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Formative year
- Thread starter slobake
- Start date
I watched the Exorcist in a dark empty apartment and on mushrooms. I recommend that too.
Getting back to the OP...
I was 9 in 1968, and I have some pretty strong memories of the time...
My parents were politically active, in the anti-war and civil-rights movements. We had a giant McCarthy For President poster in our first floor window. Our next-door neighbors had George Wallace bumper stickers.
I remember seeing the TV on in the morning after Bobby Kennedy was killed--the TV was never on in the morning. After Dr. King was killed may be my earliest memory of my father cursing (at something other than the kids...) Then the city burned.
In the years that followed, there were more marches and demonstrations, and more demonstrators crashing at the house. My older brothers came of draft age, and things got tense.
Side note: Around 1986, I interviewed Eddie Adams, the photographer who shot the second photograph, of General Loan shooting the prisoner. At the time, he had never publicly discussed the circumstances surrounding the picture. For whatever reason, he told me the whole story.
I was 9 in 1968, and I have some pretty strong memories of the time...
My parents were politically active, in the anti-war and civil-rights movements. We had a giant McCarthy For President poster in our first floor window. Our next-door neighbors had George Wallace bumper stickers.
I remember seeing the TV on in the morning after Bobby Kennedy was killed--the TV was never on in the morning. After Dr. King was killed may be my earliest memory of my father cursing (at something other than the kids...) Then the city burned.
In the years that followed, there were more marches and demonstrations, and more demonstrators crashing at the house. My older brothers came of draft age, and things got tense.
Side note: Around 1986, I interviewed Eddie Adams, the photographer who shot the second photograph, of General Loan shooting the prisoner. At the time, he had never publicly discussed the circumstances surrounding the picture. For whatever reason, he told me the whole story.
Great post Mysterion. Did you write an article on the interview? Is their a link where we could read it? If not can you tell us anything about it?
Thanks.
Then as now, I was a freelance writer, and I had a very sweet gig writing for a Vietnam veteran's magazine--with the folly of youth, I didn't realize how good it was.
The Eddie Adams interview was part of a cover feature I did about war photographers--I also did one about war journalists, and both were really great experiences for a young writer. I met and spoke with a lot of interesting people, and made some interesting friendships. Unfortunately, none of it is online. If I ever get it together to make my website, I may dig up and scan the paper copies. Or possibly not--A portfolio that goes back that far isn't really a bonus these days.
A few random recollections from those interviews...
Speaking with the very aristocratic Arnaud de Borchgave, then the editor of the very-conservative Washington Times, in his office high above the newsroom. To date, he's the only interview subject who has ever sent me a thank-you letter after publication. Naturally, I hit him up for a job. His office directed me to HR.
Smoking Cambodian bud smuggled in camera cases by photographer Tim Page, in his hotel room in Georgetown, being regaled with his adventures all over the world. Page was the model for one of the motorcycle-riding photogs in Apocalypse Now. We became sorta-pals, and he sent me postcards from everywhere, for quite a few years. He's a pretty interesting character, and we had fun hanging out when he was in DC.
The one other thing I recall about the Eddie Adams interview was his ongoing mixed feelings about the famous picture. General Loan, after all, was actually a US-ally, and Adams was maybe more hawkish on the war effort than many younger journalists. Adams always felt that he had contributed to a situation that followed Loan for the rest of his life, as he became the face of the brutality of war. Loan came to the US in the 70s, and ran a pizza parlor in Northern Virginia. Adams was in some way in touch with him, though I honestly don't recall the details. I considered trying to get an interview with Loan, but didn't pursue it.
[EDIT] On reflection, I can relate this about the Adams interview: As with many seminal photos, it was very much a matter of accident. Adams saw something happening on the street--I believe it was in Saigon--and he raised his camera, and he shot. He didn't really give a second thought to what he'd just seen, or to the possible impact of the picture. He just dropped off the undeveloped film at his news bureau at the end of the day as usual. Only in the morning when he saw the picture on the front page of every newspaper did he take any pause. This sang froid was the cornerstone of my written impression of him.
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Dude, I was there!! Ok, just a similar memory. . . friend's mom was single and she had no parental control,"I know you guys are smoking weed down there!" "STF up mom - and shut the door!"
Damn ... you really were there ! We were in an attic though. Could barely stand up with out hitting my head. You would have busted through the roof !
1983 was huge for me. I was 12 years old and living in the country outside Ann Arbor. Just going to school, riding my bike, setting things on fire, etc. then me and my best friend discovered a DJ called The Electrifying Mojo on a station out of Detroit late one night and we immediately plunged headlong into early hip-hop and breakdancing, alongside all the Zepplin and Van Halen.
Yes, Mojo and the Mothership!! We need a thread on "things I started on fire as a kid".
I'm a borderline pyro.
We are of the same vintage. 68 was definitely not a slow news year. I started high school that year, being in the Chicago area, the Democratic convention and the ensuing "police riot" had everyone politicized. These were young people getting their heads bashed in on the street, just a few miles from where I sat watching it on our new color TV. People were scared and angry. (For a taste of the madness, find the video of Robert F Buckley and Gore Vidal coming to blows during an interview. And these are the intellectuals!) The early teenage years are pivotal for everyone, but having the world descending into chaos at the same time your homones are surging is... memorable. And scary.
We thought we were going to cook hotdogs in the woods...probably burned down 40-50 acres. IT was an odd feeling driving with my mom and hearing her chirp on about, "it's a shame somebody burned that field down. I hope they catch them!"
We thought we were going to cook hotdogs in the woods...probably burned down 40-50 acres. IT was an odd feeling driving with my mom and hearing her chirp on about, "it's a shame somebody burned that field down. I hope they catch them!"
I torched about an acre or so. Tossed a trash bag on a little fire ... it became a big fire. Mothersday 1978, she wasn't very pleased with the gift of police and firemen.
10-11 year old boys decide they will go on an all day excursion to the "lake", which is actually a cesspool. We all steal whatever food we can from the pantry at our respective homes. We make a small clearing in the 3-4' tall weeds of the field, thinking that is a good place to cook the dogs. Wrong. Nice triangular tract about 1/4 mile on each side. Burned completely around a private Catholic School there but their mowed grass kept the fire away. I acquired a life-long appreciation for how fast a wildfire can spin out of control. I thank God nobody was hurt.
Get it? "How the blazes...?" Get it? Darth is on fire, folks.
Omg! I just did it again!
Omg! I just did it again!
Although he didn't know it yet, Darths formative year was 1969.
The year Titus was born.
Hey, I might change my user name to something like 'Classic69' or something.
The year Titus was born.
Hey, I might change my user name to something like 'Classic69' or something.
