1968 in At the foot of the hill

Yesterday Papa and I joined some friends from our senior club for a trip down town to the “History Colorado” museum where the featured exhibit was “1968”.

I was around then, of course, but my world was filled with three little kids, a house on the prairie, 5-minute news on the hour (interrupting the country music) on the local radio station, and one channel of really snowy network TV where the evening news was a 15 minute background to the commotion and noise of aforesaid kids.

Of course I remember when Bobby Kennedy was shot and the riots in Chicago during the Democratic convention. I remember Nixon being elected. Horror stories from Vietnam. Many other events. Sorry to say, I was not as influenced by those events as perhaps I should have been. To me these were just isolated happenings. They were all a long way from eastern Wyoming. I didn’t know any protesters; all my friends were just too busy just trying to get by.

Yesterday I realized how important and connected all these events really were. It was a year that truly did change the world.