Are there many, some, a few of us over 50??

[Trek420]

crazycanuck "1-What were the 50's-60's like?"

well, I was pretty young maybe 3 or 4 but my first memory was being in a little red wagon pulled behind my parents in downtown (was barely a town then) Santa Rosa it was either a tiny anti-war march or a civil rights march. I remember a woman on the sidewalk yelling "go back where you came from!" and thinking "but I am home?"

But also what others sed, simpler time, my Mom worked, but I still "had milk and cookies when I got home". We lived in the country it was a great place to be a kid, we were outside a lot; played in creeks, built forts, fished for crawdads, and close with our neighbors.

Oh growing up in Sonoma County. You think it's pretty now? It was so beautiful.

2 "Did you get to watch them on the ed sullivan show???"

yes

3-"Do i dare ask about the 70's...?"
I had just moved into the city, Oakland in about 1975 or 6 to share a Victorian flat with my college sweetie and two other women. You can ask, but the 70's are a blur In a good way sort of.

I found work, went back to school, became re-acquainted with my passion for art and also found a great community. In those days I was working my way through college as a cook, and I'd met some great friends through that work. I know friends come and go but these guys: Bryan, Markham, Tom, Nikho, Rick, Asa....I could go on but I'm getting all misty eyed....really thought I'd grow old with these wonderful men as my friends.

They're all gone and that's why I'll ride in June.

[hibiscus09]

I'll be 45 in September. I remember loving Bobby Sherman, Donny Osmond and the Jackson 5.

[dachshund]

Ditto with the SAHM.
I vividly remember when Kennedy was killed, and the funeral. Then his brother sometime later. But I didn't pay attention to politics until the Vietnam war, which was a big part if the late 60's into the 70's.

Yeah, the Monkees. They even had a TV show. Then there was the British Invasion. The 70's were kind of an extension of the "sexual revolution", in my opinion. It was kind of like, now that we've evolved, what do we really want to do? We went from Ed Sullivan to Laugh-In. Feminism was gathering steam when I started college in '74. Remember that tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs?

Honestly, though, the music was the big deal for me. Hearing songs by the Beatles, Stones, etc., on the radio when they first came out. Those are good memories!

[Quillfred]

1-What were the 50's-60's like? Ike, Kennedy, cold war, cuban missile crisis, marilyn monroe,the films..(hitchcock..!!), ritchie valens/the big bopper, nixon, etc...

A:60's: Kennedy - kind of like the Clinton era but we were more naive life was good. Prosperity felt permanent. Still recall that horrible announcement...Cold War/Cuban Missle - getting under my desk in school to practice for a nuclear attack Nixon - blech! I wanted to be a hippie when I grew up. I lived in Marin Contry (north of San Fran) and we would hitch-hike to Sausalito and Mill Valley to buy Fillmore and Avalon music posters and slogan buttons. Got to see Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead and knew that was IT. Peace and Love! Unaware of the drug problems occuring. Pretty sheltered by my conservative parents --a good thing Films: Few and far between. They were an event. Saw them over and over and over.....

2-What did you think of elvis, the beatles, mamas & the papas, the beach boys-Which beatle was your fave? Did you get to watch them on the ed sullivan show???
A: Beatles! I was in 3rd grade when they were first on Ed Sullivan and I wanted to watch another show instead. But my brother won out and I came around quickly. I loved John, then Ringo, then George, now Paul--finally got to see Paul-first time about 4 years ago. Worth every penny. I came to love the Beach Boys over last few years. Got to sit 3rd row to hear Brian Wilson's "Smile". I don't think I've ever heard a better sound quality in a concert.

3-Do i dare ask about the 70's...?
A: You can ask but More like a slow extension of the 60s until late 70s and Disco hit and I moved to Seattle/came out in 1978. Polyester baby with big collars, Yeah!

[DebW]

I just discovered the downside to being 50. I'm at work and I can't find my glasses and I have no idea if I was wearing them when I rode to work this morning. But I do remember getting dust in my eye on my ride. Maybe that's a clue. I wish I could just wear my glasses all the time, but the bottom of the bifocal only works at less than 16 inches and the top at more than 3 feet. Luckily, those (bifocals, memory) are my only complaints about old age so far, unless I'm forgetting a few.

[emily_in_nc]

I'll be 45 in September. I remember loving Bobby Sherman, Donny Osmond and the Jackson 5.

I turned 45 in April. Ditto all of the above music loves!

My first bike was a upright-handlebar blue Schwinn. I'll never forget finding it under the Christmas tree and being soooooo happieeeeeee as a kid! Second bike was much cooler - pink sparkly frame, banana seat, high-rise handlebars and streamers! Oh, and a white basket with flowers!

It's been all downhill since then....

Emily

[Denise223]

I'm 45 & 1/2..... !!

pink sparkly frame, banana seat, high-rise handlebars and streamers! Oh, and a white basket with flowers! emily_in_nc

I had one of those, too!! I don't remember having flowers on my basket, though... The worst memory I have on my banana seat bike was riding over a curb, (in most cases, usually not a problem)....but, my front tire was loose.......... I & my "girlie bits" landed on the bar -- I can't even explain in words the PAIN!!! OMG!!!!
This happened when I was 8 or 9, and I can still remember seeing STARS!!!!

Music memories --- Bobby Sherman, The Carpenters, David Cassidy, Donny Osmond.... Posters all over my room!!

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 4 days before my 3rd birthday, and I still remember that day today. My mother, brother (he was 5) & I were strolling (I was in a carriage), down Moody Street & that's where we heard the news. I still remember the silence, the tears...even at that age. It was a very, very sad day!!

Denise

[PAP103]

51 yesterday. I loved (and still love) the Beatles, the Who, Rolling Stones, etc. I spent the 60s going to school, the beach and family camping. I remember Kennedy being shot but was mostly oblivious to the world outside my own. I was in high school in the 70s and don't remember much. The drinking age was 18 and so was I!

[Quillfred]

51 yesterday.

Hope you had a great day!

[Quillfred]

and Bike Goddess, you RULE!!!! Hands Down!!!!!

[withm]

Back in the 60s I got sucked into the folk music thing and I still like to listen to the old Bob Dylan songs, and a million other folk groups that very few people ever heard of, even still. In fact I just got the new Bruce Springsteen CD of "The Seeger Sessions" and can't stop playing it. His versions of "The Erie Canal" and "Shenandoah" really take me back. Sigh.

College in the late 60s-early70s was a weird time - Kent State - drugs - Vietnam. No cell phones. When the drug culture hit the protesters it was a veritable sea change. General apathy took over. "Like, wow, man."

Worse. No computers! When I went to graduate school many years later at least I was able to do SOME research online via FTP or dial-up directly to the university library. I had a whole phone book of computer phone numbers and a screechy 1200K modem.

[Trek420]

withm "I just got the new Bruce Springsteen CD of "The Seeger Sessions" and can't stop playing it. His versions of "The Erie Canal" and "Shenandoah" really take me back. Sigh."

ooh, must get that. Not sure how many Pete Seeger concerts I went too, he's incredible, there are two I remember vividly one in the redwoods and the other in Berekely. Also think my Dad once met Paul Robeson. I never heard him perform live. Before my time.

and I agree, BG rules! I wanna be her when I grow up.

[Lise]

and Bike Goddess, you RULE!!!! Hands Down!!!!!

Absolutely. 20 years from now I hope to have built up to the same kind of annual mileage! Thanks for telling us.

I liked those old phones, by the way. I liked dialing a rotary dial. You knew you were doing something. Nobody got called by mistake!

[salsabike]

What an interesting thread this has turned out to be.

I was born in '53. At my 10th birthday party we saw a tape of Jack Ruby shooting Harvey Oswald. I have the same memory of the elementary school principal coming to my class the week before to say that Kennedy had been shot. It was as close as you get to a collective national mourning--everyone was devastated.

We did the get-under-desk-atomic-bomb thing at school (my, how silly). We watched Twilight Zone, the greatest. That Was The Week That Was. Laugh-In, Mod Squad, Room 222, 77 Sunset Strip.

Re the 60s: I couldn't have asked for a better time to come of age. It was exciting and inspiring (in the early days, anyway), politically, musically, socially. 70s and disco--sort of a mixed bag. Early 80s and Reagan--ugh. AIDS in the 80s--lost a whole generation of both dancer and psychologist friends.

I liked George, by the way, and yes, my sister and I watched The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Never an Elvis fan---always a 60s rock fan, also soul music. First concert: Sonny and Cher, at age 12 1/2. Saw Jimi Hendrix two years later in a small local club. Saw Janis Joplin, saw the Doors.

Bike Goddess DOES rule!

[Lise]

....I could go on but I'm getting all misty eyed....really thought I'd grow old with these wonderful men as my friends.

They're all gone and that's why I'll ride in June.

I know.

Remember the first time you saw the NAMES quilt? Trek, you probably saw it long before we did, out here on the prairie. I went down to Navy Pier, when it was just a bunch of empty warehouses, not the carnival it is now. Standing before the quilt of names and names and names and names...with tears streaming down my face for all the lost friends, and all of us who had lost them, and thinking, "try and tell me we don't love each other now."
.................................
The 70s' happiest memories for me were movies. Jesus Christ Superstar (saw that one 13 times in the theater), STARWARS!, Saturday Night Fever. I went to Peru as an exchange student in 1977, when they were ruled by a military dictatorship. That was interesting!
.................................
I recently got to explain to a friend what that "Fallout Shelter" symbol on a school building meant. "You could go in there and be safe from nuclear fallout.", I told her. "How?" she asked. "By hiding under the desk." We had a good laugh at that one. Oh yes, we would also practice hiding in the bathrooms. I wondered how it was that she didn't know this, as we're about the same age. She reminded me that her dad was in the military, "The entire base was a fallout shelter." Oh, yeah.