The sizzlin', sexy, sensational 60s

It's been 50 years since the 1960s dawned - dubbed the sizzlin' 60s, the sexy 60s, or the sensational 60s - depending on what observer/pundit was trying to give us his or her take on what they would be like. Guess you could say they all turned out to be right, to a degree. But then again, maybe they missed it.<br /> <br /> The decade was sizzlin' in that the Cold War was still very hot, a fact driven home with a sharp exclamation point in October 1962. That's when for 13 days the world was on edge as two nuclear super powers - the United States and the Soviet Union - squared off over Soviet missiles in Cuba. But, the Soviets blinked and the world survived.<br /> <br /> The U.S. leader was a young man from Massachusetts who had been elected president just a year earlier, a man who, much like the current president, was swept into office on a promise of change... asking Americans "not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country." Oh, yes, and vowing to land a man on the surface of the moon and return him safely to earth within the decade.<br /> <br /> John Kennedy never lived to see that goal fulfilled (which occurred in July 1969 but not without the loss of life for some of those who paved the way for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin). Kennedy was cut down by an assassin's bullet in Dallas in 1963, the first of a number of such events that decade that mirrored each other. The others being the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in April 1968; several other civil rights/human rights leaders and workers, including Malcom X; and Kennedy's brother, Robert. <br /> <br /> Then there's the Vietnam War which dragged on for most of the decade and into the 70s, with the loss of more than 55,000 American lives; the riots that followed the assassination of Dr. King; and the anti-war protests, highlighted by the Kent State shooting and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.<br /> <br /> The person who dubbed the decade the sexy 60s couldn't have known about the sexual revolution that was just around the corner.<br /> <br /> Before we knew what hit us, the birth control pill arrived, almost overnight changing the sexual mores of this country forever. Then, there was the mini-skirt and the micro-mini. The bikini came into vogue, followed by skimpier and skimpier beach and poolside attire. Topless beaches and all-nude beaches sprang up... before the 60s limited primarily to nudist resorts. Highly sexually explicit movies, hard-core they are called, made their way onto the big screen in movie houses from Main Street to Peachtree Street... no longer relegated to the peep shows in adult bookstores on the "sleazy" side of town and stag parties in private homes or clubs. <br /> <br /> And, we can't forget the British invasion and the way pop music was forever transformed by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and all those groups that followed them. <br /> <br /> So, how would you label the decade? The sizzlin' 60s, the sensational 60s or the sexy 60s?<br /> <br /> How about the "tragic" 60s? <br /> <br /> No, it doesn't have the poetic ring of the other three, rolling off the tongue the way they do but perhaps it best describes the decade overall given the assassinations, the war, and the violent demonstrations on our streets and college campuses. <br /> <br /> And, 50 years ago, its first year was coming to an end, with no way for those of us around at the time to fathom the turbulent nine years ahead.<br /> <br /> <I>(Ken Stanford is Newsroom Manager for WDUN NEWS TALK 550, FM 102.9 WDUN, and 1240 ESPN Radio.)<I>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2010/12/234321