The

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a decade of revolution

Mary Fletty
Mary lived in Oklahoma and worked as a stay at home mom during
the 1960s. Soon after she began working as a cook in the Eau
Claire school system.

How do you feel about Kennedys decision on the Bay of Pigs?

It was the right decision, definitely. It was a very scary moment in history; so close to disaster. My
husband and the whole military was on alert. Highest alert, bags packed, ready to go.
How old were you and where were you when you heard about
Kennedys assassination?
That was in 1963, so I was 23 years old. I was home at the time with [my
daughter] Heidi; she was seven months old. There was a news flash on
TV that the president had been shot.

Did they say right away that he was dead, or did they just say he was
shot?
No, they said at first the president has been shot, and it was later that they
said he had died.

How did this affect you, his assassination?

The whole nation cried. It was sad; it still is sad to think about it.

My husband
and the whole
military was on
alert. Highest
alert, bags
packed, ready to
go.

What type of music were you listening to at the time?

Back then, Elvis Presley and Pat Boone, definitely a rock and roll era.
The twist, the rocket and the jitterbug were the main dances at that time. It was a fun time. I wish
everybody could go through it.

What were you watching on TV, and did you have a color TV or a black and white?
It was definitely a black and white TV. Color TV didnt come in until 1964, then we had our first color
TV.

Were there certain shows that you watched as a family?

Yes, back in the late fifties, they were all family shows: the Fonz; Happy Days, the Texaco Hour, Milton
Berle Show and Ozzy and Harriet. It was fun. We would have popcorn and watch TV if we could get
them in. Usually the reception was really snowy so we had rabbit ears on our TVs. We would switch
them around this way and that way. We might get it in kind of so we could see it. No, we didnt have
any cable. No clickers. You got up and turned the channel. We had one channel to start out with,
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eventually we got three, but you had to get up and turn it.

What were the big movies at the time?

The big movies at that time were the John Wayne Westerns; a lot of Westerns. When we were younger it
was the cowboy shows. Roy Rogers and those kinds of show. And then it was the Duke, John Wayne,
and Elvis who did a couple of movies in the late sixties.

Was going to the movies a big deal?

Oh yes, that was one of the few things other than making our own fun that we could do, was goi ng to
the movies. My folks used to give us a quarter. We could take the bus one way on a quarter and get into
to a movie and get popcorn with that quarter.

Did you have any big idols in the sixties?

Movie stars or TV stars
Bobby Darin and those people were in the movies. Debbie Reynolds, she was a big star back then and
so was Elizabeth Taylor.

What were some of the sports that were really popular?

Baseball and football. There was no soccer; there wasnt any of those that you have now. It was baseball,
football and tennis.
Did you have any particular sports heroes?
Oh yes, I always liked Bart Starr. Hes my guy. Hank Aaron, he was a big baseball star.

Did you ever see any of these sports stars or meet them?
Hank Aaron got his start in Eau Claire in the minor leagues. We used to go over to Carson Park to watch
the games, it was sure fun. We would sit on the third base side and we were known as the knot hole gang.
Thats where all of us kids went. It was 25 cents admission unless you could climb over the fence with
out being caught. Hank Aaron and all the baseball players would
up after the game and talk to all of us kids. When they were
I thought that come
in town they used to stay with families in Eau Claire or stay at
everybody should be the local YMCA in town.

equal and I still

think that way.

Did you ever have any stay with you?

No, we never had any stay at our house.

What was your stand on civil rights in the sixties?

I thought Martin Luther King was absolutely right. I thought that everybody should be equal and I still
think that way.

Were you a civil rights activist?

No I wasnt.

How did you feel about the activists?

Well, everybody has their own opinion I guess. You dont have to agree with them.
Did you agree with them?

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No, I didnt. I didnt get out and actually participate in any of that.

Did you think it was just too violent, or extreme?

Yes. I thought it did get very very extreme and they went
too far with it.

Were things like the civil rights in the paper and on the
news?
Oh yes, that was all that you would see. It just flooded the
airwaves. It did, everyday, it was a turbulent time in the
country.
So then, you supported Martin Luther king over Malcolm
X and his reasoning with violence?
Yes, no doubt about it. Martin Luther really tried.

I think he really tried

to do a lot of good for
everybody, to get people
to love one another and
respect each other.

Where were you when you found out that Martin Luther
king was assassinated?
I guess I dont remember exactly. I think I was home when a big news bulletin came on TV saying that
he had been shot and killed.

How did this effect you?

I thought it was pretty sad. I think he really tried to do a lot of good for everybody, to get people to love
one another and respect each other.

What were some of the major differences that you saw from the fifties into the sixties?
The major differences was that the fifties were so uncomplicated and easy and fun. We made our own
fun. We didnt have computers; we didnt have Nike shoes. We didnt have color T.V. in the fifties or
cable or any of those things. I can remember my parents taking us to the drive in movies on Tuesday
night. We could get in for a dollar and it was called buck
night. A carload for a buck, we wore our PJs and fell
asleep halfway through. And the next morning we would
wake up and wonder how it ended. The popcorn was still
good. It was five cents at the drive in, but we made our
own. We put it in brown paper bags with lots of butter on
it. Being we were a one-car family, we did lots of walking
or riding bikes. We sure had fun at the ice skating rink in
the winter. It was a mile walk, but a fun walk. We were
pretty cold before we finally got there, but the smell of the
old wood burning stove got stronger as we got closer. We
would dry our mittens, which were now soaked from
throwing snowballs along the way, by the stove. The
attendant would help us tighten our skates and what fun it
was. What fun it was to go tobogganing at Pine Hearst
Hill. The cocoa was sure good; we brought it in our
thermoses. The hill was very steep. It took five minutes
Mary before her Prom
to climb, and thirty seconds to get to the bottom. It was
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also fun roller-skating. We skated in tents in the summer and inside in the winter months. In the later
fifties, early sixties, Elvis Presley and Pat Boone were all the rage. We would go to Furners Ballroom
and dance to local bands on Friday nights. Admission was 25 cents. Rock and roll was terrific. The
jitterbug and the twist were in. I remember Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper coming to Eau Claire. We
danced all night to his music. Peggy Sue was his most recognized song. He was killed in a plane crash
the next day in an Iowa cornfield where all on board died. In 1953 when my mom was the head of the
Democratic Party in Wisconsin, I had the pleasure of having breakfast with John F. Kennedy here in Eau
Claire when I was twelve years old. He was running for congress in the state of Massachusetts. What a
personable man, and what a pleasure it was to meet him. He was watched intensely by the FBI. Life was
getting more complicated in the sixties.The Cuban Missile Crisis was up on us in 1962. The Russians
were secretly moving missiles into Cuba. It was a very scary time. I remember now as a 22 year old,
JFK and Krushchev were at a stand off. Lucky for the US it was resolved. My husband John and I were
married in 1960 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He was on alert in 1962 to take part in the Cuban Crisis if
needed. The whole country was on high alert.
In 1963 our daughter Heidi was born in Laughton, Oklahoma. She was seven months old when John F.
Kennedy was shot and killed by an assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, in Dallas, Texas. It was a sad day in
history. A short time later civil rights leader, Martin Luther King was shot and killed at a motel in
Montgomery, Alabama. A year later, Robert Kennedy, brother of our president was killed while out
campaigning. Crime was at an all time high. Drugs were coming into existence. The Vietnam War was
in full swing. Unemployment was at an all time high. Things were changing fast. In the later
sixties, malls were springing up here and there. Downtown shopping and the Mom and Pop
grocery stores were phasing out. Gas prices were rising.
Crime was at an all Sixty-nine cents for a gallon of gas, in the late fifties you
drive forever on one dollars worth of gas. Hard
time high. Drugs were could
times were up on us. The average labor job paid 90 cents
coming into existence. an hour. What a drastic change from the fifties and what
a challenge. I wish I could go back.

The Vietnam War was in

full swing.
Unemployment was at
an all time high. Things
were changing fast.

You talked a little bit about drugs and crimesyou had

been telling me earlier about how in the fifties you never
felt the need to lock your doors at nightwas all this
becoming a scary thing?
Yes, there was the hippie movement around HaightAshbury out in California. They were known as the
flower children, it kind of got started from that and just
escalated onto different cities throughout America.

About the Vietnam War, a lot of Americans were confused as to why we were there. How did you feel
about it?
Well, I figured at the time they knew best. But it went on for years and years and it killed a lot of
Americans, a lot of military. I thought they should go after them full force or get out. And we did get out
and there was no resolve to it in the end anyhow. Im afraid we have another one with Iraq; its going
the same way.
Did you feel that Vietnam was a lost cause?
Yes, I do. Nothing was gained, theyre still split and it didnt resolve anything as far as Im concerned.

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How did you feel about seeing on television all the visuals of what was going on?
It was very sad to see all the killing on both sides. The little children and how they were maimed and
tortured. It was very sad.

How about the start of the space race, do you remember that?
Yes, I do. I remember seeing the first man walk on the moon. I saw John Glenn on his first orbit around
the earth.

Was that a really exciting time?

Yes, it was. I wish John Kennedy could have seen it, because that was his dream. He said it was going
to happen and it wasnt too long after he died that it happened. We were glued to the TV on that day. It
was very exciting. I remember the landing with John Glenn and they plucked him from the water. They
scrubbed him down and all that.

How about the British invasion with the Beatles?

I liked the Beatles singing. I still like them.

What about the fashion, what are some of the changes that
you noticed from the fifties to the sixties and then from the
sixties to today?
Well we made most of our own clothes back in the fifties,
almost always. When we were in high school, the girls had
to take sewing class and cooking. We all knew how to sew,
and it was a necessity because our folks didnt have a lot of
money. We never had name brand shoes like you. They
came into being in the sixties and seventies. We never had
Nike, we had Keds. They were 89 cents for a pair of tennis
shoes. The boys wore the high tops, the girls wore the low.
They were white. Then of course you get to the seventies
youre in the computer age.

Everybody basically
followed the lead of
someone. If somebody
had a ponytail
everybody wore a
ponytail, everybody
wore the same thing.

In the sixties, you just had one family car?

Thats all we could afford. We did a lot of walking and
biking and we took the bus a lot. Otherwise we just waited
until Pop got home and then I would go do what I had to do with the car. I was a stay at home mom until
the early seventies. Then I worked part time.

How did you feel about Richard Nixons first time as president? Did you do any comparing with him
to John F. Kennedy or any former presidents?
I didnt like him. I didnt compare him though, because I thought John Kennedy was in a class of his
own. I still think he was the greatest president we ever had for the short time he was president. I am a
Democrat so maybe youre not asking the right person this question. I guess he did do some good, but I
think someone else could have done better. But thats who the country chose so thats who we had.

How about the clean air act and the clean water act, was that in the sixties really publicized or was
that not talked about?
Oh, that was talked about a lot.
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When did you say you started working?

In high school, I worked as a carhop at a root beer stand. They were very popular. We worked all day.
If we worked all day we could make up to a dollar and a half in tips and we made 40 cents an hour in
wages. What we would do, is people would drive in with all these little kids, or a family. We would take
their orders and we would have a tray with the root beer on it and we would take the tray and put it on
the window on the drivers side window and it was so nice and cold and so good. That was what us
carhops did. It was a nickel for a large mug of root beer. Then we had pizza parlors in Eau Claire. Our
first one came into existence in 1958, it was called Sammys Pizza and that was a popular hangout after
school events and its still in downtown Eau Claire today.

How do you feel about school and high school back then?
We loved school. We really did. We didnt have the same things, the same opportunities that you kids
have today. We took cooking and sewing and the boys took shop and electricity. We didnt have
typewriters or computers. We didnt have girls basketball or anything like that. We did have a swim
team. No one drove a car to school so we either walked or took the bus.

Did you have a certain dress code for school?

No, but it wasnt like today either where you wear what you like. Everybody basically followed the lead
of someone. If somebody had a ponytail everybody wore a ponytail, for hairdos. The hoops were
popular. They were these skirts that had these great big hoops up underneath them. Everybody wore
them. If you didnt wear a hoop skirt, you didnt come to school. We all wore the same thing.
Going back to the job that you had during high school,did you save the money you made? What did
you do with it?
No, I would buy things like you do now. We would go downtown and buy shoes or an article of clothing.
It gave us lots of quarters to go to dances and things like that. Thats what we did with our money.

Is there anything else that you would like to talk about?

I wish that everybody could go through the sixties. Like I said, it was uncomplicated and we made our
own fun. We did have fun.

Now retired, she enjoys spending

time with her friends and family. She has
two children, Heidi and Pete, and three
grandchildren; Emma, Joe and Nathan.

Fletty, Mary

2007 D.C. Everest Area Schools Publications