Ah, the Sixties
Back-combed 'big' hairstyles like Dusty's beehive, solid with hair spray, the demure little kitten-heeled shoes you wore to leave the house, in case mum or dad saw you going out - and the stilletto heeled winklepickers you smuggled out & slipped on when you were out of sight at the bus stop, or when you got to your mate's house! My feet are still the shape of winkle pickers today!
Stockings & suspenders, mini-skirts which flashed your stocking tops if you weren't "ladylike" in how you moved & sat
, thigh high boots and satin hot-pants with fishnet tights (
were hot pants 60s, or 70s?), white lipstick, 'panda' eye makeup, 24" waist (where did
that go?) and pointy Playtex bras.
The boys were Teds sort of left over from the late 50s, with slicked back D/A haircuts, velvet jackets, drainpipe trousers & suede 'brothel-creepers' (Not that we knew what a brothel was, of course) Then when the Beatles burst on the scene, male hairstyling changed forever. It's laughable now when you look at early pics. of them, but the Beatles & the Stones had
"long hair" according to our parents. Some of the more fashion conscious boys adopted their hair- and clothing-styles, others turned into 'Mods' (short hair, parka, Crombie coat and/or motor scooter) or 'Rockers' (longer hair or Teddy boy style D/A, jeans & leather jackets, with or without motorbike). Meeting places for teenagers were mainly Youth Club ("boring"), coffee bars, or sometimes pubs if you looked old enough & could afford it, & the landlord would let you.
Girls, of course, couldn't possibly go into a pub unless they were with a man! It just wasn't done!
Jobs were easy to get, 'redundancy' wasn't a word we (as teenagers) had ever heard of. If we were sick, we went to the doctor's house & sat in the waiting room with other people until our turn came around to see him. There were no health centres, appointments or receptionists, you just went there & sat & caught everything everyone else was suffering from!
If there wasn't a bus service to where we wanted to go, we (kids) hitch-hiked, most of the time quite safely -
unless the driver who stopped was a friend of your Dad, in which case you were in for BIG trouble at home. Most families had only 1 car, if they had one at all, and it was common for everyone to cycle or walk to work and school. Supermarkets had only just arrived in Britain (and were more like a corner shop by comparison to today's huge sheds) & Mum shopped for fresh groceries every other day (or sent one of the kids) or had things delivered to the back door by the milkman, butcher's van, greengrocer and coalman.
Oh boy, can somebody please turn the calendar back???