I have a big thing about the 1960s. I was too young at the time to appreciate the seismic shift of the era, only turning 13 in December 1968. But in hindsight, the ’60s was a magical time of change. It was also a tumultuous period of war; revolution; and protest against racism, for women’s liberation, and the overturning of many other oppressions.
The pony corralled for the preceding decades well and truly bolted into the limelight in the 1960s. It’s not the purpose of this story to delve into the background to the protest movements of the period, but I think that it is important to acknowledge the forces of youth that were emerging on all fronts that were behind this renaissance. It was this new surge for change that also played a dynamic role in the ’60s arts, music, and design, for which I still have such a burning passion.
By the 1960s, the planet was ripe for a flowering of new idealism on all fronts. The depression-racked ’30s was followed by the ’40s war years and the deprivations of the aftermath. The ’50s conservatism was bred by war veterans’ desire to retreat into normality in suburbia, to settle down and raise children, within the somehow comforting social constraints of the day. There were some excesses in the 1950s, but these largely centred on the materialist American dream. The automobile was the major culprit, as the design sunk to ever further indulgences of length, chrome adornment, and absurd space race–styled rear fins. The emergence of rock ’n’ roll towards the decade’s end was an accurate pointer, though, to the rise of youth culture and the beginning of rebellion against the social constraints of the era.
’60S CAR CONVERSION
Lavish displays of ornamental opulence had reached a ridiculous height – or, more accurately, low – within the American and, to a lesser extent, the
