Author: Jane Canfield

By Jane Canfield

“The blood of the two Kennedys and King, the blood on the streets of America’s cities, and the blood in Vietnam made that hope almost impossible to maintain,”^[1] H.W. Brands writes of the turbulence of the 1960s and 70s that destroyed liberalism’s hope of peaceful problem-solving. In his book American Dreams: The United States Since 1945, Brands characterizes the late 60s and early 70s through its counterculture and conflict, demonstrating societal evolution on a widespread scale. Protests, war, and prominent political figures are emphasized while the typical American experience fails to be mentioned. Brands focuses heavily on typical middle-class American family life in his chapter on the 1950s but never follows up with how those experiences evolved. Brands’ avoidance of this highlights a trend among historians, as the 60s and 70s are more often than not portrayed through the lens of social and political movements. By focusing on the more memorable turmoil like the Vietnam War and counterculture of the 60s, Brands omits the stories of how typical life was unfolding while these events were taking place, thus omitting a fuller picture of the period he explores. The experiences of those directly involved in the conflict are valuable, but personal anecdotes from those who were not are also worthwhile in that they can more accurately reflect the experiences of most Americans of the time.

Frances O’Connell-Canfield’s childhood memories speak directly to the experience of daily life in the late 60s and early 70s, and particularly middle-class family life, which can act as a continuation of Brands’ exploration of middle-class families in the mid-50s and early 60s. Though Brands describes the “Golden Age of the Middle Class” as 1955-1960, he forgoes to explain whether or not the “Golden Age” continued or diminished. The 60s and 70s can be understood as a time of increasing leisure and entertainment for families, the peak of the middle class occurring in the early 70s.^[2] Frances O’Connell-Canfield was born in December 1961 and grew up in Queens, New York in a middle-class neighborhood. When recalling her childhood, she describes a time of middle-class bliss, remembering that “we were lucky in that we never experienced any economic hardship. My father had a position where he made a good salary, and my mom stayed home. We were able to, in the 70s, buy a summer house in the north fork of Long Island.”^[3] The disposable income that Frances expresses is characteristic of the “Golden Age” of the 50s that Brands writes about. However, what was shifting was the political landscape in which these families existed. The families of the 50s were experiencing the Cold War, while the 60s and 70s saw the Vietnam War through their television screens. Famously dubbed the Television War, attacks were viewed on the news in people’s living rooms. Because the war was prevalent in daily life, one could assume that family life during that time might not be as leisure-filled as the idyllic 1950s suburban life. However, Frances recalls a childhood full of road trips, amusement parks, playing outside, and television, despite the chaos occurring in the U.S. and abroad.

“We used to take road trips to upstate New York to see Niagara Falls,” Frances recalls, “we went to Cape Cod for the beaches. We loved to go to Golf City, it was a mini golf place. One of my most memorable trips was taking the ferry to Block Island from Long Island,”^[4] These memories were not unique. The recreational road trip was an increasing trend in the 60s and 70s, with 68,901 visits to national recreational sites in 1959 skyrocketing to 111,386 in 1964 and jumping another 50,000 or so by 1969.^[5] The use of automobiles had also exponentially increased since 1959, allowing more families to have vacations on the road. By the 70s, a culture of spending money on recreation was already embedded into American life as “Americans continued to spend increasing amounts on recreational pursuits, even in the face of higher gas prices and a sluggish economy during the 1970s,” as professor of Economics David George Surdam writes in his study on 20th century American leisure.^[6] The “sluggish economy” can in part refer to the energy crisis of the 70s, a time in which Frances remembers “parents were laid off from jobs…And also a construction boom that kind of collapsed. There were three tall empty apartment buildings in Queens. One family moved to the West Coast because they couldn’t get another position.”^[7] While the energy crisis laid people off and the Vietnam War was wearing on the economy, recreational spending did not decrease substantially. As Frances remembers, most families in her community were comfortable enough to rely primarily on the income of the fathers, with some of the mothers working by the time she reached high school age. Even so, Frances claimed that the mother’s jobs typically “[weren’t] providing for the household budget but adding to it so they could afford more luxuries like a second car or toward vacation homes or summer vacations, road trips. Vacations were very big in those days.”^[8] Therefore, even with financial struggles for some in the 70s, leisure remained at the forefront of family life.

More so than the 1950s, however, family life in the 60s and 70s saw an increase in television watching. While televisions became a new household staple in the 50s^[9], the late 60s and 70s solidified the pastime as something to stay. Despite the Vietnam War being televised, watching television was also recreational for the whole family. The amount of children’s entertainment in the 60s and 70s had elevated immensely. Reflecting on the TV shows she watched with her family, Frances remembers the different ways her family watched television: “We all watched the news. 60 Minutes and Face the Nation were popular news shows. Also Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. But for fun, my siblings and I would watch The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family. They were like the number one shows.”^[10] With shows like this, the whole family could enjoy the same program. Interestingly, as scholar Andrea Press writes, “Television families of the period tend[ed] to be white, middle-class, intact, and suburban, all appearing in much higher percentages than they did in actuality.”^[11] This “ideal” family that was portrayed on television was likely the type of family to be least affected by any of the hardship of the time, meaning that watching these happy families on television could act as escapism from realities of the outside world.

Another addition to family leisure was the rise of electronics and video games. Frances recalls when new electronics began to pop up in her neighborhood, recounting “I remember my dad bringing home from work one day an IBM electric typewriter, I remember when one of the other kids on the block got one of the first VHS tape machines, and I remember when my cousins got the new Atari.”^[12] She also recalled watching slideshows of pictures from vacation on the Kodak Carousel Projector. The Atari is of interest, though, because it was the first company to popularize video game consoles.^[13] “People want new ways to spend their leisure time,” reads a quote from a 1975 New York Times article on Atari’s popularity, “It’s part of a trend of looking for different ways to relax.”^[14] The article claims electronic games to be the newest Christmas gift craze, one that provides an escape from “harsh realities.”^[15]

Whether or not the “harsh reality” of the Vietnam War and other current events seeped into family life depended entirely on personal circumstances. While her family wasn’t directly affected, some families weren’t so lucky as to be so removed from wartime. Frances’ neighbors had a son who had been drafted and she remembers when “he came home and he was kind of…his behavior had changed. In those days people didn’t really understand PTSD or didn’t speak about it. People referred to him as being ‘odd’, saying ‘he got messed up by Vietnam.’”^[16] His backyard was next to the O’Connell family, and Frances recalls that he would spend hours lying under a Cherry tree in his yard. As a kid, she wondered why he didn’t get up and do something.

When asked about her awareness of the war at that age, Frances said she was aware, as it was on the news every night, but was too young to have a clear understanding. Frances believes that her parents did their best to shelter their children from the harsh realities, remembering that her mother put away a magazine that had images of the war to not disturb her younger siblings. “I think children,” she says, “or at least middle-class kids, were more kept in a childhood lane in those days. Finances weren’t discussed, and problems of the world weren’t discussed as much except for when they were glaring. Things were hidden from children then.”^[17] This protection of childhood innocence in the face of televised foreign violence and violence on the homefront can perhaps be understood as a driving force for the family-friendly entertainment of the era. As an exhibit in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting says, “The late 1960s and 1970s witnessed rising consumer activism in the television industry, as pressure grew on corporate broadcasters to address the commercialization and violence that children saw on television.”^[18]

Therefore, while the social radicalism and political conflict of the late 1960s and 70s is the focus of Brands’ exploration, the seemingly mundane life of family leisure can help paint a fuller picture of American culture of the time and how family leisure persisted in the face of conflict. Brands’ claim of how peaceful hope was “almost impossible to maintain” did not apply to many Americans who were somewhat removed from those events and perhaps sheltered through their material consumption and pursuit of leisure.

 

 

^[1]  H.W. Brands, American Dreams: The United States Since 1945 (New York: Penguin Books, 2010), 162.

^[2] Willis, Derek. “The Rise of the Middle Class as An Ordinary American Term.” The New York Times, May 14, 2015. [URL]

^[3] Video Interview with Frances O’Connell-Canfield Carlisle, PA, and Brewster, NY, November 27th, 2023

^[4] Video Interview with Frances O’Connell-Canfield Carlisle, PA, and Brewster, NY, December 8th, 2023

^[5] Surdam, David George. “The Rise of Expenditures on Leisure Goods and Services.” Century of the Leisured Masses, 2015, 64–85. [URL]

^[6] Surdam, David George. “The Rise of Expenditures on Leisure Goods and Services.” Century of the Leisured Masses, 2015, 64–85. [URL]

^[7] Video Interview with Frances O’Connell-Canfield Carlisle, PA, and Brewster, NY, November 27th, 2023

^[8] Video Interview with Frances O’Connell-Canfield Carlisle, PA, and Brewster, NY, December 8th, 2023

^[9]“1920s – 1960s: Television.” Elon University. Accessed December 11, 2023. [URL]

^[10] Video Interview with Frances O’Connell-Canfield Carlisle, PA, and Brewster, NY, December 8th, 2023

^[11] Press, Andrea. “Gender and Family in Television’s Golden Age and Beyond.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 625 (2009): 139–50. [JSTOR]

^[12]Video Interview with Frances O’Connell-Canfield Carlisle, PA, and Brewster, NY, November 27th, 2023

^[13]“Atari 2600 Game System.” The Strong National Museum of Play, November 10, 2021. [URL]

^[14] WILLIAM D. SMITH. “Electronic Games Bringing a Different Way to Relax: Electronic Games Bring New Way for Relaxation.” New York Times (1923-), Dec 25, 1975. [URL]

^[15]WILLIAM D. SMITH. “Electronic Games Bringing a Different Way to Relax: Electronic Games Bring New Way for Relaxation.” New York Times (1923-), Dec 25, 1975. [URL]

^[16]  Video Interview with Frances O’Connell-Canfield Carlisle, PA, and Brewster, NY, December 8th, 2023

^[17]  Video Interview with Frances O’Connell-Canfield Carlisle, PA, and Brewster, NY, December 8th, 2023

^[18] “Innovations in Children’s Public Television Programming.” American Archive of Public Broadcasting. Accessed December 11, 2023. [URL]

 

Appendix

“The blood of the two Kennedys and King, the blood on the streets of America’s cities, and the blood in Vietnam made that hope almost impossible to maintain” (H.W. Brands, American Dreams, p. 162).

Interview Subject

Frances Canfield, age 61, was born in 1961 (near the end of the baby boom) and experienced American family life during the late 60s and early 70s.

Interview

Zoom call recording, Carlisle, PA and Brewster, NY, November 27, 2023

Zoom call recording, Carlisle, PA and Brewster, NY, December 8th, 2023

Selected Transcript

Would you describe your family growing up as middle class and can you describe your memories of your neighborhood briefly and the socioeconomic status of your neighborhood overall?

Yes, I would describe my family as middle class. I grew up in Queens, New York in the 60s and 70s. My father and mother came to New York in 1956 from Ireland and we moved into a neighborhood that also had a lot of immigrant and first-generation families from Italy, Germany, Ireland, and Greece. Most of the dads worked and the moms stayed home and raised the children. Everyone came from pretty large families and had ties to a church. There were a lot of activities based out of those churches for families. Most of the kids I grew up with came from families of 4, 5, 6 kids. It was not unusual. In fact, every family on my block had four or more kids. 

How did your financial situation contribute to experiences you had as a child? Did your family ever experience economic hardship?

We were lucky in that we never experienced any economic hardship. My father had a position where he made a good salary, and my mom stayed home. We were able to in the 70s buy a summer house in the north fork of Long Island. And like I said that we had roots in Ireland, we went there every other summer and we took the plane and my cousins also lived in Queens, my father had a sister that he emigrated with. The mothers would stay in Ireland for the summer while the fathers stayed two weeks and went back to work in the United States. You know my father often worked long hours so he could provide that for the family. We were fortunate. But you know I do remember in the 70s some kids in the neighborhood whose parents were laid off from jobs because there was an energy crisis. And also a construction boom that kind of collapsed. There were three tall empty apartment buildings in Queens. One moved to the West Coast because they couldn’t get another position. 

Did you take many road trips growing up and was this the norm for people in your community? And then what was your most memorable road trip?

The houses were small and there were a lot of children so people took a lot of Sunday drives to places like sleigh riding, Bear Mountain Park. Also these big water parks were popular, they were just starting to come, like Palisades park in New Jersey used to have commercials and it was the first wave pool in that tri-state area. A lot of picnics. We used to take road trips to upstate New York to see Niagara Falls, we went to Cape Cod for the beaches. One of my most memorable trips was taking the ferry to Block Island from Long Island. I also remember taking a road trip to Florida and it was long and I remember stopping at South of the Border, the border between North and South Carolina. It had a lot of amusements for kids there. You could buy firecrackers whereas in New York firecrackers were not for sale, they were illegal. We went to Disney World and that was a big deal for us at the time. We didn’t really appreciate visiting our grandparents in Ireland, we preferred Disney World as kids.   

Were there any television shows/movies you and your whole family would watch together?

Yes we would watch Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, it was a popular nature show. I would watch that with my mom, dad, and sisters. We all watched the news. 60 minutes and Face the Nation were popular news shows. But for fun, my siblings and I would watch the Brady Bunch and the Partridge Family. They were like the number one shows. As a family I remember going to Radio City Music Hall in NYC and seeing a movie called 1776. I don’t remember going to other movies except for drive-ins in the summer in the town of  our summer house on Long Island. We mostly played outside with the other kids in the neighborhood until it was dinner time. We played board games, we had a lot of board games. And those we would play as a family. 

In the book I’m reading for my class, American Dreams by Brands, his chapter on the time of your childhood focuses heavily on the political and social movements going on. I was wondering as a kid, did you even take notice of any of that? Because you were so young, do you remember anything about that?

Well, I did take notice of it because it was on the news and it was on the news every night, really. And our next door neighbor, the Hansens, their son had been in Vietnam and he came home and he was kind of, his behavior had changed. In those days people didn’t really understand PTSD or didn’t really speak about it. People referred to him as being “odd now” or “he got messed up by Vietnam.” Their backyard butted our backyard, and they had this Cherry tree. He used to spend hours just laying under that Cherry tree and I remember as a kid wondering why he didn’t get up and do something. And I think part of it was that he was decompressing but we weren’t really privy to that, or it wasn’t explained to us or discussed. And I did have a t-shirt that another older neighbor had given to me whose brother had also been in Vietnam, I actually have a photo of me wearing it. It said “Make Love Not War” and I remember she was a teenager and I was maybe 10 and she passed it onto me when it shrunk in the wash or she outgrew it. I remember her parents being very disturbed that their son was drafted, you know, but luckily he came back okay. Also, a magazine that was delivered to our house was “Life” magazine. It was practically just a photo journal, and I remember one time there was coverage about Vietnam about it and my mother putting it away because I had younger siblings and she didn’t want them to be disturbed by the images. But again, I was young so I didn’t really have a clear understanding of it. Like when I see kids now at protests on their parent’s shoulders or something. As a kid, children weren’t part of it. I think children, or at least middle-class kids were more kept in a childhood lane in those days. Finances weren’t discussed, problems of the world weren’t discussed as much, except for when they were really glaring. Things were hidden from children then. 

Further Research

Willis, Derek. “The Rise of the Middle Class.” The New York Times, May 14, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/upshot/the-rise-of-middle-class-as-a-mainstream-description.html

Surdam, David George. “The Rise of Expenditures on Leisure Goods and Services.” Century of the Leisured Masses, 2015, 64–85. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190211561.003.0006.

1920s – 1960s: Television.” Elon University. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.elon.edu/u/imagining/time-capsule/150-years/back-1920-1960/#:~:text=Television%20replaced%20radio%20as%20the,million%20had%20them%20by%201960.

Press, Andrea. “Gender and Family in Television’s Golden Age and Beyond.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 625 (2009): 139–50. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40375911.

“Atari 2600 Game System.” The Strong National Museum of Play, November 10, 2021. https://www.museumofplay.org/toys/atari-2600-game-system/#:~:text=Atari%20did%20not%20make%20the,electronic%20table%2Dtennis%20game%20Pong.

“Innovations in Children’s Public Television Programming.” American Archive of Public Broadcasting. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://americanarchive.org/exhibits/zoom/innovations-childrens-television.