Growing Up a Baby Boomer II

To say the 1960's was a time of change and turmoil is an understatement to be sure. Significant cultural metamorphoses as well as social upheaval were taking place. It was certainly a perplexing period in my young life, but I was nonetheless, collectively a part, of epic historic events growing up a Baby Boomer. Read Part I of "Growing Up a Baby Boomer."

My Life in the 1960s

The Beatles, Hippies, Vietnam & Social Unrest

In 1963 American's, including my family, grieved deeply over the loss of highly regarded President John F. Kennedy. All the while, the conflict in Vietnam continued to escalate and it was not going away any time soon.

About three months before our president's assassination, Martin Luther King delivered his infamous "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Sadly, in 1968, Martin Luther King and the president's brother, Robert F. Kennedy, met the same fate as President John Kennedy. It was a disconcerting decade indeed!

Long before the Internet, we depended on newspapers, Time, Life, National Geographic magazines and transistor radios for our news. We had a television, but growing up, we really searched out what was going on in the country by reading.

Newspapers and magazines were crucial in many households because half the time, the two-station TVs failed to receive airwaves. During sleepovers, it was commonplace for my friends and me to read aloud to each other "hot" news stories before we settled in to read our Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden book series. Imagine that...kids reading newspapers!

The Fab Four - Rock Music History

Music also underwent a radical transformation in the 1960s. I could write volumes about the music aspect of the 60s alone! For the sake of brevity, though, I want to relate the "alarming" (my mother's word) influence The Beatles had on my sister and me one night back in 1964.

Sunday night was exciting because The Ed Sullivan Show aired. It was a huge form of entertainment! The only entertainment we had actually, if I discount my nauseating tap dancing routine, which I seriously hoped would someday land me on Ed's show!

Every breathing person across the country tuned in to see our then version of "sizzling" celebrities, as well as Ed's weekly showcase of undiscovered or up and coming talent. The Beatles' first appearance on Ed Sullivan that night in '64 was not only electrifying; it would forever be a part of music history and I was there.

My sister and I witnessed The Beatles for the first time...in our pajamas. We were so shamefully giddy over these four hotties from Liverpool, England; we were holding on to each other and had to bite on the sleeve of our robes to keep from screaming when they sang, "I Saw Her Standing There."

I will never forget my mother yelling at the two of us to "stop your silly nonsense." I really want to think my mom was a bit giddy herself, but did not let it show! I can honestly say, I never experienced that crazy feeling with any band except The Beatles. It was a sleepless night in my house for sure!

Vietnam & the Draft

Practically overnight, the hippy movement rapidly began taking root across the US. I personally recall how the negative or positive way people responded to the budding "Make Love, Not War" anti-Vietnam philosophy troubled me.

It seemed, many actually living my far-fetched fantasy of a Ward and June Cleaver family lifestyle of Dad's golfing at the country club and kids naturally going to college, were the very ones ditching their chance to earn a degree and heading into the streets to protest.

There would be no college in my oldest brother's future (or for any of us) because of the lack of money. Drafted and most likely heading to Vietnam, I as the young sister he took care of and was leaving behind, did not understand why anyone would disrespect what my brother was willing to do without all the fuss "they" were making. This made me very sad and on an emotional level, it was terribly confusing.

For me, though, the probability of my brother going to Vietnam ended, when he learned during his physical that day that he was nearly deaf in one ear and his hearing was lacking in the other, so the military sent him home.

Some of my brother's good friends in our town went to Vietnam without him and eventually returned. Only one would not make it back. His name was William Dwight Ordway, but we called him Billy.

He was a Second Lieutenant in the Army. Killed January 18, 1968 in Quang Ngai Provence, South Vietnam, Billy was an only child and 21-years-old when he died, four months into his tour of duty. You will find him on Panel 34E, line 070 at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Here in this little town, we have never forgotten Billy's or his parents' supreme sacrifice.

To Be Continued - The Kid Next-Door Turns Hippie

Toward the end of the 60s, no one had a clue the hippie movement, which was bigger than life now, would creep its way to my country town. One moment the corridors of my school were bustling with neat and tidy girls and boys, but that would suddenly change.

In the blink of an eye, bell-bottoms replaced my own plaid skirts and huge, pink and purple peace signs adorned my bedroom walls, much to my mother's dismay. Scruffy looking people with flowers in their hair and foggy "pipe" dreams, abandoned their "material" world to panhandle on the streets instead.

Pot, "psychedelic drugs" and the concept of the world being one gargantuan "love-in" had been officially introduced to all the small town kids growing up a Baby Boomer...life was about to take a whirlwind turn and could never be the same!