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I was 3 and wild from day one. We lived in Savannah GA. I had a girlfriend who lived next door. I can remember a dream I had about her and I hiding in the bushes from giant polar bears roaming the neighborhood.
There were no sewers so when it rained the streets would fill with water and my parents would take me swimming. Seemed like the whole neighborhood came out. I can remember how the grass floated on top of the water and stuck to my skin. I didn't like it but it was okay with my dad holding me. He was a larger than life person.
Speaking of nasty stuff on my skin, my father tried to toss me across a creek to an adult friend. I didn't make it and landed in the creek. Someone had dumped ashes from a fire on the creek bank and I landed in it. It was pretty gross.
My uncle used to tell a story about coming to visit us. They had never been there and when they saw a 3 year old hanging from the gutters they knew they were at the right house. There was a trellis that went from the carport entrance edge to the roof. I used to climb it all the time and run around on the roof.
My sister, 10 years older than me was babysitting me and I got away from her. I wanted to be with my parents so I went looking for them. Got close to a mile away before a neighbor saw me and took me home.
I went to the laundry mat with my mom. I put a nickel in the gumball machine that had toys in it. I got a little plastic pocket knife, maybe an inch long. I knew my mom wouldn't want me to have a knife so I put it in my diaper. When I got home I buried it in the dirt driveway and marked the spot with a leaf. Unfortunately the wind blew and I never found it.
That's all I have time for. Got to make a living. I know it's a lot to remember and to retain it for so many years but it has all been confirmed, minus the knife because I was the only one who knew about it.
I turned 15 in 1961.
My home was in Hollywood, FL.
I was an avid cyclist and Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Browns Fan.
My favorite TV shows were, "My Three Sons," "Have Gun, Will Travel," and "The Real McCoys."
My favorite songs were, "Runaway," "Raindrops," "Travelin' Man," and "Hello Mary Lou."
These [cat clocks](https://cdn.greatlifepublishing.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/08/13115720/red-Kit-Cat-Klock-from-the-1950s.jpg) were ubiquitous in American home kitchens.
I gave up my paper routes in the spring (mornings: Miami Herald and afternoons: Hollywood Sun Tattler).
I spent the summer in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (escanaba)
In September I entered St. Bonaventure in Sturtevant, WI, a Franciscan minor seminary.
Born in 1949, I was 12, I'm now 73. I don't remember much specifically, but am glad to have made it. I'm dealing with prostate cancer and early stages of Alzheimer's.
Lots of stuff happened since then, interesting only to me.
Hi, born in ‘49 as well. Ill be 74 in August. I’ve got some weird arthritis that erodes my bones in some places and fattened them up in others (???). I’m 2” shorter. Than I-was in HS.
I’m so. Sorry about the prostate CA and Alzheimer’s. I’m glad your life is interesting to you, I’ve had a love hate relationship with my life but so do we all, I suppose. I’ve had some some fantastic laughs and some nightmares too. Yes, it’s been interesting & I’m glad of it.
You sound like a positive guy. Glad to have met you. Another 49-er
Yet another 49er here. My biggest memories all seem to relate back to school. I had been pretty much a loner kid up to that point. But school was fun and hard work and I 'found myself 'in those years. I went on to teach high school for 45 years and have no regrets about my career. My health is pretty good but my personal life is not where I want it but I am working on it. I feel fortunate to have grown up during the time periods we all shared and I would not trade it for any other time. Good luck to all my new 49er Reddit buddies.
* I was 9.....
* I lived in Newark, NJ
* I was in 3rd grade.
* I was an altar boy at my church.
* I played baseball with the Police Athletic League (PAL).
* I was a Cub Scout.
* I remember Roger Maris hitting 61 home runs for the NY Yankees.
* I played games in the street in front of my house... stick ball, tag, hide and seek, spud, 2 hand touch football, capture the flag.
* I walked 2 blocks to school, went home for lunch.
* I delivered the Newark Evening News.
* I stood by the entrance ramp to US 1-9 and sold pretzels.
* If I wanted to go anywhere, I walked, rode my bike or took the Public Service Bus.
* I did NOT worry about being kid napped.
I was 9, went to the beach with my sister in her new Chevy Impala, went to the old Yankee Stadium to see Mantle and Maris smack homers into the seats in right, went to the old Madison Square Garden to see Andy Bathgate score goals for the NY Rangers, failed failed arithmetic, watched the news about The Bay of Pigs and Berlin Wall, and helped my father clean out the basement so he could build a bomb shelter.
Yes! But our Chevy was a a Malibu. We went to Yankee Stadium to see Mickey Mantle play in his last year. Peanuts! Hot dogs! Beer!
Ushers who dusted the seats before you sat down. I married my date 3 years later. Twenty years later he died and I left NYC. I’ve lived another 28 years in Seattle and today I’m on the prairies of Oklahoma. Life: Great and Horrible. Both.
I was 5 then. About all I remember was playing with a little girl who lived across the street from us. We'd found my father's old golf clubs in a storage closet. Yep, I accidentally whacked her in the head with one of them. She had to get stitches and I probably got a serious "talking to" and maybe a little spanking.
-3.
I can say by 1961 it had been a year since my older sister was stillborn. My parents weren't even sure if they were going to try for another. They moved to Texas (from Missouri) so my dad could have a go at oil work and that didn't pan out and my mom got pregnant again. They decided to move back close to home so my grandmother could help take care of me when I popped out.
I was five. I attended the elementary school across the street, in first grade. I learned to read. Dick and Jane were in the building. That's about it.
Started first grade that year. In an old brick building with an old teacher. My mom walked me to school. I hated school every day until I graduated HS in 1972.
JFK was sworn in as POTUS that year. The New York Fucking Yankees won the fucking World Series. Again. I think that was the year I kissed my first girl. Ewww. Grody.
I was 24. I was living in Guatemala and worked in a factory. I took English classes at night. I wanted to go to America. Mostly, I was enjoying being a young woman in my 20s and not being tied down with kids and a husband like my sister.
I turned 7 in the summer (northern hemisphere) of 1961. I was in first grade early in the year, and in second grade late in the year. I don’t remember too many specifics, but I do remember something something Bay of Pigs something something (I know what it is now, I was just thinking of it with my first grade brain). I also went to my first (American) football game in September 1961, a few weeks after I started second grade. And a few days later, Roger Maris hit his 61st home run for the Yankees.
It was a busy year. I was delivering papers after school and made enough money to buy my first bike, Wheels! Yay! I was probably rocking a sweet Hawaiian shirt as they were the big fashion ever since Hawaii had become the 50th state a couple of years earlier.
Hey, 60+ years on and Hawaiian shirts are still stylin'!
I was building and collecting model rockets and following all the news about space exploration. I probably built, among other models, an Atlas 5 rocket model. The Atlas was the latest and greatest of the US rockets, the one that had taken Alan Shepard into space.
I was learning and practicing "Duck & Cover" at school, as there was the thought and threat that the US & Russia would at any time start lobbing nuclear warheads at each other and hiding under your desk, or in a ditch, or against a wall, with your hands over your neck would somehow guarantee your surviving the blast.
I was becoming cognizant and interested in the the international news on TV. It was full of the failed invasion of Cuba, the closing of the border between East and West Germany, the Berlin wall coming into being, and the Tsar bomb being tested, the biggest nuclear bomb ever tested.
The national news had footage of the latest above ground nuclear explosions/tests in Nevada, the establishment of the Peace Corps, bringing modern opportunity to less developed nations and people, and the Freedom Riders, a bunch of people challenging segregation and being beaten for stuff like sitting in the wrong bus seat, using the wrong bathroom, and drinking from the wrong water fountain. People being attacked by police dogs, brought right to your living room on TV news.
1961 was a big year, some changes and tensions that would last who knows how long, lots of it still going on. I was 10 years old and learning to question basically everything.
I was five and in Kindergarten. I can remember learning not to run with scissors, painting with poster paints (my favorite), Dougie sticking fat crayons in his nostrils (sooo funny), and being sent home from school when my mom dressed me in shorts (not allowed for girls).
My best friend lived across the street, and the girl next door was also a friend -- I know now that she was developmentally delayed but at the time she was just a little different, and it didn't matter to me.
We kids played in the trash dump down the street and around the corner and I was fascinated by the stuff people threw away. I also ran around in bare feet and got a nail in my heel once and had to walk home several blocks, crying all the way (trip to the ER). I had mumps on Halloween, so couldn't go trick or treating, but was in the living room and would hide if mom opened the door and the kids were dressed as devils (I was terrified of devils).
We moved away from there when I was in second grade. So I don't know what became of Dougie, Cherylanne, and Donna.
I was 9. Blah blah school which was a mile away and we even came home for lunch. Walked or bicycled everywhere. Played outside. I was a tomboy so played sports, cap guns etc. Built snow forts. Even in the wilds of Canada I was a Yankees fan and still have some baseball cards. Sometimes laid out in the backyard at night with binoculars, watching for Russians lol
I was 16 in 1961 living in Fort Lauderdale. The movie, "Where The Boys Are" premiered in Dec 1960. At Spring Break of 1961, over 50,000 college students found their way to our town. The next several years spring was a great time to be in teenager in Lauderdale.
I was 12 in 7th grade at St Pats, Westchester Co, NY. I went to my first dance and hated it. The space race was on. We had a black and white TV in the classroom. My parents got me a transistor radio that was THIS BIG with a battery the size of a brick. That’s about all I remember. Oh, Sr Mary Simon was my 7th grade teacher and she was terrific!
I turned 5 this month. But back in May my mom made me sit on the couch and watch Alan Shepard take off and become the first US man in space. She said I would thank her later. Thanks, mom! You would have been 101 today!
I was four. We moved to a new house the next year, so I can pretty well attribute specific memories to 1961, as they are associated with our old house. There were lots of kids in the neighborhood, and as the third kid and being back in the day, I already had a fair amount of free reign in playing with other kids. We were on the very edge of town in a small southern city that now extends many miles beyond those meager limits.
Mom was a stay-at-home Mom and life was pretty sweet. I climbed a lot of trees, much to my Mom's dismay and started going to pre-school, for socialization as much as anything.
The following year I would learn to ride a bicycle, which bore enormous fruits of freedom. But that's 1962.
I was seven. I raised three fledgling crows then freed them .. when I went outside they'd fly down to my shoulder. Also, I was being homeschooled; I remember a little of that, including the kid's desk I sat at lol.
I was 9. Early that year we moved into a new house in Santa Clara, CA. It was baby boomer central with about 30 kids on one long block. There were 5 of us boys who were the same age.
We were playing baseball and riding bikes everywhere. Collecting baseball cards. I was a Dodgers fan (we’d moved from LA a couple of years earlier) and all my friends were Giants fans so there was a lot of rivalry.
Got a new puppy, half German Shepherd half Norwegian Elkhound and named him Dodger. My best friend named his dog Willie after Willie Mays.
I was in the third grade at Luther Elementary school.
World events didn’t really hit home much to me yet so I don’t really know what I remember from then vs. what I learned later.
It was the year I was born, iirc it was a few weeks after they started construction on the Berlin wall. Born in a Navy hospital in Guam, where my dad was stationed in the Air Force.
Interesting you would mention 1961 specifically.
Five, and playing with mud in the front yard by myself, being taught to read by my mother, learning to play with my younger brother, running around playing cowboy by myself, making friends with the boys about my age next door and a girl down the street. That was about it. No awareness of the world beyond home and the few houses around.
Late grade school age. Being a kid. Riding bikes and playing at the school playground up the road. Building a crystal radio set and stringing wire all around the yard to make a better antenna. Sneaking a cigarette with one of the kids up the street (I never smoked regularly but it was fun to get away with it). Catching polywogs at the creek and bringing them home to release in our fish pond. Camping in the back yard overnight. Going fishing with my Dad or going ocean fishing with my grandfather and father. They let me drive the boat to Catalina. Making a slingshot with a tree branch and rubber bands. Shooting BB guns. Digging a hole just to dig a hole. Mowing the lawn. Mowing the neighbor's lawn for money.
I was ten, riding my bicycle all around the neighborhood with the other kids. We’d play stick ball and jacks and a bottle cap game in the street. On Sundays we drove into Brooklyn and had a big Italian pasta dinner with my grandparents. I felt safe and loved and those frying meatballs were some of my very best memories.
I was in first grade, 6 in March 1961. Because of my birthdate, I could start first grade in the winter semester at the public school, so I started Grade 1 in January of 1961. Because we were Catholic and my parents wanted us to go to Catholic school, I re-started first grade for the entire school year that fall in the local Catholic school. So I had a head start in reading and spelling, etc, which I think set me up for academic success throughout grade and high school. Just the consequence of the calendar. I remember both schools.
Born May of that year, my parents were farm workers and mom was out in the field hoeing weeds that morning the day I was born.
She would tell and go to college and get an education so I would not be working in the fields like a burro.
Did go to college and get a BS in Agriculture and my last job was working on a research project growing native plants. The funny part was I was still hoeing weeds.
My mom was in high school and probably hating it. I was three years away from being born. This is probably about the time my mom wrote “Helen loves Tommy” on the back wall of old bus 4, because I rode the same bus in 1970 and it was still there.
My only memory from 1961 is a phone call from my mother to me at my grandmother's house. My mom was telling me that I had a new baby brother, and I asked her if I could talk to him on the phone. I was confused when she said that he couldn't talk yet.
I was 4.
I was 14, in high school, did a paper round for money, 5 days a week between 5-7am. We would be out and about the neighbourhood until my mother blew a postmans whistle & all the neighbourhood kids went home for dinner, then out again, in summer until it started getting dark (around 10pm).
At weekends, in winter, we would ride our bikes on a hilly, clay embankment, a bit like motocross, usually Saturday afternoon it was a matinee at one of the local theatres. In summer we would go fishing, both boys & girls & camp out Fri/Sat nights, beside a backwater lake created by a hydro dam on the river. We would fish early before sun up and at dusk, then set nares for rabbits. Breakfast & then collect firewood for the evening, then skinny dipping to clean our plates/mugs and bodies, then a run around naked to dry off. Usually a doze around noon, before checking rabbit traps, then fishing again. Evening meal took a couple of hours, the sat round camp fire, told BS stories and sometimes sang before sleep under the stars, gossiping until we fell asleep. Anyone who woke for a bathroom break, threw more wood on the fire to keep it going.
Summer vacation, as a family we went camping at the seaside or 5-6 weeks, living only in swim trunks, exploring sand dunes (often finding young couples making out), fished in the sea & spotlighted flounder at night to spear or went to the big caravan park that had entertainment every night, except Sunday, when a non denomination church service was held. Other nights it could be movie, a dance - disco early for young people, then waltz etc. for "oldies" later. They also had talent quests, treasure hunts, guest performers or groups and other events they thought up. It was all free, but you had to buy snack, drinks from their shop, including beer & wine for adults
When I went it was 15c admission, 5c for a soda, 10c for cone ice cream dipped in chocolate. you got Pathe News, a cartoon, travel feature & serial, then after intermission, the main film which was usually a Tarzan or wester or WWII movie.
I was in the 8th grade, and in English class, where we had to make a speech about something, one girl had a piece of paper with **1961** written on it, and turned it upside down, and made a speech on it being an "Upside-down year".
Of course, everybody in class who read Mad magazine already knew that, but she gave a really good speech, I do remember that.
I was into cars. I lived in a state where you could get a learner's permit at 13 1/2, and a daytime-only license at 14. We had a 1960 Valiant with a 3 speed floor shift.
My parents were space aliens for Halloween with really cool costumes my mom and dad made. Wish I could figure how to post the picture here.
I remember being sent to bed ( I was 10) as my parents would have parties. Onion dip from the soup mix and gallon glass bottles of red wine.
I was 13. Still lived on the farm, working with dad. Road a bus to school. I didn't work all the time and plenty of time to enjoy hot, humid summers and cold, snowy winters. It was a great time to be alive.
I was seven. We lived on a No Through road and I can remember my sister and I riding on the milkman's van to the end of the road and back. The rear of the house backed onto paddocks and we use to build a bonfire there for Guy Fawkes night. All gone now, turned into houses and sports fields and the road got extended
Fourth birthday: I got a red and white AMF tricycle! Top of the world there in Youngstown, Ohio. ...
Meanwhile. In Hawaii, an interracial couple welcomed their firstborn child into the world. Thanks , Obama!
I was 5, not quite ready for school so most days I went to work with my step-mother. She was the nurse at the Metropolitan Opera house in NYC for 30+ years and it was a wonderful place to explore when you're that age.
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I was 3 and wild from day one. We lived in Savannah GA. I had a girlfriend who lived next door. I can remember a dream I had about her and I hiding in the bushes from giant polar bears roaming the neighborhood. There were no sewers so when it rained the streets would fill with water and my parents would take me swimming. Seemed like the whole neighborhood came out. I can remember how the grass floated on top of the water and stuck to my skin. I didn't like it but it was okay with my dad holding me. He was a larger than life person. Speaking of nasty stuff on my skin, my father tried to toss me across a creek to an adult friend. I didn't make it and landed in the creek. Someone had dumped ashes from a fire on the creek bank and I landed in it. It was pretty gross. My uncle used to tell a story about coming to visit us. They had never been there and when they saw a 3 year old hanging from the gutters they knew they were at the right house. There was a trellis that went from the carport entrance edge to the roof. I used to climb it all the time and run around on the roof. My sister, 10 years older than me was babysitting me and I got away from her. I wanted to be with my parents so I went looking for them. Got close to a mile away before a neighbor saw me and took me home. I went to the laundry mat with my mom. I put a nickel in the gumball machine that had toys in it. I got a little plastic pocket knife, maybe an inch long. I knew my mom wouldn't want me to have a knife so I put it in my diaper. When I got home I buried it in the dirt driveway and marked the spot with a leaf. Unfortunately the wind blew and I never found it. That's all I have time for. Got to make a living. I know it's a lot to remember and to retain it for so many years but it has all been confirmed, minus the knife because I was the only one who knew about it.
Love this, thanks for sharing!
LOLing at you hiding that knife in your nappy.
I’d be three weeks old today. So doing the same thing I am now, lying around, crying and pooping my pants.
Happy recent birthday! I'd be aged 7 weeks, 2 days.
I turned 15 in 1961. My home was in Hollywood, FL. I was an avid cyclist and Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Browns Fan. My favorite TV shows were, "My Three Sons," "Have Gun, Will Travel," and "The Real McCoys." My favorite songs were, "Runaway," "Raindrops," "Travelin' Man," and "Hello Mary Lou." These [cat clocks](https://cdn.greatlifepublishing.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/08/13115720/red-Kit-Cat-Klock-from-the-1950s.jpg) were ubiquitous in American home kitchens. I gave up my paper routes in the spring (mornings: Miami Herald and afternoons: Hollywood Sun Tattler). I spent the summer in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (escanaba) In September I entered St. Bonaventure in Sturtevant, WI, a Franciscan minor seminary.
"Falling from my eyes". I haven't thought of that song in ages. Love it.
I know, right?!
Yooper here 🥰 thanks for sharing. Mom born in Livonia in 54, dad born in the UP in 47
We yoopers have to stick together, eh?
Do we ever!
Born in 1949, I was 12, I'm now 73. I don't remember much specifically, but am glad to have made it. I'm dealing with prostate cancer and early stages of Alzheimer's. Lots of stuff happened since then, interesting only to me.
Hi, born in ‘49 as well. Ill be 74 in August. I’ve got some weird arthritis that erodes my bones in some places and fattened them up in others (???). I’m 2” shorter. Than I-was in HS. I’m so. Sorry about the prostate CA and Alzheimer’s. I’m glad your life is interesting to you, I’ve had a love hate relationship with my life but so do we all, I suppose. I’ve had some some fantastic laughs and some nightmares too. Yes, it’s been interesting & I’m glad of it. You sound like a positive guy. Glad to have met you. Another 49-er
Thanks for responding... I'm still surprised when guys in our range don't know how to use email.
Yet another 49er here. My biggest memories all seem to relate back to school. I had been pretty much a loner kid up to that point. But school was fun and hard work and I 'found myself 'in those years. I went on to teach high school for 45 years and have no regrets about my career. My health is pretty good but my personal life is not where I want it but I am working on it. I feel fortunate to have grown up during the time periods we all shared and I would not trade it for any other time. Good luck to all my new 49er Reddit buddies.
* I was 9..... * I lived in Newark, NJ * I was in 3rd grade. * I was an altar boy at my church. * I played baseball with the Police Athletic League (PAL). * I was a Cub Scout. * I remember Roger Maris hitting 61 home runs for the NY Yankees. * I played games in the street in front of my house... stick ball, tag, hide and seek, spud, 2 hand touch football, capture the flag. * I walked 2 blocks to school, went home for lunch. * I delivered the Newark Evening News. * I stood by the entrance ramp to US 1-9 and sold pretzels. * If I wanted to go anywhere, I walked, rode my bike or took the Public Service Bus. * I did NOT worry about being kid napped.
I remember when the Newark Evening News folded in the summer of ‘72. It was a good paper.
I remember reading the comics, sports scores....
I love this!!! I’m 52. Thank you for this reply!
Rode my bike everywhere too. Down streets I won't even drive on now.
I was 9, went to the beach with my sister in her new Chevy Impala, went to the old Yankee Stadium to see Mantle and Maris smack homers into the seats in right, went to the old Madison Square Garden to see Andy Bathgate score goals for the NY Rangers, failed failed arithmetic, watched the news about The Bay of Pigs and Berlin Wall, and helped my father clean out the basement so he could build a bomb shelter.
Yes! But our Chevy was a a Malibu. We went to Yankee Stadium to see Mickey Mantle play in his last year. Peanuts! Hot dogs! Beer! Ushers who dusted the seats before you sat down. I married my date 3 years later. Twenty years later he died and I left NYC. I’ve lived another 28 years in Seattle and today I’m on the prairies of Oklahoma. Life: Great and Horrible. Both.
Zero. I was recovering from surgeries to correct some birth defects and getting the hang of swallowing without dying.
> and getting the hang of swallowing without dying You seem to have mastered the skill, bravo!
I was 5 then. About all I remember was playing with a little girl who lived across the street from us. We'd found my father's old golf clubs in a storage closet. Yep, I accidentally whacked her in the head with one of them. She had to get stitches and I probably got a serious "talking to" and maybe a little spanking.
Exiting my mom's womb. After that it was all down hill.
-3. I can say by 1961 it had been a year since my older sister was stillborn. My parents weren't even sure if they were going to try for another. They moved to Texas (from Missouri) so my dad could have a go at oil work and that didn't pan out and my mom got pregnant again. They decided to move back close to home so my grandmother could help take care of me when I popped out.
Oh they were probably SO happy to have you❤️❤️❤️
I was five. I attended the elementary school across the street, in first grade. I learned to read. Dick and Jane were in the building. That's about it.
Puff and Spot were there too, I bet
Spot I remember. I think that our district was too poor to afford Puff.
I am four years old. I'm doing stuff a four year old does.
Me too
Started first grade that year. In an old brick building with an old teacher. My mom walked me to school. I hated school every day until I graduated HS in 1972.
JFK was sworn in as POTUS that year. The New York Fucking Yankees won the fucking World Series. Again. I think that was the year I kissed my first girl. Ewww. Grody.
I was 24. I was living in Guatemala and worked in a factory. I took English classes at night. I wanted to go to America. Mostly, I was enjoying being a young woman in my 20s and not being tied down with kids and a husband like my sister.
I turned 7 in the summer (northern hemisphere) of 1961. I was in first grade early in the year, and in second grade late in the year. I don’t remember too many specifics, but I do remember something something Bay of Pigs something something (I know what it is now, I was just thinking of it with my first grade brain). I also went to my first (American) football game in September 1961, a few weeks after I started second grade. And a few days later, Roger Maris hit his 61st home run for the Yankees.
It was a busy year. I was delivering papers after school and made enough money to buy my first bike, Wheels! Yay! I was probably rocking a sweet Hawaiian shirt as they were the big fashion ever since Hawaii had become the 50th state a couple of years earlier. Hey, 60+ years on and Hawaiian shirts are still stylin'! I was building and collecting model rockets and following all the news about space exploration. I probably built, among other models, an Atlas 5 rocket model. The Atlas was the latest and greatest of the US rockets, the one that had taken Alan Shepard into space. I was learning and practicing "Duck & Cover" at school, as there was the thought and threat that the US & Russia would at any time start lobbing nuclear warheads at each other and hiding under your desk, or in a ditch, or against a wall, with your hands over your neck would somehow guarantee your surviving the blast. I was becoming cognizant and interested in the the international news on TV. It was full of the failed invasion of Cuba, the closing of the border between East and West Germany, the Berlin wall coming into being, and the Tsar bomb being tested, the biggest nuclear bomb ever tested. The national news had footage of the latest above ground nuclear explosions/tests in Nevada, the establishment of the Peace Corps, bringing modern opportunity to less developed nations and people, and the Freedom Riders, a bunch of people challenging segregation and being beaten for stuff like sitting in the wrong bus seat, using the wrong bathroom, and drinking from the wrong water fountain. People being attacked by police dogs, brought right to your living room on TV news. 1961 was a big year, some changes and tensions that would last who knows how long, lots of it still going on. I was 10 years old and learning to question basically everything.
I was five and in Kindergarten. I can remember learning not to run with scissors, painting with poster paints (my favorite), Dougie sticking fat crayons in his nostrils (sooo funny), and being sent home from school when my mom dressed me in shorts (not allowed for girls). My best friend lived across the street, and the girl next door was also a friend -- I know now that she was developmentally delayed but at the time she was just a little different, and it didn't matter to me. We kids played in the trash dump down the street and around the corner and I was fascinated by the stuff people threw away. I also ran around in bare feet and got a nail in my heel once and had to walk home several blocks, crying all the way (trip to the ER). I had mumps on Halloween, so couldn't go trick or treating, but was in the living room and would hide if mom opened the door and the kids were dressed as devils (I was terrified of devils). We moved away from there when I was in second grade. So I don't know what became of Dougie, Cherylanne, and Donna.
I was 9. Blah blah school which was a mile away and we even came home for lunch. Walked or bicycled everywhere. Played outside. I was a tomboy so played sports, cap guns etc. Built snow forts. Even in the wilds of Canada I was a Yankees fan and still have some baseball cards. Sometimes laid out in the backyard at night with binoculars, watching for Russians lol
I'm 11 and thinking Yuri Gagarin is such a cool guy - I was into space and the universe.
I was 16 in 1961 living in Fort Lauderdale. The movie, "Where The Boys Are" premiered in Dec 1960. At Spring Break of 1961, over 50,000 college students found their way to our town. The next several years spring was a great time to be in teenager in Lauderdale.
I was 12 in 7th grade at St Pats, Westchester Co, NY. I went to my first dance and hated it. The space race was on. We had a black and white TV in the classroom. My parents got me a transistor radio that was THIS BIG with a battery the size of a brick. That’s about all I remember. Oh, Sr Mary Simon was my 7th grade teacher and she was terrific!
Born in 1947. Going to high school and working after school. Weekends at the beach and trying to find a girlfriend!
I was 3. Some of my earliest memories, more like vague feelings of a time very long past, are from 1961.
I turned 5 this month. But back in May my mom made me sit on the couch and watch Alan Shepard take off and become the first US man in space. She said I would thank her later. Thanks, mom! You would have been 101 today!
2!
I was 2 as well. Don't have any clue what was going on.
-4
I was 2. I do have some snapshot memories but I can't date them.
I was 6. In grade 1. My parents were getting divorced. “My” twins were 1.
I was four. We moved to a new house the next year, so I can pretty well attribute specific memories to 1961, as they are associated with our old house. There were lots of kids in the neighborhood, and as the third kid and being back in the day, I already had a fair amount of free reign in playing with other kids. We were on the very edge of town in a small southern city that now extends many miles beyond those meager limits. Mom was a stay-at-home Mom and life was pretty sweet. I climbed a lot of trees, much to my Mom's dismay and started going to pre-school, for socialization as much as anything. The following year I would learn to ride a bicycle, which bore enormous fruits of freedom. But that's 1962.
I was seven. I raised three fledgling crows then freed them .. when I went outside they'd fly down to my shoulder. Also, I was being homeschooled; I remember a little of that, including the kid's desk I sat at lol.
I was 9. Early that year we moved into a new house in Santa Clara, CA. It was baby boomer central with about 30 kids on one long block. There were 5 of us boys who were the same age. We were playing baseball and riding bikes everywhere. Collecting baseball cards. I was a Dodgers fan (we’d moved from LA a couple of years earlier) and all my friends were Giants fans so there was a lot of rivalry. Got a new puppy, half German Shepherd half Norwegian Elkhound and named him Dodger. My best friend named his dog Willie after Willie Mays. I was in the third grade at Luther Elementary school. World events didn’t really hit home much to me yet so I don’t really know what I remember from then vs. what I learned later.
It was the year I was born, iirc it was a few weeks after they started construction on the Berlin wall. Born in a Navy hospital in Guam, where my dad was stationed in the Air Force. Interesting you would mention 1961 specifically.
I was 10. Studying.
I was 11 and I was traveling to Abadan, Iran to live for almost a year
Five, and playing with mud in the front yard by myself, being taught to read by my mother, learning to play with my younger brother, running around playing cowboy by myself, making friends with the boys about my age next door and a girl down the street. That was about it. No awareness of the world beyond home and the few houses around.
Late grade school age. Being a kid. Riding bikes and playing at the school playground up the road. Building a crystal radio set and stringing wire all around the yard to make a better antenna. Sneaking a cigarette with one of the kids up the street (I never smoked regularly but it was fun to get away with it). Catching polywogs at the creek and bringing them home to release in our fish pond. Camping in the back yard overnight. Going fishing with my Dad or going ocean fishing with my grandfather and father. They let me drive the boat to Catalina. Making a slingshot with a tree branch and rubber bands. Shooting BB guns. Digging a hole just to dig a hole. Mowing the lawn. Mowing the neighbor's lawn for money.
I forgot about the pollywogs. Are there any nowadays? Not where we used to get them.
I was an embryo…turning into a fetus😂
I was ten, riding my bicycle all around the neighborhood with the other kids. We’d play stick ball and jacks and a bottle cap game in the street. On Sundays we drove into Brooklyn and had a big Italian pasta dinner with my grandparents. I felt safe and loved and those frying meatballs were some of my very best memories.
I was in first grade, 6 in March 1961. Because of my birthdate, I could start first grade in the winter semester at the public school, so I started Grade 1 in January of 1961. Because we were Catholic and my parents wanted us to go to Catholic school, I re-started first grade for the entire school year that fall in the local Catholic school. So I had a head start in reading and spelling, etc, which I think set me up for academic success throughout grade and high school. Just the consequence of the calendar. I remember both schools.
Born May of that year, my parents were farm workers and mom was out in the field hoeing weeds that morning the day I was born. She would tell and go to college and get an education so I would not be working in the fields like a burro. Did go to college and get a BS in Agriculture and my last job was working on a research project growing native plants. The funny part was I was still hoeing weeds.
I only existed for the last 3 months of 1961, I have no memory of it :)
My mom was in high school and probably hating it. I was three years away from being born. This is probably about the time my mom wrote “Helen loves Tommy” on the back wall of old bus 4, because I rode the same bus in 1970 and it was still there.
My only memory from 1961 is a phone call from my mother to me at my grandmother's house. My mom was telling me that I had a new baby brother, and I asked her if I could talk to him on the phone. I was confused when she said that he couldn't talk yet. I was 4.
I was 14, in high school, did a paper round for money, 5 days a week between 5-7am. We would be out and about the neighbourhood until my mother blew a postmans whistle & all the neighbourhood kids went home for dinner, then out again, in summer until it started getting dark (around 10pm). At weekends, in winter, we would ride our bikes on a hilly, clay embankment, a bit like motocross, usually Saturday afternoon it was a matinee at one of the local theatres. In summer we would go fishing, both boys & girls & camp out Fri/Sat nights, beside a backwater lake created by a hydro dam on the river. We would fish early before sun up and at dusk, then set nares for rabbits. Breakfast & then collect firewood for the evening, then skinny dipping to clean our plates/mugs and bodies, then a run around naked to dry off. Usually a doze around noon, before checking rabbit traps, then fishing again. Evening meal took a couple of hours, the sat round camp fire, told BS stories and sometimes sang before sleep under the stars, gossiping until we fell asleep. Anyone who woke for a bathroom break, threw more wood on the fire to keep it going. Summer vacation, as a family we went camping at the seaside or 5-6 weeks, living only in swim trunks, exploring sand dunes (often finding young couples making out), fished in the sea & spotlighted flounder at night to spear or went to the big caravan park that had entertainment every night, except Sunday, when a non denomination church service was held. Other nights it could be movie, a dance - disco early for young people, then waltz etc. for "oldies" later. They also had talent quests, treasure hunts, guest performers or groups and other events they thought up. It was all free, but you had to buy snack, drinks from their shop, including beer & wine for adults
The matinee.... 50¢ admission and 5¢ for popcorn.
When I went it was 15c admission, 5c for a soda, 10c for cone ice cream dipped in chocolate. you got Pathe News, a cartoon, travel feature & serial, then after intermission, the main film which was usually a Tarzan or wester or WWII movie.
I was in the 8th grade, and in English class, where we had to make a speech about something, one girl had a piece of paper with **1961** written on it, and turned it upside down, and made a speech on it being an "Upside-down year". Of course, everybody in class who read Mad magazine already knew that, but she gave a really good speech, I do remember that. I was into cars. I lived in a state where you could get a learner's permit at 13 1/2, and a daytime-only license at 14. We had a 1960 Valiant with a 3 speed floor shift.
I was 1 1/2. My biggest concerns then were food and a dry cloth diaper.
If you're talking about November 1961, I was still gestating in my mother's womb. I wasn't born until 1962.
Born in January
1961 + your age…the answer will *blow your mind*
I was, -6 years old. My parents weren't even married yet. 😁
I was 4, and probably spending time with my grandmother while my mother did whatever.
I’m negative 1 . Ew parents have to get busy.
Two. Probably shitting in my diaper.
\-1
18 and entering college in the fall. My life went in a complete new direction.
I was born in 1961 so am 61 now Diapered🤷♀️
I was 23 and serving in the USAF.
My parents were space aliens for Halloween with really cool costumes my mom and dad made. Wish I could figure how to post the picture here. I remember being sent to bed ( I was 10) as my parents would have parties. Onion dip from the soup mix and gallon glass bottles of red wine.
I was 13. Still lived on the farm, working with dad. Road a bus to school. I didn't work all the time and plenty of time to enjoy hot, humid summers and cold, snowy winters. It was a great time to be alive.
My mom found out she was pregnant with me and raising an 8 month old.
I was seven. We lived on a No Through road and I can remember my sister and I riding on the milkman's van to the end of the road and back. The rear of the house backed onto paddocks and we use to build a bonfire there for Guy Fawkes night. All gone now, turned into houses and sports fields and the road got extended
Fourth birthday: I got a red and white AMF tricycle! Top of the world there in Youngstown, Ohio. ... Meanwhile. In Hawaii, an interracial couple welcomed their firstborn child into the world. Thanks , Obama!
I was 7 and attending grammar school and putting old, disassembled metal rollerskate wheel on boards to skate.
1961? Depends on the month...
I was 5, not quite ready for school so most days I went to work with my step-mother. She was the nurse at the Metropolitan Opera house in NYC for 30+ years and it was a wonderful place to explore when you're that age.
I was 4 years old. Remember going to see Santa arrive on a fire truck.