I am still a 60s Child

Something that will remain deep in my core is the fact that I am a product of the 60s. I can't help it so I just accept it. The values and beliefs that I have were formed at a time when the world was rapidly changing.

There was a war going on in a remote jungle overseas. A war that was invisible to me until my parents would turn on the evening news. Suddenly I was thrust into a world of daily body counts, blurry images of tropical forests with young boys squatting in the underbrush and firing their weapons at the "enemy." It was our first encounter with real time news.

Then the next set of images were right here in my own country. More blurry black and white images of dark skinned men and women calmly marching down main streets in the deep south getting pushed back by white skinned men in police uniforms welding fire hoses and aiming them at the wall of people peacefully demonstrating that they are not afraid to ask for equality.

The one image that will NEVER leave me is the day that my grandmother and I sat in her kitchen, surrounded by the familiar smells of her eastern European recipes bubbling on the stove and the fruit-patterned wallpaper of the walls. The man on the TV slowly removed his horn-rimmed eyeglasses with one hand and immediately swiped away tears from his eyes -- something that newscasters are never supposed to do (show emotion) -- and drew in a deep breath and announced, "President Kennedy has been shot and pronounced dead." Walter Cronkite was dazed and reflected the same confused look on his face that now appeared on my grandmother's face. I am sure that the entire nation felt exactly the same at that moment in time. Time stood still for me. At six years old my world caved at that moment. I realized right there that NOTHING was forever.

All of these events left an indelible mark on me. All of the follk singers of that era affected me even more. Pete Seegar, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Arlo Guthrie. Their songs spoke to my heart. I felt the world's pain. As I grew up I became angry about antisemitism, about predjudism, about war.

I couldn't understand why people had so much hate in them when we live in such a beautiful country. There are so many reasons to live and to love. Why waste so much energy on hate?

So when Arlo Guthrie came to town a few weeks ago, I took Rachel to see him. I was overwhelmed in how little he has changed. He still looks exactly the same. Same long, way hair parted down the middle -- okay so it is now white. Same pristine voice. Same long-winded stories that tell a lot about our history but also make you smile.

Then when the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival showed the Concert for Bangladesh I was once again in my glory. Watching George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell and Eric Clapton on the large screen performing songs from my youth was wonderful. And, I was actually at that concert at Madison Square Garden! I remember it well.

An era gone by, but not forgotten. It will be with me forever. And for that . . . I am glad to be a child of the 60s.