The swinging '60s in Sheffield - the good, bad and ugly

[John Heeley]

I was 9 years old in 1960 and left Sheffield for university in October 1969. Those intervening 9 years in the so-called 'swinging sixties' are full of good and bad memories; the former include the Hole in the Road (yes, liked it at the time), long-hair, under-age drinking, short skirts, fish and chips, Sheffield Wednesday, the '66 World Cup, and seeing Hendrix live at the City Hall; the latter range from military bands playing at Hillsborough, dentist drills and school dinners, through to being charged for under-age drinking at the Golden Ball, and to the blandness of the food generally and the drabness of the urban environment - Xmas illuminations excepted. I suppose the ugly was learning how many of the otherwise decent folk who formed the older-generation against whom we rebelled in the 'sixties could be so narrow-minded and parochial; I discovered in myself and others a pervasive ignorance and mistrust of foreigners and cultures - Dad referred to chinese and indian food as 'foreign muck'. Indeed my best memories of these years are tiny acts of rebellion against 'authority' - refusing to read the bible when it was my turn at school assembly, pushing away a school teacher who tried to put a ribbon in my hair (he considered it too long), and remaining seated in the Playhouse while the national anthem played. I even persuaded my parents that capital punishment was unacceptable - that two wrongs don't make a right.

 

What is your good, bad and ugly from these momentous years?