Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
The Question of Time: What Was Life Like in 1963?
Marge_Innavera:
--- Quote from: Kd5000 on February 14, 2007, 02:03:43 pm ---I always think of the early 1960's as being a continuation of the 1950's. JFK's assassination put an end to that time period and the 1960's really began in earnest. However, even in 1963, I gather there were rumblings of upcoming social upheaval as integration was front and center. 1963 is before my time and I'm glad I wasn't around for "Camelot" so to speak.
--- End quote ---
IMO, much of the 1950s carried over into the early 1960s but it was a transitional era. The big issue at that point, and had been since the late 1950s, was racial integration and getting rid of Jim Crow laws. If you can find some of the pro-segregationist rhetoric of that time, it's remarkably similar to anti-gay arguments today. The attitudes toward interracial marriage - referred to at that time as "miscegenation" - are very close to identical, right down to the "I'm not bigoted but it would be bad for the children" schtick.
lachlan:
I was 15 in 1963 and got my first job then; working on a sheep ranch in the Cascade Mountains (Packwood WA). Just looking after ewes while the lambs had their tails docked. But an over-riding theme for a young man in the 60's was the Draft. It was a major issue for me and for my own clandestine lover; we had a hell of a struggle to keep the Draft board at bay and anytime a policeman saw a lad of our age, he'd check our draft-cards and harrass me for my "1-Y" status. In BBM, in 1963 Jack says, "...if the Army don't get me." and in 1967 Ennis says, "Army didn't get you?" But what about Ennis' status? Was he somehow exempt?
Penthesilea:
--- Quote from: lachlan on February 19, 2007, 06:53:12 am ---In BBM, in 1963 Jack says, "...if the Army don't get me." and in 1967 Ennis says, "Army didn't get you?" But what about Ennis' status? Was he somehow exempt?
--- End quote ---
Ennis was already engaged to Alma in summer 1963, married a few months later and Junior was on the way shortly after the wedding. In my country married men, let alone family fathers were not drafted. I read somewhere that it was the same in the US back in the sixties.
If this was an additional reason for Ennis to get married? To avoid getting drafted?
Brokeback_Dev:
--- Quote from: Penthesilea on February 19, 2007, 07:38:28 am ---Ennis was already engaged to Alma in summer 1963, married a few months later and Junior was on the way shortly after the wedding. In my country married men, let alone family fathers were not drafted. I read somewhere that it was the same in the US back in the sixties.
If this was an additional reason for Ennis to get married? To avoid getting drafted?
--- End quote ---
I was born in '61 and remember the Vietnam War through my grammer and middle school years, and I never heard that a young man could avoid the draft if he got married.
I think if that was the case, there wouldn't have been draft dodgers running off to Canada and what not. American boys would just get married.. No, that would be too easy a way to avoid the draft.
It is a good question though. Why didn't Ennis think about being drafted himself? I have wondered about that too.
lachlan:
I knew quite a few married boys who got drafted, although I think the rules changed from year to year, becoming increasingly harder to avoid as the need for more soldiers grew.
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