45 years ago today.

[Bugman]

I spent the day of June 4 1968 at my friend Bill's house. We watched TV, pestered his sisters, and made what mischief we could. That night his mother allowed us to set up their tent and camp out, provided we didn't leave the yard. Of course as soon as the house went dark we were off, wandering around town and avoiding the one police officer on duty. Our local PD had a reputation of being filled with Barney Fife types, as harmless as they were ineffective. We finally got a few hours sleep at the drop off point for Bill's paper route.

Just before dawn, the papers arrived. The man stepped out of his station wagon, as white as a sheet, a distant look in his eyes. Without a word, he pulled out a paper and showed us the blazing headline announcing the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Without our customary banter we rolled the papers, loaded up our bikes and set out.

Just after midnight on June 5, 1968, New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy spoke to a crowd of supporters in a ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, claiming victory in the California Presidential Primary. Taking a short cut through the hotel kitchen (against the advice of his bodyguard) Kennedy is approached by Sirhan Sirhan, a 24 year old Palestinian man. Armed with a .22 caliber revolver, he shoots the Senator in the head. Kennedy died early that morning at Good Samaritan Hospital.

The 1960s were a tumultuous time in America. Five years earlier, President Kennedy was struck down as his motorcade passed though Dealey Plaza in Dallas, and just two months before RFK died, on April 4, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated as he stood on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis. The divide in society over Vietnam was widening, and racial tensions boiling over. Every day seemed to bring news of bombings, riots, and protests turned violent. It was an often frightening time, as the nation seemed to be spinning out of control.

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[osprey825]

Bugman, you're right about the 60's being tumultuous and frightening. RFK's assassination seemed like just another event at the time. I am glad to have lived through that decade, interesting but overwhelming at times.

 

[Bugman]

Bugman, you're right about the 60's being tumultuous and frightening. RFK's assassination seemed like just another event at the time. I am glad to have lived through that decade, interesting but overwhelming at times.

I'm glad to have been around too, and it was as you say an 'interesting' decade. In the midst of all the turmoil, America reached what was then the pinnacle of technological success when Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon July 20, 1969. Another day that, in my mind, remains frozen in time.

 

[paracarl44]

We went through some bad times, but we survived.

The Moon Landing seemed to revive are spirits after the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

 

[kopfhorer]

1968 was damn scary. In light of all the political violence and the intensification of the Vietnam war that year (it was the year of the Tet offensive), there were times when my preadolescent mind wondered if there would even be a 1969.

 

[Bugman]

1968 was damn scary. In light of all the political violence and the intensification of the Vietnam war that year (it was the year of the Tet offensive), there were times when my pre adolescent mind wondered if there would even be a 1969.

Yes, 1968 was a very bad year. On January 23 the USS Pueblo was captured off North Korea. 1968 was also the year of the My Lai Massacre on March 16, although it would be 1969 before we learned about it.

 

[milagros317]

Thanks for the reminder, Bugman.
It's sad to note that Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was not executed by the state of California. The taxpayers there still support his existence in prison.