Monday, June 11, 2007

1967

I simply cannot believe that the "summer of love", 1967, was 40 years ago. Where have those years gone? Awhile back Ray asked me, "do you remember the first time you heard Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band?"
Of course I do.


It was almost exactly 40 years ago, June, 1967. I had just finished my Junior year of college and my boyfriend and a friend of his and I were going to pick up my sorority sister, Carol. We planned to go out to the lake and swim. When Carol met us at her door she said, "come in for a few minutes and listen to some of this new Beatles album. It's so different . . ."

We began listening and it was like nothing we had ever heard before. Something very new. At the end of each song, one of us would say, "play it again, play it again." That music is now such a part of our culture that it is hard to hear it for what it was at the time. It seemed a whole new way of writing songs. A whole new sound. They were songs about "something". I remember, especially "She's Leaving Home." It was heartbreaking and real.

Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins
Silently closing her bedroom door
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more
She goes downstairs to the kitchen clutching her handkerchief
Quietly turning the backdoor key
Stepping outside she is free.
She (We gave her most of our lives)is leaving
(Sacrificed most of our lives) home
(We gave her everything money could buy)
She's leaving home after living alone
For so many years. Bye, bye

We never made it to the lake that day. We played the album over and over until we knew the songs by heart. They have never left me. The sun went down and we sat on the floor in the dark listening until, finally, we drifted off to find food, humming "Lucy in the sky-yi with di-i-amonds. . ."

It was a sweet summer, with lots of talk of going to San Francisco (I didn't go, but that was reputedly where the action was) and working at the City Rec. Day Camp by day and hanging out with friends at night, listening to music, drinking beer, solving the problems of the world or dancing at the Cedars Club out south of town. It was a lull before the storm. We couldn't see it coming, but right around the corner the turmoil of 1968 was waiting. It was before the assassinations of MLK and Bobby Kennedy and the riots at the Democratic Convention and the election of Richard Nixon. None of my friends had gone off to Viet Nam yet. It was the summer of love and the summer of Sgt. Pepper.

Me, in 1967. Deep in conversation

11 comments:

  1. Ahh, didn't we all look so cute 40 years ago!Even 25 years ago!

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  2. I love, love, love this picture!

    Fantastic posts Terry.

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  3. OMG!! Does this post ever bring back old memories. I spent that summer in Soda Springs and couldn't wait to get back to Pocatello. The picture of you is how I remember you most.

    Thanks for the flash back.

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  4. Anonymous9:07 AM

    Love your post, but it brings back bittersweet memories. The assisinations, the riots, Nixon--what a horrible time it was. The feminist movement was so promising--and look where we are. Young women today don't really care about it. We were so young and intense. And beautiful. Just like your picture. Thanks for your memory.

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  5. Anonymous9:25 AM

    You look uber sophisticated. I was the mother of a toddler and expecting my second child, but I so remember that album. I have every song memorized. I was just telling Steve that I must get the cd because my old lp is useless.

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  6. I should give credit for the beautiful photo. It was taken by Lloyd Furniss, the ISU campus photographer and was in the college yearbook that year. I love the photo for the lighting and mood (and for making me look so good!). Look at that silhouetted face behind my head. Isn't that lovely? I'm pretty sure it was Eddie Forsman. I wonder whatever happened to him.

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  7. That's a lovely reminiscence, Terry. I can't recall the first time I heard Sgt. Pepper, but it was the soundtrack of my life during that period, as well. I think I know all the lyrics by heart, too.

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  8. I wonder how people who are college juniors today will look back on 2007. Hope you're feeling better after the previous "blah" post. You're not alone, of course.

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  9. While I recall the Summer of Love fondly, I lived in Detroit at the time and 1967 is more memorable for Detroiters as the summer of the riots.

    Love your photo.

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  10. what a great post! When Max and I married 31 years ago, 'when i'm 64" was OUR song. At the time we used to laugh because 64 seemed impossibly old to us.... now it's not too far away and seems positively young!!

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  11. Anonymous8:44 PM

    Great story, great photo, great album (I had just finished up my freshman year in college).

    Best wishes!

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