Saturday, January 28, 2012

Beatniks, war and music

It was the mid-sixties and Beatniks were a phase. There were these clubs in Milwaukee so Prom night we drove to downtown Milwaukee to see some performances. They were always dressed in black from head to toe. They would recite poetry in these coffee houses where the smoke was so thick. They had their own kind of speaking, everything was “cool” or "okay daddy-o."

We didn’t know what they were saying but some made reference to the war in Vietnam. That was one situation that tore the country apart. The draft was reinstated so a few of our classmates where called to duty and never came back.

When Lyndon Johnson took office after Kennedy was shot he thought our staying in the war would help keep Vietnam out of communism. That was one war we could never win.

It was a time of unrest here in this country. People were protesting against the war, they even took to burning the flag. Some boys who were about to be drafted crossed over into Canada to avoid being sent to fight a war they didn’t believe in.

With the 60’s came the flower children who stood for “peace”. They would live in communes as one big happy family. Thinking back now there was so much happening in the 60’s and early 70’s.

The Vietnam War ended in 1975, with far too many lives lost.

We had Elvis and, of course, the Beatles. Back then we had records — either albums or single play. We had a record store downtown and a Saturday afternoon included a walk to the “Malt Shop” and the record store to listen to the latest hits. The store had several booths that you could go in and put headphones on to listen to a song before you paid $1 for a "45" and $5 for an album.

One time my friends and I were asked to leave because we tried to get too many kids in the booth!

I guess that’s why it still blows my mind when I see your ipods. We went from record to eight track tapes, cassettes, disks and the infamous ipod.

The first computers were the size of a large room and they had so many dials on them you’d have to be a rocket scientist to know how to use them.

No comments:

Post a Comment