It's impossible to define the tumultuous 1960s in any one context.
Carol Clark, writing on esciencecommons.blogspot.com, notes "scientists have long known, based on interviews with adults, that most people's earliest memories only go back to about age 3. The term 'childhood amnesia' was coined to describe this loss of memory from the infant years."
That permits those of us born in the late 1950s to say we "remember" the '60s, a decade chock full of change. Below are some of the cultural changes that took place in the 10-year span.
* Thepeoplehistory.com shows that among the top-selling Christmas toys of 1960 were the board game "Life," transistor radios and Daisy BB guns. In 1969, the top sellers were models of the Saturn 5 moon rocket, a portable 8-track tape player and Hot Wheels and Matchbox die cast cars.
* "Ben Hur" starring Charlton Heston won Best Picture for 1960; the musical 'Oliver!' won in 1969.
* "Theme from a Summer Place" by Percy Faith was 1960s top-selling single, with the top album of the year being the soundtrack from "The Sound of Music." In 1969, those number-ones were "Sugar Sugar" by the Archies (best-selling single) and "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Iron Butterfly (best-selling album)
* The highest rated TV show of 1960 was "Gunsmoke;" in 1969, it was "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In."
MORE: Vintage photos around New Jersey
* In 1960, "U.S. Scientists" were named "Persons of the Year" by Time Magazine. Represented by men including Linus Pauling, William Shockley, Edward Teller and James Van Allen, it was only the third instance Time awarded the designation to a group. In 1969, a group -- "The Middle Americans, also known as the Silent Majority" - won the distinction, too.
* On April 1, 1960, the United States launched TIROS 1, the first successful meteorological satellite. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and New Jersey's Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on another celestial body.
It's impossible to define the 1960s in any one context. This gallery simply shows some of the visual images from New Jersey during that decade of rapid and tumultuous change.
Can't get enough? Here's a link to a previous gallery on the 1960s in New Jersey.
Greg Hatala may be reached at ghatala@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregHatala. Find The Star-Ledger on Facebook.