“Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end, we’d sing and dance, forever and a day…..” Mary Hopkins (1968)
Lately I have had the chance to tune into satellite radio and catch all the songs that I loved from the 60’s. Bopping down the road, radio blaring, my head is whipping back and forth as I sing along with all the old hits. Anybody watching me from another car might be concerned that I am having some sort of seizure; my lips are pulled back into a rock star grimace and my fists are pounding the steering wheel as I hammer out the 4-4 beat in time to drums and screaming guitars.
Hearing the music I am once again riding a magic carpet with Steppenwolf, convinced I was born to be wild. I am sailing through the sky with Lucy and her diamonds. I cain’t get no respect, along with Aretha or any satisfaction with Mick (but who could?). On the bright side, there are plenty of good vibrations, courtesy of the Beach Boys even if there are sounds of silence coming from Simon and Garfunkle. Oh to be the wild thing that the Troggs were looking for, or the pretty woman that Ray Orbison wants to meet – yes, I believed in magic by the spoonful and regardless of what Sam Cooke said, I never believed a change would ever come.
What were you doing in the 60’s? Do you recall the sounds, the sights, the smells? Yes, the music is unforgettable, but what about the events? This was the decade of JFK, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, racial riots and civil rights movements, the Cuban missile crisis, the Cultural Revolution in China and Mao Tse Tung, global outcries to the Vietnam War, construction of the Berlin Wall, apartheid was alive and well in South Africa. The world was undergoing massive changes and here at home, I was worrying about tie-dyed jeans and whether or not to wear a bra. Yah, real deep.
And of course – boys. Especially one bad boy who was the beck and call of my teen years. HIS beck and call, that is. He would crook a finger, and over I would race. I still get a jolt whenever I smell “Brut” (what else would he wear??) and imagine the rush of adolescent hormones (actually, ANY hormones nowadays would be good!) surging through my body as I recall his wicked smile.
Back in the 60’s there were no worries about tomorrow, no concerns about a recession, no loss, no grief, no regrets. Yes Mary, we’d live the life we choose, and fight and never lose – those were the days, oh yes those were the days.
Lady Boomer 
What a treat to wake up and read your memories of the 60s (which are just like mine) and told so skillfully and full of fun. I might go back just a few years earlier and wonder why must I be a teenager in love, or wonder will he still love me tomorrow, or give in to you don’t have to say you love me just be close at hand, or buying into big girls don’t cry…
What fun.
Yes! My teen years were also lived with a backdrop of music! Thanks for the memories, Bette.
The opening bars of 1963s “He’s a Rebel” by The Crystals put me beside the jukebox in the Curling Club at CFB Petawawa (where I learned that success in sport was possible.) In 1966, “Cherish” by The Association wafted from the speakers of my soon-to-be- boyfriend’s new Pontiac Parisienne convertible when he picked me up on Parkdale Avenue in Ottawa. We drove that car to Quebec City for our honeymoon two years later.
John Denver helped rock my babies to sleep in the 70s, and Neil Diamond serenaded nighttime feedings. And as those babies grew, our soundtrack changed from Raffi’s Willoughby Wallaby Woo to AC DC and Queen and my husband’s “turn that damn music down.”
The house is quieter most of the time now. But, when one of those great old songs arrives bearing the gift of a memory, I crank the volume to “Max.”
I listen to an “oldies” station because I love to hear all those great songs. Gee, I’m not so sure that I like to be known as an “oldie” but what the heck, it is great music!!
I know what you mean! I can still recall the day I was listening to the radio, and the announcer was talking about “the oldies”…..and to my utter shock, I realized he was talking about songs from the 60’s and 70’s!! THOSE couldn’t be oldies – they were hits from MY younger years! But it was true!