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Each week our Boomer-In-Charge, Hershel Chicowitz, has something to say about life, society, or what's going on... from the perspective of a baby boomer. This is what's on his mind the week of August 16:
I am sort of a news junkie. I like to know what is going on, even when I don't like what is going on. I don't have cable TV, but I programmed my VCR to record Dan Rather every night. It's not that I think Dan Rather is any better than the others. In fact, I suspect that NBC has a better newscast. I watch Dan Rather 'cause I just know that one of these days he is going to blow up and go nuts on the air, and I want to be sure I see it when it happens.
But these are tough days for news junkies. I don't know about you, but I am tired of the presidential candidates already; and the real campaign does not begin for another year. And Lord knows, I am sick of the entire Clinton family and everyone around them.
So while waiting for the VCR to rewind last night, I began thinking back to the 60's... as I often do. This time, the way-back machine stopped at August of 1969.
It was hot in August of 1969, too. But we were all on a cloud... we had just gone to the moon and watched our three astronauts return safely! It was the dream of millions for thousands of years. And we watched it on TV 30 years ago.
Perhaps I should say that most of us were on a cloud. Senator Ted Kennedy was driving a campaign worker home from a party on Martha's Vineyard. Something went very, very wrong; he drove off a bridge; his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, drown, and Senator Kennedy was... out of sorts for about ten hours. He later pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and that was that. But the heir to the Kennedy throne at the White House was derailed... in the blink of an eye... 30 years ago.
Meanwhile, out in crazy California, ol' Charlie Manson, the hippie, druggie, and cult leader, thought we were due for a race war. He figured that when all the shooting was done, he'd be the one left standing to rule the world. But despite recent race riots, disorder was not progressing fast enough for him. So he ordered members of his "family" to kill some rich folks... and actress Sharon Tate and several others nearby were brutally murdered. A couple nights later, so were Mr. and Mrs. Leo LaBianca, in a murder so ugly it would make you sick... even by today's standards. Manson's family members wrote the words "Helter Skelter" on the walls... in the victims' blood. This, too, happened 30 years ago this month.
Oh yea... a couple of young entrepreneurs with more ideas than business sense decided it would be neat to stage the largest rock concert in history. They controlled the event for the first couple hours, but after that, the audience took over, and 400,000 boomers turned up at Bethel, NY for three days of peace and music. Woodstock; 30 years ago this week.
Meanwhile, The ACLU claimed that marijuana was harmless to both the user and society in general. Oh, yea; that's just what we wanted to hear. Boomers rule!
Three hundred soldiers a week, most of them baby boomers, were dying in the rice paddies of Vietnam. President Nixon had won the presidential election the prior year partly because he claimed to have a plan to end the war. In June, he announced his "Vietnamization policy." It was still early in his term, but we were the ones doing the dying, and we were more than a little restless. Thousands of protesters were planning a march on Washington to demonstrate their anger. It would be the largest anti-war protest in history. Plans were under way that hot summer of 1969.
Oh yea... the black sheep of Major League Baseball, the New York Mets, won the World Series, too. Now that was a miracle!
All of that happened... and all of that happened in a period of three months... 30 years ago. No wonder we can't get too excited about the Iowa straw poll or President Yeltzin firing his cabinet. Because we rode an enormous tidal way of human events... 30 years ago, the summer of '69. It was the end of the 60's, and we were there. We were boomers!
Whew!
Relax... Dan Rather might not blow up for another couple years yet.
If you want to write more, we're open to offerings from other boomers. If you have something to say of interest to boomers, write it as well as you can in 700-900 words, and send it to us. We can't guarantee we'll publish it, but we'll surely consider it.
For more of Hershel's essays, check the BBHQ Archives or the Boomer Essays.
Hershel will have something else to say on August 23; mark your calendar to come back to BBHQ every Monday.
| The BBHQ Album of the Month is "Old Friends Live on Stage (Deluxe Edition) (2 CD/1 DVD)," by Simon & Garfunkel. If you were fortunate enough to see them in concert last year, I do not have to sell you. The concert was terrific! This album collection includes 55 songs, plus their new recording, "Citizen of the Planet," and one of the songs sung by the Everly Brothers during the concert. The DVD was recorded during their concert in Madison Square Garden in 2003. For any S&G fan, this is a must have! But then, you knew that already, didn't you? |
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The BBHQ Book of the Month is
"Vinyl Highway," by
Dee Dee Phelps. You remember her as Dee Dee, of Dick and Dee Dee.
Together, they took a decade long ride on the rock and roll roller
coaster. It was a heck of a ride! Dick Clark, Quincy Jones, the Beach
Boys, Glenn Campbell, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Vinton... Dick and Dee Dee
rubbed shoulders with all of them. This is her "behind the scenes" story.
It's pretty cool.
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