What was life really like in the late 60s?

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i just remember sitting in the back seat of the family's rambler ambassador station wagon and seeing my dad incensed at the sight of some hippies walking on the side of the road in spanaway park, and he rolled down his window and yelled "GET A HAIRCUT YOU GODDAMNED HIPPIES!!" and my mom and sister dropping down in their seats out of sheer embarrassment. i remember hearing a news blurb on the radio circa 1965 or so, about long-haired berkeley students smoking pot, and in my little 4 year old brain pictured long-haired people with pot handles hanging out of their mouths. i remember watching a monochrome image on tv, circa 1965, of petula clark singing her big hit "downtown." i remember the cars and their sauerkraut/lead-smelling un-controlled exhausts, big trucks belching black smoke competing with the ubiquitous smokestack industries downtown in tacoma (hence the term "the aroma of tacoma"), i remember seeing a purple mid-60s corvette parked outside a 7-11 store, the speedo seemed to have a ridiculous 160 miles per hour maximum marking on it. i remember my dad painting his 1953 GMC pickup barney-purple as that was the cheapest automotive paint available to him, and it was quite a sight on the roads even with the bright-colored detroit iron ubiquitous in those days. i remember the tv show "laugh-in" and how people talked about it the next morning in school, that is those people whose parents let them watch it as it was considered risque then. i remember people everywhere smoking cigarettes and the ever-present foul burnt smell all over the place, and nasty ashy ashtrays everywhere.