Culture Forum

This lesson for me was very interesting, because you was talking about different group apparel. At my college I had to prepare about 1960s fashions, so it was pleasure for me read about different groups fashions and how they behave in school.

I am surprised, that in the US you can get dviver’s license so young. In these days a the same situation ? because in Lithuania you can start when you have 18 years.

I am waiting your new lesson !!!!! And also recommended to read this lesson to all people, because lesson a really very interesting and helpful!

I have a great interesting to disscus this ,but  i  have to sleep now, I  am to tired . haha  

culture,what can I say about it ? As I am a Chinese,I think I have been deeply influrenced by our Chinese culture,mabye it has permeated into my bone marrow,what I do or what I say is from that even we dont aware it .mabey this is the power of the cultutre.

another thing about culture is charecteristics,eatern cultuer and western culture all conten something.unitive，all of course,they have something difference.I think the unitive things is the things all of  the human beings want,but the diffenrece is their patern of  manifestation .

Hello, dear Alston. :)

With a great pleasure I keep on travelling back to the time when you were too young to drive a car!  ;)

The same separation into various groups of students was in my country during the years you mentioned. Even nowadays,  such groups as jocks, greasers, nerds are still “alive ” :)

Very often,  I can see the meeting of greasers which heading at the speed of light along the streets to the place where they have their time. I adore the style of greasers but I had no chance to participate to their group. 

One of my wishes which is in my bucket list is to ride a motorcycle or sit behind the driver of motorbike and move with the highest speed along the long track towards the sun. :)))

In my student years I was a free-spirit  type but wore the style of clothes hippies wore. :)

I must admit that I still love that style of dressing and wear it quite often. 

It was amazing part delivered for our reading, dear Alston. Thank you a lot 

I would like to hear the story of birth of your family and some “hearty” moments from your life, if possible. 

With great respect and admiration 

You truly made my day!  :)

Hello Samineh thanks for your feedback.  Here is possibly a new English word for you and others to add to your vocabulary. The word is “vicarious” which means to experience through your imagination the experiences or actions of another person.

Therefore you can “vicariously” experience living in the US through the story of my life. Thanks for taking the time to write.

It was so nice, thanks Mr Alston.

 it was written so good that i could imagin it.

S&W you asked a good question and I’m glad you asked it. During summer and winter breaks from the late 1960’s through 1970 I spent this time during the following:

Assembling model cars, fishing, slot car racing (at home and slot car center), basketball, listening to music and working.

Here are some links to WobblyJoe’s and my first cars.

http://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1977-plymouth-arrow-gs-celeste-before-the-fire/ 1976 Plymouth Arrow

http://www.classiccarcommunity.com/part_detail.php?id=1008 1961 Chevrolet Corvair (My first car & same color)

Anja, you hit the nail on the head. Yes the 1970’s saw people gravitating to various groups and there was a backlash from the majority against things that occurred in the 1960’s.  I intend to go more into that on my next post.

My friends during this time was transcended greaser types and hippie types and actually all of them.  Stay tuned and thanks for your comments.

Easypeasy, it’s always good to hear from you.  Thanks for your suggestion to do this topic!

Mr. Alston, I also found your post really entertaining! It was indeed a little bit like a time travel while reading it, I like the way you’ve written it. It is really cool that you share your personal experiences with us, it makes it very authentic and thus easier to imagine how it was like to grow up in these times in the U.S. Like always, looking forward to reading the next parts!

Indeed the 70s seemed to be ‘the’ decade where people hung out in myriad groups. Isn’t it amazing how we as human beings tend to individualize in regard to what is important to us and what not? I really love how people had and still have their own way of being in this beautiful world. 

It was very entertaining to read about another special decade from your perception, Alston. Knowing you leaned towards the Greaser types made me think of my first celebrity-crush John Travolta. He starred as Danny Zuko in the musical film Grease. Now I wonder if you wore the same style of jackets and slacks as the T-Birds :))

Well, my question was what did you do in summer holiday or winter holiday?

S&W, you’re welcome. Every person have a life story and that’s a good reason why reality TV and autobiographies are popular.  If you were to go into a time machine and come out in 1970 be mindful that you would not have any personal computers, laptops, cell phones, no internet, social media and the like.  But guess what, we got along just fine thank you!

I connected with the Greaser types very well because they were into cars and so was I.

I remember after college after I bought my first new car (I’ll explain that part in an up- coming post) I had a date with someone I met in college and we met one of my Greaser friends from high school in a restaurant.

He was so handsome, my date wanted to leave me and go with him!  I can’t say that I blame her because Bruce was so handsome and had such a nice demeanor and personality. But he was a gentleman and didn’t take my date away.

S&W, I could not fully understand your request, please explain. WobblyJoe will probably send you a link of the Plymouth Arrow.

WobblyJoe, my first car was a 1961 Chevrolet Corvair and my high school buddy had a 1965 Chevrolet Corvair.

I remember your first car the Plymouth Arrow and it’s cousin the Dodge Horizon. Those cars were very popular because of their fuel economy and you could roll on the cheap.

You hit the nail on the head about the necessity of having a vehicle.  It came down to heels or wheels. Cars are the American public transportation system and if you roll with a friend, you’d better give some gas money or it’s “Hit the road Jack!”

I can’t find any photo online about Plymouth Arrow .It must be found in a car collector’s warehouse.As time passing by uncountable things were abandoned by us .

Sure! My first car was a 1976 Plymouth Arrow. It was made by Mitsubishi in Japan. It was a very ordinary two door hatchback but I loved it. It wasn’t as fast as some other guys cars, since it had only a four cylinder engine, but it was fun to drive.

In most of the US, people live in areas apart from businesses. It can be many miles to get anyplace. When you are a teen, going to the movies or to a football game at a rival school might be a long trip at night so without a car, most teens are trapped at home or reliant on friends. Among the kids I knew, the driver controls the radio so it’s always better to be the driver than one of the teenagers who asked for a ride and then had to listen to the drivers choice of music.

It’s long gone now, and I haven’t even seen one in many years. I think my poor little Plymouth Arrow has probably rusted away completely but I remember it fondly.

hey wobbly If you want could you tell us more about your first car and some other interesting things about your junior high school and high school life?I don’t know when englishteacher come back to give comment.maybe we can read yours.

Again I am amazed at how similar growing up in the American school system must be for those who grow up in it. Except for a few things like popular music, this could have been written by any student from back then, even one from a few years later! Very accurate for my life too.

I would like to hear more about your first car. What kind was it? For an American teenager, the first car is a very special relationship. I honestly remember my car better than my girlfriend. Sad but true.

As the hippies aged, many became a very “earth friendly” group who began things like “Earth Day”. Earth Day 1970 was the first year, I remember going to Earth Day events. Music changed to reflect this new environmental focus on the Earth and many who had been peace and love hippies matured into a very environmentally aware group that is reflected more as the 1970s progressed, which I will leave to Mr. Alston’s next installment.

Hey teacher, Thank you for sharing this with us.Reading your story was like watch a real TV show especially you warn your swim instructor and pulled over by a policeman.Time flies.But,Is there anyone who can put me in a time machine back to 1970.I really wanna become a student in a school which was made up of different types with complicated background.I would like to be a free-spirit type communicated with the other types.Just skip the nerds.I did a lot of academics in my high school years.Firstly,be friend with Greasers start topic from brand Dodge(I have been affected by Fast &Furious 7).Is that gonna work?

I wondered how you spent your holiday,especially you got your own car?summer camp……

Looking forward to the next part.

Mahtab.bp you’re welcome. Hippies were well known but did not represent every young person. They were not received well in the southern and rural portion of the U.S. There were also Yippies who would fit into the radical category.

The main thing to see in this microcosm is that all Americans are not the same and during that time every group marched to the beat of a different drummer. But there were some common threads among the various categories during that time, but not many!

NIJ321655, thanks for your feedback.

Ch14, welcome.

hie

Thank you techer for not teching the same thing.

Thank you so much dear teacher!

It was very detailed and interesting information about different students groups  during your school days!

I wasnt heard many of them! I think only Hippies were known in my country from that era!

It shows how much people had different kinds of opinions and interests before but now we see most of teenagers have similar appearances and opinions!

Thank you again for sharing your great memories! :-)