1967 - inspired by ETMN

[Freija]

Elements in EndTheMaddnessNow’s post today inspired me. Not sure whether it was the list of top 40 music or the Volkswagens but something fired up the old noggin to dig deep into the memory banks and retrieve a few files I thought I would share.

1967

Having a birthday during the first week of January is kind of cool because except for a couple of days, each calendar year is equivalent to a year of my life so it is easy to keep track of things or at least as best as my months away from 70 year old brain can. I turned 12 in 1967.

Because of my “problems” and after enduring a tumultuous 5th and 6th grade at four different schools in Reno, NV, my parents (mom & step-dad) decided a fresh start was needed as they were tired of moving and stuff to try and keep me in a school that wasn’t horrible so after the 6th grade we decided to move to Phoenix, where my mom and I lived before moving to Reno, with the hopes of putting down more substantial roots.

I don’t remember much about that summer but things come clearly into focus when it was time to start junior high (7th grade) because the same old shit started happening again – the school wouldn’t enroll me unless I cut my hair and that just wasn’t happening. By this point in my life asserting myself more outwardly like other girls (or at least not as a boy) had become very important to me and my hair was a big part of that. Besides, a pact between my mom and I made after the 3rd grade promised I could grow out my hair if I stopped begging to wear girl’s clothes all the time and I held her to it.

In a significant show of love and support, my folks got with an attorney and threatened to sue the school board who eventually caved in and made an exception so right off the bat I was a troublemaker but I was allowed to start school although a week later than everyone else.

Let’s just say I was not treated too kindly and I didn’t make it a week before something else happened. A PE coach tried to drag me into the boy’s locker room/showers and I wasn’t having it and fought back. I was promptly suspended and forced to see a school district appointed psychologist before I could return.

Having been seeing psychologists and psychiatrists from the time I was 10 before starting the 5th grade, I was none too happy about this but in addition to the school’s minion, my folks also found a “private mental health professional” to send me to so I was seeing two shrinks at once and hated every second of it but lied, bullshitted and stonewalled my way through.

I was never really privy to the details but both recognized my extreme distress and I was permanently excused from PE class and the whole locker room/shower debacle. Two weeks later I was allowed back in school and spent 7th and 8th grade PE class folding towels in the coach’s office which was fine with me and something I considered a big win.

No doubt encouraged by the shrinks, it was about this time my folks started talking to me about being gay. I didn’t really know what gay (or trans) was, I was mature for my age from all the crap I’d been through and different places I’d lived but naïve and innocent is so many other ways and since most everyone had treated me like a freak, I wasn’t really interested in boys or girls. My folks let me know that if I was gay, it wouldn’t make any difference in their love for me so I just ran with that for the next few years as it was easier than reviving all my early childhood assertions about really being a girl and avoiding the whole shitstorm that caused but moving on…

The whole hippie thing and the summer of love was something I saw on the evening news with great fascination. Like other sociopolitical events in the ‘60s, the civil rights movements, women’s liberation and the burgeoning sexual revolution, I found it all very interesting and was excited things were moving beyond the stultifying 1950s ethos and saw many of these changes embraced by my parents who were in their mid 30s in 1967 and fancied themselves as modern, progressive and cool which was definitely to my benefit.

It might have been ’67 or ’68 but I got this poster for my bedroom. LBJ on a Harley chopper. LOL!



Not that they were hippies or radicals or anything, my step-dad was a retired Lutheran pastor working as a psychologist for the state helping the visually impaired and my mom, a simple farm girl artist turned office person working her way up in construction administration for a custom home builder but they embraced these cultural revolutions and newfound freedoms. In 1967, my step-dad bought a new VW Microbus and my mom a Pontiac GTO.



I started driving the VW bus when I got my learner’s permit and took my 1st time driving test in it in 1971 when I turned 16 and got my license. I loved that thing and no, it didn’t have peace signs or flowers on it. Later on I inherited the GTO when my hot rod mom bought a Trans-Am.

I went on to own 3 air-cooled Beetles, a Karman Ghia and this rare beast.



Looking through ETMN’s music list really brought back some memories. There were two competing AM radio top-40 stations in Phoenix. KRIZ and KRUX and I was super into music as were my folks although they exposed me to other things beyond pop. Music was actually good back then.

Here is a list of Billboard magazine's Top Hot 100 songs of 1967. How many boomers remember some of these classics? How many not boomers know these songs or artists?

1 To Sir With Love Lulu
2 The Letter The Box Tops
3 Ode to Billie Joe Bobbie Gentry
4 Windy The Association
5 I'm a Believer The Monkees
6 Light My Fire The Doors
7 Somethin' Stupid Frank & Nancy Sinatra
8 Happy Together The Turtles
9 Groovin' The Young Rascals
10 Can't Take My Eyes Off You Frankie Valli
11 Little Bit O' Soul The Music Explosion
12 I Think We're Alone Now Tommy James and the Shondells
13 Respect Aretha Franklin
14 I Was Made to Love Her Stevie Wonder
15 Come Back When You Grow Up Bobby Vee
16 Kind of a Drag The Buckinghams
17 Sweet Soul Music Arthur Conley
18 Expressway to Your Heart Soul Survivors
19 Soul Man Sam & Dave
20 Never My Love The Association
21 Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie Jay & the Techniques
22 Come On Down to My Boat Every Mother's Son
23 Incense and Peppermints Strawberry Alarm Clock
24 Ruby Tuesday The Rolling Stones
25 It Must Be Him Vikki Carr
26 Love Is Here and Now You're Gone The Supremes
27 For What It's Worth Buffalo Springfield
28 Gimme Little Sign Brenton Wood
29 The Happening The Supremes
30 All You Need Is Love The Beatles
31 Release Me Engelbert Humperdinck
32 Your Precious Love Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
33 Somebody to Love Jefferson Airplane
34 Get on Up The Esquires
35 Brown Eyed Girl Van Morrison
36 Jimmy Mack Martha and the Vandellas
37 I Got Rhythm The Happenings
38 A Whiter Shade of Pale Procol Harum
39 Don't You Care The Buckinghams
40 Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye The Casinos
41 Reflections The Supremes
42 On a Carousel The Hollies
43 Please Love Me Forever Bobby Vinton
44 Alfie Dionne Warwick
45 Silence Is Golden The Tremeloes
46 My Cup Runneth Over Ed Ames
47 Up, Up and Away The 5th Dimension
48 San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) Scott McKenzie
49 The Rain, the Park & Other Things The Cowsills
50 There's a Kind of Hush Herman's Hermits
51 Mercy, Mercy, Mercy The Buckinghams
52 This Is My Song Petula Clark
53 (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher Jackie Wilson
54 I've Been Lonely Too Long The Young Rascals
55 Penny Lane The Beatles
56 You're My Everything The Temptations
57 Georgy Girl The Seekers
58 Western Union Five Americans
59 Baby I Love You Aretha Franklin
60 A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You The Monkees
61 California Nights Lesley Gore
62 Dedicated to the One I Love The Mamas & the Papas
63 How Can I Be Sure The Young Rascals
64 Carrie Anne The Hollies
65 (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet Blues Magoos
66 Friday on My Mind The Easybeats
67 Soul Finger Bar-Kays
68 Gimme Some Lovin' The Spencer Davis Group
69 Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out) The Hombres
70 Let's Live for Today The Grass Roots
71 Close Your Eyes Peaches & Herb
72 Groovin' Booker T. & the M.G.'s
73 Funky Broadway Wilson Pickett
74 Pleasant Valley Sunday The Monkees
75 I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You) Aretha Franklin
76 Tell It Like It Is Aaron Neville
77 Cold Sweat James Brown
78 She'd Rather Be with Me The Turtles
79 98.6 Keith
80 Here We Go Again Ray Charles
81 White Rabbit Jefferson Airplane
82 Bernadette Four Tops
83 The Beat Goes On Sonny & Cher
84 Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron The Royal Guardsmen
85 Society's Child Janis Ian
86 Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon Neil Diamond
87 Ain't No Mountain High Enough Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
88 I Take It Back Sandy Posey
89 Here Comes My Baby The Tremeloes
90 Everlasting Love Robert Knight
91 I Dig Rock and Roll Music Peter, Paul and Mary
92 Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything's Alright) Bill Cosby
93 I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) The Electric Prunes
94 Daydream Believer The Monkees
95 Baby I Need Your Lovin' Johnny Rivers
96 I Can See for Miles The Who
97 Mirage Tommy James and the Shondells
98 Green, Green Grass of Home Tom Jones
99 Don't Sleep in the Subway Petula Clark
100 Thank the Lord for the Night Time Neil Diamond

What were you doing in 1967?

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Elements in EndTheMaddnessNow’s post today inspired me. Not sure whether it was

What were you doing in 1967?

1967 didn't stand out for me, so I had to search for some help.

Looking back it seems it was the standard SSDD.

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/0...67/516174/

[Freija]

1967 didn't stand out for me, so I had to search for some help.

Looking back it seems it was the standard SSDD.

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/0...67/516174/

Great link, photos and captions - thanks! For those that weren't around back then or were too young to remember (I think you and I are among the oldest if not the oldest here?) there was a lot going on in the past that puts some of the crap going on today into perspective.

I feel lucky to have been witness to so much change and historically significant happenings and to those that think the world is going to hell in a hand basket today, we've always been going to hell in a hand basket but are still here and will continue to be.

Like you so wisely observed, same shit - different day.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I feel lucky to have been witness to so much change and historically significant happenings and to those that think the world is going to hell in a hand basket today, we've(

Great link, photos and captions - thanks! For those that weren't around back then or were too young to remember (I think you and I are among the oldest if not the oldest here?) there was a lot going on in the past that puts some of the crap going on today into perspective.

I feel lucky to have been witness to so much change and historically significant happenings and to those that think the world is going to hell in a hand basket today, we've always been going to hell in a hand basket but are still here and will continue to be.

Like you so wisely observed, same shit - different day.

Indeed. I think I am the oldest. 1967 was not as long ago as many think it was.

I was living below the Mason Dickinson line and racism was the norm. I grew up with white and colored water fountains, and separate entrances for colored people, if they were allowed to come in at all.

There was war and rumors of wars, and America was considered the greatest place on Earth, by Americans.

Even by those that were considered less than, because at least they felt they were better than the non Americans that were also colored.

Other countries saw us in a less favorable light. They labeled us as "ugly Americans". From my own personal experiences abroad, I have seen many Americans live up to that moniker.

Sometimes I feel like I was hit with that old Chinese curse, for I have truly lived through some interesting times.

I too think of myself as very lucky that I was born in this time period. I feel like I got to star in the prequel, the sequel, and I have a good chance of of doing a cameo in the re-make. 

[EndtheMadnessNow]

I periodically flip back to the 60s history and think, WoW!! How did the country make it through that era?? Awful lot was going on, much more than today, imo. It certainly makes what has been going on the past 5 years seem miniscule and for boomers, ah, here we go again but on a different level, like childish nonsense level.

I don't remember any of those songs, BUT I do recall them from radio listening in the 80s. Awesome tunes!

I have days where I feel I was born about 12 years too early or too late. Weird.

Oh, look what I missed...



On second thought, glad I missed that whole Vietnam era. From NightskyeB4Dawn Link.

[Ninurta]

In 1967, I was learning to take folks out by sticking big ol' firecrackers into apples, lighting the fuse, and chucking them into the other guy's bunkers. You learn real fast not to hold on to them for too long, just like grenades. Good training.

I lived just south of Cleveland, OH, in 1967. Then, and for every year afterwards until I left Ohio in 1975, we were waiting for "The Revolution" to burst forth and kill us all. 1967 was semi-quiet in that area, but was bracketed by the Hough Riots in July of 1966, and the Glenville Shootout in July of 1968, and the riots following the shootout. 1967 was relatively quiet between those storms, as the radical elements were trying their hand at political regime change in Cleveland, a regime change they figure would work out to their advantage.They spent 1967 in political action rather than direct action, and were too busy electing Carl Stokes - I believe he was the first Black mayor of any major city anywhere in the US - to the mayor's office to kill many folks or tear much stuff up. Mayor Stokes was elected in November 1967, but turned out not to be quite radical enough for the radicals when he got into office, and so we got the Glenville thing just after they figured that out in 1968.

I remember almost all of the songs on the song list. Not all of them, but almost all of them. Matter of fact, I was listening to several of them just a few nights ago. My second wife, who would have been turning 16 in 1967, was a big fan of most of them, too. There are only three post-60's songs I ever caught her listening to - one was "Hell's Bells" by AC/DC, the second was "Love is all Around" by Wet Wet Wet (but I do believe that song also had a 60's version originally, by the Trogs as I recall), And "Strokin'" by Clarence Carter - honestly, I don't recall when he came out with that anyhow.

1967 was, I think, the year I saw my first color TV, an Admiral as I recall. It was magic. I'd been watching TV on a bitty little black and white TV with about a 14" screen and a bakelite housing case, and that big ol' 32" Admiral wooden console TV in color just blew my ass away!

"Alice's Restaurant" and the moon landing were still a couple of years in the future. 1967 was the calm between the storms. The only thing I had to worry about was my uncle, who, in 1967, was taking his turn at getting his ass shot at by the Little Brown People in Vietnam.

He made it back, and I'll never forget how good it felt to see him tear into the driveway in his Mustang Fastback in 1968 when his tour was over. I didn't have to look for his name in the news scrolls every evening any more - you remember, the scroll they ran of all the guys that bit the Big One in the past day in Vietnam.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Except the dead soldier news scrolls. They didn't do that for our last war. I guess they figured it was too depressing and demoralizing to repeat again.

I was also up in that area a few years later for the Kent State riots. One of my sisters was taking Speech Therapy at Kent State when that happened... but luckily we avoided the campus for that whole week while all that stupid was going on. The students had pretty much taken over the town of Kent, bad juju was going on, and we had a feeling that something wicked was heading that way, so we avoided it. Kids be Krazy, same then as it is now.

.

[BIAD]

I was seven years-old and that big thing called the world rolled on by without usually tickling my attention.
But one of those times it succeeded was when Sandie Shaw won the Eurovision Song Contest of 1967 with
the ditty 'Puppet On A String'.

It wasn't the tune that caught my interest, it was what I'd heard grown-ups were calling 'daring' and even
'outrageous' about the pretty lady from Dagenham of Essex. It was Ms Shaw's scandalous act of not wearing
shoes on stage.

[Ninurta]

I was seven years-old and that big thing called the world rolled on by without usually tickling my attention.
But one of those times it succeeded was when Sandie Shaw won the Eurovision Song Contest of 1967 with
the ditty 'Puppet On A String'.

It wasn't the tune that caught my interest, it was what I'd heard grown-ups were calling 'daring' and even
'outrageous' about the pretty lady from Dagenham of Essex. It was Ms Shaw's scandalous act of not wearing
shoes on stage.

Clearly, the poor lass couldn't afford shoes until after she'd won the contest! Just have a look - she even had to appear on stage in the only garment she owned, which happened to be her nightie!





.

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

I was born on New Years Day 1967.

[Ninurta]

I was born on New Years Day 1967.

I bet all your memories from 1967 involve bright lights, an operating table, and strange humanoid beings you had never seen before, dressed like doctors then...

.

[FlickerOfLight]

Elements in EndTheMaddnessNow’s post today inspired me. Not sure whether it was the list of top 40 music or the Volkswagens but something fired up the old noggin to dig deep into the memory banks and retrieve a few files I thought I would share.

1967

Having a birthday during the first week of January is kind of cool because except for a couple of days, each calendar year is equivalent to a year of my life so it is easy to keep track of things or at least as best as my months away from 70 year old brain can. I turned 12 in 1967.

Because of my “problems” and after enduring a tumultuous 5th and 6th grade at four different schools in Reno, NV, my parents (mom & step-dad) decided a fresh start was needed as they were tired of moving and stuff to try and keep me in a school that wasn’t horrible so after the 6th grade we decided to move to Phoenix, where my mom and I lived before moving to Reno, with the hopes of putting down more substantial roots.

I don’t remember much about that summer but things come clearly into focus when it was time to start junior high (7th grade) because the same old shit started happening again – the school wouldn’t enroll me unless I cut my hair and that just wasn’t happening. By this point in my life asserting myself more outwardly like other girls (or at least not as a boy) had become very important to me and my hair was a big part of that. Besides, a pact between my mom and I made after the 3rd grade promised I could grow out my hair if I stopped begging to wear girl’s clothes all the time and I held her to it.

In a significant show of love and support, my folks got with an attorney and threatened to sue the school board who eventually caved in and made an exception so right off the bat I was a troublemaker but I was allowed to start school although a week later than everyone else.

Let’s just say I was not treated too kindly and I didn’t make it a week before something else happened. A PE coach tried to drag me into the boy’s locker room/showers and I wasn’t having it and fought back. I was promptly suspended and forced to see a school district appointed psychologist before I could return.

Having been seeing psychologists and psychiatrists from the time I was 10 before starting the 5th grade, I was none too happy about this but in addition to the school’s minion, my folks also found a “private mental health professional” to send me to so I was seeing two shrinks at once and hated every second of it but lied, bullshitted and stonewalled my way through.

I was never really privy to the details but both recognized my extreme distress and I was permanently excused from PE class and the whole locker room/shower debacle. Two weeks later I was allowed back in school and spent 7th and 8th grade PE class folding towels in the coach’s office which was fine with me and something I considered a big win.

No doubt encouraged by the shrinks, it was about this time my folks started talking to me about being gay. I didn’t really know what gay (or trans) was, I was mature for my age from all the crap I’d been through and different places I’d lived but naïve and innocent is so many other ways and since most everyone had treated me like a freak, I wasn’t really interested in boys or girls. My folks let me know that if I was gay, it wouldn’t make any difference in their love for me so I just ran with that for the next few years as it was easier than reviving all my early childhood assertions about really being a girl and avoiding the whole shitstorm that caused but moving on…

The whole hippie thing and the summer of love was something I saw on the evening news with great fascination. Like other sociopolitical events in the ‘60s, the civil rights movements, women’s liberation and the burgeoning sexual revolution, I found it all very interesting and was excited things were moving beyond the stultifying 1950s ethos and saw many of these changes embraced by my parents who were in their mid 30s in 1967 and fancied themselves as modern, progressive and cool which was definitely to my benefit.

It might have been ’67 or ’68 but I got this poster for my bedroom. LBJ on a Harley chopper. LOL!



Not that they were hippies or radicals or anything, my step-dad was a retired Lutheran pastor working as a psychologist for the state helping the visually impaired and my mom, a simple farm girl artist turned office person working her way up in construction administration for a custom home builder but they embraced these cultural revolutions and newfound freedoms. In 1967, my step-dad bought a new VW Microbus and my mom a Pontiac GTO.



I started driving the VW bus when I got my learner’s permit and took my 1st time driving test in it in 1971 when I turned 16 and got my license. I loved that thing and no, it didn’t have peace signs or flowers on it. Later on I inherited the GTO when my hot rod mom bought a Trans-Am.

I went on to own 3 air-cooled Beetles, a Karman Ghia and this rare beast.



Looking through ETMN’s music list really brought back some memories. There were two competing AM radio top-40 stations in Phoenix. KRIZ and KRUX and I was super into music as were my folks although they exposed me to other things beyond pop. Music was actually good back then.

Here is a list of Billboard magazine's Top Hot 100 songs of 1967. How many boomers remember some of these classics? How many not boomers know these songs or artists?

1 To Sir With Love Lulu
2 The Letter The Box Tops
3 Ode to Billie Joe Bobbie Gentry
4 Windy The Association
5 I'm a Believer The Monkees
6 Light My Fire The Doors
7 Somethin' Stupid Frank & Nancy Sinatra
8 Happy Together The Turtles
9 Groovin' The Young Rascals
10 Can't Take My Eyes Off You Frankie Valli
11 Little Bit O' Soul The Music Explosion
12 I Think We're Alone Now Tommy James and the Shondells
13 Respect Aretha Franklin
14 I Was Made to Love Her Stevie Wonder
15 Come Back When You Grow Up Bobby Vee
16 Kind of a Drag The Buckinghams
17 Sweet Soul Music Arthur Conley
18 Expressway to Your Heart Soul Survivors
19 Soul Man Sam & Dave
20 Never My Love The Association
21 Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie Jay & the Techniques
22 Come On Down to My Boat Every Mother's Son
23 Incense and Peppermints Strawberry Alarm Clock
24 Ruby Tuesday The Rolling Stones
25 It Must Be Him Vikki Carr
26 Love Is Here and Now You're Gone The Supremes
27 For What It's Worth Buffalo Springfield
28 Gimme Little Sign Brenton Wood
29 The Happening The Supremes
30 All You Need Is Love The Beatles
31 Release Me Engelbert Humperdinck
32 Your Precious Love Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
33 Somebody to Love Jefferson Airplane
34 Get on Up The Esquires
35 Brown Eyed Girl Van Morrison
36 Jimmy Mack Martha and the Vandellas
37 I Got Rhythm The Happenings
38 A Whiter Shade of Pale Procol Harum
39 Don't You Care The Buckinghams
40 Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye The Casinos
41 Reflections The Supremes
42 On a Carousel The Hollies
43 Please Love Me Forever Bobby Vinton
44 Alfie Dionne Warwick
45 Silence Is Golden The Tremeloes
46 My Cup Runneth Over Ed Ames
47 Up, Up and Away The 5th Dimension
48 San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) Scott McKenzie
49 The Rain, the Park & Other Things The Cowsills
50 There's a Kind of Hush Herman's Hermits
51 Mercy, Mercy, Mercy The Buckinghams
52 This Is My Song Petula Clark
53 (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher Jackie Wilson
54 I've Been Lonely Too Long The Young Rascals
55 Penny Lane The Beatles
56 You're My Everything The Temptations
57 Georgy Girl The Seekers
58 Western Union Five Americans
59 Baby I Love You Aretha Franklin
60 A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You The Monkees
61 California Nights Lesley Gore
62 Dedicated to the One I Love The Mamas & the Papas
63 How Can I Be Sure The Young Rascals
64 Carrie Anne The Hollies
65 (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet Blues Magoos
66 Friday on My Mind The Easybeats
67 Soul Finger Bar-Kays
68 Gimme Some Lovin' The Spencer Davis Group
69 Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out) The Hombres
70 Let's Live for Today The Grass Roots
71 Close Your Eyes Peaches & Herb
72 Groovin' Booker T. & the M.G.'s
73 Funky Broadway Wilson Pickett
74 Pleasant Valley Sunday The Monkees
75 I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You) Aretha Franklin
76 Tell It Like It Is Aaron Neville
77 Cold Sweat James Brown
78 She'd Rather Be with Me The Turtles
79 98.6 Keith
80 Here We Go Again Ray Charles
81 White Rabbit Jefferson Airplane
82 Bernadette Four Tops
83 The Beat Goes On Sonny & Cher
84 Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron The Royal Guardsmen
85 Society's Child Janis Ian
86 Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon Neil Diamond
87 Ain't No Mountain High Enough Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
88 I Take It Back Sandy Posey
89 Here Comes My Baby The Tremeloes
90 Everlasting Love Robert Knight
91 I Dig Rock and Roll Music Peter, Paul and Mary
92 Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything's Alright) Bill Cosby
93 I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) The Electric Prunes
94 Daydream Believer The Monkees
95 Baby I Need Your Lovin' Johnny Rivers
96 I Can See for Miles The Who
97 Mirage Tommy James and the Shondells
98 Green, Green Grass of Home Tom Jones
99 Don't Sleep in the Subway Petula Clark
100 Thank the Lord for the Night Time Neil Diamond

What were you doing in 1967?

First off, kudos for the bravery it takes to tell your personal journey like that. Thank you for sharing this.

Secondly that is the dopest VW micro bus/truck conversion I have ever seen. I think I've seen one other picture of one of those. I'd drive that thing every day. 


I wasn't born until the 70s, but as akid growing up in the 80s 90s we had an admiration for that Era. We listened to all that music, and we were very much into the psychedelic hippy vibes and culture. I always felt like I had been born in the wrong time, and should have been a hippy back in the 60s. Such an interesting time in history. And that counterculture was so groovy. 

[Freija]

Secondly that is the dopest VW micro bus/truck conversion I have ever seen. I think I've seen one other picture of one of those. I'd drive that thing every day. 

Hey! That's no conversion, it was a factory model.

More common was the single cab truck. They used to be everywhere.



Did you know that on both the single and double cab trucks, both sides and the tailgate could be folded down and latched to create a flatbed? Cool huh?



There were only 2000 crew cabs imported into the U.S. for the model year I had. I bought it used from a guy in Nevada but I can't remember what I paid for it, I'm thinking maybe $2500 but they're worth a small fortune now at 10x that price for a junker. I even had a custom built 2180 cc engine with dual downdraft Dellorto's that I never got the chance to install.

Not mine but I wish I still had it. There was only one door for the crew compartment. Groovy indeed!



I kind of gave up on this project when I got divorced in 1997 and left it in my ex-husband's shop. He ended up selling it and the motor. I was sad and now he regrets selling it knowing how much they're worth. Now all I've got is a 42 year old Toyota. 

First off, kudos for the bravery it takes to tell your personal journey like that. Thank you for sharing this.

Not brave but thanks. It's kind of old news to the folks that have been here a while and stuff that happened a very long time ago. Seems more like a movie I watched somewhere than things that happened in my real life

For you I'll share some of the rest of the story after 1967...things worked out. By 15 (1970) I was understood by my parents and living as a girl except for school where I was just an anomalous weirdo and after that, just your regular everyday person. Have had an amazing life with many opportunities, raised a daughter that just turned 50 as mom and a grandma to her now 27 y/o son I just spoke to yesterday. Married, divorced, yada yada.

[FlickerOfLight]

Secondly that is the dopest VW micro bus/truck conversion I have ever seen. I think I've seen one other picture of one of those. I'd drive that thing every day. 

Hey! That's no conversion, it was a factory model.

More common was the single cab truck. They used to be everywhere.



Did you know that on both the single and double cab trucks, both sides and the tailgate could be folded down and latched to create a flatbed? Cool huh?



There were only 2000 crew cabs imported into the U.S. for the model year I had. I bought it used from a guy in Nevada but I can't remember what I paid for it, I'm thinking maybe $2500 but they're worth a small fortune now at 10x that price for a junker. I even had a custom built 2180 cc engine with dual downdraft Dellorto's that I never got the chance to install.

Not mine but I wish I still had it. There was only one door for the crew compartment. Groovy indeed!



I kind of gave up on this project when I got divorced in 1997 and left it in my ex-husband's shop. He ended up selling it and the motor. I was sad and now he regrets selling it knowing how much they're worth. Now all I've got is a 42 year old Toyota. 

First off, kudos for the bravery it takes to tell your personal journey like that. Thank you for sharing this.

Not brave but thanks. It's kind of old news to the folks that have been here a while and stuff that happened a very long time ago. Seems more like a movie I watched somewhere than things that happened in my real life

For you I'll share some of the rest of the story after 1967...things worked out. By 15 (1970) I was understood by my parents and living as a girl except for school where I was just an anomalous weirdo and after that, just your regular everyday person. Have had an amazing life with many opportunities, raised a daughter that just turned 50 as mom and a grandma to her now 27 y/o son I just spoke to yesterday. Married, divorced, yada yada.

I would turn that thing into an epic beach mobile. The sides folding down is a great feature and I can already think of a bunch of uses for that. There must not of been many of these on the roads here, because I don't think I've ever seen one; at least not that I remember. 

That blue one is my favorite. I'd ride that thing all day er'day. So cool.

I think it's brave because I suffer from BPD, as I've mentioned before. This means I have identity issues. As I was developing I wasn't allowed to have my own personality. I had to take on the personality my abuser forced on me. I am 47 years old, and still struggle with, "Who am I?", to some degree. Im bewildered in joy when I see people being free, and who they truly are, and even expressing that freedom, because I know what it's like to have someone bash you, just for being you. I respect anyone who lives their lives completely and totally as who they are. So many people wear masks. And they hide real evil behind those masks. Wolves in sheeps clothing, and all. These are the ones I have no respect for.

 It is when people aren't afraid of who they are, is when they are truly free. 

I always tell people "Do, you."

My motto has always been, "Never fake the funk."

Not sure where I picked that up, but to me it means, to be yourself and nothing else. Basically, don't be fake. Be genuine. 

That's my tribe. (As long as they're not hurting anyone, ya know)

I find it brave to be yourself, even at the face of severe judgment, and even consequences. Although my story may not be of a sexual nature, I can identify, and relate to that victory. 

One love

You all can tell all the 60's stories yall want. Theyre always cool in my book.