May 2, 2017
We practically live in a totally new world, according to grunge.com, since iPhones came along ten years ago, so you can imagine that the '60s had some pretty different ideas of what good living was like. People supported some pretty surprising things before the summer of love.
Ice-pick lobotomies were a great medical option
Psychiatrist Walter Freeman thought he came across a life-changing medical procedure when he did his first "ice-pick" lobotomy in 1946. "Ice-pick" wasn't just some cute name for the lobotomy. He used a metal rod just like an ice pick and jammed it through your eye socket into your brain—while you were still awake. Freeman figured that depression or mood problems were caused by too much emotion, so he wanted to cut the emotional connection in the brain … literally. People did tend to be much calmer or changed after the procedure, though some were left paralyzed or mentally disabled.
Freeman crossed the country, performing lobotomies publicly like a traveling freak show, sometimes doing two people at a time, an ice pick in each hand. The treatment caught on because there were so few resources available for the mentally ill at the time. Hearing of this new way to calm unruly people, Howard Dully's step mother brought him in to see Dr. Freeman. The step mother claimed the child had a variety of mood and behavior problems, but in truth, Dully was just an average kid. The step mother hated him and wanted to do anything to make the child as sedate as possible. So Freeman agreed to perform the lobotomy. Dully was only 12 years old, and they didn't bother to tell the father that his son would be getting the ice pick special.
But operating on a 12-year-old without full parental consent wasn't what brought Freeman down. In 1967, he performed a lobotomy on a housewife who later died of a brain hemorrhage. Finally, people figured out that shoving a knife in your brain may not be an advanced medical technique.
Some doctors thought smoking cigarettes was the best way to relieve pregnancy constipation
Pregnancy can often cause bad constipation. Nowadays, you have to eat healthy or possibly take a fiber supplement to relieve the discomfort, but 50 years ago, doctors had a very different solution: cigarettes. Doctors routinely advised pregnant women to smoke cigarettes to thwart constipation. Alan F Guttmacher, vice president of Planned Parenthood and women's issues "expert," wrote this very advice in his book Pregnancy and Birth. He also said, "There is no logical reason to prohibit the moderate use of alcohol during pregnancy to the patient who enjoys and tolerates it." So, drink up, Mom!
The biggest thing Guttmacher needed moms to avoid was weight gain. He suggested they only gain 20 pounds total, and if they were starting to get heavy, they should "try skipping lunch and substitute skimmed milk with a few unsalted crackers." You've got to keep that hot pregnant bod and birth a svelte little baby, which is another reason to keep up your smoking habits before your baby bump gets out of control.
Feeding a baby at night "sowed the seeds of socialism"
After feeding your baby cigarettes and booze in utero, what should you give your child after birth to make them a good, healthy American? Dr. Walter W. Sackett Jr. had some very clear ideas of how to care for a child so they wouldn't grow up a communist. It was vital for parents to give their children a strict schedule, even as newborns. He felt that breastmilk or formula weren't enough, so babies should start eating cereal at two days old. By 10 days old, they could have strained vegetables, and at the ripe old age of nine weeks, a baby should chow down on bacon and eggs or whatever else the family would normally eat. Sackett wasn't completely crazy—he did recommend waiting until a baby was six months old before you give them black coffee. But you definitely have to give them coffee so that they properly adjust to "the normal eating habits of the family."
Keeping the baby on the family's regular schedule applied to all aspects of parenting. Does your baby cry at night? Don't think about coddling it. Sackett insisted that a baby can't learn that it'll get everything it wants in an instant. He equated soothing a crying baby to "sowing the seeds of socialism." That one extra lullaby in the middle of the night could turn your kid into a commie nightmare.
Future travel would be falling through "mole-hole tunnels"
Futurists of the 1960s weren't the best at predicting the world of the year 2000 and beyond. They set up expectations for flying cars that we still haven't fulfilled, and there's almost never anyone walking around in a tin foil silver jumpsuit that promised to be the fashion of the future. But one prediction was especially strange. A scientist from Sylvania Electronic Systems didn't imagine flying automobiles or teleportation would be the transportation of today. He had his money on "mole-hole tunnels."
The scientist didn't imagine we'd be living in a dystopian underground society but thought the 2000s would bring a friction-free system of travel. By sort of falling through a system of tubes, you'd get between any two cities in under 42 minutes. Perhaps he was just predicting the travel patterns of video game plumbers.
TV corporations had no interest in video games
In 1967, the "Brown Box" was invented by Ralph Baer. No, the past didn't go that long without cardboard box technology—Baer's invention was the very first video game system.
He worked for a TV company and tried to sell them on the idea of including a video game system with their televisions. One boss said, "Are you still screwing around with that stuff?" Video games seemed pretty stupid to most of the executives, though he got a little money to produce a prototype.
Once the box was made, it was sold to Magnavox and marketed as Odyssey. Unfortunately, by the time their system debuted, Atari's Pong stole all their glory. But Magnavox sued Atari, and they settled for $1.5 million by licensing Odyssey. Though the Brown Box or Odyssey may not be well remembered today, it was the birth of the incredibly huge video gaming industry.
It was normal to have a monkey for a pet
Dear Abby, the most trusted advice columnist of the time, got a concerned letter from a ten-year-old in 1961. The girl really wanted a pet monkey, but her father said, "No way." You'd think Abby's response would be, "Hell no, you can't have a monkey. Are you crazy? Why would you want a monkey in the house?" Instead, she said:
"I have had two pet monkeys (Beth and Bathsheba) and, although I love monkeys, your father is right. To quote my son (he was four at the time), 'Monkeys should live with monkeys and people should live with people.'"
It's clear that Abby's son was not a fan of two monkeys roaming around the house. Though this letter certainly doesn't insinuate that a pet monkey was as common as a dog in the '60s, it also wasn't completely out of the question. Looks like Justin Bieber was just born in the wrong time for their love of pet primates.
Single women were advised to pick up men at A.A.
Sex and the Single Girl became a go-to textbook for dating when it hit the shelves in 1962. Though it was nice to see women allowed to be a little more open with their sexuality, not all of Helen Gurley Brown's advice would hold up today.
In 1962, it wasn't easy to find a good and/or rich man. In the book, Gurley recalls a way a friend found herself a husband. She didn't meet him at a bar but cruised a local AA meeting to find a beau. "She was about 43, had no drinking problem of her own, but since outsiders are permitted to attend AA Meetings … she wandered into the Beverley Hills chapter of the meeting, sat next to a famous writer, and bagged him within the year."
So, all a girl needs to do is prey on a rich man during a time of struggle and need, and you'll have yourself a rich husband in no time. Certainly all the women who took this advice ended up with stellar mates.
Wives should provide an orderly home and only talk in low, soothing tones
If you've ever watched Mad Men, you know that the expectations of a wife have changed greatly over the years. But some of the ways women were supposed to keep a home for their husbands are still a little surprising. Housekeeping Monthly published a "Good House Wife's Guide" in 1955 to let women know the best way to keep the men in their life happy.
Outside of making sure dinner's on the table when he gets home and keeping the house neat and clean, a woman was expected to create a calming haven to give her man respite from his weary world. The home should remain peaceful, and that meant no noise from kids. The guide suggests, "Children are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part. Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer, or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet."
The guide has another gem for how the conversation should go after a husband's long day at work. "You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first—remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours." So, make the kids pretend they're angels and stifle yourself and your stupid, womanly thoughts. Who knew that men required such silence in a '50s and '60s home?
Good speech was an important womanly virtue
Housewives weren't the only ones seeking advice on how to please men. Teenagers needed their dating tips, too. Seventeen Magazine gave out beauty advice and told girls how to dress, but looks weren't the only important thing. How you speak was just as important.
'How pretty do you sound?" the magazine asked. "You can't expect to charm a royal ball or end up with Rex Harrison with sloppy speech habits." Every teen dreamed of having a beau like the always old-looking and temperamental Rex Harrison. Also, we didn't realize royal balls were so commonplace for '60s teenagers.
But how can you get yourself to sound pretty? Seventeen had you covered. "Hold a matchstick in your teeth the next time you phone your best friend. Can she tell it's there? If so, you need practice." What does the matchstick accomplish? Most any human would sound weird if you talked with a matchstick in your mouth, so it's hard to imagine why that was desirable. Unless high-level ventriloquism skills were considered the height of beauty at the time.
Laser erasers were going to be the next big advancement in technology
Laser technology was just developing 50 years ago, and a lot of what they predicted came true. Lasers are now commonly used for eye surgery and tattoo removal, as the 1967 documentary The Laser: A Light Fantastic predicted. But they got one thing very wrong. Inventors assumed that they'd need something to tackle the major problem of typewriter typos. They figured lasers were the answer.
The film shows off the "laser eraser." Looking like a ray gun from a '50s sci-fi film, a man demonstrates the ease with which lasers can take care of troublesome typos. You only have to take out the paper from the typewriter, get out your huge laser gun, fire it exactly at the letter you want to get rid of, delete one letter at a time, line the paper up precisely to where you need to correct the original typo, and voila! It's like you never typed an extra "e," and it only took 15–20 minutes!
Image: Mid-century husband & wife - clipartpanda
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