Honest question… what changed in the 60’s?

[LetsFNgo]

So while at Carlisle Friday I found a bunch of car magazines and ended up picking up about 30 late 50’s- early 70’s Hot Rods and PHR’s.

In the January 1963 Hot Rod is an ad, paid for by George Hurst but not selling any product. Just talking about how young men are the future and how we need “…other active, free thinking young Americans like him…”

What changed over that decade and the decades since? I was born in 1990, and just reading this today makes me both proud and sad. Proud that a country held its young men in such high regard, and sad that I wonder when it all changed. I know the 60’s changed a lot from the beginning to the end, and maybe Vietnam played a large part of that. But I’d love to hear other opinions about that decade and where it all changed.

[danachevroletfor1967]

I was a teen in the 1960's and remember that decade fondly. In my opinion it had the greatest music and cars ever and one of the greatest sports decades ever. I can't speak for what happened since to get to where we are today, but I think that definitely Vietnam and the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK had something to do with that decade ending on a negative note. Coming closer to today I think that smartphones and social media are leading to the downfall of our youth. Throw in AI and I fear what might come from that. I am just very thankful to God that I was a youth in the 50's and a teen in the 60's.

[Bill Pritchard]

It's a great question, but one that probably has no single definitive answer. Different people are going to have different opinions, and there's probably not enough bandwidth on this Site to publish them all.

A little more than ten years after the issue of Hot Rod magazine that you pictured, Hot Rod was featuring custom vans, and I thought the world as I knew it had come to an end.

[Billohio]

I grew up in the late 70s and early 80s, well I was a teenager then, and we would go out and do stuff, put models together, ride bikes or a dirt bike, then you got a car and messed with it. I think what happened after me are video games and now phones. I live in a rural area and see kids that don't even bother to get a drivers license. Kids 20 years old and parents still hauling them around. Sad situation

[LetsFNgo]

It's a great question, but one that probably has no single definitive answer. Different people are going to have different opinions, and there's probably not enough bandwidth on this Site to publish them all.

A little more than ten years after the issue of Hot Rod magazine that you pictured, Hot Rod was featuring custom vans, and I thought the world as I knew it had come to an end.

It’s fascinating reading magazines from the early 70’s because they really believed the new 1975 emissions standards were going to literally mean the end of the automobile. They interview Henry Ford II in one and he discusses how it will put Ford out of business. Gas companies paying for ads telling people that the new no lead gas won’t kill their cars as long as compression isn’t too high. It’s very interesting to read with what we know today.

I just miss the innocence of the early 60’s magazines. The man(George Hurst) put his nephew front and center to say he won’t be the next John Glenn or President, but will be a great American.

[R68GTO]

Agree, lots of factors but I believe if you want to point to one thing that created most of the change is communication technology. It has changed nearly every facet of life for most people.

[tom406]

I was born in 1969, so I can't give an observer's view, but this documentary on 1968 gives a compelling overview of most of the societal issues that came to a head in 1968 and explain a lot of the shifts that followed. https://www.cnn.com/shows/1968. I think Mad Men and its storylines are a fascinating dramatized overview of the era. I love the cars and music of the 1960's, but that era has been candy-coated in how it is remembered and recycled for us. Reading books like RFK's biography published during the era before the mythology built up is helpful to provide context for more recent retrospectives.

[Bill Pritchard]

I wonder if George Hurst's nephew is still around, and if so, what his life story entails? That is indeed a pretty powerful advertisement that Mr. Hurst paid to run in the magazine.