Ok, I have many that are vivid. But one of the most infurtiating was the fact that most of the leaders of TSCC spent the entire decade condemning every little thing that the larger American society was propounding, from race equalization to opposing Viet Nam to Women's Rights to (the worst of them all, apparently) the suggestion that maybe people needed to feel free to find out and develop who they were as individuals. That is the Mormon legacy from the 1960's.

I remember the name Adam Clayton Powell. He's the only congressman whose name I recall from the sixties. The reason I recall his name is because my parents spoke ill of him daily in our New York apartment. They hated him with a passion. He was the first African American congressman in New York state, and he represented our district, which included Harlem (we lived in nearby Morningside Heights). He was a liberal Democrat, and not only that, he carried the curse of Cain. My righteous Mormon father chafed under the representation of a negro.

I studied political science at MIT with Cong. Powell's son, Adam Clayton Powell, III. It was during that time. And by studying together, we worked together.

I was ten in 1968, and we lived on 121st Street, west side between Amsterdam and Broadway. The monolithic tower of Riverside church glowered over our street from the west end. Beyond that, there was the dome of Grant's Tomb and the rolling greens of Riverside park.

My father was attending Columbia University on the government's dime, and I went to school at Agnes Russell, a teacher's college school for K-6 kids. The teachers were liberals, which irritated my father to no end. I loved the city, and I was heartbroken when we moved to Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a regular redneck house of horrors. But that's a different story.

Don, I almost went to Columbia. I had an aunt who got her masters in teaching and an uncle who graduated from the School of Journalism at Columbia. He graduated about 1929.

My stepson went to Columbia. He lived about a block away from where you did.

It was a fun place for me to visit. He's moving back to the west side of the country next month. I wonder if he'll like it after living in NYC for 7 years.

The sixties was the time of my final years in high school, college, law school, marriage, etc. Kennedy assassination: I was House Chariman in our dorm. World Series? I went to at least twenty games at Fenway Park in 1967 but it was brother who got front row tickets at the World Series. Vietnam? I began writing about it in 1959. In the summer of 1965 I went to an ROTC basic camp, returned in the fall to MIT and didn't take the advanced ROTC course because I knew we had no policy to win in Vietnam. A paper I wrote late in '65 was published in early '66 - on how to quickly end the war successfully. In '66 I ran a campaign (not successfully) to get a candidate on the ballot against Tip O'Neill. In law school at Duke I took the advanced ROTC and avoided the draft but came within two weeks of becoming an infantry 2nd LT - changed at department of the army to AG. Yes, the sixties were exciting.

Vivid? Has to be the first time I got Paula B.'s bra off. That was in 1961.

Yeah, I know, very deep...

For sheer dramatic effect, it has to be the evening of the first draft lottery. I believe it was a Monday night. I'd gone to the chapel to play basketball. I had an appointment the following Thursday for my final appeal to my draft board to get my draft notice overturned. I got home and my BYU Temple bride, who was five months pregnant, told me my lottery number was 365. I sent the last telegram of my life the next day, advising the appeals board that I wouldn't be there and to just use my file material. Naturally they upheld the draft notice and advised me that as soon as my number came up, I'd have to report.

'Twas a good decade to come of age in. First sex, first job, first car. And a healthy skepticism of authority gained from the cultural mileau, which was very useful later in order to shed a certain harmful set of religious beliefs.

Apollo 11 landing.
'68 riots.
Hippies in Golden Gate Park. We lived in the Bay Area at the time.

My most vivid memory is my youngest brother being born. I loved it when my mother would bring home another baby from the hospital, but this one was special and I KNEW it. He called me mom for a long time because the next brother had a lot of problems and they were dealing with his problems, so I took care of my little brother. I took him everywhere with me that I could. We've always been close. We are a lot alike, where the other siblings are nothing like us. I tell him all the time that he was my saving grace.

He is no longer my little brother. He is 6 foot 4 inches and he is my hero. He is the ONE PERSON in the whole world that I trust completely.

The Kennedy assassination
The music

I remem how I was influenced by "Man's Search For Happiness".

(add your own thoughts/comments about it if you remember it)

A little different take on things up here in western Canada. Our racial injustice issues involved native Canadians...still does. The civil rights thing was on TV...hardly any black folks here or even in Calgary. The Kennedy assassination was probably the biggest memory for me. I was 15 and in grade 10 and the principle put CBC radio news coverage on the PA....everything just stopped.

Ron Burr



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2015 03:11PM by Lethbridge Reprobate.

Kennedy assassination - I was in the first grade. I remember my teacher crying and being sent home early from school. The walk home was eerie...quiet. No people on the street, no vehicles on the road.

The Beatles on TV - Laughing my ass off at all of those stupid girls screaming, crying, and fainting.

1965 World Series - First time I had ever watched major league baseball. Then taking my transistor radio to school in later years and hoping my teacher would let us listen to an inning or two.

Watts Riots - Watched on TV and hoped we lived far enough away. My mother told me if I ever got into a fight with a black person to be careful because every one of them carried a switchblade.

John Glenn orbiting the earth - I was a big space fan and Glenn going up was huge.

Color TV - My Bishop was the only person we knew who had a color TV. He invited our family over to watch the Wizard of Oz in color. I was blown away.

January 1, 1969 - Went to my first Rose Bowl Game, Ohio St./USC. Got to see my favorite player - O.J. Simpson

Viet Nam - My mother had a map of Viet Nam in the kitchen so when reports came in we could track the locations on the map. Listening to Christmas music on the radio on Christmas eve and hearing the D.J. break in and say, "Let's hope and pray that next Christmas all of our boys will be home safe and sound."

Writing notes and such in class on toilet paper that was to be sent to Vietnam.

My dads Triumph chopper with flames on the tank. ( loved that bike )

Banana seats with sissy bars.

My dads 65 Nova SS.

our 12" black and white tv with 4 channels available.

Bell bottom pants.

Too many, both positive and negative, to have just one most vivid.

- Baskin Robbins was a big, new thing, someplace where you'd take your family for the rarity of great ice cream. In the LA area KRLA radio had a contest with BR. They came out with a mongrel flavor called "Skuz" (a minor swear word at the time), and you had to guess the flavors used to create it.

- going to the beach on the day of the Watts riots and seeing the smoke from the many burning buildings.

- Kennedy's assassination.

- Seeing Robert Kennedy at the BYU field house, where he fended off heckling questions only a couple of months before his assasination.

- The assassination of MLK and my roommates laughing and howling over it, since he was one of the perceived enemies of Mormonism.

- The bishop climbing in the shower with me to tell me my father had died. That was a weird one. I've talked about it before here on RfM.


EDIT: Had to edit this to correct my faulty memory.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2015 11:23AM by cludgie.

Great memories; all of you!

I am the youngest of 7 boys; I have a twin. My older brothers were awesome!!!


The music
JFK
Moon Landing
Ed Sullivan

My famous cuz killed in a plane crash in Utah; devastating.

Was he a singer attending BYU?

I'm gonna out myself here...

MLB player

Sorry. I was thinking of the guy who sounded like Johnny Mathis. He was killed when his commercial flight collided with an AF fighter jet.

cludgie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sorry. I was thinking of the guy who sounded like
> Johnny Mathis. He was killed when his commercial
> flight collided with an AF fighter jet.

Jim Croce died in a plane crash, but they collided with a tree, rather than a fighter jet.

Jim Croce hardly sounded like Johnny Mathis. He was lots better. But really ugly.

Sitting on a hillside on a nice sunny day in Vietnam and getting blasted by two grenades. Then turning and seeing an NVA regular slide behind a tree and start shooting at me.

I sure shot up that tree.
He sure shot up me.

With all the treatment I later needed (especially painkilling meds) I never, ever considered relying on Christian Science (my family's cult) for "treatment." And no Christian Scientist ever faulted me.

I guess you're unlikely to forget that.

In the 60s, I lived right near an LDS chapel, but at the time, I'd never heard of the Mormon Church. I guess I never really paid attention to that little chapel, but just figured that it was a Christian church of some kind. I didn't hear the word "Mormon" until the 70s.

There are a lot of vivid memories from the 60s though - the birth of my little brother, my little sister, going to Expo '67 in Montreal with my family, the Beatles, The Monkees, Martin Luther King being shot, Robert Kennedy being shot (I was too young to remember President Kennedy being shot), the Vietnam War being on the TV news every day, man walking on the Moon, and living in another city for a year, where I met my best friend who later died at the age of 16.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2015 10:57AM by Greyfort.

Hey Cludgie, we were both at the Fieldhouse the day RFK stood and faced a few thousand hostile sons of helium.

Oh the humanity!

God, you're always such a laff! It was just before he was shot, right? Can't remember. I have not looked it up yet.

"Sons of Helium!" But you know, they really loved it when Paul Harvey came. No discouraging words then.

Hey, was it you that was also at the Gordon Lightfoot concert in the old "Big Mac?"*

*No longer allowed to be called the Big Mac onaccounta the fact that the Marriott family forbids it.

Naw, I was wrong. It was almost 3 months afterward.

Anyone remember when the Mr. Steak opened there in Provo, in 1968? If you ever ate there the first two years it was open, I was the Mexican grilling your meat...

I watched a man walk on the moon on a black and white TV in a Cache Valley house that was built by people living in a mormon polyg colony.

LOL I couldn't think of anyone else. He just came to mind as a singer from the 60s, who died in a plane crash.