Boomer Streaming

Back in the day, Don McLean sang: “there we were all in one place, a generation lost in space”. . . Then, recently, I heard Simon and Joan singing : “nor is it strange that the changes upon changes are more or less the same; after changes, we are more or less the same. and it all comes back to me now:

Kangaroo Howdy Doody then Elvis RayCharles . . . Kennedy said moon landing by ’69, but the answer’s blowin’ in the wind, saith Dylan, Baez, Peter Paul and Mary. . . . Then along comes Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma, but then the Birmingham jail. . . by ’n by as push comes to shove. . . March on Washington,Lincoln Memorial dream: “all God’s children” together . . . but that’s not the whole story. . . President John F. Kennedy dead in Dallas (Where were you when the news broke?) . . .when Walter Cronkite took off his glasses at one o’clock November 22, 1963. . .I heard the news in a seventh grade classroom, from our school principal, Sister Georgia. She said, “He had ‘em backed up against the wall.” . . . speaking about JFK v. Khruschev and the Soviets during in the Cuban missile crisis. But life goes on. . . Warren Commission Great Society LBJ and Civil Rights Act. . . Malcom X. . . Hard day’s night but Sinatra sang its a very good year . . . Eleanor Rigby, ballad of Green Berets, SixDayWar, Black Power, Thurgood Marshall but Dr. King assassinated in Memphis after being warned with a phone call from an “ugly voice” the night before. Then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, Robert F Kennedy shot in L.A. . . the the Chicago Democrats fiasco: boomer kids in Grant Park. . . but hey, turn on, tune in, drop out. . . then Leary-eyed in San Francisco, where crooners had left their heart, and hippies tripped in Haight Ashbury. . . meanwhile back at the motor city. . . along came Motown, Aretha, Smoky Robinson, Four Tops, Drifters. . . then in ’69 first troops out of Vietnam. . . celebration in Yasgur’s field, Woodstock, flower power, good luck with that! . . . three days, man! CSNY singing Joni’s song. . .then there’s Neil Armstrong’s “one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind”, thanks to visionary JFK, back in the day. But just when you think you’ve finally got it made, bad news comes knockin’ at your college gate: Kent State “four dead in Ohio.” and later, Altamont. . .

. . . and Nixon bombing Laos, Cambodia. . . kinda like trump bombing the middle East. But I digress. I mean, hey! It’s not all bad. We’re like a fiddler on the roof, just trying to stay alive . . . . .and the Beegees agreed. Meanwhile back in DC, Nixon shut down the gold window . . . just before his dirty tricks backfired on him. . . unlicensed “plumbers” in the Watergate. Then, as if that weren’t bad enough, we’re waitin’ in line for gas, coast to coast, then the Pentagon papers, double digit inflation. . . Sam Ervin Senate Watergate committee. . . but the good news was: Sadat/Begin peace, good for a while. . . Even so, we seem to have lost our way, starting back in the day . . . dot.com fiasco and, and. . . where were you on 9/11? and as if that wasn’t bad enough. . . the MBS and CDO’s fiasco oon Wall Street in the 2008 crash. All ye baby boomers out there, my compatriots, we just have to view the world through faith-colored glasses . . . even though it all went wrong, we stand before the Lord of Song. . . (and of all history) with nothing on our tongues but Hallelujah! King of Soul