The 60s revolution of sex, drugs and video didn't help families either. Women lost their morals and men lost their respect and honor of these new age women. Not all of course but many of the younger generation did. I got married in 1967 right at the height of it and while I was having babies he was having fun with this new culture. Chuck Wagon was serving up more than stale sandwiches, he knocked up one of them then a couple more hippie 'chic's', like a fox in the hen house. I took my 3 and left. Times did change but not so sure it was for the better.
Beth there are bad men and bad women. And naive teenagers who think they are in love. Most women want marriage and men not so much but some will honor their vows but many don't. You were lucky because most of my girlfriends married in the 60s early 70s got divorced.
Well, after 21 years of being divorced/single, in early 2000, I placed a Personal Ad in a local magazine and my wife answered it. I specifically stated my true age, looks (as in no tattoos/piercings) among other things. We end up meeting at a Denny's Restaurant down the street from where I was renting a room. We both had cowboy hats on and fully dressed in western attire. We truly impressed each other by how we dressed and she was very impressed over my knowledge of rodeo. But, when I met her, my rodeo days were over. She loved it that I liked to cook and had no problem doing any kind of housework. Her ex-husband didn't like her wearing a baseball cap, but I loved it. He wanted more of a Hollywood look with her. She was extremely glad that I didn't smoke, had no problem going to church with her, drank very little and did tell me, "even though you did state in your ad what you looked like, I'm very glad you didn't have any tattoos/piercings. I wouldn't have had anything to do with you, because I don't like that look." IOW, I was extremely glad that I didn't get the two tattoos that I had thought about getting before I met her! We met in early 2000 and married the next year the same month/day we met. IOW, I knew what I was looking for/wanted and got exactly that! We both call "us" a "match made in Heaven".
It odd how things go. I remember when I was dating, I placed an ad in the Washingtonian classifieds. I got contacted by a woman and we arranged a phone call. She said she was in her dentist’s office, reading the magazine and saw my ad in the classified/personals section. She said she wanted to call, because she felt like she could have written the same ad. So, I said we should meet and told her what town I lived in. She said that should be convenient because she lives there too. I said good, do you know this subdivision, I live in the row of townhouses by the lake. There was a very long pause. She said what is your street address? I told her 20245 xxxxxx. She said “I’m 20145”. She literally lived several houses down from me. So, we met, even had the same model townhouse. She had a ‘69 Mustang, I had my ‘68 Barracuda at the time. We both had pinball machines. Just weird. We were hot and heavy for a while, about 1 1/2 year but it became apparent we weren’t going to work out. She was very high strung and I simply wasn’t able to predict what was going to set her off. Too bad though, she was a good one, just not the right one for me.
I know exactly what you are talking about here. Before I met my wife, I had placed a couple of other Personal Ads, within those 21 year, but nothing worked out. Thing is, just because someone places a Personal Ad, definitely doesn't mean that the person will meet "Mr." or "Mrs." Right. But, I figured, from previous experience, it was much, much better than meeting a woman in a nightclub. However, there are couples that do meet in nightclubs that stay married until "death do us part", but just wasn't for me. IOW, before meeting my wife, I was simply accepting too many things about women that I'd met, that I shouldn't have.
My rather stupid choices leaned toward the rugged, tough-guy with the soft heart I saw in movies. I often wonder how my choices would have been made if there was never a TV in my life, or movie theatre. And also, those stupid fairytales. I know it's an old, over-used statement but it's appropriate still, "if I only knew then, what I know now". Maybe I wouldn't be alone as I am now. I've become so independent I don't want to even take the chance of dating someone.
Sometimes I console myself by saying "maybe I dodged a bullet", but I still occasionally have those types of moments.
accepting things just to have someone, this reminds me of that. I can look back and laugh at the reasons I was with the men I did have in my life. Today I know what I can accept, and what I can't. I've learned I can be without a mate, but I mourn the loss of something I've never had, a mate that really was my best friend.
This was the times when God was slowly being edged out of America. I was in the heat of it too Marie, I thought nothing of shacking up before marriage and my reasoning was "everyone else was doing it". Made sense to me since I hadn't been introduced to good morals, even though I had "some" I won't go into. I couldn't tell you where I got the good ones, but somehow I picked up a few, thank God because I could have ended up a lot worse off in my life.
I think being in 'Rome doing as the Romans do' so to speak, we all ended up doing things our parents thought bad of.
mine were more about do as we say, not as we do. I wanted to do what they were doing, it looked like so much fun. I didn't pay attention to the fact I was ashamed for my friends to come to my house.
Yes, I understand how you feel. If I knew then what I know now, may be an over-used statement, but I can't help feeling that way. If I had my life to do over, I'd change many things. For one thing, I'd be much more concerned about the feelings of others. Life would be so much better if more people shared the feelings they had. That, however, requires a great deal of introspection which many lack until later in life.