Page 102 - People & Places In Time

Lyn, were the music of WWII. Of course, the music of the Andrews Sisters took us out of war time and well into the fifties. As anyone who watched the Lucky Strike Hit Parade could see, the music was in midst of change. Though I have to admit, change is not always so obvi- ous when we are in the middle of it. The music of my parents’ generation was becoming the Rock-n-Roll of mine. The first time I saw Elvis Presley was his first ap- pearance on television on the Dorsey Brothers show,
in the mid-50’s and how do I account for Frank Sinatra singing to my parents in the 1930’s while remaining a significant part of my life seventy-five years later?
So, this shift that seems to be happening again, was it the music? No . . . . I don’t think so, but, non-the- less it was part of the mix. Our post-war generation was thrust into the breach of an emerging cultural revolu- tion, backed with its own soundtrack. One that I believe, is yet to play out sixty years hence. For better or worse, more than the music I believe the 60’s generation as we have been cast has had an exceptional influence on the world we live today . . . . more than most.
So much seems to have happened at once.
An obscure French war half a world away in Vietnam was expanding to include the U.S. Someplace we likely
of 1963 to become our pivot point in midst of profound change to this generation. Not that this was our sole defining moment, but it has become that particular incident that is easy to pinpoint.
In the broader sense, was it John Kennedy’s death, or perhaps that of his brother Robert who was shot and killed while himself running for president? Was it the death of civil rights leader Martin Luther King; shot while standing on a balcony in Memphis? The answer of course, is yes, each of these deaths contributed . . . . but there was so much more.
The defining moment for the civil rights move- ment the tipping point that would bring it all to nationwide attention was with Rosa Parks refusal to sit in the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. This event, when coupled with lunch counter sit-ins ushered into the 1960’s what had been primarily a southern issue of segregation. Now it was becoming another piece to the ever-growing civil unease spreading to every corner of America. To say it was national is to
say that many around the country had now become aware. It remains an issue not resolved sixty years
later. Not resolved one hundred sixty years following the Civil War. This is an issue that persists in the heart
of some very adamant people particularly in the south, but around the whole country as well those with different points of view that plunder the underpin- nings of equality between black and white. Just as Oscar Hammerstein composed in “South Pacific” with his song “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught” of the attitude of hate that is learned at an early age.
Of course, the issues frustrating us throughout the 60’s and into the present, represent the predicament with just about every issue since mankind first faced
his often-conflicting thoughts; confrontation becomes inevitable. Conflicts over civil rights could now join
the Vietnam War and the deaths of “Abraham, Martin & John” as expressed in the song by Dion as he includes the assassination of Abraham Lincoln with those of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Another song is added to the soundtrack of our time. Just as
Bob Dylan offered in “The Times They are A Changin” and Sonny Bono expressed with “The Beat Goes On”. Likely Edwin Star expressed it most directly in a song by the
would have known little, except for the increasing pros- pect of having to go there to fight and perhaps to die. We were only beginning to grasp the reasons for this war, not yet aware of the deep division it would bring to our lives, our whole society.
President Kennedy was assassinated in the fall
86