I wasn't around in the 60s but I had a chemistry set from Salter Science in the 80s and loved it. They had details on how to make simple glassware and so many other things. I didn't have carbon rods for the electrochemistry section but I managed to supplement the manual with another "science experiments book" and pulled out a few from spent batteries. Even synthesised a few simple salts based on my understanding of how things worked so that I could try out the "advanced" experiments from the book.

Modern chemistry sets are extremely lightweight and boring in comparison.

Modern chemistry sets appeared around 1970, when they started removing "dangerous" chemicals from them. My parents gave me what turned out to be the last decent chemistry set. I had a great deal of fun with it.

Current ones are little more than what you can find in the kitchen.