I remember that the first time I realized that my parents both lived through the 60s without ever becoming hippies I was horrified.

75 year old here….was 17 in 1966. I got decent grades, but one of the main reasons I wanted to attend college was to stay out of Vietnam. I got a 2-S deferment for four years. I will never forget the first lottery (after my 4 yr deferment) where I came up number 278 so I didn’t have to go into the service but two of my friends were killed in ‘Nam. I remember much of the craziness from 67 to about 72 with all the free love, hippies and tuning out. I was not one of them.. i’ve lived a good life made a good living had kids, and I still think of my two friends who didn’t have the chance.

Every middle class and up baby boomer was privileged. They had THE BEST ECONOMY in US history.

I was raised in the 60s and 70's. I didn't fit in to any particular group very well. My family was not wealthy enough to fit into the rich people's group but also was Christian and so didn't fit into the group that wanted to drop out and party and rebel. We just went to school and church and had friends and watched TV and rode small motorcycles and went on family vacations and had picnics and such. We just lived life and enjoyed it the best we could. So when I see this film about Webster Groves I don't feel like they were my kind of people but I don't hate them either. I probably was just a typical fairly conservative American kid who loved rock music and girls but also didn't want to be a rebel. I got married and had 5 kids and just lived a lower middle class American life. I'm 66 now and retired. I am still pretty happily married but am a little sad about America because I think it is falling apart.

I'm 73. I live in WV which means I live in the 50's again except with Fentanyl and Facebook. I can't wait to leave. I have no desire to return to the 50's. I was not considered college material in the 60's. This looks like the HS I dropped out of in 1965. I talked my parents into moving. I got a job and went to night school. Yes I did go to college. My parents were shocked but were ok with it. Even today I tend to have friends that are older or younger. I didn't, nor do I now, have anything tin common with these people. I think allot are having cognitive dissonance. Me, I'm doing okay. I guess I didn't have to deal with the same pressures from educated controlling parents others did.

7:00 The term “normie” is over sixty years old. I wonder how much boomer slang zoomers are using without even knowing it. 🤔

I was born in 1956 and one of the "shop kids". I went to a trade high school and studied to be an electrician, and so glad I did. I actually wanted to be in the electronics class, but it was full. Anyway, they got me my first job, which wasn't in electrical, but electronics, so it worked out in the end. I worked in tech for about 45 of my 50 years, so my time in a trade school was well spent. Even though I didn't have the easy life that these kids had growing up, I managed just fine without college.

It would be cool to see how life turned out for those people now.

My dad used to tell me they called them "the ME generation," and I thought they made fun of us millennials!

"I don't think any 16 year old child should be burdened by the problems of the world" I was also impressed by how well spoken the 16 year olds were in this video.

Watching this, It’s strange that this hs in Missouri projected perfection while most of Missouri, The South & Middle America pride themselves on a blue collar mentality relying on common sense values with minimal education, which is not a bad thing. The parents in this footage felt uncomfortable when asked about civil rights, wars, and the uncertainty of the future.

Wow, if there's EVER a case of, "the more things change, the more they stay the same..." Webster Groves is STILL a relatively elite older inner suburb, though it's slightly more diverse now than then. There are so many "Webster Groves" type of communities across the country who basically exist to maintain the status quo as much as possible. Biggest difference is nowadays, most of those types of families don't even bother with public schools.

I’m a millennial and my parents are boomers. Growing up in the 90s my dad experienced wealth but that lead to him becoming increasingly irritable. My mom left him for his drinking. Just this past year they reunited. Boomers were so focused on image, money and success they forgot the importance of family and love. The happiest homes I’ve been in are not the families with a lot of money. That’s not to say hard work and money aren’t important because they are but coming home to an empty mansion has to be the most miserable feeling in the world. Love grows inside homes where people live and people are able to put differences aside and work together to make a better life. I live alone and never had children because my childhood and young adulthood were spent in deep depression. I never dreamt of a future due to my heartbreak from not having a home to come to. My parents reunited and live together again which has helped heal the hole in my heart. I don’t hold them accountable for the times they grew up and the messages they received effecting them negatively. With age comes wisdom and grace. God bless ❤

I feel like I'm watching a cult.

I’m 73. This isn’t how I grew up. Most of the kids I grew up with had working class parents. I lived in the north where there were good paying union jobs. If you didn’t go to college there were still decent paying jobs

Yeah, "rebelling" was great fun until the hippies realized being dirty, smelly, drug addicted and penniless wasn't as much fun as they thought. So they became the "yuppies" of the 80s.

For me, the sound drops out around 10:00 for about 30 seconds.

This documentary reminds me of the 1962 song "Little Boxes" By Malvina Reynolds Little Boxes Little boxes on the hillside Little boxes made of ticky tacky Little boxes on the hillside Little boxes all the same There's a pink one and a green one And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same And the people in the houses All went to the university Where they were put in boxes And they came out all the same And there's doctors and lawyers And business executives And they're all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same And they all play on the golf course And drink their martinis dry And they all have pretty children And the children go to school And the children go to summer camp And then to the university Where they are put in boxes And they come out all the same And the boys go into business And marry and raise a family In boxes made of ticky tacky And they all look just the same There's a pink one and a green one And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same

Thanks So Much for your lifetime of work 🙏🏼💗🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🐈‍⬛🧙🏼‍♀️🥃🥃

The guy saying he must be looked at as a guest Villan on Batman,,made me smile😂keep these clips coming David,they are great!

This was FASCINATING. Thank you for sharing this, David 🤯

Thank you so much for your videos and work David Hoffman. I always enjoy watching your videos whenever they pop up in my feed. Keep up the good work!

I’m still young. I’m just a baby to you guys, but realistically, I love learning from this channel, I can’t really relate at that time, but I can take my mind back in time to see how it was and that amazes me. thanks David Hoffman for the video. You have a wonderful evening.

This is from 66, and just shy of the Summer of Love. I think the draft and Vietnam had a big effect by 68. I love seeing the creative ways in which the younger people live now. I doubt anyone is being shamed for simply buttoning a top button or wearing the wrong loafers now. Many boomers have worked hard to gain economic and social change and it is sad that has been swept under the rug as far as later generations awareness. I doubt that the corporate hold on information helps them learn about that sometimes. Lol on the car...so true. And most of the boys knew how to repair them. I wouldn't want to go back though.

THREE HOURS STUDYING??? That's why genX was starting to mentally check out of school in the 80s and 90s

I'm 47, and you're documentaries have peppered my tv viewing for years. Thank you for yet another amazing peek at the life that was, in a time where those same people are now in power. ❤

2024, little boxes on. the hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky and they grow to go to university where they all protest and cancel anyone who is different and does not think like them. Delia Morris

Oh wow, what I coincidence, I just finished watching your video on Webster Grove from 3 years ago, clicked on your channel for similar content and I see a similar video uploaded right this minute. Definitely watching this one as well.

Great documentary David! Thanks for sharing 😁

Outstanding!!👏 Your documentary mirrored so much of the small town Midwestern views/ way of life in the 50's & 60's. I feel fortunate to have grown up (in a smaller city) in the 70's. There was still pressures but not comforming as it had been. 😀

Another awesome documentary, David. Thank you!

People back then seemed so much more serious, better dressed and well spoken than they generally do today. And this was the 1960s!

Thank you for the video 😊

Like this channel. It is a window for me to know or confirm whether it is right compared to what I had in mind about America when I was a kid in 2000s (in PRC). Like watching a movie but in fact they are all real people. Grateful to your work here sir.

Brilliant. Thank you😎

Why would they rebel. They had everything. Gen X was the first generation to do worse than their predecessors. They had a reason to rebel.

great job David! keep up the good work

I love this look at the past. Thank you for sharing it. God Bless You and stay safe.

This is a really interesting look at the 50s american community and mindset, I love their reaction to theirselves. Appreciate your work David

Wow…. That’s a fascinating perspective. It explains a lot about my parents. They came from the group that did not “rebel” also.

"You label me, I label you!" 🎶 It's cyclical, seems to never end! ☮✌

A weirdo and rebel here. Still happy with that decision. I could never conform.

Well in 1966, in San Francisco, I was 15 year old girl & decided to live a gypsy type life for my survival- I had 1 parent - a alcohol mother..so i became a hippe not by choice , i suppose.: .never took drugs Kept my nose clean, because if I got nabbed , they would throw me in a juvenile detention center, foster home or Group home....bounced around to Aunts & Uncles good family friends homes age 14 to 19... By 15 I was cleaning houses, and doing gardening work for neighbors & babysitting 24/7. I went on to get A A. Degree & a B. A. from San Francisco state university. I was lucky...all my friends took all kinds of drugs..it never tempted or appealed to me. Yeah so I was a hippee chick & kept on keeping on!

Very interesting. I enjoyed it immensely and would love To see more like this!

Loved this! Truly!

Fantastic video! Extremely interesting.

Rich white Mormons always raised their families with very high expectations and very strict rules.

Wow. When the white 1960s cop is the voice of reason...

If these families are truly the wealthy....isn't this still the way it is now for the rich? They live in a different world

I grew up next to a town like this. My town was straight up middle class, and we always felt our neighbors were looking down on us, although no one I knew experienced this in a real-life example. My household emphasized hard work. I recently "worked with" a young woman who grew up in that town. Her desire for success and need for expensive items was almost nauseating. Me, I like to have fun, and I pursue artistic endeavors on the side.

Thankyou, this was an interesting viseo, thank you. Did I see charles Curalt interviewing? Your channel is one of my top 5!

This was a SEGMENT of the population. Not everyone was rich. I was part of the middle class population as were my friends. Yes, it was a great place to grow up in many way ( class of '66). I also knew of those who DID rebel, early hippies. I mixed with them all.

Hi David... Thank you! for your work as a filmmaker, and thank you for sharing it with us on KZfaq now days! Otherwise chances are most of us would have probably never seen your work. I've already left a rather lengthy comment, which focused on the differences in youth of this film (1966) in stark contrast with today's youth. But on a completely different thought, but a thought the film shows clearly, is it exposes the wildly accepted myth people talk about and also believe today, that any and every young person of the 1960's, was a draft dodging, long haired, unkempt, counterculture advocate, smoking marijuana, dropping LSD and carrying around a sign of protest that reads "Turn On...Tune In...Drop Out"... SO many people today, especially millennial aged young adults, believe that every one of us who lived through that period of time are former "hippies". And obviously that's just not true. That's something Hollywood for one, has impressed upon the minds of people via popular films etc.. Along these same lines, I'll offer up another false belief people have today about that era, which has also been accomplished primarily via Hollywood films and is believed practically as 'gospel' today. The false idea that every Vietnam veteran, experienced massive, non stop drug use through their time fighting in Vietnam in the service. It seems almost everything we see today that comes out of Hollywood regarding Vietnam, shows a bunch of enlisted Army grunts sitting around smoking a joint, 'high as a kite' and then going ballistic with their M14's & M16's in close range jungle fighting. This simply is NOT true. All the stuff we see depicted in that way, is an absolute fairy tale. Were there some "stoners" there, who did these things? Yes, of course. But FEW. They were definitely the rare exception, NOT the norm. And unlike the movies, it certainly wasn't the 'war hero' types as depicted in films doing it. Hollywood has done all they can, to glamorize the drug smoking/drug taking "cool" looking Vietnam soldier image. Sorry folks, that wasn't the case in real life. First off, if caught with drugs, even in Vietnam, you'd be court-martialed. The military doesn't allow drugs now, and they didn't allow them then. Many of my buddies who went to Vietnam, some on multiple tours, when asked told me they never ever saw not even a single occasion, where a fellow soldier was smoking grass, or taking anything else. And THAT is the reality of the situation. I realize this comment is off topic regarding the film, but this false belief so many people have today of drug use in Vietnam, closely parallels the false belief this films exposes, being that children of the 60's were all long haired hippies, who attended Woodstock screaming Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out at every chance they had! It's simply NOT true, and is a product of Hollywood false "pop culture". Thanks again David for presenting us with your wealth of films and clips! They're truly enjoyable to watch! PS*... Just FYI in case you're unaware. There's a problem with the audio cutting out about half way through your film. It then comes back on as a close shot of you narrating comes back on screen.

I am 71, went through only military schools, as a dependent. I'm grateful...❤

Blows my young boomer (b.1959) mind why the generations are supposed to resent each other so much

Why did the sound drop out when those tuxedoed middle-aged people were dancing? Looks like that school had a pretty strict dress code. Same with mine here in Florida in those days. I certainly don't miss all the hairspray, curlers, and rollers it took to make a girl's hair do those impossible things!

Hello David, big fan here! In the beginning you mentioned 'clips from the doc' - do you usually post just clips from your films or do you upload the whole thing? If the first one is true, are you open to posting the full versions more often? You're a real one, best wishes

I love watching these types of documentaries. I’m a millennial and my parents are boomers. These kids have a certain sense of certainty about life that the kids I grew up with and myself didn’t have. We were all too aware that nothing is guaranteed

That cop was spot on. Great commentary on your documentary, David! I agree with your final analysis. They weren't comfortable with the country seeing them as they were. Thanks so much!😊🩵

Ah but the "Socies" only inherit the earth within the city limits of Webster Grove!!!😂😂😂 I grew up in a small town like this as a late baby boomer & I couldn't wait to escape.

Look at all that diversity! These “kids” saying they wanted to be financially successful grew up in the BEST time to do it in. Cost of living was insanely low, and you could work making minimum wage and afford a decent home. Compare that to today’s standards. We’re in the late stages of capitalism in my humble opinion, the sheer level of greed, the corporate income tax being as low as it is, and now the “conservative” politics are turning this country into something unrecognizable

I believe Life magazine did a photoessay sometime in the late Forties about Webster Groves teenagers.

Mr. Hofffman you do great work.

Well, anyone who says kids are the same now, and these kids were only hiding the truth, I think is pretty clueless. While 95% didn't believe in premarital or promiscuous sex at 16, todays 12 and 13 yr olds are already addicted to pornography and know more about sexual promiscuity than their parents do. As for their appearance and mannerisms, and their ability to articulate their thoughts, again, what I see in many of today's kids is borderline illiteracy, and a lack of any future goals. I make this comment fully understanding I'm speaking in "general" terms, and today, certainly not all kids fall under the categories I've mentioned, and their ate kids today that excel. I'd just say that the percentage is FAR below what it was in those days. I was also in school at that time and remember! These kids are a fee years older than I am, but nevertheless I still remember.

It would be Nice to see how things turned out for them!

Thank you Sir.

I was born in 1956. I can’t relate to any of this. Everyone I knew in High School had to work for our spending money. Our parents didn’t give us handouts. They couldn’t afford to

It seems that at 9:59 YT copyright filter is muting the video due to the music. It cuts out abruptly there, and picks back up at 10:26.

I googled this docu it was huge at the time & many of the these kids, married each other & stayed in area. They still come together for reunions etc

2:34 - An acronym or something she wants to do?

Pleasure to watch another vid and story from you

I would have parroted the same thing when I was 16 because that was what I was taught to want. I didn’t realize that I was abused, physically and mentally. It took years to learn to think for myself. This “study” is crap

These people in 1966 were creepy and unreal. Teens like these were too much all about keeping up to look better than others (all vanity), exams fraudsters, materialism to show off, classist discriminatory elitism, club life for belonging sense... Funny these things hasn't changed too much to today. Great job, thanks David.

Lol, they didn't like the documentary because they couldn't control it & show Webster Groves to be a little Peyton Place town

As soon as that boy started talking about everyone leaving their 2 level home, with its 2 cars, 2 kid family at the same time every day, and returning home from work at the same time as every other man, I immediately thought of those scenes in Olivia Wilde’s chilling 2022 film, Don’t Worry Darling. I wonder if she saw this documentary.

I've been living in St. Louis (Soulard) for the past 7 years now. My wife was born in St. Louis. I know tons of people from Webster Groves. Seeing this is crazy

Fascinating!

God Bless David Hoffman! I'm in my mid 40's. I went to a private school, but I always wondered where all these formalities came from. It's so icky. I play rock, and punk, and I understand why everybody was so hung up back then.

Its funny how the lingo changes... "necking" I asked my 12 year old if she knew what that was. She didn't know. "retarted" My 12 year old said that noboy uses this bad word anymore. "two timing" She thought this was a dance that old people did in the old days. "The Soviet Union" She said that this is something that old people say. I graduated in '94 by the way.

To be honest, those kids seemed like they had never left the 1950s. Cool video as usual, dear David. 👍🥂

The amount of anxiety these kids had!

The cop could have been talking about the "snowplow parents" we have today. So much is taken care of for the kids that many don't know how to be self-reliant. Amazing how things don't change.

Fascinating

Thanks for a very enlightening film! I especially got a kick out of the woman @17 mins. Thankfully, we've come a long way baby!

Mr Hoffman, there's a company called Celemony who has a product called Capstan which can correct the warped artifacts from these older tapes having aged, at least for their digital re-recording off of the tape/vinyl. may be of interest to look into if you'd like to remove those artifacts from your uploaded versions of these older film.

My mother was born in 47. She often says about her generation "We were so sure of ourselves." And thats all she's willing to say about the subject. I do get that personal responsibility finger wag.Its a little hard to take.

Did not realize the term normie was this old. I'm glad its being recycled and getting new use.

I liked the way they talked at that time.

"So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark-that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."- Hunter S Thompson

good video

I live a little south of Webster, even into the late 90's the educational system acted like this was the norm (talking about the professor at 5:30) I cried every single day in elementary school because I got up at 4 to catch a bus at 5:45 and then rode the bus for 3 hours to school (was usually late to 1st class because busses were late) and then was expected to do the same in reverse in the evening PLUS 6 hours of homework a night. I stopped doing homework. Totally shut down in 5th grade.

Oh wow. My Dad was 16 in 1966. My Mom 13. Definitely their era LOL

Uptight comes to mind ...

They would have preferred a Hollywood version to compliment their egos.

I grew up in a progressively suburbanizing town in Suffolk County NY with a continual flow of city folk buying small homes in the area. I became a teen ager in the mid 60s and became interested and involved with the sub cultural influences that were being promoted on radio stations like WNEW out of NYC. These FM radio stations were like transmitters for all of the locations in the area where “underground” bands were surfacing whose music was greatly influenced by the Timothy Leary LSD doctrine as well as bands like the Greatful Dead, who were huge proponents of the drug culture in general. I was infected with this new “culture” through my older siblings. In retrospect, I have come to believe that if the majority of parents in any given community understood the value of education and were playing a major role in their chlidren’s lives, and was widespread within that community, I believe most young people wouldn’t pay much mind to the alternative cultural influences in those places. All it took for my older siblings to go wrong was to meet and develop friendships with other kids who were already being indoctrinated and experimenting with drugs. It was like a virus at the time that was spread from one person to another through acquaintance. It is my understanding that many baby boomer parents didn’t have a clue on how to intentionally raise their kids, thinking that they would just grow up and become what they were supposed to become in the way that they themselves did. How wrong they were.

Why did you cut the sound in the clip in the middle?

My mother grew up in Australia but she would have been 16 in 1966. I'm trying to see her in my mind as 16.

5:08 16h of class per week? we had up to 40h of classes in the 90s

Love to see how they turned out

17:00 having a life anything like what this women must of had absolutely terrifies me.