As the 60’s progressed my previously booted, suited and tied ‘64 contemporaries, both state as well as public school, ended up in jeans etc and with long hair. Indeed it seemed that the most strait-laced of them went the furthest off the rails. I, who had started off as the wild one, ended up a lot staider than they. All sex, drugs and rock’n’roll they say. But it wasn’t all free love and sunshine and there were inevitably many casualties along the way. But all that nonsense about “if you can remember the 60’s you weren’t there”. Complete tosh.
But, hey, let’s preserve the myth!!
Not only did attitudes, fashions, tastes in music, prejudices, morals etc change but so also did language. Various urban working class accents became more acceptable, even fashionable (think Mockney), and new words came from them and into general use. Some of those words still survive, others when used now sound just ghastly. “Hey man, look at that groovy chick.” Yuk. “That’s not by bag, man” Yuk and double yuk. But some others have survived and are still in common use – think of “grotty” (supposedly short for grotesque) and there are still others so let’s, today, play with some of the words from those years.
However, a warning, I am not saying that my preferred link words come from those days!
But, hey man, the scene’s copasetic. So peace and love, man – let’s get down and boogie!