Pat Daharsh sends me wonderful online sites. Today she sent this one.
Forty years ago in 1969, I was practically a newly wed.
On July 20th, while I was home on summer vacation from my teaching job, one of the greatest achievements of all time occurred when American Astronaut Neil Armstrong made the first step on the moon.
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Opposition to the Vietnam war increased this year as antiwar demonstrations and demands for the withdrawal of United States troops swelled.
Music of the time included the Doors, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin and the Beatles.
A music festival, "WOODSTOCK" took place on a New York Farm on August 15th to August 17th with 400,000 plus music fans attending.
The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Crosby Stills Nash and Young and others performed live.
The anti-war sentiment was reflected in the fashions worn at Woodstock.
The long haired anti-establishment youth wore military jackets adorned with peace signs. That was some of what was going on in this country in 1969.
When we write about our lives, we want to include historical events as well. While I was not at Woodstock, I did see Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon thanks to television. I remember how I felt and what people were saying about this phenomenal happening in space. Some skeptics said it had not really happened. They didn't believe it because they did not see it with their own eyes. It was on TV, but folks knew many things on TV were not true.
I did know the horrors of the Vietnam war which we saw every night on television, because I knew a neighbor who was killed there. Our lives are shaded by historical events and what is happening in our country and in the world at the time.
Let me make a suggestion. If you are writing about your life, make
a list of ten historical events that have taken place in your lifetime.
As you think about these events, try to remember what you were doing at the time or where you were when it happened. Do you remember when you heard that JFK was killed? Do you remember where you were when the Challenger exploded? How did it make you feel?
Click on this site and learn about your history. http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/
Showing posts with label sixties music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sixties music. Show all posts
Friday, June 12, 2009
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Music Makes Memories
I found a treasure on You Tube tonight. Peter, Paul and Mary, that wonderful threesome of the sixties who sang harmony so beautifully they could bring us to tears, were there for me to download to this site, free for the taking. I'm sorry my blog isn't big enough to hold them all.
But click on the arrow in the top right corner and you can still hear them as we did on our stereos and Television sets back then.
When I think of music I most enjoyed in my life, I think the folk era was my favorite time. The Kingston Trio started it all, but thanks to Barry, my husband, who worked in a music and gift shop, we had albums by all the top groups and some who were not so well-known.
We lived in a mobile home on our family farm when we were first married, having been driven from our apartment by a lovely little pup's insatiable chewing habit. We cleared a patch of land to build our house. Those were happy times, filled with fun, laughter and music -- always music.
I married a music major, a musician who loved everything from jazz to classical to country. He had lived in California where the folk music scene began in the late fifties and early sixties. I was impressed when he told me he had been to the Hungry Eye and had seen the Kingston Trio live.
The sound of Peter, Paul and Mary takes me immediately to our little home back in the woods in south Georgia, surrounded by tall pines and massive oaks. Living a short distance from my parents and siblings, I was as sheltered as I had been as a child. My four older brothers continued to think of me as a "little sister" and Barry became a "younger brother" in many ways.
Weekends meant parties with friends in town, on the lake or at our house in the country. Barry played guitar and we all sang along when he played Leaving on a Jet Plane or Michael Row the Boat Ashore, or the one we all knew the words to, This Land is Your Land.
After awhile, Barry grimaced when someone requested Michael Row the Boat Ashore. He had played and sung it so often he was sick of it.
Harry Belafonte had made popular his calypso music and Barry and my brothers often sang his songs.
Music is a wonderful way to bring back memories. If you get stuck and can't think of anything in your life to write about, think of your favorite songs or performers. Try to remember how music played a part in your family or in your life as a teenager. Make a list of song titles and sing or hum each one. I'll bet you a memory will flash into your mind. Let me know if this happens to you. Leave me a comment or email me at writerlady21@yahoo.com
But click on the arrow in the top right corner and you can still hear them as we did on our stereos and Television sets back then.
When I think of music I most enjoyed in my life, I think the folk era was my favorite time. The Kingston Trio started it all, but thanks to Barry, my husband, who worked in a music and gift shop, we had albums by all the top groups and some who were not so well-known.
We lived in a mobile home on our family farm when we were first married, having been driven from our apartment by a lovely little pup's insatiable chewing habit. We cleared a patch of land to build our house. Those were happy times, filled with fun, laughter and music -- always music.
I married a music major, a musician who loved everything from jazz to classical to country. He had lived in California where the folk music scene began in the late fifties and early sixties. I was impressed when he told me he had been to the Hungry Eye and had seen the Kingston Trio live.
The sound of Peter, Paul and Mary takes me immediately to our little home back in the woods in south Georgia, surrounded by tall pines and massive oaks. Living a short distance from my parents and siblings, I was as sheltered as I had been as a child. My four older brothers continued to think of me as a "little sister" and Barry became a "younger brother" in many ways.
Weekends meant parties with friends in town, on the lake or at our house in the country. Barry played guitar and we all sang along when he played Leaving on a Jet Plane or Michael Row the Boat Ashore, or the one we all knew the words to, This Land is Your Land.
After awhile, Barry grimaced when someone requested Michael Row the Boat Ashore. He had played and sung it so often he was sick of it.
Harry Belafonte had made popular his calypso music and Barry and my brothers often sang his songs.
Music is a wonderful way to bring back memories. If you get stuck and can't think of anything in your life to write about, think of your favorite songs or performers. Try to remember how music played a part in your family or in your life as a teenager. Make a list of song titles and sing or hum each one. I'll bet you a memory will flash into your mind. Let me know if this happens to you. Leave me a comment or email me at writerlady21@yahoo.com
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