Gidge Through the Decades

I was born in 1948 but I am leaving out the 40s. I can't really say I lived the 40s, I was only two years old when they ended.

But these are just memories and observations during the past four decades, what I found most important and what made me me. I grew up in the 50s, and learned how to be seen and not heard. Learned to respect adults NO MATTER WHAT: I remember playing hopscotch and kickball and red-light, green light.

We only watched about two hours of television a week (those of us who had TV's). I remember the teenagers wearing bobby socks and blue jeans and later cardigen sweaters and poodle skirts and big initial necklaces with our boyfriend's initials. I remember taking autograph books to school to be signed. I remember getting dressed up to sit outside after dinner. I remember when Elvis first appeared on the Ed Sullivan show, I was only about eight-years-old but I thought he was just soooo good looking. I remember American Bandstand when Johnny Crawford from Rifleman appeared (I forget what he sang). I remember the songs, "Silouettes," "Kisses Sweeter than Wine" and all of the Coasters songs.

I remember writing initials on trees, love letters in the sand and cutting fingers of our best friends to be blood sisters or brothers. Yes, I remember the 50s.

During the 60s I became a teenager. I remember, it was sometime around 1964 or 1965 when we learned that children and teenagers needed to be heard and that adults had to earn respect!! I remember taking slang books to school to express what we felt. Of course, no one listened to us then and they called us all a bunch of ungrateful spoiled brats. I remember parents saying " I buy your books, send you to school, buy your clothes and look what I get in return."

I remember the revolution. The revolution of nice kids in the suburbs, eating brownies with "pot" and dressing like bums. I remember so many 14 and 15-year-olds running away from home sometimes because they could not give the respect that their adults wanted so badly and because they were not ready to tell them so. In the early 60s I remember listening to the words of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Judy Collins. I remember learning how to think for myself and how hard it was to disregard all that I had been taught. I remember the protest marches, the war that took so many of our friends and I remember when we could no longer look up to the establishment.

By the time the 70s rolled around, I remember we were able to express what we learned in the 60s. I remember women finally able to decide what they wanted to do. I remember equal pay for equal work in professions such as automechanics, truck drivers and carpenters. I remember not being embarrassed to wear micro mini skirts. I remember many more women going to work and relying on babysitters, child care centers and television to bring up their children and the number of children down to 2.5 a family.

I remember the first advocates for gay rights. I remember when people no longer stared at mixed couples. I remember Carlye Simon singing "It's time we moved in together". I remember when "living together" was still a rebellion against the establishment and when we just loved to shock the masses.

During the 80s, in my late 30s and early 40s, I remember laughing at the punk hair styles and "Boy Georges." I remember all of those books on child abuse and children "being their own people." I remember the synthesizers and drums coming from my next door neighbor's house. I remember how adults hated the heavy metal music and thought it was the devil's music. I remember how love songs were replaced by songs such as "Let's get physical" by Olivia Newton John and "Purple Rain" by Prince so us older people had to start listening to the dreaded country music. I remember all kids got Nintendos, Transformers and Masters of the Universe for Christmas.

And yes, I remember the 90s. I remember jogging miles and miles (I never did but I remember watching). I remember all of those commercials to help us stop smoking and treatment centers for alcohol and drugs to undo what we learned in the 60s and 70s. Oh yes, I can't forget the computers. They taught us to do everything: add, count, tell time. They were even more efficient at watching our children than TVs were in the 70s.

Today, love songs are back but the innocence of the "not heard" 50s is almost erased and the rebellion of the 70s is all but forgotten. Most of all I remember a half century of learning new ways, experiencing life through different times and and knowing that in many more ways than Dylan surmised "The times they are a changing."

I started this disertation 10 years ago and now we are well into the next century. I miss the old days but am amazed at technology. You don't have to answer your telephone and you can know who called you and you don't even have to be at home to take your calls. You can set what time a television show can come on and you can have a baby without you even being the mother and know if it will be a boy or a girl. We can make our own videos and meet new friends online and connect with folks we haven't seen for years.

This new century is scary but it is exciting and it seems so long ago when I was making the transformation from a child in Philly to a young girl going to school in Norfolk, Virginia to a teen with deep roots to Charleston, South Carolina to a wanna be hippie in Southern California, to a wife and a mother.

Is it no longer fashionable to say "Peace" or "Groovy" or "Outta Sight." I hear a young voice saying "What is Groovy?" Or when I say one of my favorite records back then that same voice says "What is a record?" Saying "Sir" and Maam" could easily get you laughed at. I have not seen this much of a "judgemental" group of young people since the 50s.

It could be a good thing though. I am seeing the children of the 2000's are back to good, solid values and the belief in God as their savior. This was lacking in the 60s.

The difference though is that if something isn't right, they are not afraid to say so. Turning 60 makes me think of each decade and how much it meant to my life. Today isn't better or worse than yesterday, just different....

Tomorrow is another era: new, exciting and well. "it's totally time to move on, Dude" as they say... 

Oops, that is so yesterday, I say as I enter the next decade. Is it already 2010? Wake me up. Am I no longer the little girl who played jumprope in the 50s with my very best friend? Now it's all about BFF's and Besties. I see a lot of parallels during the end of the 2000 decade to the 1950s. I am seeing a bit more shyness in the young ladies and young men today.

Somehow, from my prospective, morality has crept in a bit. I have noticed a lot more young people seem to have respect for the elderly than they did at the beginning of this decade but of course, that could be because I am 10 years older and probably now fit into the mold of the "elderly."

Due to the demise of many of the celebrities from the 50s and 60s era, I am seeing many young people in awe of life back then. And because of the problems with the economy (as were also evident in the 50s), people are becoming more frugal today, than say 10 years ago. Although young people are still busy and on the go, they no longer frequent expensive restaurants except for special occasions. Fast food restaurants have started including healthy alternatives and have realized that sometimes it may be more appealing in the long run to have smaller meals with fruit or veggies instead of potatoes with every meal. Exercise is still a way of life but I am seeing less yoiung people running than I did ten years ago, that is one way of life I didn't want to end. I am still hoping for our descendents to live longer lives. Social networks have found than places from 10-year-olds to 80-year-olds and people have reunited with friends they believed they would never see again. I am seeing this to be a friendly but cautious decade.

With the many people on Facebook, although there are privacy settings, I am seeing many of the young people using their own privacy settings, like not mentioning the names of little ones and setting those privacy codes the way they want them. It is great to trust but equally great to know everyone isn't worthy of your trust so that's where caution enters in. I will write more during the 2010 decade as I see changes. Time to check my Facebook, Besties.

As the decade came to a close, I am noticing more and more that no one wants to compromise. We all look at members of that other generation (whether before or after us) and shake our heads as though we have seen a two-headed monster. Those from the 50s can't fathom children that ASSERT themselves. My generation (the 60s and 70s) are in tears because it seems as though Peace and Love have turned on us.

Me and those who grew up in the 80s and 90s are looking back and shaking our heads at those who DON'T assert themselves and looking forward at the generation that tweets their needs and sells them out on Facebook. Time to walk into another decade. Are we going forward or turning back and where can we find compromise? Discipline, peace, love, assertiveness and social networking? Do you think this next decade will find a middle road, or have we come too far...just sayin'.

WOW!!! It's already 2011, the beginning of a new decade! The last decade came and went at more than record time. It was an interesting decade, but where are we headed to now?

Are we going to bring to life the fantasies of the 60s cartoon, the Jetsons, or are we going to slowly regress to the Flintstones after a faltering economy that can't build itself back up or will it indeed prosper? With a new generation that is so reliable on computers, cell phones and GPS devices, a generation that can't live without a microwave and never really learned how to barbeque the old fashioned way. It will be interesting to see how we save our economy and our way of life. Happy New year Cool Cat. Enjoy your ginchy, bitchin, groovy, wicked, awesome, sweet, radically extreme New Decade.