The 60's Not so Rockin'

The 1960s was a time of optimism and rebellion, but not for everyone. I interviewed my Grandparents Roberta (Copeland) Bradley and James Bradley, in order to see the 60s from both a man’s and a woman’s perspective. Before conducting the interview, I didn’t know much about the 1960s, I knew the bold points like civil rights, Cuban missile crisis, feminine movement and Vietnam. I learned most of my information through reading the chapters of my history book. Reading the textbook helped me know the background information on which I would be asking the questions, also have a timeline of the events in mind while conducting the interview. However, I did watch videos on Historychannel.com and PBS.org to see if I could find more in depth information. My grandparents both lived in Texas in small towns away from the hustle and bustle of the larger cities. In 1960, my grandmother lived in Odessa, Texas. She was a 26 year old farmer’s daughter. She was sadly widowed in 1958 and moved back home with her family. She is the middle child of seven children, the only one not to attend college due to her early marriage. Being a member of a poor farm family, my grandmother had two jobs. One was working at a pie shop making pies, and the other was working at a rag house cutting old clothing to make rags. The rag house is where she personally encountered racism towards blacks. The mistreatment of the black women in the rag house was seen to be acceptable in the eyes of the other white women, but to her it was not. She was raised and learned not to differentiate people based on their color. It opened her eyes to a whole new beginning. Being the feminine movement was in its second wave; my grandmother took advantage of being single. She took advantage of not being a stay at home mom, being allowed to have sexual relations without the worry of pregnancy. Oral Contraceptives (birth control) was one major step for a women’s reproductive freedom. Since she lived in a small town, the