What was life like in the 60s?

Before I can think back to life in the 60’s I should recall who I was back then. It was a decade full of change, I started as a 14 year old at Grammar School in Beckenham, Kent, living in our family home with my Mum, Dad. sister, brother and the dog. By the time the decade was over I would have taken all my schoool exams and graduated, studied my way through Physio school at King’s College Hospital and left home and worked in Edinburgh for a year.

In 1969 I emigrated to Canada, I lived in Vancouver and had met the person I would marry, have children and spend the rest of my life with. That’s a pretty action packed ten years! That said, the 60’s were also a time of great social change and a very exciting time to be growing up and becoming a young adult. Britain had been through the post war years of the 50’s with all the restrictions of a recovering economy and was finally starting to feel like it was on it’s feet again.

Consumer goods were becoming more available, as was disposable income to enjoy them. Arts and design flourished and people began to enjoy luxuries… transistor radios and exciting furnishings and fabrics for the home ….. all of those things restricted during the war years. Foods imported from around the world became available on the HIgh Street, I remember my first taste of an avocado - and Mum cooking spaghetti that had not come from a can! The fashion scene exploded in Carnaby Street, London.

Mary Quant rocked the fashion world with the mini skirt and ‘hot pants’ and Terence Conran changed how people furnished their homes with his ‘ Habitat’ stores. The Beatles took the whole ‘pop’ scene up a notch and took the world by storm. Living in London as a student there was so much that was exciting and new to do, yet there was also the stability of it’s history and tradition. There were pubs for a cheap evening and good company.

There was music of all sorts - classical and jazz and art galleries and parks. The freedom of student life, the independence of having my old car and the joy of youth prevailed - and with no real responsibilities, except passing those exams! Good times!