Remember 50 years ago..

Pappy

Pappy

Living the Dream
Location
Moved back to NY from Florida. 🤓 2025
​
​
​
Remember When "50 Years Ago" May 1968​
​
​
  • Topping the Billboard music charts in May of 1968 were “Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro and “Tighten Up” by Archie Bell & The Drells.
  • The first heart transplant in the UK was performed by Dr. Donald Ross and a team of surgeons at the National Heart Hospital in London. The patient, Frederick West, would survive for 46 days until dying from complications of an infection.
  • The 94th Kentucky Derby was won by Dancer's Image who finished 1½ lengths ahead of Forward Pass. Following the win, Dancer's Image would be disqualified after failing a drug test and Forward Pass would be declared the winner.
  • Jim "Catfish" Hunter of the Oakland A's hurled the ninth perfect game in Major League Baseball history, and the first in an American League game in more than 45 years.
  • Representatives of the United States and of North Vietnam met at Paris for the first time to discuss peace talks.
  • Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Company (now Panasonic) introduced what was, at the time, the world's smallest television set. The tiny device had a 1 1⁄2 inch screen and weighed 1 1/3 pounds.
  • The Beatles announced the creation of Apple Records.
  • An outbreak of tornadoes killed 70 people in the American Midwest and South. The heaviest damage was in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
  • The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency shut down Radio Americas, a station that had gone on the air in 1960 as part of a campaign against Cuba's leader, Fidel Castro.
  • Baseball's National League voted to expand to 12 teams and awarded franchises to San Diego and the first Major League Baseball team in Canada, the Montreal Expos.
  • Manchester United F.C. became the first team from England to win the European Cup soccer competition.
  • Bobby Unser wins the Indianapolis 500, driving a turbocharged Offenhauser-powered car at a record speed of 152.882 miles per hour.
(Sources: Billboard / Wikipedia)

 

That was the year i got married....dumbest thing I ever did..:(..then in "72" I had an epiphany & got a divorce....been happy ever since........:)
 
I was in Malta, maintaining the RAF's long range maritime patrols over the Mediterranean, and thanking God we were not involved in Vietnam!

Not forgotten, boys.
 
In May of 1968, right before my high school graduation, I enlisted in the Navy. Knowing that the Draft would be on me like "flys on ****", and totally scared of that, I enlisted. At high school graduation, I was called up to the stage to accept a 4-Year Perfect Attendance Award. Yes, not missing one day of school due to sickness or anything else. One thing for sure, not missing any days of school sure wasn't my idea!

Day after high school graduation, moved out of the house and into Ft Wayne and was working for a Truck Stop. Two weeks later, my Navy Recruiter calls me and says "you ready to go?". Told him, "do I have any choice of when I can go" and he said one word......"nope". So, it was off to Indianapolis and then to NTC, Great Lakes, Ill. (Navy Basic Training aka "Boot Camp"). After "Basic" graduation and a week of Leave, headed to San Diego to report to my first Navy ship. On Dec. 30, took off for my first WESTPAC Cruise to Vietnam.

Yep, 1968 was a year to remember and NOT to remember.
 
In '68' I was in the Army stationed in Panama assigned to the 518th Combat Engineers......I volunteered for Vietnam and arrived in country in Feb. of '69'.
 
I was in college on the east coast and had just met my future husband, who was stationed on the west coast and home on leave. We met on a blind date and had only one more date. The next time we saw each other in early 1969, we were getting married in three days. Yep, 1968 was a real game changer.
 
In early 1968 I was a brand newlywed and just finding out we were expecting our first baby. Hubby was in the National Guard but things in Viet Nam were really heating up. We found out sometime later that it had been decided to draft his unit. Their draft notices had been signed and were ready for mailing. But the murder of Martin Luther King made them withhold the notices and a unit from another state was drafted instead. They feared that there would be rioting in L.A. (in particular) and that the Guard would be needed here. They were to report to....can`t remember now what base....for training,but then would be sent to Viet Nam. My life could have turned out very differently if that had happened....
 
Mrs. Robinson said:
In early 1968 I was a brand newlywed and just finding out we were expecting our first baby. Hubby was in the National Guard but things in Viet Nam were really heating up. We found out sometime later that it had been decided to draft his unit. Their draft notices had been signed and were ready for mailing. But the murder of Martin Luther King made them withhold the notices and a unit from another state was drafted instead. They feared that there would be rioting in L.A. (in particular) and that the Guard would be needed here. They were to report to....can`t remember now what base....for training,but then would be sent to Viet Nam. My life could have turned out very differently if that had happened....
Click to expand...

Oh,and I also graduated high school that June. And then had my daughter on Oct. 9th,1968. It was a fun year!
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top