Rural Youth Culture of the 1950s & 1960s

Narrators were aware of their family's political ideology and noted that it often aligned with beliefs surrounding religion or farm economics. Various historic events mentioned include: WWII, the JFK assassination, Vietnam, civil rights, and Watergate. Linda also reflected upon involvement and campaigning in local elections.

Thomas Harren

Seth: "Okay. Were you aware—I mean, in your college days, that was kind of the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. And you certainly were hearing about some of the protests that were going on, the Freedom Riders in the South. You must have heard about that, read about that, but how was that handled on campus? Was that an issue at all that people talked about?"

Thomas: "People were beginning to. I think I would describe that it started in 1962. It started here. And we used to have classes where the faculty talked about the apathy, student apathy in colleges. And a good number of the faculty wanted the kids to be more active. And so we studied and wrote and read all about, you know, being more active, activists. By 1967 when I left, I think many were saying, 'Well, I don't know if we wanted them to be quite that active.'"

Tom discusses the Vietnam War and concerns about being drafted.

Linda Krogsrud

Linda: "I know one year when it was probably in '60—no, I'm trying to think of what were the—maybe it was '64 because it was an election year. And one of my friends in town was a lawyer's daughter and she was campaigning for our senator. So she had me come into town and we went door-to-door campaigning for Senator Benson. And that was interesting to do. We did do trick-or-treat for UNICEF when we were in high school. And that was fun, you know, that was interesting."

Linda: "I guess since we lived up here, not by the big cities and stuff, we felt more out of it until—well, during Vietnam, then as soon as classmates and all the year before us, and the year after, you know, as soon as they graduated, they're heading out to war. Those poor boys. And then the way they were treated when they came back, I think that's one of the worst things that our country has ever done, because they didn't want to go over there. They were doing what their country asked and stuff, and they were just treated so horribly."

Carla Riley

Carla: "I don't remember particular politicians, to be honest with you, not locally. But I certainly do remember on the national scale, John F. Kennedy was the first Catholic president. And my father was so excited about that that they actually had a picture of John and Jackie Kennedy in our home like they were family. They were in a big frame picture at the end of the hall. So I certainly remember, I was probably 10, 11 years old something like that, when the Kennedys were coming into their time and it made quite an impression on me, too, I guess."

Annegine Vipond

Jodi: "Do you think it [losing acquaintances in Vietnam] shaped your idea of service?"

Annegine: "Yes. I mean, we are big into supporting the legions and the—I'm an auxiliary member. You really take your Memorial Day to heart and your Veterans Day to heart knowing what those people had sacrificed for the world, for the country."

Vern Brown

"I was aware of it partly because my maternal grandparents were really strong republicans, almost blind republicans I thought at that time. I guess somebody might be listening to this will know which grandpa I'm talking about, but my maternal grandparents were real strict Christian people. But my grandpa said something once that I never have forgotten when I went and told him that JFK had been shot, he said something, like, good. And I thought, come on, grandpa, that isn't something for a Christian to say. Even though you disagree politically, that doesn't give you license to talk the other way. But anyway, whatever that's worth."

"I think World War II changed my attitude on life somewhat, losing some people, not my family, immediate family, but—so maybe people need to—younger people need to understand that wars are awful and wars happen, and some real wars I'm talking about, be thankful we don't have one."

LeAnn Dean

LeAnn discusses Dwight Eisenhower's re-election and Adlai Stevenson, Civil Rights, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War.

Dawn Benson

"My parents, as far as I knew at that time, were republicans. My dad went belonged to the Farm Bureau, which is more Republican farm group. And it's too bad because I feel really badly that we weren't real supportive of Hubert Humphrey at the time. But Vietnam and Watergate really changed how we viewed things. Vietnam just because it just was so hard to end and just caused so much sadness. And I don't know if you can blame one political party more than the other for that, but I think it just made us more aware. And then Watergate, which was Richard Nixon, I was just starting college about that time, and I just felt like, no, this isn't right, and then really from my first voting, voted democrat. And my dad died when I was in college, and my brother and I have talked about it since because my mom seemed democrat after that too. And I said something to my brother once and he said, I never know what mom maybe really voted for in the voting booth. Because she grew up in a democratic family, so who knows just how she voted all."

Carol Swenson

Seth: "You mentioned a little bit about the Vietnam War, besides the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement. And were you kind of a—and women, the Women's Rights Movement, were you swept up or excited by current events and things and motivated or inspired to make the world a better place and so forth?"

Carol: "Oh, I think very much so. And growing up, you have moments that really crystallize, I think. And we all remember where we were when President Kennedy was shot, and sixth grade, and we were—had came back from lunch and Mrs. McConville told us what had happened, and we all said the Lord's Prayer. And watching the funeral, and then also on television, that kind of thing. And then when Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed and Bobby Kennedy. And I very much remember being at the kitchen table when the Newsweek Magazine arrived with the photograph of the class, the memorable photograph of the woman at Kent State kneeling over her friend and just being totally, what is going on and what is the world coming to when you see young people being shot by the National Guard.

Seth: "Yeah. That would've happened at Kent State, that was spring of 1970, am I remembering that right?"

Carol: "Yeah. And then, there also was the National Farmers Organization. And I think they were pretty active right at that time. And there was a lot of concern, people were losing their farms, neighbors were losing their farms and paying attention to all of that, and who were the Farmers Union and the—what was the other—Farm Bureau. And the politics of the time."

Seth: "Where were your parents landing on all that?"

Carol: "Well, my dad was not really a joiner, and he had his opinions, but that just wasn't his thing. And I think we were on the more liberal side of things. And certainly, yeah, we didn't go to any of the rallies or anything like that."