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Growing up in the United States – Part 2B The 1960’s (1965-1969)
Personal life – Moving from “The Projects” to “The Suburbs”
The Move
1965 went down in personal history as being one of the best years of my life.
Reluctantly, I said good-bye to my friends in the projects; Kurt who shot marbles better than anybody (and played for keeps), Gregory who was my closest friend and we often raced running (he always won), and Pee Dee (whose family was close to ours).
Nevertheless, we moved into our brand new house in January, 1965. It was in the midst of winter and a lot of snow had fallen, not the ideal time to move but that’s when the house was ready for occupancy. Many houses on the street were not completely built; therefore there weren’t any friends to meet, except one, Curtis.
Curtis lived down the street and it wasn’t long before we made friends. Since it was winter, activities involved meeting his family, shoveling snow from driveways and sidewalks, exploring houses in various stages of construction and walking through the snow to the closest store in the neighborhood with Curtis’ loyal dog named “Patch” accompaning us. Patch was a medium sized mixed black Labrador and wasn’t a mean dog but was able to “hold his own” if the occasion warranted it.
By summertime, many more people had moved in and another friend was met whose name was Charlie. Charlie and I became really good friends into adulthood. We eventually occupied ourselves with train sets, slot car racing, decking out our bedrooms with a black light/posters and stereos on a shelf mounted on the wall.
As 1965 progressed, many people moved into their houses and families started buying new cars “right off the bat.” All up and down the block were new 1965 automobiles such as: Pontiac Bonneville, Chevrolet Impala, Plymouth Fury, Ford Galaxie 500 and more.
You may wonder, “Wow, you all were rich!” No, these were just working people with automotive factory and related jobs working 10-14 hours a day and some worked 7 days a week. Over 8 hours you were paid 1.5 times your hourly rate and after 7 days you were paid double time (2x) and if on a scheduled holiday, triple time (3x) your hourly rate. Furthermore, for some jobs working over-time was mandatory, that is, you had no choice unless there was a medical reason for your absence.
The U.S. economy was doing really good, U.S. car production was over 10,880,000 cars and trucks in 1965 and the industries supporting the automotive industry did well also. One model, the Ford Mustang came out as a 1964-1/2 model and was a very popular car selling over 500,000 vehicles in 1965.
Concerning the funds to purchase a house, hardly anyone paid cash for a house. The U.S. government has an agency called “FHA” which stands for the Federal Housing Administration and their goal is to finance (through financial institutions) home mortgages for a certain income bracket with a low (3%) down payment of the borrower to promote U.S. home ownership. Almost all of the houses in the neighborhood were about $15,000 or less, therefore, working people with a decent income could afford through a FHA mortgage to purchase a house.
Furthermore, purchasing an automobile was simply a matter of obtaining a car loan from your bank or credit union. Please note, the U.S. economy has been, and still is, a credit-based economy, as long as you have a decent credit history, you can finance many things your income will afford you.
Junior High School Days:
Starting school was totally different for me since I came from an all-black neighborhood and school in the projects to an all-black suburban community and entered an almost all-white school. Ironically, there were more issues for me dealing with the various mindsets of some of the black students than with the fact that I was in an all-white school and learn to adjust to them.
For example, some of the students were automatically against white people, some were indifferent towards them and others treated them individually based on the substance of their character.
I fell into the latter category which made some of the former category of students upset with me and others with a like-mindedness. I did not agree with anyone who thought I should be against a person solely because they are of a different race. How absurd!
However, sports brought students somewhat together on a common ground. The majority of students supported the football and basketball teams and to a lesser degree the track team.
In my 8th grade English class, our teacher (who was white, short of stature with a beard, and had many children) was a very thought-provoking teacher and made the following statement to the class: “I would not send any of my children to an all-white school!” Now this was an English class and not a Social Studies class, but we spent the whole class session discussing his reason for making this statement. It was totally contrary to the mindset of many white people moving to the suburbs.
However, it wasn’t until college that I was able to understand the logic of his reasoning which I will reveal in the “Growing up in the U.S. during the 1970’s” episode.
Another one of his thought-provoking questions was: “Does the end justify the means?”
Again, we spent a whole class session on this topic. You may wonder, “When did you learn English?” I believe his strategy was to incorporate English into the ability to express our opinions and align them with the grammar part later. One thing is for sure; his class sessions were not boring and he made you think!
By the end of junior high school I had befriended many black and white students and still am friends with many of them over 40 years later. The experience of accepting people of another race would serve me tremendously well in college where many of the students both black and white that did not have an inter-racial experience would seemingly feel more comfortable interacting with a Martian! (tongue-in-cheek)
If you have any questions or comments please “have at it.”
Stay tuned for Part 2C – “Growing up in the United States 1965-1969” –National Events and High School Days
Ps. There are a few phrases used in the text:
1. “Hold his own”
2. “Right off the bat”
3. “Have at it”
4. “Played for keeps”
Challenge: See if you can find the meaning of these phrases.
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