I Remember JFK: A Baby Boomer's Pleasant Reminiscing Spot

First of all, I'm taking a two-week break. We're off to Sunny St. Pete Beach for a vacation. See you when we get back.

The sounds that we grew up with were things we took for granted. I always assumed that I would hear the five-days-weekly noon whistle at the B.F. Goodrich plant in Miami, Oklahoma. The sound that accompanied making a phone call would always be a spring-wound noise that accompanied the rotary dial. And purchasing something at most stores would involve hearing keys pushed and a ringing bell.

My first real job was sacking groceries at Phillip's Food Center in Pea Ridge, Arkansas. I watched in amazement as the ladies would punch those keys at lightning speed, calling out each price so that the customer would hear them. And when it was all over, the drawer would open with that classic "ka-ching!"

My grocery sacking job has, for the most part, disappeared, along with those manual registers. Nowadays, most checkers scan items over a laser, and also bag the customer's groceries (unless the customer must do so himself). But today, the past comes alive once again for just a bit, as we experience the comforting mechanical sounds that accompany a 1960's supermarket buy.

Boomers, you can now browse through every single issue of LIFE magazine, thanks to Google Books. I've spent an hour this morning re-reading the amazing article they did about Woodstock. And I was amazed to see some homey articles written about Nazis in the days before WWII had begun.

Need a starting point? Check out this issue, which has an article on the various Paul Is Dead rumors.

...And eleven long-haired friends of Jesus in a chartreuse microbus...

When Convoy came out in 1975, the world knew exactly what C.W. McCall was singing about. An offshoot of the hippy generation, Jesus Freaks tended to grow their hair long, just like their hippy brethren, but overall lived lives that were a bit less, shall we say, "free?" Many of them viewed Jesus as the ultimate radical, and they shared the same pacifistic view of war as did the hippies. They were also quite at home with the commune lifestyle, frequently selling handicrafts and the like on street corners and sharing any profits. In fact, it wasn't out of the question to stumble upon a Jesus Freak commune that was identical to the back-to-the-earth movement version.

But of course, Jesus Freaks had a message to go with their lifestyle. They would grab whatever pulpit was handy and let loose. Thus, they were found on street corners, in their own hand-pitched tents, and sometimes in the jailhouse, having been run in for creating a public nuisance.