July, 1969

Man walks on the moon - July 20. I wish that I could say that I followed this monumental event with rapture and awe, but that weekend I was attending summer orientation incoming freshmen at Potsdam State. I managed to see small bits and pieces of the unfolding drama on television, but my memory is that they kept us pretty busy, and honestly - I don't think that I was all that interested in the whole thing. I was busily plotting my future. I don't even think that I actually saw the initial moonwalk "live." I do recall looking up at the moon that night and thinking how wondrous it was that two men were actually on its surface.

And to be honest, the event seemed somewhat anticlimactic now that that old dog Nixon was in The White House. The space program was started by John F. Kennedy and continued by Lyndon Johnson. I had followed the whole time with great pride and fascination - from the launch of Alan Shepard in 1961 (which I heard on the radio) through the dramatic circling of the moon at Christmas in 1968. Now Nixon was in office when the moon landing finally took place and it did seem fair. Did I mention ever here that I was not a fan of Nixon?

They did issue us with beanies that week in orientation, which I suspect was the last time this tired old ritual was conducted at this or virtually any other college. They were never worn. It seemed to me that many older people did not understand that by this time the times were no longer changing. They had changed.

Other vestiges of typical college life one might see in films from the 1930s and 40s also still existed - segregated dormitories, curfews for girls and not boys, a strong-willed Dean of Women - all these would be soon gone - certainly by the time of the student strikes following the killings at Kent State the following Spring.

I remember that Summer as being very hot - at least by typical standards of upstate New York. Mindy and I went one day on a steam train excursion for a lark, and we sat listlessly in the car simply fried by the heat and humidity. No one I knew at that time had air conditioning - either in home or auto. It was generally a rare time when it was needed in upstate New York.

That summer we spent a lot of evening playing miniature golf at an Arnold Palmer putting course in nearby Penfield. It was a fun thing to goof around and pass some time. I was pretty good at it, and wound up qualifying for a locally televised tournament that summer. First prize was a small color television. I don't believe our family had yet made the switch to color, so winning one would have been sweet. Oddly enough, I played the "round of my life", at least for the first 16 or so holes. I was leading. Handily - I started hearing the television announcers saying "get the camera on Donovan, on Donovan." Sadly, the pressure got to me and my lead began to shrink. Some guy caught me on the last hole and we went into extra holes. I missed a short put, finished second, and won a radio. Wow.



Firesign Theater releases its 2nd album How Can You Be In Two Places At once When You're Not Anywhere At All, which features Nick Danger, 3rd Eye” in episode #666 Cut ‘em Off At The Past. I spent far too many happy hours listening to their extremely funny albums over the next years, usually in a stoned revelry.

On July 18, Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy drives off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, on the eastern end of Martha's Vineyard. Mary Jo Kopechne, a passenger in the car, dies in the accident. Kennedy did not report the accident to authorities the next day. He later plead guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was handed a suspended sentence.



In his first news conference since becoming President Nixon's chief legal officer, Attorney General John N. Mitchell announces that the incidence of wiretapping by federal law enforcement agencies had gone down, not up, during the first six months of Republican rule. Mitchell refused to disclose any figures, but he indicated that the number was far lower than most people might think. "Any citizen of this United States who is not involved in some illegal activity," he stated, "has nothing to fear whatsoever." The nation sighed in relief.

Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones dies on July 3. Found motionless at the bottom of his swimming pool, the cause of death was famously noted as "death by misadventure" by the local coroner. That same month, the band releases one of the greatest singles of all-time, Honky Tonk Women. I thought that the guitar intro riff was absolutely spectacular and that July would turn up my car radio whenever it came on.

AM radio still ruled the airwaves back then. We listened mainly in those days to stations WBBF and WSAY, both featuring Top 40 songs. I am pretty sure that by then, or at least soon after, we had our own "underground" FM station in Rochester that played album rock - WCMF-FM. My car had only AM and one had to rig up an FM receiver, which I did the next year when I bought a used Post Office Ford Econoline van.

Born on July 24, actress Jennifer Lopez.

Reaching number 2 on the U.S. pop charts that months - Spinning Wheel by Blood, Sweat & Tears. The band's self-titled album went on to win a Grammy award for Album of the Year.

The Doors release The Soft Parade LP on July 18.

On July 24, Muhammed Ali is convicted on appeal for refusing induction into the armed services. As he famously said in 1966: "I ain't got no quarrel with the Viet Cong ... They never called me nigger." The conviction was later reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

I had answered the advertisement I'd seen in The New York Times and had sent - I think $48.00 - for two tickets to the Woodstock Music and Art fair, to be held the following month downstate. I talked to a number of friends about the idea of going, but could only find one other brave soul who was up for it - Dave Fisher.

I kept my useless tickets for some years, which weren't needed there once the crowds exceeded the capacity of the Festival to control admittance. They were safely in a drawer in my room at home until, like much of the stuff that might be collector's items today (hundreds of comic books, Mad Magazines, baseball cards, etc.), they were disposed of my my mother, who - in her usual term - "gave them the pitch."

On July 30, President Nixon makes his one and only visit to South Vietnam. Pictured below is a man wearing a Nixon rubber mask and Peter Sellers dressed for his role some years before as Dr. Strangelove. I'm not kidding - You be the judge.