GENERATIONS
Talking about our generation ... IN 1968, a year before the Woodstock festival officially announced the dawning of the age of Aquarius, which set the course for dramatic social change, a Queensland “Code for Teenagers and their Parents”, was published. DOT WHITTINGTON shares some of the highlights.
T
he teenagers “coming of age” were the vanguard of the Baby Boomers who dressed as Mods or hippies, listened to rock and roll on transistor radios, embraced love and peace and were tempted to sample the first hallucinogenics. “Radical”, “far out” and “groovy”, they were part of the beginning of the new era
of freedom. Girls could wear mini-skirts and take the contraceptive pill and boys put aside trousers and button-up shirts with collars for jeans and t-shirts. They protested the Vietnam War and most of them smoked cigarettes, if not marijuana as well. They would seek out someone over 21 to buy them a few tallies, or a bottle of
cream sherry or port, which came in a brown paper bag from the hotel bar and never thought twice about drinking it before jumping into a six-cylinder hottedup car. To those born even just a few years earlier, they were outrageous rule breakers with no respect for social mores. And so, in September 1968, a code “specially prepared for Australians” was published presenting “principles and rules for six areas of teenage conduct”. More than 70,000 copies of the 12-page booklet were distributed in Queensland. It details the rules first adopted in St Louis, USA, and “modified in light of discussions among youth groups and youth leaders in Queensland”. Its recommendations were heartily endorsed by then Police Commissioner Frank Bischof, who says in the foreword “the most energetic section of the community is that of our young people who are destined to be the citizens of tomorrow. Youth must be controlled. It is preferable that young people be cajoled and trained by precept and example rather than by being suborned into doing what is right and proper.”
Lady Cilento, who wrote her Medical Mother column for more than 50 years from 1933, helped compile the booklet and says it gives “a basis upon which every teenager and person charged with the responsibility of a teenager can seek a reply to many problems of daily occurrence”. In the 53 years since its publication, the teenagers for whom it was intended have themselves become the parents and grandparents of teenagers. DATING AND GOING STEADY FOR MARRIAGE. “Steady company-keeping is the normal preparation for marriage. By its very nature, steady dating leads to strong physical and psychological attraction, and ever-increasing desires for the complete physical union desirable only in marriage. “It follows, therefore, that steady dating is justified when there is a possibility of marriage in the reasonably near future. “Steady dating can and often does lead to tragic consequences. These are intimacies, premature and immature marriages and heartbreak if the association is terminated by one party. “In view of this, steady dating may not
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www.rangecare.com.au 22 YOUR TIME MAGAZINE / November 2021
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