Since I'm learning faster than I would like that memories tend to fade the older you get, I thought I would post about some of the things I got to thinking about while watching Mad Men.
1) FASHION
Women used to wear dresses, hats and gloves to church, to most sit down restaurants, to plays, to musicals, to movies and to many social events. One of my aunts had a luncheon for me before I got married and everyone who attended wore a dress, a hat and gloves. I'm pretty sure that was the last time I wore a hat. I used to wear a dress to work at Boyd Brothers in Panama City. Of course, under the dress you wore either a garter belt with stockings or a girdle with stockings. Can you imagine how miserable that was? In the late sixties women characters in Mad Men were trying out the latest thing for women, panty hose, so that they could help with the advertising for them. I didn't try them until many years after that. In the early 70's, pant suits came out and we were told that we could wear them to work; however, it had to be a suit, not just pants and a shirt.
Men also wore suits and sports coats for more functions then. Bubba and I just spent the day celebrating our 49th Wedding Anniversary by eating lunch and dinner out and seeing a movie. He wore jeans and I wore capri pants. Our first anniversary he wore a sports coat and tie and I wore a dress and heels to spend the day basically the same. Men in the business world usually wore white shirts and neck ties and many times, sports coats or suits.
2) SMOKING AND DRINKING
The actors in Mad Men usually had a smoking cigarette in their hand and usually an alcoholic beverage of some kind. They drank and smoked all through the work day. The advertising world was certainly different from my experience as far as drinking, but the smoking was portrayed as I remembered it. It was during the 60's that smoking was determined to be detrimental to your health. That premise was fought by the ad agencies for a long time before it actually appeared as a warning to the public. Women continued to smoke and drink during pregnancy. No one knew then about the dangers to the unborn child.
3) WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE
It used to be thought that the only reason a woman would choose to work was to secure a husband. I guess that was true for many. It was very hard for a woman to advance in the workplace. The sexual harassment was at its peak. Secretaries were referred to as the boss's girl. They were expected to take care of the boss at work, just like the wife did at home. Many were exposed to crude jokes and demeaning names like "sugar", "sweetie" or "gorgeous". Things have really changed in that regard. I never attended a meeting at the prison without sexual harassment being on the agenda. It had to be reported whether you experienced it or just witnessed it.
4) WOMEN AT HOME
Most women did not work outside the home. For many years I was a housewife and that was what all I ever wanted to be. My mother worked in a business with my dad and I was left with a maid all day. I envied my friends who had mothers who were home with them. My friend Mari's mother sewed all her clothes and they were beautiful. That was what I wanted. The woman who stayed home was responsible for everything in the house. She cooked and cleaned. She washed and ironed all the clothes. She raised the children. Dad took care of the outside chores.
When we first moved to this small town, the majority of the young mothers did not work outside the home. There was a group of us who met regularly for Bible study, recipe exchange, etc. There was a book that came out in 1973 called The Total Woman by Marabel Morgan that pretty much stated that the role of the woman was to please her man. Although that book didn't come out until the 70's, I can remember as a young housewife I looked forward to the arrival of my man each evening. I can remember freshening up, putting on make up and styling my hair so I would be pretty when my stinky husband from the paper mill stepped through the door.
5) RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
As I stated earlier, I was pretty much raised by Nancy, a black maid that worked for my family from the time I was a toddler until several years after I got married. She was good to me. I allowed her to wait on me as though I was a little princess. I can look back now and see that as much a part of our family as she was, she was treated differently. She never shared a meal with us. She always sat on a chair in the kitchen and waited for us to finish our meal. Then she would clean up and Daddy would take her home. We used to visit relatives in Atlanta on a regular basis and since Nancy had family in Abbeville, we would drop her off on the way. We usually started the trip by eating breakfast at the Circle Grill in Graceville. (My gosh, it's still in business!) Nancy had to remain in the car while we went in to eat because they didn't serve "colored" people. When Bubba and I married, Nancy was at the church. She placed the train of my dress in place before I entered on Daddy's arm, but she was not allowed to take a seat in the church like everybody else. And that was a church!!
When Bubba went to work at the paper mill, the same discrimination was present. Blacks had their own locker rooms, bathrooms and even water fountains. Most were assigned to the nastiest, hottest jobs in the mill.
My Aunt Grace was private secretary to the Editor/Publisher of the Atlanta Constitution newspaper, Ralph McGill. He was considered to be a liberal journalist at the time receiving many death threats for his stance on segregation. You can imagine the heated exchanges that took place at the family dinner table when Aunt Grace came to visit.
I like the line from MLK's speech about a day coming when we will judge others not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I'm proud to say that my little granddaughter already understands that.
6) INTOLERANCE
Mad Men had a storyline that involved a man who was gay but not openly so. He was a creative genius and of great value to the ad agency; however, when the higher ups learned that he was gay he was fired. That's just not right, but I had better close that can of worms before it gets opened. I never knew anything about homosexuals growing up. After I was married I saw two men holding hands walking down the street in Atlanta and that was my first exposure.
7) HISTORICAL EVENTS
John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960. I would have been eleven years old. This was the first presidential election that I was interested in. Of course I was for Richard M. Nixon because my grandmother (Meme) said that if Kennedy was elected that the Pope would be running the United States of America.
The Freedom Riders and the Civil Rights Movement were all a part of my teen years. I didn't understand at the time any of it. I know that we had five blacks start at my high school the year I graduated. They looked so scared. I don't guess I ever spoke to any of them and I wish I had.
Marilyn Monroe died during the 60's. I remember she sang to JFK on his birthday. Back then you didn't know all the little secrets politicians kept in their closet.
I vaguely remember the Cuban Missile Crisis. Mad Men portrayed it as a time of near panic as people feared a nuclear end. All I remember is that President Kennedy was on tv making a speech. I wonder if Mama and Daddy were afraid then. I never asked them about it. Bubba was in the navy at that time. He said he knew that we were in real trouble.
John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963. I was in English class and there was an announcement over the intercom. For days afterward, much like the characters on Mad Men, I was glued to the television screen. I didn't cry, but I saw people crying. He was so handsome. She was so beautiful. His children were so young. By this time I had come to the realization that the Pope was not running the US.
Mad Men's Don Draper is able to obtain tickets to the first Beatles concert in New York City and his daughter is thrilled. Who doesn't remember the Beatles? I liked their songs. Their hair was "so long". People couldn't get over their long hair. They just didn't know what long hair was, I guess, because men continued to grow their hair longer and longer. I understand now that many references are made to drugs in their songs. I didn't get it then and probably not even now. But I also never heard "satan" on records that were played backwards either.
The Vietnam War was escalating by the end of the 60's. I didn't appreciate the seriousness of what was happening there. Movies, tv shows, and reading material have enlightened me about the war. I was always patriotic and could not stand that everyone didn't appreciate the service of our military. Bubba was out of the Navy before the escalation and I was glad. His brother, Joe, received a draft notice and had to go for a physical, but was turned down for some health issues he had. We were all thankful for that.
Martin Luther King's death was a big news story. I remember watching a lot of news coverage on it. Unlike Kennedy's death, I don't remember exactly where I was at the time. At the time I saw him as an instigator of a lot of trouble. Now that I have aged and seen what real trouble can look like, I think he did teach peaceful protesting. Folks would accomplish more that way if they would try it.
Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in 1969. I was baking chocolate chip cookies at the time. I even remember which cookbook contained the recipe I was using. The whole world was watching and Americans were proud. And the cookies were good!
8) HIPPIES, DRUGS, COMMUNES
I can't think of anyone I ever knew that was a "hippie". The closest thing to it would have been my cousin, Vicky, when she lived in Atlanta and attended college. She had long hair and wore faded jeans and smock type shirts with clogs. (That would have been in the early 70's.) She was a free thinker and had a poster with marijuana on the wall in her apartment. (I think that was mainly to annoy her mother and it worked!)
Fourteenth Street in Atlanta became a mecca for hippies and since we visited my grandmother and aunt on Tenth Street we would see them hanging around on street corners and sitting out stoned on the porches of houses in that area.
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| This is a picture from a news story in an Atlanta paper. |
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| This picture was taken at Piedmont Park which was right behind my aunt's apartment building. It appeared in the newspaper at the time. |
My first wiff of marijuana occurred at a Willie Nelson concert I attended with Amy not long ago.
No one I knew joined a commune or any type of cult. That was just something I saw on the news or read about in magazines. I did see some different cult types in robes with shaved heads in Atlanta on a street corner collecting money one time but that was it.
I wished that I had made notes as I watched this series. It brought back memories of that decade that I had put in the back of my mind. Maybe one day Amelia will read this post and learn a little more about the olden days when her Nana was just a girl. But, Amelia, if you ever read this, please wait until you're at least thirty years old to watch Mad Men!
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