I'm a bit over 50 years old and I grew up in San Diego Ca.
Most of what we smoked was mexican schwag. Flat compressed brick weed.
Being a child in the 60's and a teenager in the 70's, I didn't really smoke in the 60's, but the 70's were fun.
Once we got to know some hippies,(usually a friends older sibling) we started hooking up with this outdoor weed from the mountains around 80 miles Northeast of San Diego. It was called Fallbrook Sensimilla and it was my first real look at a green bud that wasn't compressed and brown.
We got Thai sticks though. Those were brown also and extremely compressed and tied on the sticks, but would send you to the moon.
In the past 15 years or so, with the addition of the internet and information sharing, weed quality and strain development really have improved. I grew for many years in my 20's and stopped when I got married. I just started growing again 2 years ago and the seed banks, internet, MMJ shops, grow shops sure make it a lot easier than it used to be.
Before, you were stuck with whatever clones you could get or create yourself or bag seed. It is a hell of a lot easier to grow good quality weed when you have unlimited resources to attain any and every strain you could desire! Oh the marvels of modern technology!