I truly enjoy reading all of the posts, yet there are some references made that are completely over my head. I was born in 1961 and while I can reminisce growing up in the 60's I am at a loss at times with some referrals in the posts.  I am curious as to what everyone's age is.

I was born in 1957. I may have been young, but I remember those days very well. During the missile crisis, I remember the fear in my parent’s eyes, and how we would have to practice for an emergency in school. I had to help my parents stock the basement and how I did not understand what was going on. As far as adultery, that was going on everywhere. It was not a question of who was cheating on their spouse, but who wasn’t. My memories of the affairs within our community were far more graphic than anything I have seen on Madmen.

1984

1953--close to the age of the Sally character.

1966

And I swear I don’t look like my Avatar - it just speaks to my inter goofiness   

I have a pretty blond wife, a boy and a girl work in advertising. I sort of, could on my very best day pass as a mini Don Draper

1983
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YOB is imbedded in my screen name - maybe a wee bit younger than Bobby.

I usually try to watch the show at least twice because there are so many things that tap into memories I have of that period: the wall mounted can opener in the Draper kitchen, Betty defrosting her freezer, the ducks on the wall in Duck's office, the way the TV picture will "roll" or have "snow" or disappear to a dot when turned off - the level of loving detail that went into recreating that period of time is incredible.  One "artifact" that nearly knocked me over appears in one of the later episodes in Season 1 - Don has a round, chrome metal ash-tray on his desk, in the center of which are two leaping fish with their mouths open into which the smoker places their cigarette as though the fish were biting it.  My folks had one of those ashtrays in the house in which I grew up, and I can vividly recall eating dead butts from that tray.

Well, for those of us older posters...anyone remember their family doctor making a housecall?  I do and I remember getting a shot too during one of those house calls.

yes I do! Always will remember that brown leather bag - had tonsilitis and our mother did not drive (another thing hard to imagine nowadays).

Was also lucky enough to find a vet who in this day and age made house calls- made the cats happy during a crisis, but that's another story...

I was born in 1961. I find I have to watch each episode twice; once to watch the action, and once to look around the sets and props. As jkerouac59 noted, the attention to detail is amazing.
For instance, I've noticed that Betty, and Peggy's mother, both have display racks of souvenier spoons in their kitchens. Not the same one, though. From the period furniture, the African artwork on Pete's walls, the etched globe glasses in Don and Roger's office bars, it's like a trip down memory lane.
One thing I don't remember, and cannot stand, is the ugly, ugly wallpaper in the Drapers home. I'm assuming it's an older house and was there when they moved in?

That ugly wall paper was in my home too!  I can remember wall paper that had a fake red velvet design.  Some other memories I have are the plastic coverings on my parents couch, the toilet plumbing had a separate long plunger on the side of the toilet used to flush and the first two digits of phone numbers began with letters and not numbers.

I remember that kind of wallpaper - my mother called it "flocked".  My paternal grandmother wrapped the furniture in plastic - as a toddler I chewed through it and for those efforts was awarded with the first spanking I recall receiving.

My mother was the eldest of five children - the youngest child in her family was what was once commonly called a "change of life" baby - he was five when I was born and passed out bubble gum cigars in his kindergarten class.  We spent a lot of time with the extended family and in many ways I grew up as both the youngest child in my grandparents' household and the oldest child of my parents.

My grandparents had long memories.  They often spoke of "the war" as though it happened yesterday.  The Depression was fresh in their minds as well - they had taken in other family members to get by, including one of my great-grandfathers.  That experience of having a multi-generational family under one roof shaped how they thought about their relationships with their children - till their dying day they did not hesitate to offer intimate advice to each of them, something that I believe most parents would refrain from doing today. 

Their ethic about waste was also inextricably frozen in the a Depression-era - use it up, wear it out, use it again, that's too good to throw away were all commonly heard expressions when you thought you had finished with something.  There was no stigma attached to hand-me-downs either.

I was fortunate enough to have a (maternal) great-grandmother until the middle of my teen years.  In spite of the changes in the neighborhood that occurred as a result of "white flight" and at least three attempted break-ins while she was home,  she insisted on living in her own house until the day she died.

Her house, especially her kitchen, was not built to accommodate modern appliances.  There was a dearth of cupboards, but a large, unheated walk-in pantry provide ample storage.  In another hallway, the icebox had been removed to make way for a refrigerator similar to the one in Betty's kitchen, with a tiny freezer compartment inside.  Her bathroom had a wall mounted flushbox above the commode with the pull chain - something i did not see again until the first time I watched "The Godfather".

Each of us sees the familiar world we grew up in pass away before our eyes, to be replaced with something shinier, faster and perhaps just a little more difficult to comprehend.  "Mad Men" opens a window back to that world for me in a way that constantly amazes and delights.

born in 1951.the sixties were my"good old fashioned school days". enjoy betty. so my mom and m-i-l!good times bad times my times!

I was born in 1944.  Even though I was a child during the early 50's, I remember my best friend's father hitting on my mother and her being uncomfortable.  My father had other women,which eventually broke up my parents marriage.

We were Catholic and sex was something to be concealed as a dirty little secret.  It's taken years of therapy to get over that debacle.  The "Church" was so tantamount in all our families, just like Peggy's. I'm waiting for Peggy to hook up with "father."

I do like the detail in the set design (and clothing) even if some of it was ugly like the wallpaper.  I wonder if mention will be made of Bandstand?  I used to race into the house to watch Justine and Bob shake it up.

I remember the nun in my eighth grade class telling us that "our grandchildren will grow up under Communism," after the Sputnik launch. I love the way events are just touched upon with certain phrases without launching into a diatribe.


I do like all the detail

1985

I was born in 1987.  My mother was born in 1953 and she says she remembers that time and really doesn't need to be reminded about it.  After watching the show, I don't have to wonder why...

Somehow it's a little nostalgic to me as well.  Probably because the style reminds me of my grandparents' long-gone houses and also some funny old family photos including beehive hair.  I guess I like to imagine what it was like, but I wouldn't want to live there... I feel similarly about any other time throughout human history.

I was born in '63 but in a S.Asian country. So my childhood memories are obviously v.different! The only styles I remember from the '60 s are beehive hairdos and flips. Other than the flips, I associate the hairstyles in the show and Betty's poufy dresses, with magazine images from the '50's.

I was born in 1967, but my four older siblings were born between '59 and '64. My parents were 30 and 26 in 1962. We had the exact same kitchen cupboards and appliances well into the '70s.

Like Sally Draper, I was often called upon to mix drinks at a tender age.  How many 8 year-olds do you know that can make a good Manhattan?

Two brandy and one vermouth, in my house.

for my mother, that was- my father preferred the old standby - a highball

I was born in 1931, married in 1954.  My children were born in 1955, 58 and 62.

I was  a contemporary of Betty.  She actually seems very familiar to me.   I knew several  women with many of her characteristics.  I was a very attentive mother, (my children were both seen and heard) but I shared  many of Betty'  frustrations, and dissatisfactions.  It was sort of an unspoken undercurrent.   I sometimes felt that there was something wrong with me.  The feeling was, this is what I want, I love and enjoy, my husband, my children  and my home. But a I had a nagging  feeling that there should be something else.

I know now that most of the women I knew then felt pretty much the same, we just didn't talk about it.  We all pretended to be as happy as we were supposed to be.  It was all too much about the facade. 

Now all of these years later, we often look back on that time and the one thing that stands out in our mind is how much we have evolved..  How each of struggled, failed, and kept on until we got it right.

Of course Madmen is our favorite series.  And most of all we cheer Betty and Peggy on.  We laugh a lot at our former selves,  but each one of us understands what Betty is going through.  We  have in fact "been there, done that". 

I expect that very soon we will actually see in Betty what most of the women  of my age experienced in the 60's and 70's.  It was a slow and often frightening,  painful process. But it was oh so worth it.

I can say, looking back that we did in fact,  "live in interesting times"

1963 - I'd estimate about a month before baby Gene

I was born in 1957.  My second barbie was the one Sally received this week.  Every week someone does something or says something that catches me completely off guard.  When Betty's mother told her to close her mouth before a fly flew in there, I gasped.  I hadn't heard anyone say that since my parents told me that in the early 1960s.

born in 48 so i remember the early 60s very well.

I was born in 1970.

And it was fascinating to hear your recollections, "I remember it well". It puts a real face on it all. Thanks for sharing it.