Personal Interview (Key Period 8)

Name: Dirk Golding

Age: 57

Relation to Interviewer: Neighbor

Q1: What was American society like while you were growing up?
A: Well having grown up around the Northern California region as a kid you could imagine that I
was surrounded by a lot of liberalism. I often times overheard my father chatting with the other
neighborhood parents about politics at that time which I never really cared for. What I can really
say is that my parents disliked the progression of the war at the time and sought to enforce liberal
ideas to both me and my siblings.
Q2: What can you say about the experiences youve had with the Counterculture
movement?
A: Barely reaching my teenage years, I guess the one thing I can truly recall as a kid is the casual
presence of recreational drug use. I vaguely remember both my parents occasionally smoking
weed in front of me and my brother, and often times enjoyed smoking with their neighborhood
friends. In my family, the use of drugs was really just a way to relieve my parents from work
stress.
Q3: What was your favorite type of music? Why?
A: I remember that my favorite musical artists were definitely the Beatles. Not only did I have
almost every album but I also decorated my walls with a ton of their posters and merchandise. I
guess the main reason why I enjoyed them so much was that their music was so unique and
adaptable in a sense that I could listen to them all day no matter how I was feeling.
Q4: What were some societal issues that you noticed during your youth?
A: As probably most of you history students know, growing up in the 1960s my generation saw a
vast amount of radical societal changes and movements. Some that I recall in particular was the
Civil Rights and Gay Liberation Movements. I vaguely recall watching the March on
Washington on the news seeing as I was about 5 years old at the time, all I know is that my very
liberal oriented family supported people of all backgrounds no matter what race or sexual
orientation. Again growing up in NorCal I especially had the pleasure of witnessing the
progression of the Gay Liberation Movement as the not so far city of San Francisco became a
growing hub of homosexuals around my youth.
Q5: In one word, how would you best describe American society during your adolescent
years?
A: I guess the best term to describe the American society that I experienced is unstable. As a kid
I never really knew what else to expect as society continued, meaning that all of the previously
established norms and ways of life were changing. The war made everyone anxious, civil rights
was practically changing for everyone, at least it seemed that way. Really what Im saying is that
there was hardly a sense of security of what society would be in the next five years.