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November 14,
1970
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During the ten years right after high school, many of us had been
to college where we were involved
in
 all kinds of civil disobedience from mooning to
freedom rides and civil rights
or anti-war protests
─
or some of us were in Vietnam involved in the war, itself .
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Others merely watched on television, disgusted to view images of
Presidential and other assassinations, cops beating up (or even shooting, as in
Kent State) blacks (even in the '60s), flower children or other student protesters, or soldiers coming
home unappreciated (and emotionally wrecked for life)
─
or not coming home at all (except in body bags)
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While we were winning the space race, we saw the Cuban missile crisis, the
Black Panthers' uprising, the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and the beginnings of the feminist
movement and warnings on cigarette packages. We could choose among compact cars, stingrays, mustangs and
other muscle
cars, and
the music was
 changing
fast. We were amused by "campy" Batman
on TV, and we endured surfing music, the British invasion (led by the Beatles and
the Stones), Motown and later, psychedelic music and "happenings."
The
hippies started the sexual freedom revolution chanting "Make love, not
war" and, along with Timothy Leary, cheered on
an alarming rise in recreational drug use with his slogan, "Turn on, tune in,
drop out." And, of course, the decade came to an end with the biggest
"love-fest" of them all, Woodstock.
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The '60s were quite a wild ride
─
and except for that triumphant encounter with
the moon (also at the decade's end)
in July 1969
that made most Americans swell ever so
briefly with pride, they were not so "feel-good" (and
certainly not so simple) as the decade
before
─
not
at all!
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We were beginning to long for the
happy days. Time for a reunion.
Let the good time roll!
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Our first
reunion was held at the Sands Beach Club at Lido Beach, NY. The cost was
$15 per person ─ and
that included a cocktail hour, a full sit-down dinner and a live
band (inflation had not been invented yet in 1970)!
(The original Sands Beach Club location was taken
over by the County of Nassau shortly after our reunion,
along with 4 out of 5 of the private beach clubs then in Lido Beach, where the
Sands has since been operated as a catering hall for 50 years. A beach club by that
name reopened in Atlantic Beach in 1974, where it remains today, on the site of
the El Patio Beach Club. |
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We have been searching since this site
was launched in 2000 and have been unable to acquire any photos from
this reunion. (We didn't carry smartphones, then!) The closest thing we
finally got
─
in September 2012 ─
was this photo at right of the Kunkels (Gerda
Balding and Joe) preparing to go to it.
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Attention
classmates:
We are still searching for photographs taken at our
10-year reunion in 1970. If you have any, won't
you please dig 'em
out, scan 'em and e-mail 'em
to Howie?
Or if you mail prints to:
Howie Levy
252 Hickory Hollow,
Las Vegas, NV 89123,
they will be returned to you unharmed for sure. |
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Copyright
© 2000, 2012, 2020 by Howard B. Levy and 1960 Sailors Association Inc. All rights reserved.
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