"Succession" An Outstanding Novel by Herbert Lobsenz

I just completed reading an outstanding novel by Harper Prize Winner author Herbert Lobsenz.  This book is an awesome page turner. I relaxed on Sunday morning picked up the book and spent 6 1/2 hours reading this splendid story that has the back drop of the 60s. The novel takes place at the end of the Kennedy Camelot period.   The main character is Jake Garrison who is tasked to take care of his dying father who wants nothing but to die with dignity and asks Jake for his assistance.  Jake is a paranoid individual that is a New York big business hatchet man who becomes a partner to a sleazy associate. His associate asks Jake to downsize Kennsington Typewriters, a once successful but now failing company.  Jake's wife, Diane, is carrying his  child but not sure if it is his.    Who can you trust?  What side are these characters on as they try to out manipulate one another?  Excellent reading and definitely a quality page turner with a few twists and turns.  I highly recommend this to all my followers of The 60s Official Site. 

 

I Remember March 1965 - It Was Cold

Looking back at March 1965 I recall the entire month was cold in my town of Circleville, Ohio.  As I sit here on my computer, today is March 5 and the temperature in Carrollton TX will reach 74 but on March 5, 1965 the high temp was 55 and in Circleville, Ohio it was 33 with a low of 22.

I was a high school junior back then and most of us walked to school.  Buses did not bus as many students back then as they do today.  It was definitely a brisk and cold walk to Circleville High School during the month of March. 

The civil rights demonstrations were in full swing back then and I recall seeing on TV Some 200 Alabama State Troopers clash with 525 civil rights demonstrators in Selma, Alabama.  I probably didn't understand it so much back then but it still shocked me.  Also around the same time we sent our first combat troops to Vietnam while the radio was playing the number one song "My Girl" by The Temptations.  It was the beginning of uneasy times of the 60s decade.

Still my world was the small town of Circleville as it was with the majority of students in my high school.  Spring was coming and shenanigans were in the horizon as soon as the weather breaks.  It turns out that the entire month of March 1965 remained cold and the warm weather will not arrive until next month when jockey straps will once again be raised on the flag pole on the football field.

The number one songs for the month of March 1965 including "My Girl" were "Eight Days a Week" and "Stop in the Name of Love."   You can listen to the most popular songs on the radio at the time on Soundtrack of the 60s where Neal Stevens plays the most popular songs from that month and recalls the times of March 1965.

The Year is 1969 and the Month is January

Looking back to January 1969 with Vietnam going at full force with over 550,000 troops serving in the southeast Asian country, my most vivid memory was the Rose Bowl game played on January 1st.  The grand daddy of all bowl games featured #1 Ohio State against #2 University of Southern Cal with running back O.J, Simpson.  The Ohio State Buckeyes had Rex Kern at quarterback, a graduate from Lancaster High School of Lancaster, Ohio.  When the dust had settled the Trojans had five turnovers, two by Simpson, as the Buckeyes rolled over the Trojans 27-16.  Kern was named player of the game. 

On January 12, Super Bowl III was played and quarterback Joe Namath, predicted his Jets would defeat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts.  Namath lived up to his prediction as the Jets stunned the odds makers and the Colts 16-7.

The Top Ten TV shows for the 68-69 season were;

1. Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In

2. Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.

3. Bonanza

4. Mayberry R.F.D.

5. Family Affair

6. Gunsmoke

7. Julia

8. The Dean Martin Show

9. Here's Lucy

10. The Beverly Hillbillies

 

The #1 song for the entire month of January 1969 was Marvin Gaye's I Heard It Through the Grapevine. This great song with one of the best voices in Motown history actually spent 7 weeks at #1.  It peaked on December 14, 1968 and remained there throughout the remainder of December and  the month of January.

 

Other great songs from the month of January were:  Crimson and Clover/Tommy James & The Shondells, I'm Gonna Make you Love Me/Diana Ross & Supremes & The Temptations, B.J. Thomas' singing Hooked on a Feeling, Brooklyn Bridge's Worst that Could Happen and Elvis with If I Could Dream plus so many more outstanding sounds from the month of January 1969

 

On The 60s Official Site, on our monthly show  Soundtrack of the 60s, DJ Neal Stevens plays the popular songs from this month January 1969.  These are the songs you listened to on the radio back then.  You can listen to it now by clicking here.  This popular show and great music will remain on the website until February 1 when we will zoom back to another year with a featured month of February.

What Happened to Christmas as I Remember It?

Christmas time is my favorite time of the year.  As we age we look more back in time and instead of forward.  I think the reason for this is that our memories of  fun events are etched more vividly in our memory bank when we were young. I recall living in Ohio during the 50s & 60s how we hoped and prayed for a White Christmas. It just did not seem like Christmas unless it snowed.  Maybe it was Bing Crosby song and movie "White Christmas" that made us wish for it.  I also remember the TV shows that had a Santa Claus that read letters from young boys and girls and on Christmas Eve you would see him pack his bag and turn out the lights to end that year's show.  You knew he was on his way that night to your house to bring the goodies.  Do you remember special Christmas programs during the season.  Never were the shows called holiday shows.  These special presentations added so much more to the excitement of the season.  You see a few of these programs now but not many.  Why?  I know but you figure it out. 

I recall the Christmas season was truly a great time of charity and love and I believe it still is with one exception.  The assault from minority section of the population is something we never experienced during the 1960s.  Christmas Day  is a federal holiday and has been since 1870 when President Ulysses D. Grant made it a legal holiday.

I recall how the expression Merry Christmas was given with no hesitation not too long ago.  I also remember how we celebrated the season in our schools with musical assemblies. Christmas decorations  including the Nativity scene  were seen throughout the city without a complaint.  Today it is norm to try to remove a special meaning of the celebration when it offends just a few persons. that over 90% of the U.S. population recognizes.   I believe in freedom of religion not freedom from.  

Controversy and criticism continues in the present-day, where some Christian and non-Christians have claimed that an affront to Christmas (dubbed a "war on Christmas" by some) is ongoing. In the United States there has been a tendency to replace the greeting Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays. Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have initiated court cases to bar the display of images and other material referring to Christmas from public property, including schools. Such groups argue that government-funded displays of Christmas imagery and traditions violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits the establishment by Congress of a national religion. In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Lynch vs. Donnelly that a Christmas display (which included a Nativity scene) owned and displayed by the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island did not violate the First Amendment but in November 2009, the Federal appeals court in Philadelphia endorsed a school district's ban on the singing of Christmas carols.  What a shame.  We sang them in our school as part of the Christmas program.  Today due to trying not to offend anybody, the Christmas vacation iss now called Winter Break in the public schools. 

In the private sphere also, it has been alleged that any specific mention of the term "Christmas" or its religious aspects was being increasingly censored, avoided, or discouraged by a number of advertisers and retailers. In response, the American Family Association and other groups have organized boycotts of individual retailers. In the United Kingdom there have been some minor controversies, one of the most famous being the temporary promotion of the Christmas period as Winterval by Birmingham City Council in 1998. There were also protests in November 2009 when the city of Dundee promoted its celebrations as the Winter Night Light festival, initially with no specific Christmas references.

 

The attack has also gone to cable TV on Comedy Central on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart who in most cases has no appeal to the baby boomers.  His appeal is for the younger generation who seem to admire him and look at his show as real news. It has become a pitiful situation when he sells what he shovels as news and comedy. 

 

I remember the smiles, the laughter, the wide eyes of amazement from the young children, beautiful decorations and more importantly  the real reason we celebrate Christmas,   My God help us never to forget what we are celebrating and help us defend the true meaning of Christmas and our right to celebrate it.  Merry Christmas to all even to non believers.

Recalling November 1966

I had just graduated from high school in June and still not sure what path to take.  I was torn between college, working and the military but in November 1966 I made a road trip to a Kansas college with a friend who wanted to see his girlfriend whom I had graduated with.  I did not seek permission from home and my parents reported me missing after a couple of days.

My friend and I stayed in the dorm room of one student we met while there.  I immediately got a taste of college life without attending a class at that time of my life.  I do recall waiting outside a building for my friend's girlfriend to come out and an attractive girl came by and kissed me passionately and said "Hello Adam, awww, you are not Adam." Shockingly but with a smile I could only say "I can be." 

At any rate we made it home through a snow storm with the Ohio Highway Patrol looking for us.  On the way home Big Bear Supermarkets called my home and wanted me to start work the next day. Which I  began my job a couple of days late as the frozen foods manager.  I left JC Penneys for Big Bear Supermarkets for more money.  Less than a year later I will be in Vietnam.

November 1966 events were going all around me without notice but I do remember that actor Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of California and the big news was  Edward Brooks of Massachusetts becoming the first African-American elected to the Senate since Reconstruction.  Being from Ohio the re-trial of the Sam Sheppard case was the big news.  He was acquitted this time around.  It was also the basis for TV series of "The Fugitive."  Similarity was the fact Sam Sheppard's wife, Marilyn had been murdered and he had been convicted the first time in 1954.  The second time around he was defended by F. Lee Bailey.

Music was great that month as was the entire year of 1966.   Great songs like 96 Tears by ? & The Mysterians, Poor Side of Town with Johnny Rivers, Jimmy Ruffin's What Becomes of the Brokenhearted and Reach Out I'll Be There by The Four Tops just to name a few.

This month on Soundtrack of the 60s on The 60s Official Site, DJ Neal Stevens plays the songs we listened to in November 1966.  A great year and a great month of memories.

I Remember October 1968

Looking back to October 1968 the one event that remains etched in my mind is the Detroit Tigers defeating the St Louis Cardinals 4 games to 3 in the World Series. Also the Vietnam war waged on as I was there in Phu Bai, RVN  when  Armed Forces Radio carried the news that because of progress in the Paris peace talks, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced to the nation that he has ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1. Perhaps the war's end was in sight and we could come home and now we know it lasted another 5 years.

The Olympics were being held in Mexico City and black American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their arms in a black power salute after winning, respectively, the gold and bronze medals in the Olympic men's 200 meters. 

It was a very trying time where violent protests of the Vietnam War were being waged as young men were dying in Vietnam but also there were positive happenings as well. Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission (Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walter Cunningham). Mission goals include the first live television broadcast from orbit and testing the lunar module docking maneuver.

The music of the era was beginning to change to a more heavy guitar influenced rock.  During October of 1968, the top songs of the month were:  Hey Jude by the Beatles, Fire by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown,  People Got to be Free by The Rascals, Hush by Deep Purple, Time Has Come Today by the Chamber Brothers and Midnight Confessions by The Grass Roots.  Hey Jude was to become the top hit for the entire 60s decade.  The song credit to Lennon-McCartney.  The song evolved what was suppose to be Hey Jules to comfort Lennon's son during his parents divorce.  This classic hit from the Beatles actually was released in August 1968 and remained at #1 for nine weeks.  It was the first single recorded on the Beatles' Apple Label. 

You can listen to the best of October 1968 by checking out Soundtrack of the 60s.  Each month Neal spins the best of the current month and a year from the 60s decade plus your requests and dedications.

August 1963 Rocks as I Remember It

The summer of 1963 was the break between my freshman and sophomore year of high school and much of it remains etched in my memory.  The Vietnam issue was beginning to take focus.  Although our presence was only minimal as only advisers, the country started to make headlines.  At the time I did not know where or what Vietnam was.  The country was demonstrating anti-American sentiment and monk Buddhists were committing suicides by burning themselves in protest of Ngo Dinh Diem's government. We know the rest of the story as the years progressed.  All of this did not matter to me as I was more interested in my world of Circleville, Ohio.  We were a small town but it was the entire world to me and my friends.

I do recall the Kingsmen's song Louie Louie was released and was labeled obscene by many radio stations.  The song was not obscene and it leaped up on the charts to the top position because of those rumors. Kids our age just loved to give our parents fits as we made them think it was raunchy.  Even if it did contain the lyrics  suggested, it would be very tame compared to what the kids listens to today.

As far as televison goes, do you recall the TV show What's My Line on CBS? Hosted by John Charles Daly and with panelists Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis, and Bennett Cerf, On August 8, the Kingston Trio were the mystery guests.  I recall my mother would not miss an episode of that show so since we only had one TV I was forced to watch that show.

Another great event of the month, looking at it in a teenager' prospective, was the release of Alan Sherman's #2 hit Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah.  Of course there were other great hits for  the month which consisted of  Fingertips by Stevie Wonder, My Boyfriend's Back by the Angels, Martha & the Vandellas' hit Heatwave and of course the Tyme's classic So Much in Love.

The most significant historical event was Martin Luther King Jr's I Have a Dream Speech delivered in Washington DC on August 28, 1963 during the civil rights movement.  It has been labeled one of the best if not the best oratories of all time.

We remember August 1963 on Soundtrack of the 60s of the 60s Official Site as DJ Neal Stevens plays the hits from that month and delivers the key headlines of that period.  Join him to share some of the fun this month as he plays the same songs you listened to in August 1963.