Remembering 1969

In sixty-nine I was twenty-one and I called the road my own
I don't know when that road turned into the road I'm on

Running on, running on empty
Running on, running blind
Running on, running into the sun
But I'm running behind

--- Jackson Brown, Running on Empty

In '69 I too was 21... and 1A, before I had even walked across the stage and received my diploma at Franklin & Marshall College.  By late July, I was in Coast Guard Boot Camp in Cape May New Jersey.  Come autumn, I was stationed in Governors Island, New York Harbor.

Yes, I looked just like one of those guys in the picture... which in fact dates to 1969.

Meanwhile, at Cornell, armed African American students gathered at their society headquarters and the pictures shocked America.  That was 47 years ago this month.

Some four months later came the love fest at Woodstock.

Same generation, three very different experiences in that eventful year:

1.  Those of us who were serving in the military... mostly because we had no great choice.  Yes, we could run off to Canada.  But if you were male and healthy, and wanted to remain an American, your choices were Army, Navy Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard.  I chose Charlie Gulf and it turned out to be a good choice.

2.  Those who were politically motivated and out to end the war, end racism, end inequality.

3.  And the Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n Roll crowd.

If no one has done it yet, somebody should do a study of these three groups to see how on average each one turned out.  Here we are, a half century later, the Baby Boomers, facing retirement, institutionalization and...