Fifty years in the making
...nd her mother graduated college. Pam graduated from University of Arkansas. Neither one of Melissa’s parents graduated high school nor she did not either. Today we have meaning luxuries that they did not have back then. It was not common for each person in the family to have a car. In Pam’s family both parents had a car and she got her first car when she was fifteen. It was convertible GTO, the main reason they each had a car was because her dad owned a car dealership. Melissa’s parents only had one car. She bought her own car when she was seventeen, it was a Ford Pinto. Karen’s parents had two cars but one was for the farm and the other one was for going to town. She was seventeen when she got her first car which was a Dodge Polaro. Sharon’s parents shared a car as well. She got her first car when she was seventeen and it was a Volts Wagon bug which only coast $1,999. One plus side of living back then was that gas was only about ¢30. A soda was only a nickel and you could take the can in and get one cent back for it. They each said that they only had one television and one phone in their houses. Pam also stated that they only had AM radio, which was not music, but mostly talkshows. The jobs each of the girls had for their first jobs are very similar to the jobs teenagers have today. Sharon worked at Freds dollar store. Karen was a nurses aid at local doctors office. Melissa and Pam worked as babysitters. Growing up back then segregation was a primary issue. Karen was raised along side blacks. Many of the families who worked on her father’s farm were black. She was raised to believe they were equals. Sharon’s family’s grocery was located in a predominately black neighborhood; therefore she as well as raised with African Americans. Melissa’s and Pam’s family strongly disliked people of the African dissent. When Karen was in the forth grade blacks were integrated into her school there were only four of them but none the less it did not effect her for she was used to being around them. It was not a shock to Sharon when she was in the tenth grade her school was integrated, but she did remember how it was a major shock to many of her classmates. Melissa was raised in a private school up until the seventh grade. She is from a larger city so when she began public school it was almost half and half, causing great confusion between how she was raised and the life she had been introduced into. In Pam’s case she did not learn to accept African Americans until she started college. The two main events that all four of the women remember are Vietnam and the death of President Kennedy. They were all affected by the war. Pam had a brother drafted and an uncle who enlisted into the army. Karen had two cousins go, they were both drafted. Sharon and Melissa neither had any family go, but each of them had friends who went. They all agreed that the war was not worth the fight. All the ladies remember the day when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Karen said that they announced it while they were at school; they were all in grade school except Sharon was in middle school. Sharon said that her mom cried. They each agreed he is still to this day the most memorable President. Even thought the girls were all under ten in the fifties they each had memories from then. Sharon remembers the ice cream wagon pulled by a horse and her favorite pink poodle skirt. Karen remembered playing in her grandparents’ yard with all her cousins. Pam recalls getting her first pony. Melissa remembered moving to her new house. In their early teens the girls were living out the 1960s. They all remember the music and dancing. They agreed that the Beatles and the Monkeys were the coolest bands at the time. During this time it was a big deal to hang posters of the band members on ones walls. Melissa said that her favorite outfit during this time was her brown and tan hot pants and jacket that she made herself. All four women agreed that the 70s was the best decade of all. A direct quote from Karen was that she remembered the drugs and alcohol. She also loved going to ...