My mom is retiring in December after 41 years. I wanted to do some kind of comparison for her party about the differences between 1965 (when she hired in) and now. Does anyone know of a website that has info like this?

TIA

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 - 11:58 pm:

I was only 5 years old then, so I don't know if I would be too much help. Phones still dialed and there weren't computers yet. We still played records and "horrors", you had to walk across the room to the TV, to change the channel!

By Rgmom on Wednesday, October 18, 2006 - 08:52 am:

I found these sites you could try:

http://www.infoplease.com/year/1965.html
http://www.brainyhistory.com/years/1965.html
http://www.historycentral.com/dates/1965.html
http://www.miramonte1965.com/top-singles.htm
http://www.usi.edu/1965/retro/facts.asp
http://www.1960sflashback.com/1965/Economy.asp

I don't think that they are quite what you were looking for but they may give you a start.

By Bemerry84 on Wednesday, October 18, 2006 - 09:59 am:

If you can't find anything else, check out those birthday cards that have the year born and list facts of what was going on at that time, I have one from 1958 when I was born and it's pretty neat to compare.

By Hol on Friday, October 20, 2006 - 11:53 pm:

I was a senior in high school. The thing that I remember most about that year was a big Blackout that happened here on the East Coast in November 1965. My Mom, sister and I were in a big department store in Providence around 5PM when all the lights went out. The cashiers locked the registers and the doors and wouldn't let anyone out. People got stuck in elevators. I remember my Mom calling to me in the dark to make sure she knew where I was. She said, "If anyone touches you, hit them". People were speculating about the cause, from an atomic bomb to Martians to the End of the World. Really!! LOL!

It sure was eerie, driving home with no traffic lights. I guess, it was determined that a transformer in Canada (Niagra Falls) blew out and put the whole East Coast in darkness.

I remember that women still wore hats and gloves, and men wore a shirt and tie to a ballgame. Pantyhose hadn't been invented yet. Families ate dinner together every night at home. The Beatles made the movie "Help", and "The Sound of Music" was the biggest movie of the year. TV shows like "Gilligan's Island" and "The Beverly Hillbillies" were big hits, as was "Peyton Place" and "Dark Shadows".

Home heating oil was about 12 cents a gallon, and gasoline was about 25 cents. A Coke was 10 cents.

An office was considered high tech if it had electric typewriters (there was no word processing). Long distance and international telephone calling was VERY expensive because there was ONE telephone company. There were only three car makers, Ford, GM and Chrysler. VW was the only foreign car, and mostly owned by college kids. Very few homes had "colour" TV.

The Vietnam War was escalating from a an "occupation" force. Job prospects were good. A senior graduating from high school could get a good job, and hope to retire from the same company. Houses cost about $7,000, and brand new cars about $2,000. The Women's Movement was still years away, and the Civil Rights Movement was just beginning, and meeting up with great resistance by many.

Those are some of the things that I remember because I was entering adulthood.

By Reds9298 on Thursday, October 26, 2006 - 04:51 pm:

Sorry this is waaaaay late, but thank you guys! I got side-tracked and now that I'm back to planning the party I remembered that I had posted about this. Thank you!