When you see 1968, what's the first thing that comes to mind?
Asked by
Jeruba (
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July 21st, 2022
Just 1968, as written, with no particular context.
Does it evoke anything to you? If so, what is it?
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45 Answers
A great year for social ferment. Hippes, anti-government protests, LBJ deciding not to run, anti-war in Vietnam, good folk-rock music
And of course the assassinations.
(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding
Sunshine of Your Love – Cream
Born to Be Wild – Steppenwolf
Classical Gas – Mason Williams
Girl Watcher – The O’Kaysions
All songs and many more I played on my University radio station.
I first think it’s my birth year. Immediately after that I think MLK and Bobby Kennedy were killed in 1968.
When I was a little girl, many adults would tell me the terrible things that happened in my birth year when they learned when I was born.
Way before my time.
I’m just 30, so without context it’s just a date out of history. No personal memories or connections.
Like @elbanditoroso, I think of social upheaval and student uprisings. Not just in the U.S., but in France, Mexico, Japan. I think of it as being a year of assassinations and tumult that embodied what the 70s and 80s and the rise of neoliberalism were a backlash against.
Endicott, Washington. We lived there for one year.
“The 60’s”, hippies, peace, love, vietnam war, drugs, music that defined a culture and a cause…
…and a great song by Dion:
Anybody here seen my old friend Abraham?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people but it seems the good they die young.
You know I just looked around and he’s gone.
Anybody here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people but it seems the good they die young.
I just looked around and he’s gone.
Anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people but it seems the good they die young.
You know I just turned around and he’s gone.
Didn’t you love the things that they stood for?
Didn’t they try to find some good for you and me?
And we’ll be free, some day soon, it’s gonna be one day.
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
I thought I saw him walkin’ up over the hill
with Abraham, Martin, and John.
I was a hyper little 4 year old driving my parents crazy.
Something private, and the Nixon election.
JFK and MLK being assassinated.
If I’m thinking of the late 60’s more generally, I’m thinking of going to the Moon, Cold War/Cuban Missile crisis, the “future” as envisioned by the 60’s aesthetic (e.g. the Jetsons, Lost in Space) and all of the great architecture and car designs. Also hippies, Woodstock, free love, psychedelic culture and the beginnings of what would become the foundation of the Information Age and computers starting to become a bit more available. Also the Vietnam War.
Star Trek TOS? It is in the general vicinity.
Hippies and social unrest
I was busted for being in the presence of weed.
The judge acquitted my friend Steve, because he had been drafted.
My mom advised my attorney to make a motion to the judge to let me off for the same categorical reason: I had enlisted in the Navy, so I also had a standing military obligation.
It was the first year I voted. It was for Eugene McCarthy, the anti-war Peace & Freedom candidate.
Richard Dailey telling the Chicago PD to “shoot to maim.”
Apollo 8 astronauts reading Genesis on Christmas Eve with the first visuals of Earthrise on national TV.
Getting to school early and in tears on a Wednesday in June to watch the news and reports following Bobby Kennedy being killed.
Busy year in the world.
The people who would become my parents were in the navy in Vietnam and home getting beat up by their father.
A random number between one & two thousand.
1968 used to be the worst year for this country. Then came 2020.
RFK
MLK
Chicago
Viet Nam
Nixon
The Summer of Love, or was that ‘69?
^ I think that was ‘69 what with Woodstock and all.
“Summer of Love” usually refers to 1967, and specifically to San Francisco, though it was applied more generally to various “hippie” gatherings that summer.
From my experience, the first SoL was 1967.
We partied at Golden Gate Park on June 21, 1967, to celebrate the Summer Solstice. That was the first day of the SoL, man! ;p
Some of the celebrations that were a precursors to it were events held by Ken Kesey & the Merry Pranksters (Acid Tests), and Timothy Leary (Be Ins).
That footage of Jimmy Hendrix at the concert ripping it up.
I don’t know what year it was, but that’s what a think of:
Marijuana, hippies, freedom, and spectacular guitar riffs.
And not just jimmy hendrix, but all kinds of artists back then.
Interesting answers. Thanks, @all. Nearly everyone sees a year (nothing mysterious about that), but in fact it was offered only as a number.
For me, it is emphatically a year, and instantly it’s the Vietnam War and the assassinations of MLK and RFK. And then all the hippie-weed-music stuff, some of which I was doing. And then, yes, Nixon. I attended the McCarthy rally in Fenway Park. What a different world if he had won. I think Nixon brought us Trump.
Regarding Vietnam, very specifically I’m aware 1968 was the Tet Offensive, but the assassinations of MLK and RFK are the first things that pop into my head as I mentioned above.
The Apollo program was in full swing in 1968.
Always driving, even back then, eh, @SQUEEKY2?
@Jeruba I think Nixon brought us Trump.
Certainly the failure to hold Nixon accountable gave reason to Trump that he was teflon.
Striped pants and flowers. That is the first thing that popped into my head.
@Brian1946
I surprisingly remember more of those names than I thought. I need to go back and listen to them again.
Gotta keep their spirits alive.
Maybe I should blast some Garfunkel out of my car at a stoplight…what do you think? Lol.
@Blackberry
“Maybe I should blast some Garfunkel out of my car at a stoplight…what do you think? Lol.”
I think it would be a very pleasant surprise for me if you were next to my car at that stoplight, especially because the “sound system” in my car doesn’t work. :p
@Blackberry “Maybe I should blast some Garfunkel out of my car at a stoplight…what do you think? Lol.”
That’s never a wrong decision (unless there’s a funeral procession going by or a Cop with no sense of humor).
I just never really thought of Garfunkel as blastable.
Edit: I would never blast music during a procession or sensitive situation.
Gently, acoustically, blastable? ;-)
@canidmajor
I don’t have some amazing sound system lol. It’s not blasting anything haha.
San Francisco, pot, Vietnam
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