1966: Remembering America

Today’s iPads and smartphones may be the rule. But once upon a time, not so long ago, radio, television, and movies were all America needed to escape the constant talk of war and rumors of war. While the Bible verse mentions famine and earthquakes, the mid 60's in America included just about everything but an actual earthquake or a population decimating famine. However, the population was exposed to various deadly threats. Pick your poison in 1966, serial killers, sniper shootings, industrial accidents, blizzards, tornadoes, sometimes on the same day, and the Vietnam War. While no actual earthquake made headlines in the U.S. in 1966, the reverberation of the Civil Rights Movement left our homeland shaking, not only throughout 1966, but on into the 70's and beyond.

Despite an escalating war, notorious murderers, natural and man-made disasters, and the social unrest and discontent surrounding civil rights, there was a growing sense of enlightenment, hope, and achievement. At the center of this optimism was the United States' advances in the Space Race. As Ralph Kramden so delicately put it, "To the moon, Alice, to the moon".

In 1966, I ate Quisp (an alien) cereal for breakfast. I watched Gemini space launches on TV. This was over a decade before Close Encounters of a Third Kind, and a healthy 15 years before ET. The Space Race was on, and I was sucked in like a genie in a bottle. Three years after Kennedy's, "We choose to go to the moon in this decade…" declaration, every Gemini launch was headline news and televised live as a special event. We watched as brave men risked their lives for science, exploration, and the future of human-kind.

Your 1966 Fix will transport you back to a time, when The Beatles assured us "We Can Work it Out", the Supremes taught us "You Can't Hurry Love", and the Monkees made us all believers. Believers in America and the good we can do. Come, indulge yourself, and wander back through a very special time in America. You too will find yourself humming tunes you haven't thought of in 50 years and revisiting your own precious memories from a time not so long ago.