What Baby Boomers Feel About The 1960s. Show 6.
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- The time is 1989. I was making a six part television series on the 1960s primarily focused on the people who lived through it and what they remembered. While there were a few "famous folk" in the series, I focused most of my time on what I call baby boomer ordinary citizens. This video presents the final show in the series, the sixth show, where people who live through that time describe what changed as a result of the 1960s and how they felt about it as 1990 approached. They remember growing up, clothing and hairstyles, marijuana and other drugs, being young and feeling free, hippies, political radicals, antiwar and other demonstrations including women's rights, gay rights, Indian Native American rights, physically disadvantaged rights, among others.
The style I adopted was to let people talk and what I found so often was that if I set up the interview correctly telling folks that this was very important to the future and that they were speaking to the future and that if they were nervous, it was good to be nervous, provoked those being interviewed to just say what they thought and felt without a lot of editing or interference by me and other members of my crew doing these recorded interviews.
Subscribers have asked me about how my team and I got people to be so honest and real. Part of the answer is that people were waiting to tell their children a bit more about themselves and to create their own legacy by recording their stories.
In PBS, the network I was making this television series for, asked me to make it from the point of view of the children of the baby boomers - in other words to tell stories that helped boomer parent’s children to understand a bit more about their parents and about that time.
What interested me and still interests me most of the social movements of the 1960s more than the political movements. I felt that society changed more socially than it did politically and I still feel that way.
So many of my subscribers and other viewers who have watched clips from the series, make the point that for them, the behaviors and attitudes and changes in the 60s went too far and did damage to the future, to the America that we are living in today. I don't disagree but I present this video as a portrait of what those who I filmed felt had changed for them during the decades since they were young.
Before my series aired on television, there was another series on the 1950s & 1960s titled Eyes On The Prize, which had presented the experience black Americans felt and lived through during those times. So I focused my series mostly (not exclusively) on the rising middle class, on the tens of millions of Americans who moved into suburbs, on the children of those people and what they experienced growing up in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Baby Boomers Flash Back To Growing Up In The 1950-1960s. ua-cam.com/video/_rTuPEdlhQs/v-deo.html
In my 70s now, joined the military a year after high school because I had no direction, got out after two, became a hippie (without getting into hard drugs), settled into a medical career that the military trained me in, kept my hippie 'flower power' mentality throughout life and became a philanthropic medical professional volunteering much of my time in helping others. Staunchly independent, It hasn't been a monetarily lucrative life, but it has been rewarding nonetheless. Thanks for posting these lovely memories David.🌹
✌ 🌹⚡
Thank YOU! Youre awesome 😎...I mean I'm not David...I'm just an ol granny...but I think you're awesome .
Dr Casey those few lines are indeed very touching. Heartfelt thanks for your ethics, hard work & dedication.
@@riverraven7 from one grandmother to another, I agree with you 100%. You said it all very well. TY
The world needs to hear more about you
Guess I am one of the lucky ones. Born in 1950, loved the 60's. Grew up in California, got out of H.S in 1968 went in to the military, survived came home married my high school sweetheart, 8 kids 18 grandchildren, still married to the same beautiful woman for 48 years. Been my privilege to walk through life at her side. Great video.
peace.
cliché
Yeah I definitely was not around for that time, not even close. But I have to say these people seem miserable
sounds like a great life
Good for you! Now back to the reality of the 99% -from someone born in the 80s
I was born in 1949, we had no computers or cell phones, which meant we socialized face to face. Life was good, great music lots of gatherings…my life was good, got married at 16 & still together, both in our 70’s!….Motown was great! I never looked like a Hippie, but my mind was, loved them! ♥️🌺🌸🌼🪸🌻🌹☘️🩵 Proud To Be A Boomer!👍🩷💞🌸👙💖
Thank you, David Hoffman Filmmaker, for another look back at our wonder years. I wasn’t born until 1961, but born into a military family and with birth defects. My feet were backwards so had to be broken & reversed, although babies couldn’t be sedated. My heart was also defective so my parents were told my life expectancy was 1-5 years, but I’m now 60. My childhood was of the hospital, school work staying caught up in the hospital and welcoming Vietnam Veterans home. My grandfather was a blacksmith/Cherokee medicine man. He made braces for me to learn to walk in, although medical doctors said I could never, but Grandpa was right. Was taught to love God, our country, family and everyone else in that order. Love, instead of money, was the key element of a happy healthy life. Thank you for your beautiful reminder. :)
This brought tears to my eyes. Your grandpa sounds like an unforgettable person. Thank you for sharing ♥️
@@sadiedavenport my grandfather was very unforgettable, although he left this world when I was only age 7. He instilled in me a thrive to survive. Things he taught me and his words stay with me to this day. Thank you so very much. GBU. :)
@@crystalbelle2349 My Grandparents taught me the most important life lessons I have…and I miss them still.🖤🇨🇦
Thank you for your wisdom and reassurance . My mother taught the same and from 35 years of experience I believe its the right way to live.
I'm in my 70s and it's 2023 now. I do not regret my past Hippie life during the 60s and early 70s. Both positive and negative experiences went in to making me who I am today. I like me. I liked being a Hippie living in a commune. No regrets. At one point I left it behind and joined the conventional culture of America. But inside I was still Hippie. Still am. You probably can't tell by looking. No outwardly indications of it . But I still go to weekend retreats at communes such as the world famous " The Farm " in Summer Town Tennessee which came from San Francisco originally. It keeps me in touch with who I am. In my life I've been spiritual without being religious. I've voted Democrat, Republican, and Independent. I've always helped the poor. Some would call me liberal but I don't see myself that way. Not that I'd be ashamed to be but I'm no purist.I still believe in the things we sat out to do. Yes it ran off the rails here and there but the vision was sound. I still have the vision.
Very cool comment, thanks for sharing. I just had a conversation about one opinion or point of view about how the 60s were the first decade or generation of people who chose to live a different way of life than what the world was used. They challenged the morals and values people were traditionally brought up with. They dared to try new things not worried whether or not people's feelings would be hurt or being disrespectful to those who believed that their way was the only right way to live. They didn't care about whether or nkt their choices came with any consequences because they made these choices without bad intentions. That I must say is impressive. But I'm concerned with those who arent capable to consider how these choices may have affected society negatively. When you think your shit dont stink you love with a rash. Lol ☮️✌️
In rewatching this film I'm struck by how many of the people in the interviews seem to speak with regrets or feel they need to critique themselves. Of course this film was during the Reagan era and a Conservative wave was sweeping the nation so respondents may have felt pressured to comply accordingly. Not me. In fact the focus of the film itself almost seems to speak with regrets of it's subject. I would disagree with that intent. I've never viewed those days with a negative or overly critical point of view. I remain unbowed for the most part and feel more was gained then what was lost.
Let's face it...The vast majority of the "hippies"...were not really hippies at all!..Just younger folks, searching for a place in Society...We dropped out, then sold out! People just go through phases of their lives...much ado about not much, really!
2024. I was not really into the drug part but my ethic is still the hippie ethic. Live lightly, at 75 can still sleep on the floor. Beautiful children and grands. Best old hippie partner....
David when I had my accident and suffered a brain injury. I needed to learn language, thought processing and how to walk again. I lost almost everything, my doctor's said I was starting over. The one thing that I didn't lose: My Hippie friends, my memories of my days in San Francisco or nights in Laurel Canyon. So I embraced my memories and the time of my life I felt peace and love. Not
' Flashbacks ' for me ~ a way of life. I didn't become a hippie~ I was born a hippie. Before my injury I had been an ' Artist, a Mountaneer, A Nurse and a White Water guide, as well as a few other things. What I remembered though : Was the Hippie wats of Peace, Love and Compassion~ values I still cherish to this very day. Once again my friend you've knocked it out of the park☮️🕉️
Thank you my friend. I'm grateful you are in my circle of life. Also I'm blessed that you helped facilitate my relationship with Erika. I posted a poem that her ' Soul ' inspired me to write on that video. Blessing's Sent David
@Kingdom Cre8tive I appreciate your encouragement. But in 2008 I suffered a brain injury and had to learn to walk and talk again. I spend my days now writing poetry about a great many different things, peace, love and compassion as well as my time living the life back then. A short example of my poetry :
Inside each of us there
Is Dark and Light.
Some remain Blind
Some have Second Sight...
Ultimately it's our choice that
Determines our Fate.
Do we choose Love or?
Do we choose Hate?
A rather long response, but the bottom line is: I don't know if I have the brain power to do a UA-cam channel. And I live off grid with barely enough power to keep my phone charged. Have a Blessed Life🕉️
I grew up in California in the 1960s. Was there when the whole hippie thing started. In this video ppl seems act like it was a horrible experience. To me it was enlightening, and changed my perception on life in a positive way
I was there in the thick of it, and it significantly shaped me into who I am today, in my 70s.🖤🇨🇦
Seriously, you can’t understand that different people will have different experiences living a similar lifestyle? I thought Hippies were oh so enlightened to everything. 😢
@@Dude0000 who the hell are you. Go troll some one else Snowflake. You missed the whole point. You are a year late on my post
It is sad to see ppl in this video look back & forget what it was like to not be brainwashed. I think the 60s was a wonderful time. I don’t see dirty hippies, I see people standing up for what they believed in. People today need to get in this mindset & stop thinking too much about the negativity or the ugliness they think they see.
@@MatAtMac The Boomers was the most brainwashed EVER. Its exactly that dumb "enlightened" positive mindset that got the World in this mess. The whole World is burning but a Boomer will meditate and try to find himself and just be positive. That is what you call narcissism and selfishness. I give it to you. You had fantastic music. The art sucked like Warhol's tin cans. Just stop blaming younger generations when it is proven that boomers caused 90% of the current mess. Which you cannot hide. We see it in the old movies, ads and in Macro Economics on the charts.
Born in 1950 ... enjoyed the 60's, matured in the 70's, found my life essence in the 80's, raised a family and travelled the country in the 90's, found lazy work in the 2000's, retired in the 10's and now I'm dying in the 70's.
One word to describe the 60's": CONFUSION!
There were a hundred different paths to choose from, and no one had enough experience or true knowledge of how to navigate those choices. So, most baby boomers just stepped into whatever individual scenario that was in front of them at the time ... without having any real idea of where it would lead.
But to realize that the combination of all those choices has led America to where it is now ... is VERY SAD, indeed!
Seems like a good first step to recognize where we went wrong. Can't fix anything if u can't figure out what's broken. Or how it was broken.
It’s 60+ years now since we endured the 60’s and we’re still damaged politically, philosophically and personally. Thanks David for yet another excellent historical video.
I totally agree The last 7 years post Donald Trump is not only damaged us politically it is damaged us psychologically what we don't even know what to believe in anymore Trump has a stouting the very foundations we've always trusted in for 247 years He's divided us instead of United Us He solicits the votes from KKK Neo-Nazis in White Supremacists and his spokesman kellyanne Conway calls Trump's lies alternate realities that 2 + 2 is not 4! It's 4.9 or 3.8 that the world is flat and because he's a celebrity and supposedly a billionaire everybody believes him even though he is lied to the American people more than all the presidents who proceeded him! You're absolutely right We're f***** up!¡
Charles Burgess appears to be a broken and sad man for being a product of the '60s I am a product of the '60s and '50s and I'm a better man for it!
Now we have Terry Northway Who came back to the forbidden City and found the kingdom of God ... Now we have Kate Goodman who thought having ambition and wanting to be married was anti-hippie ... And we have Edna Allen Bredso who is so relieved when the '60s were over ... I was a hippie during the '60s and I lived from South in Encinitas to es far north of San Francisco and what the gentleman and these two ladies experienced or thought the hippie movement was about .... Well all I can say is WRONG!
Whoever told these folks that being a hippie was for everybody it's like saying being a Marine is for everybody or being a pilot or a stewardess or a doctor a surgeon a dentist can't anybody be One ... Holy s*** When it comes to being hippie yes you can & Could ... Everyone was loved and accepted but just because you were loved and accepted that doesn't mean you understood what being a hippie is all about and clearly these people and I strongly believe Mr. Hoffman have no clue of what being a hippie living the hippie life and becoming a full-time communal liver or going back to your roots with a different perspective and being whoever And whatever you want it to be!
When did Earnhardt and the gentleman before him come to understand being hippie means you walk away from opportunity and from bettering yourself We live in a monetary system fortunately or unfortunately that's not what being a hippie is about It's being happy and loving whatever you do once you make lots of money or just enough to get by What part of that understanding philosophy did they somehow miss!?
I know this is getting repetitive, but ... I'm going to say it again....
You, and your amazing body of work, of love ... is a National Treasure, to be shared with the world.
Thank you, so much. Having lived as a young human during these years, and then experiencing the myriad effects that the 60's had on all of us since, I can say with sincerity and gratitude that it's been one long, strange trip.
It's 2023 now, me born in '58. Mom died in 64, thank God I had a father that kept me , brother, and sister. 60's was weird still being the old way, and now new ideas. My dad born in 1918, me forty years later. Two wars gone by and sitting in the middle of another one.
I was born in 1986 and I absolutely love being able to watch these videos! Thank you David Hoffman 💞✌🏽
David,I don't know if you are aware of it..but you are a national treasure.. Your filming will be viewed with relevance, long long after we leave this earth.
I hope that what you say turns out to be true. Right now and for most of my life, I live day to day doing the work I do with enthusiasm and energy and love.
David Hoffman filmmaker
@@DavidHoffmanFilmmakerI hope to be able to live like that one day! (Hopefully it’s before I retire, they are saying the retirement age of millennials will be at age 70 or later😢)
The social positions considered most radical in the late 60s have now become mainstream.
I was 12 years old in 1964.
I drank sodas and ate candy bars for 5 cents. I read comic books for a dime. I was a wild feral child.
I ran free with little adult supervision or care. I mowed lawns for 5$ each. I lived with my older brother. He was a big time liberal college professor. I grew up listening to him and his rich hippy students talk & listen to music plotting the down fall of America. The music was great! I was horrified by the way my brother & his students thought.
I'd had enough in 1969, I quit school and joined the US Army.
I was 17. I liked Star Trek & the Blue Oyster Cult, I read scifi & adventure books. I was ready for adventure. I got it.
I am enamored by your comment. I find your life so interesting and rich of experience. What did your brother do later in life?
What did your brother and his friends say that scared you? Lol. I can’t imagine candy costing only 5 cents… I don’t think you can get anythinggggggg for 5 cents nowadays lol
The 1960's was the 1920's times one hundred, it was about rejecting the oppression of established and enforced societal values.
I totally relate.
As a product of the 60’s culture I must say this was such a well produced film. And remembering the 80’s also, with the release date and the opinions expressed. Thank you for this posting and the memories it invoked.
Thank you for the comment/complement.
David Hoffman filmmaker
Iam from Singapore. In '67 i decided to back pack. I have been to India,Nepal, Pakistan, Afganistan,Iran,Turkey and ended up broke in Istanbul but i went on. Been through most of Europe and came back home in '71. Iam 77yrs.old now but will never forget the '60s.
And by viewers like you. Thank you. Man, I miss old Tubular television. :) I only have computers now, I don’t use television. 😂
Sorry for your loss. The idiot boxes have hi-fi sound.
@@WLHS 😂
@@WLHS😂😂😂
My mother was born in 1956 and my father, 1958. They never spoke with me much about their lives and growing up. This series is really helping me to understand their perspective and why they are the way they are. Thank you so very much David! I've shared your channel with my parents and all of my friends! 💚✌️
The strong quiet types... I can dig it lol ✌️☮️
I was born in 1964 and brought up in the S.F. Bay Area. As a girl I admired the neighborhood teenagers and couldn't wait to be a hippie flowerchild when I grew up. I entered high school in 1977 and was disappointed beyond disappointment that society had moved on. Ronald Reagan became president and my classmates were yuppies. I never got to live out my hippie dreams, but I've never lost my nostalgia for that exciting, bigger-than-life era.
The disco era must’ve been nice too.
Hiya yes me too I left school in 1980 16 and it all started changing …I was very disappointed lol 💜🌻💜
@@caroleyre9144 I have been thinking of this aspect of growing up. I was born in 1980 and myself and as much as I loved that decade, and love the movies, all the tropes, and the pastel and the neon, but wow if I were a teenager living it, I would have hated culture in that moment.
Grateful every day I am a Gen X!
Soul Asylum has a song that says, "We were too young to be hippies Missed out on the Love ?? In the late 70's In the Summer of Drugs" (Sorry, forgot a line) a great song
Thanks for re-sharing this documentary! I was born in 1965 and my life was so different from my parents'.
Best times of my life,growing up in cali,in the 60's-70's,would not trade it for anything.I'm blessed.
David, if you still have any extra content from this that wasn’t included in the special, would love to see clips!
Thank you so much for posting in its entirety. It was the clips from this special that led me to subscribe in 2019 and it was truly awesome to finally see it all the way through.
There is much more content yet to be put up on my channel and it will take me years to do it. I work at it every day. Thank you for being a member. Also, as a member I presented the chance to see the entire six part series to all members back during the holiday season. You probably can find that post in the community pulldown menu if you go back far enough.
David Hoffman filmmaker
Thank you
@@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker I watched it then. Just didn’t get around to commenting
And now 54 years later ... love you stuff bro!!!
amazing documentary, youre a treasure trove of social commentary.
The Baby Boomers were the first generation where the men radically changed.
The Silent Generation was the last generation where virtually all of the men were still old-school men. Stoic. Strong.
I think us Gen X’ers are the last generation who for sure had at least one of these old-school men still in the family whether it was our father, grandfather or both.
Millenials are the first generation where many don’t have a father or even a grandfather who was from the old school.
I guess the same correlates for women. They also radically changed starting with the Baby Boomers.
Men aren’t what they used to be; Women aren’t what they used to be.
As a Gen X’er, all of this has been somewhat of a mind-f if not almost traumatic in a schizophrenic kind of way. What’s real? What’s right? What’s true? What is what?
What’s everyone’s roles?
Who are we anyway? What have we become?
It’s so strange.
It’s even stranger when there’s pros & cons of both worlds, the old and the new.
There’s no definitive way to sort it out.
On a major side-note, these discussions become even more complex when considering black Americans. The “good ol’ days” for light skinned people does not even apply as a notion for dark skinned people. That’s a whole ‘nother topic which is mind blowing itself.
I just know I miss when mothers were more feminine & maternal and fathers were more masculine in a strong, silent way with more strength of character. More solid. More standup.
When there was still manners too.
Even adult politicians & pundits on public television act like children to the entire world.
The world today feels like a Hieronymus Bosch painting.
“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”
Well said. These are the conversations we need to have and comments that are missing. I agree with the confusion, I believe I learned how to deal with by accepting there is no right or wrong way of thinking about anything. Nothing is ever only true or false. There are too many of us to be certain how everyone lived or felt. Something can be true but still not only true. For those of us that are black for instance. There are many who felt they were living their best lives before the government created welfare and destroyed their community by convincing people they need the governments help so people had to rely on the politicians who fought to give people the bare minimum to survive and a shelter provided by them so you didn't need to turn away their money so we need them and vote for them. They got in people's way because they were scared of how strong they could become. They rather have control over your life and act like they're the only ones who care about u. They are the real heroes. They'll do whatever it takes to give u just enough for you not to succeed. And of you get a job they'll take it away. Ironically it's the same pay! So why would you! It's not their fault it's the other sides fault! Vote for us or loose everything we worked so hard to give u.
Now we're told we can't have a different opinion than theirs. U either think and live they way the say or be casted out from society accused of being every kind of evil they decide. And we, the majority it seems, support it/them. They control our thoughts, they tell us what to eat, what to believe me, what to buy more than than they always have. The screen is our religion and they are playing God.
It was an incredible decade to live in. I was just a kid but it was even very obvious to ne that huge cultural shifts were happening & evrrything was exciting dynamic. There has not been anything like it since!! So g gkad I experienced it! ☮️💟
That Sam Brown dude may have been right in the 90s but he'd be surprised at how far back things would regress 30 years later.
My parents got married in 66. They both said they did it because they were expected to. They divorced when I was very young. I wonder how life would’ve been if they just did what they wanted instead of what their parents and society wanted. I can’t say they were happy people in life but they tried to cope with everything.
My parents got married in 1974. Even throughout the 70s getting married was a socially expected event for young adults.
*David Hoffman Baby Boomers 1960s appreciate your videos Listening 🌟 from Mass USA TYVM 💙David*
I was born in 1955. I saw Vietnam play out and the Civil rights movement and JFK assassination and his brother's too. I remember Woodstock and becoming a little hippie girl in high school in the late 60s.
Are you from the class of 74' too?
Being born in 1959 meant I experienced all of the sixties. However, my 60s was certainly not the same as most. Reading the title made me expect happy times and warm memories. But the reality of those in their late teens to early twenties during the 60s was very different than my childhood memories of the same era.
I grew up in a very rural part of Massachusetts. Nothing happening on the national news was happening in my little town. I didn't know anyone that went to Vietnam. I only knew one person who was drafted and he ended up being taught dentistry while in the army, so the draft was a good thing for him.
My dad would listen to the news every night, and I would sort of watch it and sort of do other things. I was familiar with the words on the news, but not familiar with the reality. There were no people with darker skin in my town. There were no new immigrants from any country. Everyone I knew was an American and we all believed the same things. There were different religions, but to me, that only changed which church building you went to.
My family seemed happy. I was happy. My five brothers and sisters seemed happy. My dad never discussed the news or what the stories were about. All the dark times of the 1960s were far away from where I lived.
My dad worked ten hours a day five days a week. He would work building things around the house and renovating things on Saturday. Sunday we'd go to church. We would regularly have some sort of family activity from a picnic on dirt roads to a movie at the drive-inn.
I and my younger brother would often ask to 'sleep in the car.' This meant that my brother and I would bring our blankets out to the station wagon and make a bed in the back. We'd buy treats at the store for a dime to a quarter. Come eight-thirty to nine at night, we'd go out into the car with flashlights to sleep. We were not even asked to lock the door by my parents. But, we never slept. We'd try to keep from eating our treats as long as possible. I'm guessing maybe that maybe half an hour? Once the treats were gone, the fun of 'sleeping in the car' would dissipate and shortly thereafter, we'd be bringing our stuff inside the house to actually sleep there. Two weeks later, we'd be asking to 'sleep in the car' again.
Running on Cars, Kick the Can and Hide and Go Seek were real things that made early evenings fun.
I assumed that the 1960s for the average person was the same as the TV shows of that time. Andy Griffith was a real place with real people to me. Leave it to Beaver was a real family that had more money than ours, and The Beaver had a nicer older brother than mine was. Captain Kangaroo was a good friend, and Romper Room was my beginning learning. Star Trek was hopefully everyone's future and a united government of earth was where we'd ultimately end up. I believed all those things.
People often say that life isn't fair. I have to agree. I think of my childhood... and it's not fair that I had such a great time when so many others had horrible childhoods. That is not fair. It's not fair that my parents made me feel loved and protected when so many other kids, had parents that were the opposite. It wasn't fair that I could run and play in the fields or woods or splash in the creek, or watch frogs and pollywogs in the swamp while others had city streets and dilapidated neighborhoods to grow up in.
I am thankful, very thankful for my childhood. I wish everyone could have had one. The world would be a much much better place if everyone could have been a kid doing what kids do and all in a natural environment.
I"m not sure what the purpose of this comment is anymore, or even if there was a purpose.
But.... I've typed too many words to delete it.
If I owe an apology for having a great childhood... I'm willing to offer it. Because it wasn't fair.
But, it wasn't my fault either.
Omg stop apologizing. You lived in the America we all yearn for.
Thank you for taking the time to type it. I couldn’t begin to guess the purposes it will serve, but sure do appreciate the joy reading it gave to me, as midway through there was a smile on my face. That smile is still with me so your story allowed my imagination to take me to a beautiful place & time that left me with a bedtime smile. For that, I am very grateful. :) Yours is a very beautiful story of happiness to share, so thank you for sharing it. ~
👍💕
@@daniellamarquez9482 You missed my point, and I never apologized. But thanks for contributing to what you thought I was saying.
@@gwendolynkaren5933 They thought I apologized, but the modifier "if" meant it was conditional upon something. That condition was not whiteness or privilege. It was something far more philosophical with no provable or obvious answer; it goes to a person's own belief, and what they believe is our creation.
But such questions are not picked up by most people, and so they'll read the sentence as if there was no "if" included in it.
Yes I was born in 59 so I remember the sixties as a childs view.
You can’t get over the 60s bc the music was so good
It's definitely a strong decade for music. Drugs aren't only bad. Lol
Trying to analyze and define the experience of having been there is always going to fall short of the actuality of living it. It was an amazing point of change, in which we tried to change the world, and forever changed ourselves.🖤🇨🇦
Beautiful. While I was but a young child in the 60's, (b.1961) I didn't experience this personally at the time. But many of us who became adults in the 70's were still, in my experience, were disillusioned and suspicious of authority with a push me/pull me tug of war between the traditional values we were told to aspire to.and the reality of the sex, drugs, and rock and roll mindset of American youth. Some took longer to conform and some never did.
I didn't conform then or now
Younger boomers born 1956-1964 always seemed to be ignored in these things. When they mean boomers they include late silent generation who were the biggest influencers of 60s pop culture.
@@oldradiosnphonographs Sorry. That demographic from Pew isn't a generation.
Its left out because they aren't the same.
I was born in 63. My experience in no way anything like a 53 baby. But not so great a difference with a 73 baby.
My birth year kids were still in high school in the days of Reaganomics!
See Generations Howe and Strouss 1991.
@@johnjaco5544 that’s kind of sad for the people around you. I hope you never had children. That’d be a tragedy.
My aunt was a hippie, she became a single mother because she was too far along to get abortion when she found out she was pregnant. She was a horrible mother, my cousin was raised by our grandparents and my parents. My aunt was selfish and only cared about herself, but she volunteered all of the time. Never cared about her actual family. Could never get a husband and became a bitter old woman. The 60s didn’t help everyone.
Made me understand a lot of what’s going on today, and gave more more strength that it will all pass like all things. Thanks for sharing this wisdom
My favorite . I must of watched this in full & in parts 50 times. Now I'll watch again.
Great documentation of when a time of innocence met a time of turbulence.
Politically & culturally.
Great stuff Dave. ⚡😎
Well said.🖤🇨🇦
thank you . . . again!! i love 'hardware worker' & now he's on here talking about his experience in the 60s. i complettely remember watching this, at the time. the music & the graphics actually seem like this was about 10 or 15 yrs ago . . . i thought i'd watched this in the 2000's.
"Final assessments, they never come easy" That is so darn true! Absolute Stellar work David, captivating footage with such great interviews, all I can really say is "thank you" my friend! :)
Thank you for your statement and your support and your kindness Jim.
@@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker 👍👍👍👍
I saw this year's ago not sure if it was on TV or UA-cam and was in awe because even though I was born in 67 I do remember bits and pieces when I was 2 and 3 years old living in Hawaii my dad was in the Navy and I remember the neighbor kid's who were like hippies the guys looking like Jesus and the girls with long hair and beads with bell bottoms on some of these girls baby sat for me and my sister so it was oh so vivid and real. Good video David 👍👍
I was born in 1945. The 60s experience and my wonderful friends of the time gave me the tools and wisdom to survive and flourish and I am grateful❤
What a masterpiece. Thank you for sharing this.
thank you for watching it Kate. It is one of the documentaries I am most proud of. Eighteen months of my life and a crew of thirty.
David
@@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker you did an amazing job of trying to cover as much of this period as you possibly could…it was a gargantuan task.🖤🇨🇦
I got to live out my 1960s dreams, the army part included. It was an immense journey.
I am now 66 years old retired married to a Thai wife and still wear a ponytail and got out of America, Boulder, Colorado, and have lived in Thailand for 23 years and love it here. A much better place than America and has no mass shootings every week like the U.S. which has started every week since the New Year but a calm and peaceful Buddhist society. Never going back to the U.S. ever again and it is so much cheaper to live here also. The housing is very affordable for anyone it is really low priced and very comfortable. I have two houses here, one on Koh Samui Island the other that I am at right this moment is in Nakhon Sawan. I also have a son that was born in Boulder, CO by a midwife in our home in a previous marriage who moved to Florida and is a professional Artist in his mid-thirties and is doing well. Peace, and Love
But you can be thrown in jail for accidentally stepping on a portrait of the king (a piece of money dropped on the ground, for instance). Insulting royalty will get you jail. Back in your pot-smoking, John Denver-worshipping Hippie days in Boulder, could you be thrown in jail for insulting Nixon? Hmmmmmm . . . America is a bad place, eh? When the U. S. Dollar becomes utterly and truly worthless, we'll see how those wonderful Buddhists treat you then. Don't come crawling back here, Hippie. We don't want you back.
Now that I'm older, I dismiss the labels put on different generations. If someone doesn't understand that different times are different evolutionary passages, then they are not paying attention to change. Time is Change. Change with the Time!
There is absolutely no nobility in dishonoring your vows and commitment by divorcing your spouse. There’s great honor in keeping your commitment, keeping your family together, and overcoming the inevitable challenges that marriage will present to you and your spouse. Marriage is about duty and finding happiness by taking care of the ppl you love. It’s not about your individual happiness. That’s the problem with ppl’s attitude toward marriage starting with the boomer generation.
Oh my goodness! Some of these folks were the beatniks!
@David Hoffman That was fantastic. Thank you for the glimpse, and your work.
I Aspire To Document The Mundane And Much More Relatable That Is Modern Life
Like You Have
These Are The Real Legacies
I do love to document the ordinary folk but I do not see anything about their storytelling that is mundane.
David Hoffman filmmaker
@@DavidHoffmanFilmmaker
Well Humble Would've Been A Better Word
But I Understand Your Point
It's Very Comforting As A Younger Generation
To See There's No Shame In Being Mundane
Every One My Age Seems To Despair Being An Average Joe/Jane
Also I Really Appreciate The Reply
This makes me want to pull out the old VCR and watch all six episodes again. 😎
It’s twice as far away again as when this documentary was made. The 60s only amplify as we get further away❤
I would have hated to see my wife have to stay home all these years and not be able to join the world and enjoy her career, but look what's happened. At first, a two-income family had an advantage over the conventional one-income situation. Then prices rose to meet that extra income. It now takes two incomes to have what one used to earn. Most of us no longer have a choice about it. It's a dilemma, and I feel we've been swindled.
I guess that's how inflation works. When you expand the pool of labor (more workers on the labor market) you increase the amount of money in the system (through more wages being spent at Walmart and in the housing market etc.) and the amount of goods and services will have to absorb that extra money through higher prices. I'm sure that's just part of the reason, but nonetheless something to think about.
At one time back then it was easy to make a life and have a house with a white picket fence in today's world no way!!!!!!
It was the beginning of the end, what led us to the chaos we have today. I know. I was there.
Thank God for the 60s. Can't imagine still being stuck with the social mentality of the 50s.
A documentary about the 1960s, made in the 1980s, being watched in the 2020s
Also at 44:20 if only this dude knew how wars would play out in the future…Vietnam was pretty much the blueprint for how future wars would be in terms of what are the terms of winning, why are we here, what is the main objectie, only now we figured out how to make the people fight themselves instead of using our own soldiers.
As a millennial in her early 30s, we make fun of you boomers, but we can finish your mission of love by listening to your Wisdom. I say this on weed right now. Sorry if it's long, lol.
The world survived the 60s and their mission. We don't need you to go back and try to duplicate the way we thought 60 years ago. We need you to be better and a good example to the generation after you. We need to strive to be better. I'm not trying to be rude or jump down your throat. Clearly you said nothing wrong or disrespectful. I just am in a mood to push people to be better and encourage strength and competitiveness. We should be taking everything great from every generation and making ours the strongest until the next one comes along. Just food for thought. Good luck out there ☮️✌️
43:46 Little did he know that colleges would be banning conservative speakers and sending half a million soldiers to Iraq.
Great content. Love your work.
Fascinating when you think about all of the things that have happened since this doc was made.
David, I subscribed to your channel after seeing all the hundreds of films you made and know you're an absolute genius at filmmaking and I am astounded!!! Thank you for all the time you spent on them throughout your life.!!!
Thank you David. Living as you are living in what sounds like a beautiful country is quite extraordinary. I have never been there. These days it is getting harder and harder for me to continue on UA-cam. I can't make a living like I once did were a part of my living came from UA-cam. These days the algorithm pays no attention to my videos and I am discouraged and thinking I'm going to have to find another thing to do to make a living for my family at 81 1/2 years old. I did spend a lot of time making them and the past is the past as you know I'm I'm looking to the present and the future and what comes next. Best wishes to you and your family
David Hoffman filmmaker
I Graduated from High School and got married in 1966. My first son was born in early 1967. My husband was in college and Navy Reserves. Our son was born the same day my husband reported to his Naval Air duty station.
Vietnam shaped our next five years. For me it was working at the local ATT division. About 1970 the EEOC signed a consent decree to raise up women and people of color. This shaped our corporate culture from then on.
So many improvements we wanted for other people. Did it make their life better? I hope so.
Stellar footage. Thank you, David!
Thanks Mr Hoffman❤
Very well done, helpful to understanding more. I am an old hippie, 2% er baby boomer here and as time marches on i think more and more about my experience. I think the idea was - although it was not well articulated - not so much to kill intellectuality as to get beyond it, as in the ideas of spiritual authors such as Alan Watts and Krishnamurti. But thank you for your work i enjoyed it.
Well said. You nailed it!
@@juliesunshine333 Thank you for sharing! ☮🌈💕
I always thought I was born in the wrong generation. I was born in the 80's and remember as a child thumbing thru my mother's record collection and was mind blown. Listening to bands like Red Krayola, July, 13th Floor Elevators,Love, Jagged Edge, The Outsiders and Wally Tax, We the People, and the Mighty Caesars and may more paved the road to an easy transition into the punk rock music scene. 60's psychedelic and garage will always have a place in my heart. Best music ever
Born in 1955 my rebellious, idealistic soul found a home.
I remained a flower child deep down in my ❤️ heart.
I love me some flower people. We need people like you but we don't need only people like you. Lol. I mean if everyone was into flowers than we would finally have world peace ✌️. Unfortunately we need both kind and strong people. We need to appreciate that first. I think.. Best of luck to you. I appreciate ya 🌼🍀🏵☮️
A great look at the sixties through the eyes of those who lived through it!The sixties will always be a time of excitement and sorrow.The Horrible murders of JFK,Bobby Kennedy,Martin Luther King,took away a carefree innocence.As did the Vietnam war that brought only turmoil and loss.
All that and the fear of the Cuban crisis is what I remember too. Then Mao TSE Tung and then the horrors of PolPot in Cambodia.
But absolutely incredible music, easygoing sociability, and the fun of a more gentle rebellion for freedom of expression.
Don't forget Malcolm X.
@@johnjaco5544 He often gets left out, thanks for including him, he was an amazing man, and a great speaker.🖤🇨🇦
My dad was a boomer he was far from a hippie. He was a marine. Definitely to part in the party’s of the time. My mom a gen x more of a hippie. I am a millennial. The 60’s aren’t my cup of tea. But I love my parents who were growing up and born in this era. Different breed of people for sure.
My folks were born in the early 1960s too. I think people born in 1958-1964 are not really Boomers but “Generation Jones”.
Absolutely loved this as the youngest in the millennial bracket. What a time some of you went through. Thanks for sharing.
Oh dear. Well,. The good, the bad and some of the ugly!
How terrifically interesting.
Southside Chicago HS lots of students. Problems yes, but a camaraderie that doesn’t exist now. No shootings. Sure there were popular kids and kids who probably felt different but no one was on medication. A kind of unspoken acceptance of kids who were different.
The birth control pill was a game changer. It gave women more freedom with less fear of unwanted pregnancy.
Great channel, love your content. I just happened upon the story of Emeline … and now I can’t find it to share it. I’ll keep looking. Thanks for all your good work 🥰🙏
ua-cam.com/video/R_JDxFGfFsA/v-deo.html
The same generation that gave us the idealistic 1960s also gave us Donald Trump. Although there were problems with the 60s, nothing has prepared me for the way America has digressed.
I am 73 and I wash dishes 🤬 without complaining what are you talking about????
Chip Berlet, My son told his teacher I fight fascism where were you Chip during the Trump administration where he, Donald solicited votes from Neo-Nazis and other fascists in America! I'm totally at a loss We're fighting fascism and not wanting your kid to use cracker heavy drugs or one has to do it the other! Chips should be very proud to be a fighter of fascism so were our fathers and grandfathers in World War II as to not wanting our kids to use heavy drugs that is logical and logic should be instilled in our children, Don't you agree David?
The 60’s generation became the biggest materialistic consumers in the buy buy buy and spend beyond your means parents of the 80’s of my generation. They all became yuppies 🤪
Today’s political environment is the only thing I have lived that makes me wonder is this what the 60’s were like on society? I feel our gov. Today is a destructive product of the 60’s. How far off am l , looking at it through the same eyes that lived in the 60’s?
I LOVE YOU WORK
Great series, David.
I’m old ..😊was a hippie is a hippie and shall ever be a hippie
Get a job lol. Kidding... kinda
My partner cleans and helps with the kids after work because he loves us. ❤️
That guy Stan Catell made it to 2022. 96 years. Good run.
I am glad to hear that.
David Hoffman filmmaker
Yup, I'm a boomer. I'll give my take on the best and the worst. The best thing to come out of the 60s was the rediscovery of individuality, which most of America had forgotten. I'm proud of that. The worst thing, hands down, was the popularization(?) of drug use. So if you're a boomer who complains about all the homeless drug addicts camping in your favorite park and using it for a toilet GO LOOK IN THE MIRROR.
Followed the grateful dead since 71....still on the bus
19:33 Wow… And he had no idea how how much further this would be taken a few decades later.
Thank you
Very few obese people in that decade.
I was born in 1961 in Brooklyn, NY, I enjoy the 60s and 70s as a kid, best time to group in. I like the 80s too but not further than those year. A lot of history was made back then, great history and bad history but all worth it. I went right into foster care at 2 1/2, now that's a ride for any kid at the time and never adopted. In spite of being a foster, If I could go back in time I could without a doubt.
Did you get bounced around thru fosters for your entire childhood? I know they don’t like to keep you at the same one for too long because they don’t want the foster parents to get too attached to the children. I’m sure that isn’t the only reason, but I believe it is one of the components. I spent a little over a year in foster care during my childhood before my grandpa became my legal guardian, and eventually adopted me, and that was one of the hardest things for me to go thru as a kid. It feels like nobody loves you, especially for me since my siblings got moved away from me right away because we have different dads, and their dad was willing to take them in, but not me. I never thought about how much that stuff really fucked me up until recently. My grandpa would constantly tell me growing up how his life would be so much better and different if he wouldn’t have decided to take me in. He made me feel like it was my fault, and even now after my mom (his daughter) has passed, all he wants to do is blame her for his unhappiness with his own life. I always think about how much better everyone’s lives would be if I was never born.
@Austin Beaulieu I'm glad your here. You have a right to be here. I get the feeling his life would have been very dull without you.
@@wild4509 , yes I did get bounced between my foster/biological father and my surrogate/biological mother. It was a "who needed the money the most" back and forth exchange @Austin Beaulieu. But then I rose above it by the time I hit 18 and told everybody I didn't need their abuse anymore. One set died and others, well, who cares. There my life in a nut shell and all I can think of...why did I not go to Canada at age 18 in 1979. I'm surprised I survived and didn't kill myself, take drugs or drank. Go figure.
@@tonycollazorappo maan I feel your pain for sure…in my opinion, it was a lot worse being bounced around and having my mom constantly in and out of my life, than it would have been just losing her all together, and in the end, I did lose her all together anyways. Thank you for sharing your story. It’s reassuring knowing there’s people out there going thru the same shit as you. I’m also surprised drugs or suicide hasn’t taken me yet either.
@@Auroradiluculum thank you it really does mean a lot.
It’s all about “peace and love” but how many of them are actually walking the walk and living Vegan, and how many are just a bunch of hippiecrites?
As my documentary says, the hippies were a very small segment (less than 2%) of the generation of the baby boomers. Did you view my documentary?
David Hoffman
Point Taken!
Hahaha
The show Family Ties correctly illustrated what the late 70’s and 80’s kids were dealing with. 60’s parents unwilling to grow up and take responsibility in society. In many ways the kid’s became the responsibility leaders in the home, latchkey kids coming home to an empty house taking up slack for MIA moms. The early realization that due to ROE V WADE our generation had been erased by the carelessness of the counterculture. The mounting tensions between Boomer and Gen X created a huge schism splintering the latter into multiple sub groups struggling for an identity largely built on pessimism. I am grateful to my maker I shrugged off that selfish arrogance that permeates boomers. Ignoring their advice on relationships, I met my wife on a Wednesday. We got engaged on that Friday and married six weeks later. I have been married for 30 years. My sixties mother 8 failed marriages and my sixties father 3 failed marriages. My wife is my equal in every way. She started her successful career after the kids were well into high school after staying home and supporting me as a home maker. She has a degree and makes more than me. Somewhere in all the 60’s chaos can be found a balance between personal responsibility and societal responsibility. The current generation now has the responsibility to call out the glaring hypocrisy that permeates now that Boomers are in charge of most everything.
Most boomers are retired and out of the system
@@johnjaco5544 look closer. You will find these elite skeletons hanging on to all the positions of power.
What show are you watching? Elise and Steven were mature, professional parents who provided great wisdom with a balance of letting their kids be themselves. 🙆🤦 They were reformed hippies. Looking back they were domestically conservative. They wanted the best for their kids!
So interesting. I wonder what legacies are still felt of the 1960's now in 2023?
Laziness, self importance, music, anarchy, peace, love, drugs, free costs, complaining, weakness, scared of strength, against violence and defending yourself from evil, protesting in traffic, attacking America no matter how many people this country opens its doors that seeks help. Their message lives on to complain about injustices, but not to make a difference or changes. Point the finger for someone else to do the hard work, someone else should help people and make changes, while they get high and lay around because they feel so bad about all the people in the world who are suffering. If the 60s were so special why do the same problems exist today and worse. The 60s are responsible for the suffering still going on today. You wanted to have fun and be different than everyone. Well, there was consequences. Many of these consequences didn't exist before the 60s. Lol. That wasn't meant to be so harsh. There's no truth to accusing a whole generation to be one way. So I do realize they're were also plenty of people who did not think the same way as others did. We still can make changes that can unite this country but it starts by accepting were not always right and they're not always wrong. They maybe we realize we're not much different at all. But brainwashed into thinking we are so those who say the represent us stay in power and make a profit. Protesting is a great freedom we have. But we need more. We need strong intelligent hardworking young Americans that are willing and able to take on the system first hand and not back down or give up because they're easily distracted and rather live off the grid. Someone not afraid off the boogey-MAN. Only then will we celebrate a victory and not stomp our feet complaining about the same old crap that's been going on for the last 60 years.
I still hold hippie values.
this hits different in 2024