Interview Paper

Eminence Tennyson
U.S American History
Tracy S. Uebelhor

Teens; Forever Hormonal or Drastically Different?
To some people, teenage life in the 60’s is poles apart from a teenager’s lifestyle now, drastic changes such as the prices of meals and movie tickets do exist. However, this is entirely separate lifestyle is not always so separate. 72-year-old Joyce Mohler grew up in Boonville, Indiana. She recounted her teenage years in the mid-60’s, when America was dominated by various English influences and Elvis Presley. Currently, teenagers and young people around the country tap their feet and dance to energetic rap and hip-pop, which often contain explicit lyrics. Many of them also enjoy swaying their bodies to the pretty melodies of pop and country songs. Some of the favorite artists chosen by teenagers nowadays include Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Rihanna, and Justin Beiber. But in the 1960’s, the popular music was different. Rock-and-roll bands that originated from England such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who were influential back then. In fact, according to Joyce, they absolutely “dominated the 60’s”. Compared to now, rap and pop music has the same powerful impact on teenagers in the 21st century the same way rock influenced teenagers in the 60’s. At that time, The Beatles’ mania swept through the nation, and many people, male and female, became crazed fans. A lot of teenagers absolutely worshipped The Beatles as their idols. Mohler recalled that every single one of her girlfriend’s was in love with Ringo Starr of The Beatles.
In addition to these iconic rock bands, Joyce also listened to musical artists such as Elvis Presley, who was and is still remembered today as a classic American artist but she emphasized the fact that The Beatles were “the biggest thing at that particular era” when they came to the U.S. in 1964.
Now, many teenagers keep themselves entertained by watching TV, surfing the Internet, playing video and computer games, and hanging out with their friends. This proves that a few things still stay the same.
Joyce recalled her younger brother watching television frequently back when he was a teenager to keep himself from boredom. Programs that were on at that time included a lot of Westerns like Gunsmoke and others like Star Trek and Twilight Zone. Western TV shows and movies were “big” back then; nowadays, Westerns are scarce and not widely watched at all.
Even though teenagers back then and right now both watch movies, there were only a small number of actual movie theaters in the 60’s. Joyce said that her father would take both her and her siblings to the drive-in movies in the parks before dark, especially during the summer. Movies that were popular at that time were an “awful lot of Westerns”, and Elvis Presley also had a lot of movies during that era.
Unlike teenagers nowadays who boast of traveling to exotic locations all around the world such as Paris and Beijing, Joyce said that her peers and she didn’t travel often. During summer vacation, her family went to the lake and lived in a rented cabin for a week. Types of transportation that were popular in the 1960’s were buses and cars. For Joyce, before she got issued a driver’s license, it was “always, always the bus, or walking.” After she received her learner’s permit and later her driver’s license at 15 and a half, she was able to use their father’s car, which was a 1955 Chevy.

Teenagers back then and now both have allowances. In high school, Joyce had a couple of boyfriends, like some teenage girls today. The length of the average school year hasn’t changed much: school got out around the first week of June and started again in September after Labor Day. However, the bedtimes are getting later and later as the years go on: Joyce slept around 8 P. M. when she was a teenager, whereas teens now sleep as late as midnight or even later! Some electives still remain the same such as quire, and other various extracurricular activities.
The background of the time period also influenced the teenagers living during that time drastically. Some memorable events that happened in the world when Joyce was a teenager included the Vietnam War, which was much more televised than any other previous war. She reflected that the “biggest event” was the assassination of John F. Kennedy, who was well-thought of. Joyce remarked, “I don’t think there were any other politicians as loved as Kennedy was, in terms of idolizing.”
Speaking of idolizing Joyce adored snacking after school with her closest friends. Teens now eat at McDonald’s or Wendy’s to grab a snack after school. For Joyce and her friends, “there was a place called the Parkette; it was very popular, a bunch of them throughout Boonville would go, one was only a few miles from the high school.”
But she recalled wanting the Parkette more than her calorie intake allowed her. Of course it was crucial to her to be able to fit into her favorite trends! During the 1960’s these fads stemmed off mainly from England. In terms of music, it was a “big era where English music dominated; it affected a lot of the dress.” For example, The Beatles wore Nehru jackets, which were jackets that have no collar. Moreover, “in the 60’s, there was a model Twiggy who was ultra-ultra-thin; a lot of fashions that were sort of spun-off of Twiggy in terms of modeling.”
In this golden age of technology, most teenagers learn about the news of the world and enlighten themselves by means of the Internet. But, in the 1960’s, when televisions were still a novelty, Joyce and teenagers of her generation learned about the news by watching the three major broadcast networks: ABC, NBC, and CBS. They all watched the nightly news, which consisted of half an hour of local news and half an hour of national news, which “touched on bigger things.” The radio was another source of information; however, most teenagers preferred to listen to music on the radio instead of the news. “There weren’t a lot of high school kids reading the newspapers…news was really limited.” This sounds shocking to us now, but “all TV ended at eleven o’clock officially; after 12, it would just go to a test pattern. Nothing on until the next day, until the format of late shows started later on.”
In the 60’s, there was only one way to communicate and contact your friends: talk to them directly or on the phone. “In almost all of the 60’s households, there was only one telephone in the entire house: for all eight members of the family. If any of us wanted to talk to our friends, we had to share one telephone that was located on the wall in the dining room; if a friend called you, it was in front of everybody.”
When asked about whether or not she took any summer school or supplemental classes during the school year, Joyce seemed astonished and bellowed, “Never! Nobody did!” In contrast, high school students in the present are occupying themselves with classes preparing them for the SAT’s and enriching their knowledge bank. Another factor that has changed drastically according to Joyce is the price of everyday things. Compared to the prices of consumer goods in the 60’s, prices today seem outrageously high. A complete meal (hamburger and milkshake) back then cost only a dollar, whereas right now, a fast food meal cost at least a whopping five dollars. As for the movie ticket prices, drive-in theaters in the 60’s offered special deals such as four dollars per carload; now, one person normally costs eight to ten dollars for a movie. Joyce told me, “Life centered on school, my boyfriend, family meals, and friends” when she was a teenager in Boonville. Over 40 years have passed since Joyce was a teenager in the 1960’s. Humans have stepped into a new millennium where technology advancements soared and new breakthroughs in many different fields are achieved. Every single aspect of a teenager’s life today seems to somewhat resemble and yet in other facets differ from a teen’s life many years ago.
No matter in what period of time, the spirit of teenagers will always remain still the same. The fire and the passion that burn in their veins, fueling them to discover their paths and transform themselves into adults, will always be there. After all, teenagers are always teenagers; their crazy and unstable hormones make them who they are long before iPod’s were invented.