Flip side of the 60s

Baby boomer: American-English term to describe a person born between 1946 and 1964, coined after World War II when increased prosperity accounted for a significant increase in birth rates in these two nations.

Mention the Swinging Sixties to anyone who was a teenager during that era, especially in California or London and you'll invoke a wistful smile as your subject conjures up images of long haired hippies in flowing clothes and flowers in their hair, beautiful girls sporting ultra-long eyelashes and pale pink lipstick, mini skirts, high boots, hot pants, plastic raincoats, drainpipe trousers and Mr Fish fitted shirts with matching ties

In America, the 60s was not so much 'swinging' as 'social'. It ushered in a new era of sexual liberation for the youth, who demanded more freedom and rights for women, gays and minorities.

It provoked a youthful pacifist rebellion against the US's doomed involvement in the Vietnam War where students held sit-ins at universities and outside official buildings and burned draft cards, handing out flowers to bemused onlookers and sticking carnations in police rifle barrels.

This 'anti-establishment' movement spread across the world like wildfire as youngsters styled themselves Hippies or Flower Children and started composing anti-war lyrics and music.

The boys discarded stiff shirts and short-back-and-side haircuts grew beards and droopy moustaches and the girls threw away staid skirts in favour of floaty clothes and both wore flowers in their long hair.

Thousands of teenagers left home in the US to join this caravan of youth, ostensibly to spread the utopian message of peace but in reality to abandon text books for guitars and indulge in smoking pot (marijuana and LSD), chilling out and doing little but singing, dancing and making love to psychedelic music.

The movement swiftly spread to London, Amsterdam and Paris where 'enlightened' youngsters created their own rules, fashion and music.

Scott McKenzie's lyrics 'If you go to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair' became the Hippy anthem accompanied by 'cool' greetings such as 'Hey, Peace Man.'

In London, the movement became the Swinging Sixties; a fashion and musical revolution inspired by The Beatles, Rolling Stones and other young talents whose collective genius swiftly surpassed Elvis, Ricky Nelson, Buddy Holly and the Everley Brothers as being THE new Sixties Sound.

Fashionistas created a quixotic new style led by designers such as Mary Quant who shocked the conservative English and created a worldwide fashion frenzy by introducing the mini skirt, named after her favourite car. The mini and 'A-line' dresses provided a perfect vehicle for designers and artists to create colourful psychedelic and dramatic black and white Op and Pop-art patterns.

The epitome of London's fashion revolution was a stick thin 15-year-old girl from East London named Lesley Hornby aka Twiggy, who became the world's first supermodel. But as times changed, so did ideals and the Californian flower children who tried to spread their message of peace evolved into rioting students who rebelled against the traditional values of their respective governments, sparked by the 1969 student riots of Paris.

A perennial expatriate, Maeve Skinner was born and grew up in the Far East and after a stint in London, arrived in Bahrain 32 years ago as PA secretary to the late Ahmed Ali Kanoo. She met her future husband John, the group company lawyer, on her first day and they have lived in Bahrain ever since

IN the late 60s, I lived in London's Pont Street, between Harrods and the King's Road.

On Saturdays, my flatmate and I would head for the King's Road, dressed to the nines wearing the regulatory pale make-up, pink lipstick, false eyelashes, mini skirt, high shiny boots, perhaps a homburg or beret and if it was cold, a long black coat which emphasised the mini. We were daft!

The tubular chrome Chelsea Drugstore was a magnet attracting all the beautiful people to its three floors of weird and wonderful fashions, snazzy cafes and the basement music store where latest hits of the Rolling Stones, BeeGees, Beach Boys and Walker Brothers were blasted out.

We would stroll up and down the street, spotting such stars as Lulu, Mick Jagger, Terence Stamp, Jean Shrimpton, none of whom appeared concerned about security or being mobbed by rampant fans.

Although we were two convent-educated Irish Catholics, we revelled in our independence and enjoyed the music, fashion, fun parties and overall excitement of that unique era, yet we didn't smoke, drink nor do drugs, were never taken advantage of because girls were treated with respect and 'No' meant 'No'!

I toured Europe with two girlfriends in 1969 in a Hillman Imp, when British government monetary restrictions permitted only £200 to be taken out of England by each car. (IMAGINE!).

We boarded a ferry from Dover to Calais with £200 and hid a £5 note in the bottom of a shoe! This was to last for three months travelling from England to Greece and back. We returned with the spare £5!

We raised the money ourselves - no handouts from our parents as opposed to many 80s-born children who don't give a thought to the depth of their parent's pockets.

Whereas 60s born children of 'Baby Boomers' were much more independent, such as my stepson Andrew, born in 1966 when his father was only 23, who paid his own way travelling around the world and has ended up owning a very successful company in Hong Kong.

On our return via Paris we were caught up in the student riots and witnessed President De Gaulle's cavalcade through the streets to calm the protesters.

In California, Sharon Tate, the American actress wife of Roman Polanski had been brutally murdered by Charles Manson as the anti-establishment violence surged. Peaceful sit-ins were on the wane. Youth was angry and wanted to overturn the orderly structure of governments in Europe and the US. The idealistic peaceful protests of the late 50s and the sexual revolution of the 60s, degenerated into the worldwide drug culture that exists today and has led to a 'Me First' or 'It's Not My Fault' syndrome where people don't seem to take responsibility for their own actions - not even the government.

Obesity, drink and drug fuelled violence and a deteriorating sense of self worth and appreciation of the brave and the elderly seem today to dominate society in England and elsewhere. The internet may have connected us all into one unit, yet our world seems more linked by violence than by peace.