June, 1969

Sometime that month - I graduate from Wayne Central High School. It was likely around the middle of the month. I have only the vaguest memories of the event. But we boys took pride in the sexual connotation of graduating in '69' even though such activities were limited to our erotic fantasy lives. I don't know of one friend at that time who'd actually had sex. At that time, at that place, sex remained something elusive and futuristic, much to our group disappointment. The caption on my yearbook casual photograph read: "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil - but think about it." Some crack yearbook staff member knew me pretty well.

In my teens I became a huge fan of W.C. Fields - I thought that he was the funniest person who'd ever lived, even though he's been dead for 20 years. I collected records, posters, photos, books, stationery - anything I could get my hands on. Friends even called me W.C. I would do W.C. Fields routines I'd memorized from records at parties ("I cut a path through a wall of human flesh, dragging my canoe behind me!") . I was a nut.

The photo of me and W.C. above, taken in 1968, shows me wearing a flowered Nehru-style shirt I'd bought the year before on a visit to my sister in Washington, DC. I still have one of the original Personality Posters of Fields, now framed and loaded with numerous tack marks on all four corners, hanging on the wall to my right as I write this. Posters were big back then - there was a very cool poster/head shop in Rochester which I loved to visit I think that it was on East Avenue. My room had the Fields posters, the Richard Avedon black and white poster of The Beatles, Bob Dylan with the multi-colored electric hair, Simon and Garfunkel. Many LPs had posters inside in those days and that was an added bonus - more things to pin on the wall.

My parents would get a copy of the Sunday edition of the New York Times without fail every week - my father would pick up a copy on the way home from church. Church was mandatory in our house, the it was a time when you were still expected to dress up for church. That month or thereabouts, an advertisement in the Arts and Leisure section caught my eye:

Sounded good to me. I was 18 and free, so why the hell not? I began to formulate a plan....

Hee Haw debuts that month in CBS. Hosted by Buck Owens and Roy Clark, it featured a mix of country music and corny rural comedy. It was the complete opposite of hip, but fit right in with President Nixon's "silent majority" crusade. The country was completely polarized - gone was the idealism and optimism of the Kennedy years.

In 1969, Reader's Digest sent some 18 million flag decals to its subscribers, and they quickly became a big hit. Plastered on windows and car window vents, they were popular among the pro-Nixon, pro-war crowd - The Silent Majority. The system worked quite well if you were hitchhiking, which I did often in my college years. The best rides came from vans bearing peace stickers; if you were picked up by a car with a flag decal, you could expect - at the very least - a lecture regarding your hair and attire, the war, whatever.

One June 8, after years of steady increases, President Nixon announces the first withdrawal of troops from Vietnam - 25,000 out of a force near 550,000.

The Love Theme from 'Romeo and Juliet' reaches number one on the charts. This movie absolutely knocked me out - I thought it was brilliant. Mindy and I would actually watch it at the drive-in rather than make out, though truth be told I would have loved to have had the nerve at that time to have wonderful naked sex like the two lovers in the film. I still remember the echoes of the last line of the Prince in the town courtyard - "all are punished." Powerful stuff for a young catholic boy. It would take me some more years to shed my catholic upbringing, but the walls were beginning to slowly crumble. Too slowly.

The Weathermen formed as a radical offshoot of the 1960s student activist group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). A manifesto, which circulated around a June 1969 SDS convention, took its title from Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues." "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows," it read, and thus became known as the Weatherman statement.

On June 22, legendary singer and actress Judy Garland dies at age 48 of an overdose.

Born on June 15 - future rapper Ice Cube.

During a Bed-In for Peace on June 1 in Montreal, John Lennon, along with Yoko Ono, Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary, and others, records Give Peace a Chance, which is released soon after as the first solo recording by one of The Beatles.

Warren Burger is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, ending the activist era known as the (Earl) Warren Court.

On June 28, the Stonewall Riots in New York City mark the beginning of the gay rights movement.

In Houston, Texas, Army veteran Orville Moody wins the U.S. Open by one stroke. Moody was the last golfer to win the event by first having to qualify through local and regional events. It was his only PGA tour career victory.

There was another great local band in the area which, sadly, I don't think I ever saw perform live, but it's also quite possible that I did and simply can't remember due to the ever-increasing number of misfiring neurons in my aging brain. Wilmer Alexander and The Dukes were almost legendary in Upstate New York in the late 1960s. Originating out of Geneva, NY, the Dukes had a couple of singles which reached the charts nationally, or at least "bubbled under the hot one hundred." Those of us living in Upstate remember them fondly - they were big on the bar and college scene at the time. Legend has it that they were the inspiration for the bar band in the film Animal House. The band released their one album in 1969. The times were a changin' and the times were rocking.

May, 1969

This was my last full month of high school. In mid-June, I would graduate. I don't remember much specifically of what I was doing that month - most likely I was goofing off and counting the days. I do know that I was looking forward to simply being done with it all. I am sure that I had that typical exuberant youthful mix of cockiness and fear of change.

May was the month of the senior prom, and as was expected of us, Mindy and I dutifully attended. These annual events provided us with the opportunity to stay out extremely late, way beyond our normal curfew, so on that score they were welcome. Following the prom, a bunch us us ended up at a restaurant, and the rest of the evening is a blur, but I'm certain that we stayed out all night - following tradition and ritual. Frankly, deep in my heart I had no interest whatsoever in going, but did as was expected of me. I'd rather have gone bowling.

May likely was the month our high school yearbook was released to us, so I was following the ritual of going around to friends and having them write something clever. My friend Bob wrote "Don't forget our little party after the senior play, you ole boozer." I must admit, I've forgotten. Mindy wrote "I truly agree that this has been my favorite year and you are the reason, truly, honestly, and frankly." Aw, shucks. Dan wrote "Always remember the good times we've had and the times that are yet to come." Yes, indeed. Another Bob: "Anytime you want to drag just look me up." I'll try that in my Honda Civic Hybrid, Bob - should be a race for the ages. Dave wrote "Golf, Speech this year, Saigon next year. I'll meet you there." Luckily, we did not...

George W. Bush is in the midst of flight training at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgia as part of his Texas Air National Guard service. If only he had remained there. George never made it to Saigon, either.



Crosby, Stills, & Nash release their first album on May 29. The album quickly established the super group, made up of former members of Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, and The Hollies, as one of the top bands in the country. Later that year Neil Young joined the band, and CSN became CSNY. A copy of this album was in the 8 Track (I recall it was an Oldsmobile convertible) as my friend Dave and I drove south towards Woodstock in August that year. I have a vivid memory of driving, with the top down on that warm August day, listening to Marrakesh Express.

Neil Young releases his second solo album Everybody Knows This is Nowhere.

Get Back by The Beatles begins a five-week stint at number one on the charts.

British rockers The Who release their landmark rock opera Tommy on May 23. The two-record set features classic Who songs - Pinball Wizard, The Acid Queen, I'm Free, and We're Not Gonna Take It (see me, Feel Me). The album was later ranked #96 on Rolling Stones 500 Best Albums of All-Time, but for me it has always ranked much, much higher. A few years later, my friend Craig and I, in a total pot haze, "filmed" the album in our heads,and over time expanded the idea to unique videos of each song. Our idea at the time was that these films would be shown as movie shorts, but without realizing it, we'd actually invented MTV! Little did we know.

That month produced enough great music to fill a modest library at a classic rock station - this back in the time when there were actually DJs picking music instead of marketing execs.

"We got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution's here....."

One of the best one hit wonder songs of all time (in my humble opinion) was released in May, 1969 - Something in the Air by Thunderclap Newman.



Of course, there was quite a lot of bad music floating around as well. This period was the peak for the bubblegum music fad. Enough said.



On May 3, Creedence Clearwater Revival releases the single Bad Moon Rising; the B side of the single Lodi. The band was as hot as a band can be in 1969, releasing three albums and scoring hits with Proud Mary, Born on the Bayou, Green River, Down on the Corner, and Fortunate Son.

In South Vietnam, the Battle of Hamburger Hill rages for ten days, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides. The hill, located near the border with Laos, was of little strategic value, but U.S. command ordered it to be assaulted anyway. Infantry soldiers who fought the battle gave it its name, because they "were chewed up like hamburger." The event stirred up great negative public opinion in the U.S., particularly as the hill was quietly abandoned by U.S. forces the next month.

The war produced one of the deadliest months ever for American servicemen - a total of 1,450 die in May, 1969.

The "dirty tricks" and illegal activities of the Nixon administration begin when The New York Times breaks the news of the secret bombing of Cambodia. As a result, Nixon orders FBI wiretaps on the telephones of four journalists, along with 13 government officials to determine the source of news leak.

The film Midnight Cowboy, starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, is released. It went on to win an Oscar for Best Picture of 1969.

The Boston Celtics defeat the heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers in game 7 of the NBA finals 108-106 to win the 1969 championship.

Born on May 14 - Australian actress Cate Blanchette.

In Rochester, there was one hot band - The Rustix. The band was big at this time and had recently made news as one of the first white bands, along with Rare Earth, to be signed by Motown records. I saw them perform many times around this time and later. I always thought they were great. Sadly, they never quite hit the big time - according to lore the band recorded one last great album that was never released.

Just a few more weeks to go before graduation. Cue the band.