No Walk in the Park: The Culture of the Late 1950s and Early 1960s

1. The Late 1950s and Early 1960s

The times of the 1960s were not easy to say the least. The media at this time became very popular. I am studying the late 1950s because I want to find out what life was like for the average family in America in order to help my reader understand that things were not as bad off as average people made it seem. Therefore, my research project investigates the experiences of an average person, my grandmother, in America during the late 1950s and early 1960s. My research shows that the lives of Americans were not completely sad. Residents of our small town found creative ways to have fun and enjoy life. Even people not directly involved in the Vietnam War have an impact on creating American culture. In order to get my research, I interviewed my grandmother, Gertrude Pepin. She remembered more than I thought she did when I was asking her my questions. She then let me rummage through pictures which I created into a slideshow which can be seen below (Figure 1).

Figure 1. The Slideshow I made from my grandmother's photographs.

2. Background on my Grandmother

My grandmother, Gertrude Pepin, didn’t live in the States all of her life. She was born in Quebec, Canada and lived there until she was twenty three. She then met my grandfather at her cousin’s wedding and slowly started to fall in love. Since my grandfather was born in the States, after their honeymoon (they married in 1959, went to Niagara Falls for their Honeymoon) they moved in together in a house in Dracut, Massachusetts. This was a house that my grandfather had built with his own hard work and labor and where my Pepin currently resides.

3. Crossing Over

This isn't the cross over people normally think of, like people passing onto the other side. It might as well have been though as you will soon see. When Gertrude Pepin crossed over from Canada, my grandfather informed her not to talk. At the time she didn’t have a passport and my grandfather didn’t want her to get one. With such a strong French accent, if Gertrude Pepin had chosen to talk, the officers at the border would have known that she wasn’t from the United States and would have asked her for a passport that she didn't have, causing delays. When she was describing this event to me she stated “I almost went home in the trunk! I didn’t want them to think Pepére was kidnapping me”(Pepin, Personal). She wasn’t a citizen of the United States until two years later.

4. Historic Events of the Time

In investigating the happiness of people of the time, I looked at the election of 1960 (which happened to be the first televised election). It so happened to be between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. The debate that was aired was said to change people’s minds about Kennedy (beyondbooks). This wasn’t the case for my grandmother; she was already a Democrat and was going to vote for Kennedy anyways. John F. Kennedy later gave a speech that stated “ask not what you can do for your country but what your country can do for you”(Library). My grandmother, along with others, was elated. They were exciting for Kennedy to have stated that in his speech. Gertrude states “It’s funny, you know, they still repeat the sentence even years after” (Pepin, Personal). In 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Due to the event being televised, most average Americans were able to see the horrors of what really happened to Kennedy. I asked Pepin for the reaction of herself and of others around her. She stated “people were extremely shocked. No one knew what to think” (Pepin, Personal).

Martin Luther King Jr. was a very influential person in the 1960s. He made a speech on August 28, 1963. He stated that racial inequality and discrimination needed to end. When I asked my grandmother about this speech she was pleased. She stated “people liked him because down South; They needed someone like him” (Pepin, Personal). This was a defining moment for the American Civil Rights Movement. His hard work made a difference in the lives of people at this time. Martin Luther King Jr. gave people hope and this created a way for people to become happier (See Figure 2). When he and Robert Kennedy were assassinated two months apart from each other, people began to grow concern.

Photo of Martin Luther King Jr. Source: "Google."

There was a blackout in New York City in 1965. My grandmother recalls this being on the news and states “people honestly thought it was the end of the world. I didn’t really have strong opinions on the matter, but I too was scared” (Pepin, Personal). Most American households had electricity at this time. When the blackout stuck people were thinking "Another Pearl Harbor" (Blackout). This can be said to be a relief when it was over.

5. The Culture

In investigating how the late 1950s and early 1960s weren’t so sad, I turned to popular culture. Popular culture of this time included the music from the Beatles, boutiques selling bright clothing to people, television shows, the Apollo 11 moon landing, and the new dance (the twist), along with others. While popular culture distracted people, others like my grandmother weren’t worried about anything and popular culture had little effect on her.

Although Pepin never really cared for the Beatles, when I asked her about the group she stated "I never went to their shows but I saw them on the Ed Sullivan Show multiple times (Pepin, Personal). Apollo 11’s moon landing on July 10, 1969 was something quite “splendid” in the eyes of people. When I asked Pepin if she remembered the first moon landing, she stated "Yes, splendid! John Glen, look him up" (Pepin, Personal). Well I did look up John Glen and it turns out that Glen never landed on the moon, but he was the first man man to orbit Earth and the third man ever in space. Glen orbited the Earth in 1962. If my grandmother hadn't mentioned his name, he would have never crossed my mind as someone of importance.

Even though boutiques started to sell colorful clothing to the younger people, my grandmother didn’t take part in that. She developed her own style (probably because she lived in Canada for so long) and wore lots of pant suits. Overall, American woman chose to wear a bouffant. This was a dress that was tight on the top and puffing out on the bottom. The most popular hairstyle was the beehive, where woman would tease their hair and pile it high on their head.

Photo of the beehive hairstyle. Source: "Retro."

My grandmother stated why she choose to go against the trend of the time "my hair was always too fine for that" (Pepin, Personal). Pepin preferred to develop her own style, a more simplistic one. Instead of wearing neon colors, she wore clothes by the season. In the fall and winter, the colors would be darker. In the spring and summer, she would wear pastel colors.

In the categories of song and dance, the “twist” was popular. Pink Floyd and the Beatles were popular at this time. When I asked Pepin about her music preferences of this time she stated "I didn't listen to [Pink Floyd or the Beatles] instead I listened to Lawerence Welk" (Pepin, Personal). Lawrence Welk falls under the category of “easy listening”. This music lightened her mood about the world that was going on around her. This was an interesting way to step away from the popular trend of music and listen to an artist who made her happy. Her favorite song of Welk’s is "Calcutta"!

Another fun way to enjoy life was finding something that you love to do. The sport that that my grandmother participated in (and I had no idea about until I interviewed her) was that she was a curler! This sport seems silly, but it takes a lot of talent. It was very popular in Canada during this time. She was a curler right before she got married and stopped when she came to the United States.

Once the cold war was over, the Vietnam War began. At the beginning of the war, my grandmother recalls that “a lot of servicemen were being injured” (Pepin, Personal). Also at this time, there was a very large women’s movement. My grandmother didn’t provide any direct involvement in their politics or activities and doesn't seem to remember them too well. At the same time of the women's movement, the Cuban Missile Crisis was going on. This lasted for thirteen days and people were scared out of their minds. They had no clue what the President was going to do about the whole situation. Besides for the Cuban Missile Crisis my grandmother really didn’t know much about the war. She was more concerned with taking care of her two children and being a stay-at-home mom.

Photo of a curling stone. Source: "Curling"

According to facts, many families weren’t close during the 1960s. I suppose that my grandmother and her family was the exception to that rule. She had a family that was closely intertwined. She had a husband to love her, and who loved her back, and two children, Daniel and Doris. In two of the pictures that I retrieved from my grandmother, you can see her making my grandfather laugh. There was no sign of sadness in her. This goes to show that people of this time really weren't all that sad as the statistics say!

Photo of author's grandmother on Christmas Eve in 1958. Source: Pepin, Gertrude.

A memory that my grandmother thoroughly enjoys was attending a movie with my grandfather. My grandparents only had the opportunity to attend a movie once and this occurred in 1965. My grandfather wasn’t one to go see movies, but they went out on a date and watched The Sound of Music.This movie made over $163,000 in revenue, something unheard of at the time (IMDb).

Even though unemployment at this time was at 17% (Goodwin), her family was fortunate enough not to be stuck in that statistic. When asked if this time affected her family, she stated "My husband was a Master Electrician and his work was needed around the community. I on the other hand have never needed to work a day in my life" (Pepin, Personal).

Works Cited

Beyond Books. On the Campaign Trail. Apex Learning Inc., 2007. Web. 8 May 2011. http://www.beyondbooks.com/gop00/1b.asp

Blackout History Project: Great Northeast Blackout. n.p.: n.p, 2000. Web. http://blackout.gmu.edu/events/tl1965.html

Curling: Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia. 2011. Web. 16 May 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curling

Goodwin, Susan and Becky Bradley. American Cultural History. Lone Star College-Kingwood Library, 2010. Web. 3 May 2011. http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decade60.html

Google images. Keyword: Martin Luther King Jr.

IMBd: The Internet Movie Database. Amazon. 2011. Web. 16 May 2011. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059742/

The Nobel Peace Prize 1964: Martin Luther King Jr. The Nobel Foundation. nd. Web. 3 May 2011. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html

Retro. Remembering: The Beehive, n.p.: Retro Galaxy, 2011. Web. http://www.retrogalaxy.com/remember/beehive.asp

Ward, Dan. Library of Halexandria. n.p.: Dan Sewell Ward, 2005. Web. http://www.halexandria.org/dward821.htm