A Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s
1968 - A Year to Forget
The year was 1968, now fifty years past. I was a freshman in college, just starting my second semester. The day before the semester was to start, I tore the cartilage in my right knee trying to block a shot playing a pick-up basketball game. That painful event was the first of a string of incidents that lead me to conclude that 1968 was the worst year of my life.
Not only was I suffering, but the nation was as well, as you will see (and recall, for you oldsters out there). Things got worse when my beloved Browns lost in the NFL Playoffs. Green Bay subsequently captured Super Bowl II against the Oakland Raiders after beating the Cowboys on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field with temps at -13, dubbed The Ice Bowl.
Shortly thereafter, a U.S.
B-52 Stratofortress crashed in Greenland, discharging 4
nuclear bombs! Fortunately they did not detonate.
And in the
Vietnam War, The
Tet Offensive began, as
Viet Cong forces launched a series of surprise attacks across
South Vietnam, which was the turning point of the only war the US has ever lost.
President
Lyndon B. Johnson announces he will not seek re-election, having been disgraced by the Viet Nam war.
Summer Olympics are held in Mexico City, underscored by sprinters John Carlos and Tommy Smith raising gloved fists while the Star Spangled Banner was played during the metal ceremony, representing a Black Power salute.
Jose Feliciano sings a
controversial version of the National Anthem during the World Series between the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals, which the Tigers won in 7 games.
While a these troubling events were going on, I was also struggling with my engineering classes in college; specifically Organic Chemistry, Advanced Calculus and Physics II. It was the second semester of the freshman year when they tended to weed out those that couldn’t cut it. There were many a long night spent studying, motivated by the Dean’s Freshman Orientation talk when he said, “Look to the person on your right and on your left; only one of you will make it!” Once that testy semester was over, I gratefully headed back to Dayton to a job at Frigidaire, but shortly after starting work, I got a case of strep throat that really knocked me down. I recall living at the boarding house pictured below on Grand Avenue in Dayton in a small room on the third floor opposite the turret (it was the cheapest room!). For two weeks I was laid up in that bed staring out the window sick as a dog. With my injured knee, I’d hobble down three flights of stairs once a day to get something to eat; always making scrambled eggs with canned mushrooms, the only meal I knew how to cook at the time. Since then, I’ve now gotten my meal repertoire up to 2-3 additional delicacies!
A month or so after recovering from strep throat, I had surgery for the torn cartilage in my knee that caused me to miss even more work. So I was laid up again, this time for 6 weeks of more scrambled eggs and mushrooms before finally heading back to school in late summer, documented in
this previous blog post. That trip was really the only good thing that happened to me all year. On second though I do remember being driven around town when I was recuperating from knee surgery by my fellow-boarding house roommate in his beautiful red Austin Healy like the model pictured below. Now that sports car was a chick magnet! With a 6’4” frame, my head stuck above the windshield, great for spotting mini-skirted co-ed’s while cruising around the University of Dayton campus.
Meanwhile there were a few other good things happening around the world to partially offset some of the bad things. For example, the wonderfully funny comedy,
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In debuted on
NBC.
The Winter Olympics in Grenoble France were held, with speedy Jean-Claude Killy capturing three gold metals in downhill skiing.
Madison Square Garden in New York City opens, home to the Knicks, Rangers and NIT Tournament, won in that inagural year by the UD Flyers, led by forward Don May, as they beat
Kansas 61-48.
The American movie
Planet of the Apes was released featuring Charlton Heston and written by Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame
The rock band Steppenwolf released
Born to be Wild, which became the theme song for the movie Easy Rider the following year. Both are among my favorites.
The semiconductor company
Intel was founded, contributing to the advent of the personal computer and smart phone.
Detroit Tiger Denny McLain becomes the first baseball pitcher to win 30 games in a season since 1934. He remains the last to accomplish the feat. I think he’s in jail now for racketeering, extorsion and drug-dealing!
Boeing officially rolls out its new
747. The giant plane's last commercial flight just occurred a few weeks ago after 50 years.
The movie
Bullitt was introduced starring Steve McQueen and his fast, green Mustang.
The year finally ended on a very positive note with U.S. spacecraft
Apollo 8 orbiting around the
Moon. Astronauts
Frank Borman,
Jim Lovell and
William A. Anders become the first humans to see the
far side of the
Moon and planet
Earth as a whole.
50 years gone by and still the consequential memories from 1968 are hard to forget. Glad to have survived that crazy year - and every year since. Just like being the only one of us three in that Freshman Orientation to survive!
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