The Incredible 1969

I was 11 and just starting to realize that there was more to be seen and heard than my immediate neighborhood.

Awww yes...I was a Jr. in high school, I remember well.

Thanks for tickling my memory this morning.

..but the most important event in 1969 was that my daughter, Donna Mary, was born

Roger

I was 19 and I was just about ready too get married and I knew it all like all the other teens.

1969, I was 19 years old, laid out in a body cast after a horrible motorcycle crash, took two years to learn to walk again, it's all good though I survived and didn't lose my legs.

Look Out!!

These next 10 years are going to slip by like 10 months.

I was working a summer job at the local paper mill in the summer of 1969.  It was between my freshman and sophomore years in college. When Armstrong's moonwalk took place, mill workers were gathered around transistor radios, getting the latest reports.  I was part of a two-man crew that used "tow-motors" to pull wagons with large rolls of paper (4-5 ft diameter and 8-10 ft long) from the paper machines to the sheet cutting room. We tore off a large piece of paper, made a cone that we taped to the front of a roll, spray painted "USA" on each side and "borrowed" a silver fire-proof suit from the emergency station.  My partner put on the suit, straddled the roll of paper and waved to the cheering workers while I pulled him around the mill for a couple of hours. Not a single boss complained. I remember my father (born in 1908) marveling how during his lifetime man had went from the horse and buggy days to landing on the moon

The summer of '69 was when I attended my first bluegrass festival and began a lifetime love affair with folk, country and bluegrass music. At the time I was a drummer, had played in a jazz band, a 17-piece big band and taught rudimental drumming to junior high students and was currently playing rock.  But as bluegrass didn't use drums, I soon quit the rock band I was in, sold my Ludwigs and never played again.

In 1969 Glen Campbell's Good Time Hour, Hee Haw and the Johnny Cash Show all made their debut on American TV, taking country music from the back hollows to main stream America.  Also that was the year that Johnny Cash recorded a live album from San Quentin prison ("Boy Named Sue" became a hit) and both Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette became members of the Grand Ole Opry.

Just a month into my sophomore year I quit college and in October of '69 began a 4-year apprenticeship to become an I/C (Instrumentation and control)Tech. I followed that career for 43 years (including going back to college and getting a degree as an I/C Engineer) until I retired 4 years ago.

DE

Lots of great memories. (for us fogeys ) I love DirtyEd's account of how they celebrated the Apollo 11 mission.