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1969 - The Year of Peace, Love, Dissent and Mayhem

jbg

Active Member
I just finished reading 1969: The Year Everything Changed by Rob Kirkpatrick. I picked this out at random while looking for Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam. I guess the grouping must be by sociology, a subject I rarely read about.

While 1969 is hardly the earliest year from which I have personal memories, (I was twelve at the time) it probably is the first year of which I have end-to-end recollection, including:
  1. Nixon's inauguration
  2. The Jets' victory in the January 1969 Super Bowl;
  3. A notable early-February NYC blizzard that brought ridicule to NYC's Mayor Lindsay
  4. Progressing through the spasm of violence on the Cornell campus that April that saddened my father, a Cornell alum;
  5. Some events that did not make the book that spring, such as a notable late-May heat wave and lots of July rain;
  6. An event I did not hear of till later, the Stonehenge Riots;
  7. The lunar landing;
  8. Chappaquiddick;
  9. Woodstock's love-fest;
  10. The Tate-LaBianca murders;
  11. An event I did not hear of till later, the Zodiac killings;
  12. The Met's "amazing" World Series victory; and
  13. An event I did not hear of till later, the Altamont fiasco.
On the positive side, the year is quite memorable for Woodstock, the first lunar landing, for New Yorkers the championships of two very much also-ran teams, the Jets in the Super Bowl and the Mets in the World Series. As the book explains and as I remember, Woodstock was memorable for what did not happen; no riots, overall good feelings despite awful weather (typical of El Niños and 1969 but I won't digress here), and decidedly chaotic planning and administration. The three-disc album from what festival, which I purchased in 1970, remains in my collection. However, I instinctively felt that while Woodstock was a "miracle" it was no way to construct a viable society, despite the idealism.
Very little needs be said about the lunar landing. It lifted the spirits of a very unhappy nation, and it was "a giant leap for mankind." As for the Jets and the Mets, "you gotta' believe."

On the negative side, my parents decided to give Nixon a chance. He quickly lived up to his reputation as a thug that believed in nothing. The sheer violence of the college campus uprisings was the start of the unglueing of the country. The students obviously lacked the maturity to run much of anything. Worse, at mine and my father's alma mater, Cornell, race and guns created a new, nihilistic element. Similarly while not totally new, the "hippy" culture drew many young people away from constructive engagement with society and their own future. As we know from the young age that rock stars died, starting with Joplin, Hendrix and Morrison, the damage from that era was lasting. "Free love" made imperative the loosening of divorce and abortion laws. This has been a decidedly mixed bag for all concerned.

During that era both me and my parents were quite the liberals, I must have begun my drift away, as even at twelve I was personally sickened by the overlay of violence, idleness and discord. Certain years stand out to me as pivotal and from time to time I will write OP's focusing on those. Almost all \ had some very good, and very bad aspects.

1972 is another such year but that is another topic for another thread and another day.
 

rational experiences

Veteran Member
In the man themed now earth has passed around the sun since I said let's count...from zero.

1969 times.

As a scientist I love numbers.....969.

It's like it rotated he says.

I think 6 and 9 is the same number.

No he says it's a balance.

Life changing on earth in that year had a lot of new changes.

Just as life changes every year.

O balanced so 69 he says inside O is meaningful to my science maths mind.

As it is meaningful just in his mind.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
I remember 1969 fondly having been 24 at the time. And I was at Woodstock. That all goes to prove that life is not a straight line but a bunch of twisty passages, all different.
 

John53

I go leaps and bounds
Premium Member
I remember the teacher bringing her TV to school and we all sat on the floor watching the moon landing. Probably the earliest thing I still remember.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
I just noticed. We're supposed to be debating something. It's a debate section.

How long do you think the Age of Aquarius has been delayed? Was it due to our ages being over 30 and turning into the untrusted generation? I know that I have been untrustworthy for too man decades and that I can no longer sing and identify with

 

Sedim Haba

Outa here... bye-bye!
I just noticed. We're supposed to be debating something. It's a debate section.

Oh, I'll make this a debate...
Ever been to Chappaquiddick? I have, many times. Dad's boss had a house on Martha's Vineyard.

Let me paint a picture for ya. Chappaquiddick is basically a sandbar. Few of the roads are paved, they're just two packed down sand ruts. One lane mostly, back up to a fork if someone's coming the other way. You can't pull over to let them pass. In fact, stray even two feet left or right, you're stuck in soft sand. The bridge over a pond where Teddy offed his (supposedly prego) GF is actually wider than the road leading up to it. NO WAY anyone can navigate those roads drunk and yet manage to dive off the bridge, which is really short. Everyone who's seen it with their own eyes knows that was no accident. Then Ted's 'little swim' and failure to even report an accident...
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
1969 was the year i was conceived... In a tent in Hyde park after a Rolling Stones concert.
 
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