Born in 1958, I grew up in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, reaching age 18 in 1976. I am part of what’s called the
Baby Boomer generation.
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War seemed to dominate newspaper headlines and television newscasts much of my childhood. As a young boy, I just assumed the U.S. was correct and wondered if I’d be afraid to fight if drafted at age 18. Mom said the war might be over by then. It was.
As time went on I questioned the correctness of the war. Life wasn’t as simple as I’d thought earlier.
Television
If not for cable television, there would be no TV reception in most of southeastern Kentucky.
That’s one reason that the coal mining areas in southeastern Kentucky’s Appalachian mountains were probably among the first places in the United States to get cable television.
But even with cable, our TV only picked up picked up 3-5 channels during most of my childhood. We got a CBS station, an ABC station, one or two NBC stations, and sometimes a snowy hard-to- watch and hard-to-hear public educational network station.
Still, watching television was a big thing. I loved the 1966-1968 Batman series, especially its first two seasons. The show was a big hit. Lucille Ball’s shows and other situation comedies like The Beverly Hillbillies and The Andy Griffith Show were entertaining. Detective shows and medical shows were popular during primetime too. I sometimes watched Captain Kangaroo in mornings.
Saturday morning cartoons were an enjoyable routine. Sometimes dad and mom would sleep in. I’d get up early, fix myself a bowl of sugar-laden cereal and milk, and enjoy watching Bugs Bunny, Popeye, Road Runner, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Underdog, Mighty Mouse, and others.
Reading
I loved reading everything from books to magazines to newspapers to words on breakfast cereal boxes.
I especially loved mystery novels like The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Brains Benton, Trixie Belden, etc. Books ordered at school from I think Scholastic Book Services added diversity to my reading. I also checked out books from libraries.
Dad subscribed to some magazines and newspapers. I enjoyed reading articles in them.
Radio
After mom and dad got me an AM-FM clock radio for a present, I enjoyed listening to it much. At night after local stations signed off, powerful stations from Louisville, New Orleans, Chicago, New York, and other areas could be picked up.
I especially loved WHAS in Louisville. WHAS’s Milton Metz hosted a marvelous talk show where he allowed persons of various viewpoints to speak while rarely expressing his own opinion. I still think he’s the best talk show host I’ve heard
WHAS was one of the stations that broadcast the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre after it debuted. This gave me an opportunity to listen to radio dramas and think about what mom and dad may have experienced decades earlier in the glory days of radio.
On WHAS I also frequently listened to University of Kentucky basketball and football games, as well as Kentucky Colonels ABA professional basketball games. Such games were rarely on television then.
Playing Games, Hiking Mountains, Shooting a BB Gun, etc.
Playing board and card games with friends and family, hiking the mountains, bicycling, and shooting my BB gun were among the fun things I did. We played lots of games of Monopoly on hot summer afternoons, sometimes in front of an oscillating fan. We played a lot of Rook.
I owned many toy soldiers. Friends and I sometimes divided them into two “armies” and took time shooting at one another’s forces with toy guns that fired plastic disks. Those disks were not as safe as the foam bullets on today’s toy guns, so I’m glad we didn’t seriously injure one another.
A Give-a-Show Projector with numerous slides provided lots of fun for my sister and me. I especially enjoyed the slides of Mighty Mouse, one of my early childhood cartoon favorites.
On the few occasions during winter when snow covered the ground, I enjoyed riding my sled, snowball fights with friends and family, and building a snowman.
After the sun went behind the mountains in the evening, there were still a few hours of shady daylight. Even on hot summer days, it cooled off relatively quickly during these few hours. We enjoyed playing outdoor games like tag, dodge Frisbee, croquet, and badminton.
Eating Out
There were no McDonald’s, Burger King, or Subway restaurants in the areas I lived in. Mom-and-pop restaurants were the primary places for eating out. And meals away from home typically only occurred when we were traveling on a trip somewhere.
Mom was a stay-at-home housewife who prepared breakfast, lunch, and supper. Mom and dad also kept the kitchen furnished with lots of snacks for in-between meals— though mom limited my snacks, especially in my younger years.
Mom discouraged me from eating or staying at friends’ houses. But on a few occasions during my elementary school years she let me stay overnight with close friends, and I’d eat a meal or so there.
News
Dad subscribed to local newspapers. We also sometimes watched the local and national evening news. And radios offered brief news information.
The space program fascinated me. I enjoyed watching television coverage of the Apollo missions, especially the first landing of man on the moon with Apollo 11, and reading many newspaper articles about it. For a period the Vietnam War was knocked out of the headlines.
Shopping
We did much of our shopping for groceries, shoes, clothes, books, etc., in Williamson, West Virginia, which was relatively close to the places we lived in Pike County, Kentucky during most of my elementary school and the majority of my high school years.
Williamson then featured a huge Sears Roebuck store, clothing stores, at least one or two shoe stores, a book store, two 5 and 10 cent stores, etc.
I considered it a city, since it was the only place I knew with two 5 and 10 cent stores. These stores even included some items priced at 5 cents and 10 cents if my memory is correct.
The big Sears store in Williamson had a large sign on its front reading “We Service What We Sell.” Dad stated it was one of the few truthful advertising slogans he’d seen.
Indeed, our appliances almost all came from Sears: televisions, refrigerator, washer, dryer, and maybe others. The Sears repair person performed in-home service under our product warranties if something malfunctioned.
Catalogues
We ordered many items from catalogues.
The Christmas season mean the arrival of the Sears Roebuck Christmas Wish Book, a marvelous volume containing a huge variety of appealing toys. Many of my Christmas gifts came from that Sears Wish Book. I loved viewing it.
We also received other catalogues from Montgomery Ward and Spiegel.
Electronic Devices
Cell phones, personal computers, DVD players, and VCRs did not exist. We didn’t own a microwave oven until sometime in my teenage years.
I think it was 1974 during my junior year of high school when I first saw a pocket calculator. I enjoyed looking at a friend’s device. I think it was later in that 1974-75 school year when dad and mom bought me one. It helped calculations much.
Not a Typical Child
I was not a typical child. I was extremely shy, introverted. I didn’t date anyone in high school. And my main extracurricular involvement was as a member of the school spelling team from the 7th grade through my sophomore year in high school. The school we moved to in my junior year did not have a spelling team.
I did not play organized sports. I seldom followed elementary or high school sports. But I did get interested in University of Kentucky basketball and football during my elementary school years.
Though most of my close friends attended church regularly, my family did not during much of my childhood. However, mom and dad did instill morals in me.
I kept records of movies watched at the theatre, occasionally kept a journal, and loved to write as well as read, which probably isn’t typical for a boy.
I had relatively few chores during my childhood. But one of them was carrying in coal during cold weather to fill the stoker for the furnace at the house we moved into during my junior year of high school. I had mom take the pictue below of me carrying in a bucket of coal when I was visiting the family in January 1978 during my second year of college, but I often carried in coal the two winters of high school that we had the coal furnace as well.
Travel
We took regular trips to buy groceries and other things. We also frequently visited my grandparents, and sometimes aunts, uncles, and cousins, as well. Dad enjoyed taking a Sunday afternoon drive, so sometimes the family would take such a drive, apparently with no particular destination in mind.
On perhaps a few occasions, we went to drive-in outdoor theatres, then after I got older, we frequently went to indoor theatres, typically the one in Williamson to see Walt Disney movies.
Long distance vacations were rare, but dad and I (and sometimes the rest of the family) took trips to places like the Red River Gorge, Breaks Interstate Park, and the Raven Rock area of Jenkins where we hiked.
Cars lacked seatbelts in my early childhood years. And I think I even rode at least a couple of times in the back of a pickup truck where there was not even a seat in the normal sense.
Closing Thoughts
In my biased opinion, I grew up in a wonderful time. Hiking and playing old-fashioned games seem preferable to me to the new video games. I feel I got the outdoor life and the indoor life too.
Today’s youth seem to miss out on much that I got. Similarly, I got to experience blessings like television, radio, and other advances that my grandparents lacked during their childhoods.
But a lot of it has to do with attitude. Each of us can choose to make the best of whatever situation we grow up in.
