller skating with clunky steel skates, that clamped on our saddle shoes ( don’t lose your skate key!😂)…and riding my pink Shwinn bicycle, on our sidewalks in the neighborhood, first thing in the morning in the summer, until the street lights came on at night!..All the neighborhood mom’s would watch all of us, wherever you landed at lunch time is where you ate, as long as you called your mom first!😊… And another body’s mom could scold you if needed!🫣…We were so lucky and did not even know it!

I want to double thumbs up your comment.👍🏽👍🏽

So many have mentioned being home by the time the streetlights came on. This is something we all remember and that alone always reminds me of the joy of being a little kid then.

Definitely the best of times.

I agree with your comment watching this video stirred so many beautiful memories that I had tears rolling down my cheeks those were the best times that will never be again so sad

Going somewhere? Like Viet Nam, race and civil rights riots, assassinations, Jim Crow laws, women as second class citizens, etc. etc?

At least illegal back-alley abortions are coming back again. Maybe this channel can feature some photos of that? Just like the ones from back in the day.

@@mikimike No, not like the ones back in the day. There are lots more kinds of pregnancy-preventing birth control available now, so there should be less call for abortion. There was actually reliable birth control in the 1960s, just not routinely available to single women.

@Mickey Finn Finn...you may want to re-watch...the shot of Chicago - at about the 8:13 mark shows a pretty shabby and grimy street that didn't look all that good.....

@@HawklordLI Yes, all of those things happened. And there were many aspects of American life decades ago that I believe were better. For instance, we did not have an obesity epidemic. People were physically active. People were better communicators. People read books. Our cities were much cleaner. Yes, there were bad things. But there were good things as well.

Yep. It wasn't perfect, but it was good.

@@jameswood231So much better than today.

and kept God in their lives.

Likewise on this side of the pond 🇬🇧

That is EXACTLY what I regularly tell people. You can never point out an exact point when the peak of a civilization was reached and the inevitable downhill slide begins but a symbolic event or date (the assassination of Julius Caesar or Napoleon invading Russia) can be used to generalize. Nov. 22, 1963 will be the date I will always use. Too long to elaborate on here but for instance, I graduated HS in 1964 - my brother from the same HS in 1970. We went out into already different worlds. In 1966 the Texas Tower massacre was the biggest event since Kennedy and was talked about for weeks. Now we have the same or worse on a weekly basis. My wife and I worked for a glorious glamourous business called Pan American World Airways. I was just watching news reports of the airports full of people howling to get onto the cattle car airways. Glad we had the best of it - the worst is yet to come.

yeah i agree the neocons,deep state killed jfk ,we got the vietnam cesspool,watts riots in '65 and never been the same...sucks

I always say innocence died in the Woodstock mud. And grunge arose.

Glad you made it home from VN. Thank you for going to serve like the WWII era generation before you. Thank You and Welcome Home.

Same for me. Born in '52. A safer better world then. Didn't worry about trick or treating or all us kids being out alone. Also remember the drive in movies

I was born in 1960. I can relate. Also lost both my parents; my dad in 2001 and mom in 2012. Kinda makes you feel like an old orphan. I too can remember things from age 3. It's funny, because it's like snapshots or images of certain things; and usually it's just ordinary things...nothing special. Rather odd to have memories from such a young age, huh? So sorry for your losses. Just glad we can still cherish our memories.

I was born in '63 as well. I lost my Mom Carlene in 2006 and Dad Johnny in 2011. They were married in 1959 Flint, Michigan. Those times were good in many ways.

I also remember 12 cent comic books, 30 cent gasoline, 10 cent candy bars, 50 cent movie tickets, Miracle Twin Drive In, Halo burger, Walli's, A&W and Coney Island restaurants, Hamady Bros. grocery stores, paper grocery sacks (with real cashiers and baggers who would pack your groceries, push them out to your car and load them) 10 cent popcorn vending machines, full service gas station attendants, 15 cent McDonald hamburgers, 15 cent Coke vending machines, the coolest cars on the planet, pretty girls in hot pants and go go boots. And Uncle Walter on the CBS nightly news. Downtown Flint Michigan 1960's Christmas lights. Kresges, Smith Bridgmans, Sears, Penneys. Memories. Mom and Dad. Miss you both.

I was thinking too about how great it looked during Christmas in the 60's. 👍

At age 68, I feel like I should be in a museum.

@@analogman9697 Remember in biblical times guys lived to the age of 200 years and longer. Your a young buck take advantage. 😉

AND YOU WERE AN ENTITLED WHITE CHILD so it was not so nice for many many MANY others

Thanks for the memory...My boyfriend (a high school teacher & coach) bought a beautiful brand new Porsche 911 for $7,ooo in the early seventies! 🙂

Yeah what's this world coming to

I even remember gas wars when you could get a gallon of gas for *$.29!*

you were an entitled white child - it wasn't so happy for people of color - active lynchings, Jim Crow, back ally abortions KKK shall we go on?

We have David. I hate this timeline.

Well the middle class paid for the banking mortgage crisis in 2009, after that economy growth was 365% till 2021. Yet nothing of that went back to the middle class that saved the economy. Let that show of greed by the wealthy sink in.

Ever since LBJ's "Great Society".

@@steveluth3139 - The FED keeping interest rates low let hedge funds borrow money at almost zero percent to buy up all the land. With interest rates rising they will now pay! Cheer on higher interest rates!

@@rdred8693 I am so glad I was born in 1940 and got to live in a better time!!

I cried and laughed during the presentation. I was so anxious to grow up, not knowing how things were going to turn out! Looking at those cars large and colorful. Thanks for the memories. Beverly Nur

1963 here.

1950 here, I was able to fully experience the entire decade, a really great time.

1966 here 😊

@@deborahrichardson3731 Started driving in 1966. 👍

💖👍

Please take me with you! There's no place like home.

With you .

Take me

Yeah, what is a service station attendant? Lol. I miss those days/and the people who helped shape my life.

Check the oil!

That sign said 30 cents! I filled my car the other day & it was $75. I asked if they could clean my back window & they didn’t have any window cleaner 🥲

yeah and i worked in a gas station in the 60ties while in high school--no self service--you washed peoples windshield,check oil ,tires if they wanted it--bought my first car 35 bucks!! growing up in socal was the best then other then the air pollution,hated it...

My late husband would pull up to Ethel, give her two dollars and she would "polish his white cap" after she pulled his dipstick!

They are probably not restored. I am quite sure they are 35mm slides. Slide pictures were always the best quality and were full color way back. My family always took slide pictures and I digitized them several years ago. I have two crystal clear color slide pictures of my Dad, uncle and grandfather from June, 1940. Full, natural clear color. Look like modern pictures taken yesterday. Treasures.

Oh, we had homeless - they were called “hobos” and they rode the rails…(I was born in 1943)…

i grew up in Pasadena,Calif-50ties,60ties--we never locked our doors either!!

0:49 0:50 ,

Well, yes. masculine and feminine roles WERE clearly defined. And that served certain people well. But many people who didn't fit in so neatly were marginalized, ostracized, bullied and even criminalized.

@@renzo6490 Yes. We can leave the strict gender roles in the past. It did nothing but marginalize more than half the population and caused a lot of unwanted forced marriages and pregnancies. It was also very financially limiting for women. I can remember when the employment choices for women were, housewife, Nurse, and Secretary. That crap was horrible for independent, intelligent women.

God was dead then as well.

I remember in 1968, they were having a gas war, and gas was 20.9 cents a gal.

Same here.

@@atlanticantiquesltd7372 As long as you were white.....

@@billiebobbienorton2556 Obviously you were not around in the 1950s & 1960s. BTW, what makes you think that I am white? You are the type of person that everything centers around racism of some sort. You must be a very unhappy person and always the turd in the punch bowl.

@@billiebobbienorton2556 No, not as long as you were white. There were plenty of black communities across the United States before Johnson's Great Society with low crime, clean streets, and a stable family life. And there were many black congressmen and business leaders as well. But we now tell ourselves that the worst kind of discrimination was rampant and that blacks were all but starving in the street from coast to coast. This is a lie. I myself had black friends growing up in the Bronx, NYC. Their neighborhoods were clean and safe. Every Sunday, the kids would go to church with their families. The generational ties were very strong. The black kids dressed just as well as their white peers in school, and many dressed much better. In my neighborhood, the poorest people were the Irish. There was actually a Hebrew language course one could take in many NYC public high schools back then. Although most of the students in the Hebrew classes were Jewish, there were blacks as well who decided to take the course. I remember a few who would proudly wear an honors lapel pin after having completed the full four-year course. Teenagers wore lapel pins? Yes, they did. Because that's how kids dressed back then. We wore slacks, button-down shirts, ties, and jackets to school. In the colder weather were wore vests. Our shoes were polished to a mirror shine. In fact, every morning in elementary school, the teacher would walk up and down the rows of students in the classroom to determine that each child was clean and neat and ready for another school day. No one wanted to be called out for slovenliness, scuffed shoes, or dirty ears. We all cared. Most of us were from poor families, but we cared. There were many redeeming features about life in America before President Kennedy was assassinated. But once he was murdered, many people lost faith in the country and in each other. Gradually, the self-pride, the formality, and the proper way people carried themselves all began to disappear. Eventually, the slob culture took over. Just some input from my own life experience.

@Liam Sandal You are right. I grew up in the city of Chicago on the south side where it was all integrated. Things were not fair for women or blacks. But blacks, like other Americans had Union jobs in the massive manufacturing base we had in America and could afford homes and wives could afford to not work. It was a middle class life. There was misogyny and racism and it sucked (I’m female) but people were happier than now because people exist within repressed cultures all over the world but still manage to be happy and raise families. So many Americans are just angry all the time now. Angry, rude and violent. It’s a different world. Scary to think that younger people today will look back on their childhood era (now) with nostalgia.

Went to Lake George with my mom and dad in the 60s too. Still go there with my grown girls. Miss the old times.

grew up on socal beaches--always safe,fun--it was the best life in 50ties,60ties==when the vietnam war came ,jfk killed it went to hell

I agree. The world had a different sweeter smell back then. The smell of mom-and-pop bakeries is one that I always miss. You just don't find a real bakery anymore.

@@nancywhitaker5096 wow , I didn’t even think of that.

Speak for yourself…hahaha

Born 1954. My sister 1960. But my brother in 1949. Such cool music during his teen years. I called him Wally Cleaver.

@@scottishhellcat Well, at least you didn't call him "Lumpy" (Clarence Rutherford) LOL

@@AFmedic thank goodness he didn't look or act like Lumpy or that skinny smart assed dude. I can't remember his name.

@@AFmedic thank goodness he didn't look or act like Lumpy or that skinny smart assed dude. I can't remember his name.

@@scottishhellcat If you are talking about that trouble maker who who would talk so super polite the Ward & June - that would be Eddie Haskell.