It's that time of year again. Halloween is always a special time for The Little Monsters (and me too for that matter). But I'm not sure just how much longer it will remain the special thing that it has been in the past. It will always be Halloween of course, but as kids grow up they tend to see Halloween in a different way from how they probably had experienced it over their first decade or so. The Little Monster is about to turn fourteen, so I can really see many of those changes happening now. I just wrote about some of my thoughts on those changes in An Especially Eerie Halloween. And this morning (October 31st) the first thing The Little Monster did after she woke up was to come into our room, sit on our bed and say, "I'm sad. I think this might be my last Halloween." Apparently she's become aware of those changes herself. She knows that Halloween will continue of course, and she still has many Halloweens ahead of her. But she also realizes that they just won't be the same as what she's (and we've) experienced in the past. There are obviously a LOT of changes that happen around this time of life. Losing the innocent enjoyment of Halloween is an incredibly small part of those overall life changes, but the realization of it can be a sobering thought nonetheless.
The Little Monsters in 2012
But this post isn't about the sad realities of outgrowing the childlike enjoyment of Halloween. No, this post is about a very specific aspect of Halloween that has become quite a tradition for The Little Monsters and myself. It is about the strange phenomenon of Halloween Oreos! Oreos come in a dizzying array of flavors and varieties these days (a trend I chronicled in The Overwhelming Onslaught of Oreos back in 2015 and a topic that I've been meaning to revisit). At first glance this might seem like a very small and insignificant aspect of Halloween, considering all the decorating, trick-or-treating and candy involved with the holiday, but it's something that I feel is an important part of the overall celebration of Halloween for our family.
Unfortunately the annual unveiling of the Halloween Oreos hasn't been well documented in our home. I know from photographic evidence that we've been celebrating the limited edition cookies since at least 2013, and have photos of us doing so from that year, 2015 and 2018. I'm pretty sure we had them in at least some of the years I don't have photographs from, but it was during my extended period of writing hibernation, when my blogging output was extremely sparse. In both 2015 and 2018 the Halloween Oreos were written about in the posts The Overwhelming Onslaught of Oreos and Halloween Oreos, 2018 Edition.
The Little Monsters in 2013
The Little Monsters in 2015
The Little Monsters in 2018
Before we actually take a look at this year's Halloween Oreos it's probably worth mentioning that there's another very important element that goes along with the eating of the first of the Halloween Oreos. It may seem very random (and I suppose it IS), but it's what really makes the whole experience a true "tradition" for the Monsters and me. You see, before I actually bring out the package of spooky treats (the idea is to unveil them as a surprise, but by this point The Little Monsters usually know what's gong on as the process begins to unfold) I have to put on and start the "Ship of Ghouls" episode of "The Love Boat". That might not seem like a prototypical show to be watching to really usher in the Halloween season (what about "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"?) but it's what we were watching the first time I decided to make a big deal about buying Halloween Oreos and sharing them with The Little Monsters. There are a lot of other things I try to show them each year around this time, but "Ship of Ghouls" is simply a must--especially when it's time to snack on those Halloween Oreos! And, not only does the episode take place during Halloween, it also features none other than the great Vincent Price as a guest star and passenger on the Pacific Princess!
All of which brings us to the 2019 edition of Halloween Oreos. In years past I've had a tough time actually finding them in stores near us as Halloween approached. Eventually I learned that they actually come out toward the end of summer--about TWO MONTHS before Halloween. Sometimes they simply disappear from the shelves long before All Hallows Eve. It seems that by the end of October the stores are already over Halloween and looking forward to the holidays by stocking up on the seasonal varieties Winter Oreos and Peppermint Bark Oreos.
I've learned to make my Halloween Oreo purchase earlier in the season than I would normally want to. This year I got them at the end of September and had to hide them from The Little Monsters for nearly a month! Which means that I also had to resist the urge to crack into that package myself for nearly a month! I should probably mention here that The Wife tries hard to keep us a healthy family. As a result we don't really have a steady flow of snacks and sweets (junk food) coming in the house. I'm a pretty big fan of Oreos, but generally speaking, the one package of Halloween edition Oreos is usually the ONLY package of Oreos we purchase during the entire year. It's another factor that goes into making this whole experience a special one, and also adds to that feeling of it being a true tradition and not just another yummy snack treat. And here they are...
I do have to admit that The Little Monsters might have been a bit bemused--and maybe even somewhat unimpressed--when I put The Love Boat DVD in and started the episode, but once they realized what was going on and I brought out the Oreos they happily settled in for some quality pre-Halloween fun!
The Monsters decided to add whipped cream to the Oreos this year
That's pretty much all that there is to our little tradition. It might seem like a very minor thing, but it really is a big part of how The Little Monsters and I have been kicking off the Halloween season for quite some time now. I don't know how many more years we have where Halloween will be special enough to them to continue the tradition (see The Little Monster's observation at the beginning of this post). But I will try to keep it going for as long as possible...
There are only two days until October 31st, and it's been a very strange Halloween season around here. I suppose that Halloween really SHOULD be eerie and strange, but this one is not eerie and strange because of witches, ghost, goblins and things that go bump in the night. All of those things would be welcome additions to the season. No, this Halloween has been odd for different reasons. It's kind of hard to explain. I guess it's odd mainly because of my old scary enemy...Time.
You see, I loved Halloween as a kid (who didn't?). I also have always enjoyed Halloween as a grown-up--though in sort of different ways. After we had The Little Monsters that old childlike feeling of Halloween as a fun and exciting (and maybe even just a bit scary) night was back. I could enjoy the season all over again through the eyes and experiences of The Little Monsters. From picking out what costumes they would wear, to decorating the house/apartment, to going trick-or-treating and getting all that great candy, it was great to be able to kind of vicariously soak in some of the fun and excitement they were feeling.
Halloween 2012
But a funny thing happened on the way to Halloween 2019. The Little Monsters were suddenly not so little anymore. The Little Monster will turn fourteen in a few weeks and the Tiny Creature is ten. They're at the point where they are kind of aging out of the holiday (The Little Monster more so than the Tiny Creature of course). Up until last year the magic still seemed to be there, even if The Little Monster was about to become a teenager. I remember that the planning for this Halloween started pretty much as soon as the trick-or-treating and sorting of the candy was done last year. The first ideas for this year's costumes were laid on November 1st.
Then Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled around and Halloween was kind of put on the back burner for a while. Once school started in September I reminded the Monsters that Halloween wasn't very far away. When September turned to October I let them know there was only one month left. Then...nothing much happened. The Tiny Creature had some vague costume ideas, but nothing ever really materialized. The Little Monster was too busy with school, activities and friends to really put much thought into Halloween.
Suddenly there was only one week left until the big day and we realized that nobody really had any solid idea what they were going to be on the 31st. The Tiny Creature wanted to purchase a costume--which has traditionally been somewhat verboten in our household. The Monsters have usually done a good job (with a little parental help) of putting together some interesting costumes with stuff we have around the house and a few purchased additions and accessories. But with time getting short the options were getting short as well.
Another difference between this year and Halloweens past is that The Little Monsters simply don't have much free time. We used to read all our Halloween books at bedtime and watch a bunch of Halloween or related shows and movies through the course of October. But between all their homework and activities, and the fact that we generally adhere to a no-screens-during-the-week policy, there simply hasn't been time to watch too much fun stuff to get ready for Halloween. We certainly haven't seen some of our old favorites like "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein" and "Young Frankenstein" in a long time (it's been years actually, and I'd dare say that they are not really among The Monsters' favorite titles anymore). When there IS some time to watch something they have plenty of other shows that they would prefer to see. And finding the time to watch movies is especially difficult.
But that's not to say that we haven't watched ANYTHING fun this fall. Over the course of the month I've managed to sneak in a few of the shows that have been old Halloween standbys of ours. Because of their schedules not all of these shows have been seen by both Monsters, but we're doing the best we can. Here's a rundown of most of what we've seen so far: The "Ship of Ghouls" episode of "The Love Boat" (with Vincent Price!), the "Trick or Treat" episode of "CHiPs", "The Hazzardville Horror" episode of "The Dukes of Hazzard", the "Fright Night" episode of "The Brady Bunch", the episode of "The Muppet Show" with Vincent Price, the "Treehouse of Horror VI" episode of "The Simpsons", "The Paul Lynde Halloween Special" (featuring KISS!), the cartoon "Spookley the Square Pumpkin" and, of course, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". It hasn't been easy squeezing those shows in, and there's still a lot more I wish we could get to. There simply isn't enough time or opportunity to do so.
"CHiPs"
"The Love Boat"
Vincent Price in "The Love Boat"
Vincent Price in "The Muppet Show"
Watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"
While we haven't carved any pumpkins or done much decorating, we have managed to keep up a couple of other traditions. The first is more of a fall thing rather than anything specifically Halloween, but I like to take the Monsters to the grocery store to pick out a couple mini pumpkins to put on our dining room table. It's not a very impressive sight, but for whatever reason it's always a bit of a special thing that we try to do each year around this time. Well, it USED to be kind of special anyway. This year I simply never had an opportunity to take both Monsters, so The Tiny Creature and I went and picked out hers and one for The Little Monster, who had other plans that afternoon.
Our mini pumpkin/gourd dinner table centerpiece
Another activity that became a tradition a few years back (and has even been featured in a few blog posts of their own) is the annual purchase of the seasonal Halloween Oreos (see Halloween Oreos, 2018 Edition and The Overwhelming Onslaught of Oreos). Sweets in general and Oreos in particular are not things we get to bring into our house too often, so getting a package of Oreos kind of counts as a big event. When those Oreos are of the Halloween variety it becomes even more special. For some reason I've generally had a hard time finding Halloween Oreos just before Halloween. It's made for some interesting adventures as I've had to search high and low for them in an effort to not disappoint the Monsters (who am I kidding, I don't want to disappoint MYSELF!). Last year I think I was able to figure out the problem. They actually ship out and start selling the Halloween Oreos in August, a full two months before Halloween. By the time it seems appropriate to actually buy some they tend to be long gone--replaced by the holiday ones in advance of Christmas. This year I noticed the Halloween Oreos in our grocery store early. I waited until later in Spetember to pick up a package, but didn't want to wait too long. Wouldn't you know, this is the year they decided to keep them on the shelves right up until Halloween. Oh well.
Anyway, the finding and purchasing of Halloween Oreos is the first part of our little tradition. The second part is when I put on the aforementioned "Ship of Ghouls" episode of "The Love Boat" as I unveil the sweet treats to The Little Monsters. Just WHY this has become our tradition I'm not exactly sure, but it has. And I'm happy to report that we were able to get the tradition in (with both Monsters present) for at least one more year!
As I started writing this post on October 29th The Tiny Creature and The Wife were out shopping for last minute costume components at a thrift store. It now appears that the Monsters' costumes have finally been finalized. The Little Monster is going to be some sort of angel with wings and a white dress, while The Tiny Creature will be a bag of jelly beans. There's definitely still some work to be done, but hopefully they'll be able to get everything put together by the 31st. Time is getting very short. And it looks like the forecast is calling for rain on Halloween. We're crossing our fingers that we'll be able to get in a good one before we get too soaked. Who knows how many more Halloweens are going to be special ones in our household before everyone is too "grown-up" to enjoy them?
Checking out the new costume components
I mentioned earlier that we haven't done much decorating of our own. That's something I feel kind of bad about. The Little Monsters don't seem to be too bothered by it, but I do remember them enjoying making our apartment look more Halloween-y with fake spider webs and various other spooky decorations. We also have a neat witch door hanging that lights up, but it's in our storage unit and we haven't seen it for six or seven years. I think a nice way to end this post is by reporting that Mother Nature seems to have stepped in to help us out with our decorating and put us in more of a Halloween mood. Recently this giant spider spun a web and took up residence outside The Little Monsters' bedroom window. They were kind of freaked out by it (and it's hard to blame them, it IS a big spider!), but I kind of felt bad about taking the web down and/or killing the spider. It has remained and somehow survived a pretty big storm with a lot of wind and rain a few days ago. Looks like our new "friend" will be with us through Halloween!
Incredibly appropriate button I picked up at a yard sale last week
So, I was trying to think of some sort of deep, interesting, funny or pithy title for this post ("50 Happens!", "Half a Century of Monster Dad", "Monster Senior Citizen", "Monster Dad Joins AARP"...). But in the end, just stating the fact in a straightforward way seemed to be the best course of action. The title pretty much says it all.
Today's Google Doodle celebrating my birthday--thanks Google!
So, a year ago today I turned forty-nine. While I tried to comfort myself at the time by saying that I was still "in my forties", in reality it was the beginning of a year-long journey that I knew would culminate with me turning fifty. As the days and months slipped by that ending seemed to be approaching faster and faster. Today is that day. The day I turned fifty. The funny thing is that if it weren't for the human invention of the concept of time, today would be just another day. True, we all age, and I'd still be getting older and would indeed be the exact same fifty-year-old today (just without the number asociated with it)--even without our idea of "Time". But at least without clocks, calendars and the concept of time it would just be a continuous journey without the scary reminders of our aging that are birthdays. Every day would be just another day like the one before it--but just a teeny-tiny bit different. Instead we are reminded once each year that another number has been added to our age. Yesterday I was forty-nine. Today I feel the same as yesterday. But according to the calendar I have now entered a new decade of my life. I'm apparently vastly different than I was yesterday.
As a kid I enjoyed the fact that my age increased one number each year at my birthday. It meant I was getting closer to that magic world of adulthood and all the fun, money and freedom that it entailed. Then I actually did start getting into those adult years...and I wished that the numbers would stop being added to my age--or at least slow down! As the number continues to increase, and the number of years I have left decreases, it seems that the years keep going by faster and faster. One of those illogical paradoxes of time: when you're young time crawls, as you get older time flies.
Celebrating turning 40 with The Little Monster at our Back Yard Drive-In Party
Ten years ago I turned forty (an event chronicled in The Oak Street Drive-In back in 2011). That seemed like a big number at the time. I guess it's all in your perspective though. Forty seems so danged YOUNG to me now! You hear people all the time saying that "forty is the new thirty", "fifty is the new forty" and so on. It kind of seems to ring true to some extent. When I was a kid I thought people in high school looked like (and were) adults. People in their twenties were REALLY adults. And people in their thirties were...well...old. Once you got into the forties, fifties and beyond it all kind of melded together into a world of geezers with wrinkles, age spots, arthritis, thinning, grey or NO hair and a host of other symptoms of being old. When I actually got into my twenties people in their thirties didn't seem so "old". Now that I'm fifty, people in their thirties seem like kids.
And the funny thing is that, for the most part, I don't really FEEL like I'm fifty--or at least what my mind says I should be feeling like at fifty. Sure there have been a lot of changes over the years and I definitely feel a little different than I did as a kid. But I certainly don't FEEL like I'm OLD. And it seems that hitting the magic number fifty, "The Big Five-Oh", is really kind of hitting me hard. Going from the mid- to late-forties was sort of tough, but at least it was STILL the forties! I may have only entered the FIFTIES today...but I'm definitely there and there's no turning back!
I will say that, while I don't necessarily FEEL like I'm getting old, looking into the mirror has become an increasingly difficult and strange experience over the past twenty years or so. The person looking back at me in the mirror has DEFINITELY changed a lot. That person doesn't look anywhere near as young as I feel sometimes. Who IS that person and why won't he let me see the person I used to see when I looked in the mirror? Am I just in denial? Is this what everyone feels?
September 20th, 1969. That's the day I was born. I've written quite a bit about the 50th anniversary of the summer of 1969 over the past few months (the moon landing, Woodstock and all the other historic events that took place over that summer). In each post I mentioned that I wasn't actually BORN until after the summer of 1969. I think that was kind of a way to allow me to feel a little younger about myself. But in reality I was born just about a month after that summer ended (and technically I guess that September 20th is actually still considered to be part of the summer, according to the calendar). Even though I was only a newborn baby and only around for the last three months or so of the decade I've always been kind of proud to say that I was "born in the 60s". There's no doubt that I was a child of the 70s and a teenager in the 80s, but it was still true that I was BORN in the 60s. Lately I haven't been feeling quite so proud of that fact. I can say that I'm NOT a Baby Boomer. But the time has long passed since being a member of the generation that followed the Boomers, Generation X, was considered to be cool. There have been a couple more cool generations since then--Generation Y (the Millennials) and Generation Z--who have become the hip crowd. Now us Gen Xers have been relegated to old people status.
The sun rises on my fiftieth year
Well, whatever I think about it, I'm indeed fifty as of today. It's something I'll have to deal with and (hopefully) make peace with. The good news is that life still goes on. I'm still here. I still have the same interests. I still have my family. I'm still Monster Dad for our two girls (even if they're not such "Little" Monsters anymore). The bad news is that this is the year I need to schedule a colonoscopy. ...But, let's not think about that just now. For now, let's just keep thinking young. Let's just try to enjoy life--even if it starts getting harder to remember things. Even if it starts getting harder to see things. Even if it starts getting harder to hear things. Even if it starts to seem like it's getting easier and easier to act like a grumpy old man. I just have to keep the right frame of mind. I think Jimmy Durante might have said it best...
I've kind of been stuck in the past for much of this summer. Not that being stuck in the past is anything out of the ordinary for me, but this summer has been something a little different. I've been giving the summer of 1969 a lot of thought--and I wasn't even born until that summer was over! But there were simply so many things that made the summer of 1969 something kind of special that it's been worth dwelling on.
The two biggest and best-known things that happened in the summer of 1969 (news- and history-wise) were the Apollo 11 moon landing in July and the three-day Woodstock music festival in August. The first thing I find interesting about that summer is the fact that these two iconic and historical events that happened within one month of each other are kind of linked by the simple fact that they were such polar opposites of each other. One was the technological highlight of the century up to that point, and the culmination of an incredibly challenging mission started by President Kennedy back at the beginning of the decade. The other was an amazing collection of musical acts that came together for a concert that would still be remembered and celebrated fifty years later. It was also kind of like the ultimate introduction to the hippie culture that had been developing for a few years. It was a counter-culture revolution occurring at the same time as a technological and scientific revolution. And the Birkenstocks (or dirty bare feet), headbands, sunglasses and flowing, rainbow-colored clothing of the hippies could hardly seem more different from the astronauts of Apollo 11 and technicians at NASA in their horn-rimmed glasses, short-sleeved white dress shirts and pocket protectors.
I've already written about the moon landing twice (Apollo 11: T-Plus Fifty Years and That's One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Monster Dad). To be honest, I could (and almost did) write at least another one or two posts about it. I felt two posts were probably enough for the average reader and kind of held back. But there was simply so much going on in that summer fifty years ago that I had to write about it again--and of course, by bringing up that summer I ended up bringing up the moon landing once again!
One kind of important thing to mention about the summer of 1969 and my connection to it is that I hadn't actually been born yet. So why is this anniversary so important to me? Well, while I wasn't BORN yet, I was indeed finishing up my development inside of my mother's womb and would be born on September 20th, just as the summer was fading into fall. So as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of all the events of the summer of 1969 I'm preparing to "celebrate" my own fiftieth anniversary (birthday) next month. While I'm very much a child of the 1970s and 80s (my early development, childhood, adolescence and the vast majority of the kinds of things I write about here at Monster Dad happened between the mid 70s and the early 80s), I've always been kind of proud to say that "I was born in the 60s!" Sure, there were only about three months left of the decade when I made my debut in the world, but it WAS still the 1960s regardless!
I think another important thing to note is the fact that 1969 was the last year of a pretty noteworthy and tumultuous decade. Every ten years we say goodbye to one decade and welcome a new one in. Rarely does that changeover amount to much more than having to get used to using a new number to note the year as we write checks (not that anyone still uses checks anymore, but you get my point). I remember celebrating New Year's Eve with friends in 1989. I had just recently gotten out of the Army and the Berlin Wall had just fallen. It seemed like we (myself and the world) were on the verge of major changes as we entered the brave new world of a new decade. Then...it was 1990. January first was just another day and life went on. My guess is that many, many decade changes have had a similar build-up and then let down as we realized that life just goes on. Ten years after my disappointment over the big reveal of the 1990s the world was about to witness the events of Y2K! Yes, 1999 was going to turn into the year 2000! These were two very iconic years in science fiction, and that kind of lent to the excitement of Y2K (at least for me anyway). 1999 was the year that the moon was supposed to be thrown out of orbit by a huge explosion (according to the 1970s show "Space:1999"). Of course, Prince had been singing about partying like it was 1999 since the early 80s. And 2000 was simply a year that always seemed SO far in the future (even in 1999!) that it was kind of hard to comprehend. And, while "2001: A Space Odyssey" (both the book and the movie) took place a year later, it was certainly using the future-power of the idea of the year 2000 in its title. But once we realized that nothing really bad happened after the clocks clicked over from 1999 to 2000 it ended up just being another number change between decades. The summer of 1969 really was one of the few times I can think of when a change of decades really meant something. All of the various memorable events of that summer can be seen as the heavens saying goodbye to the 60s and noting the changeover to the 1970s that would happen in just a few months. I could be overthinking this, but it really seems that 1969 changing to 1970 meant at least a little bit more than most decade ends.
If the moon landing and Woodstock were the only things that the summer of 1969 were remembered for it would be enough to make the 50th anniversary something worth noting. But there were other things that happened that summer to make it even more noteworthy and memorable. If Apollo 11 and Woodstock were the polar opposites of life in the 1960s, much of the news and entertainment of that summer kind of reflected that battle between culture and counter-culture that they represented. Vietnam was a long war that spanned the 1960s and 70s, so it wouldn't really be fair to say the summer of 1969 was remembered for the war more or less than any other time. But the counter-culture of the time (and pretty much the rest of the country as well) was really starting to get frustrated by what was happening in Vietnam by this time. The "homefront" had really changed from WWII (and even Korea). More and more people were becoming disenchanted (not sure if that's the right word to encapsulate the feelings of the time) with what was going on. And unfortunately the soldiers who were sent to fight in Vietnam really kind of took the brunt of that disenchantment. Instead of being thanked for their service and having their emotional scars treated with the same weight as their physical wounds, they were unfairly blamed for the war and not welcomed back home as they should have been. One specific event related to Vietnam that kind of encapsulates the growing anti-war movement of the time that did happen during the summer of 1969 was when Muhammad Ali was convicted of evading the draft, just four days after the euphoria of the moon landing.
While the war in Vietnam was raging on the other side of the world, wars over civil rights, equal rights and gay rights were raging in the United States. Less than two months before the "Three Days of Peace & Music" message of Woodstock the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village brought a lot of attention to the gay rights movement. Needless to say, not everything newsworthy that happened during that summer was positive or fun stuff. I think the reason we have been celebrating the moon landing and Woodstock so much this summer, while not really mentioning some of the other events, has to do as much with their positive messages as their historical significance. It's a lot more fun to listen to the music of Woodstock and watch footage of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon than it is to ruminate over riots and unrest. That's not to say that the other events were any less important to history, just that they are less fun and possibly more painful to reflect upon.
Speaking of less-than-fun, yet important newsworthy events, there's one more BIG event I want to mention from the summer of 1969. This one was probably as big of a story at the time as the moon landing and Woodstock. But it's not something we're really "celebrating" during this time of noting the 50th anniversary of that summer. It's something that (like everything else that summer) happened before I was born, but became a part of my life every bit as much as the other, more celebrated events. It actually happened between the moon landing and Woodstock (and for some reason that seems immensely appropriate and important for context). It was the Charles Manson murders. Over two nights Manson and his "family" (a very different take on the "hippie culture" from what would be represented at Woodstock) murdered actress Sharon Tate and seven other people. That story surely changed the tone of the summer of '69, and it would be one that would continue well into the 1970s and beyond. I wasn't really old enough to know about the story until Manson and other members of the family were already many years into their prison sentences. But those story lines were always reported on. I remember hearing about Manson's annual parole hearings (which ALWAYS seemed to get a lot of news coverage, even decades after the murders) and watching the film "Helter Skelter" (1976) on TV. Since I didn't have actual memories of the original time of the murders my feelings about Manson were colored by pop culture and the seemingly constant reporting on his "kookiness". When he finally passed away in 2017 I was a bit confused and possibly a bit disturbed to find myself feeling just a bit of sadness over the news. I had mourned the passing of celebrities whose works meant a lot to me, like David Bowie and Leonard Nimoy. They were famous people that I certainly didn't have any actual connection with, but they were nonetheless important people in my life. Why I felt a bit of that same feeling when Charles Manson passed probably had a lot to do with pop culture and maybe a little to do with the overwhelming amount of big stories that came out of the summer of 1969. And it really speaks for just how important that summer was and how appropriate it is to note the 50th anniversary of when it all happened.
And, now, let's finish up with something a little bit more fun than Charles Manson, and a bit less related to the summer of 1969. It's the song "The summer of '69" by Bryan Adams. This song is about that summer and the importance of it for a young Adams. It's less about all the worldwide news events I've mentioned here and more about the personal experiences of a kid growing up that summer. He got his first real guitar, he and his friends formed a band, he went to the drive-in and fell in love. The song came out in the 1980s and didn't even mention moon shots, important music festivals or anything else that happened in the summer of 1969 that we've already discussed. But it was ABOUT that summer, and it was obviously a very special and important time for him. And the song really meant a lot to me as a teenager. It could (and one day may) warrant its own blog post, but for now I'll just say that Bryan Adams' memories of the summer of '69 in that song coincided with and reflected my own experiences around the time the song came out. The connection I felt to the song was so strong that to this day I still love it, and secretly refer to it as "The Summer of '85". It's just one more celebration (even if on a much more personal level) of the summer of 1969, and it just seems like a nice way to wrap up this blog. True, finishing up with footage from the moon landing or an iconic performance by one of the acts at Woodstock (The Who? Jimi Hendrix? Jefferson Airplane? Crosby, Stills & Nash? The Grateful Dead? Creedence Clearwater Revival? The Band? Joan Baez? Janis Joplin?...) might make more sense, but here's "The Summer of '69" for you because, well, it makes sense to me:
