The sixties?
In 2009 will be the fortieth annivesary of “the end of the sixties” and people who were in their twenties then will now be approaching old age. The generation that went through all the changes of the sixties are getting on a bit, even if like Ronnie Woods of the Rolling Stones they still have it in them to run off with lucious eighteen year old girls!You could be still surfing, running a bank, doctors lawyers teachers writers hookers (!) retired reformed or still doing the dumb things now that you so enjoyed doing then. Nonetheless, we’re sitting in the “Waiting Room” of life, and some of us are fixing to do our best to remember what the hell happened back then before our memories fail. The study of recent times, well relatively recent times, is known as Contemporary History and those of us who lived as young people through the sixties are now primary sources for the Historian’s craft. What do YOU remember of those days? Of the first trip you took, the first time you realised that ‘the past’ was not providing answers for the future and that the world needed a ‘fresh look’ at its institutions? Did YOU drop out? Or were you drafted and forced to serve in ‘Nam? Did you “make love not war”, or did you volunteer for the army navy or air-force. Maybe you had to serve in the National Guard? Maybe you were travelling in Asia or Europe or America. Did you live in a Commune, an alternative life-style kind of a place? Did you go Vegan? There’s a million questions, BUT the only person that can answer them and talk about the experiences of your life is YOU.The memories of the sixties are too precious to leave solely to the ministrations of professional historians, I feel that ordinary people need to have a space to air what THEY remember of the past. On my web-site there’s a space called The Vault.. write to me there. Share what you remember and I’ll share it with the rest of the world. Some of my own experiences of the sixties are detailed in my book “YCAGWYW” and if you want a guide to 60’s experiences there would be a place to start.
