1969 was the year in which I graduated from 8th grade and in the fall started high school.
Richard Nixon was inaugurated as the 37th president that year.
In July, the Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. walk on the moon.
The World Trade Center had not yet been built.
August saw more than half a million people gather in the small upstate town of Bethel, New York (near Woodstock, NY).Performers include Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Jefferson Airplane and Sly and the Family Stone.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was THE movie to see. Through the lens of my 14-year-old self, Paul Newman‘s eyes might as well have been a subplot. 😉
ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) goes online in December,
connecting four major US universities. Designed for research,
education, and government organizations, it is the foundation upon
which the Internet will eventually be built.
Children’s Television Workshop introduces Sesame Street.
A U.S. postage stamp cost $.06 cents.
A 45 was a small record.
There was still hope for the Beatles to get back together.
We rented phones from A.T. & T.
We were still listening to vinyl lp’s.
AIDS only came after the word BAND.
Lucy graduates this week. The world she is going into is so very different than the one I faced in 1969.
The year she was born, George Bush was the 41st president. Today, his son, George W. Bush is the 43rd president.
NASA grounded all space shuttles last year after the Discovery had similar problems to the ones that caused the Columbia disaster.
There is a hole where the World Trade Center once stood. The world’s largest building is the Taipei 101 in Taiwan.
Last year we saw The Who and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in concerts. (the boomer audience could not have afforded concerts at today’s prices)
In her lifetime. . .
Iraq has always been a problem.
Paul Newman has always made salad dressing.
"Ctrl + Alt + Del" is as basic as "ABC."
Bert and Ernie are old enough to be her parents.
Today a postage stamp costs $.41 cents.
A 45 is a gun.
"You mean Paul McCartney had a band before Wings??" 😉
Cell phones have always existed.
She has never owned a record player and has never heard of an 8-track.
Her lifetime has always included AIDS.
In spite of all this, I look forward to her future. She is bright and caring and smart as a whip. She is secure in who she is and what she wants to do.
At her age, I was still naive, optimistic and hopeful. She is savvy, confident . . . and hopeful.
I have always been an artist, she has always been a writer.
I pray for her constantly, as I do for all four of my kids. I pray for God’s protection over her life. I pray she will continue to learn and grow. I pray for the world she and her generation are inheriting.
I pray she will know her Creator.
Because she is my daughter, she has a very Cuban side also. She knows the significance of "90 miles." She knows who Ché is and why we don’t like him. She recognizes music by Miguel Matamoros, Beny Moré, and Willy Chirino. She can make arroz con pollo. She can quote Jose Marti, and she’ll be looking stylish and beautiful in the gorgeous guayabera dress we got her in Miami for graduation. (thank you, Maggie!)
And selfishly, I pray that in her lifetime, hers will be the generation who will definitely see a free Cuba. 😉
Congratulations, Lucy!
Congratulations, Lucy, the world is yours!
Bravo to Lucy. Also our Congratulations & Mazel Tov. May all of your dreams come true.Love, Lee & Steve Laden xoxoxoxoxoxo
Three cheers for Lucy! By the way, you look just like your mom:)
Y’all make me smiley and teary all at the same time, what with your humor and your sentimentality.My formative years (ages 8-13) were spent in Key West, where most of my best friends were Cuban, and you didn’t have to be a millionaire yuppie to live there. My freshman year at Georgia Tech, my roommate in the dorm was a Cuban who was so cerebral, he was scary-smart. Point being, I feel a connection to Cubans that shapes how I view current events, vis-a-vis Cuba.
I would eat rocks if bollos were my dessert. I haven’t had them in 20+ years, but remember buying them from Cuban vendors all over Key West for scant pocket change. Cuban mixes? Best sammiches, ev-ah!
Keep up the good work, Lucy! And thanks, as always, Marta.
Um, just to clarify, I was in Key West from 1973 to ’78…before it was the focal point of myriad random strangeness.
oh marti – I’m walking down memory lane, seeing that pic of you -yikes, were we ever really that young?I totally dig yr skillful comparison of our adolescent world & what Lucy faces…sigh.