What was the year 1968 like?

Question

I was born in 1968 and from what I read -it was the worst year of the 1960's. Both Kennedy and King were assassinated, Vietnam, the Democratic National Convention etc. I find the history of the 1960's very interesting but it seems that 1968 was the best of the worst.
Can someone who experienced the 1960's fill me in on what was it like in America during 1968? What did you go through seeing all these events on T.V.

Answer 1

It was a very interesting time to live, Nam was on every boys mind....much turmoil and excitement

Answer 2

"I first came to think about media and politics in in the late 1960s, having observed some distortions close up, but since then I wouldn't say my personal experience has remained an important motive for my writing about media."

Todd Gitlin

There is nothing wrong with being born in 1968 - the Year of the Monkey. I am not sure what you read -- but it was year of a revolution. People all over the world, and including the U.S., were trying to change the order of the old world - capitalist or communist, developed nations or developing nations - for better or worse.

Television is a filter, I would much rather recommend you read author david Caute's book, 'The Year of the Barricades: A Journey Through 1968' or Tod Gitlin's 'The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage.'

Answer 3

In 1968 I returned from Europe with my entire family. We were stationed in Germany for three years. It was a very bad year for us, my husbands mother passed away and we had to drive from Kansas to California in a small Volkswagen, with our children and dog, non stop. We had major problems until our furniture etc. Arrived, there was a dock workers strike in New York at the time, which made things much worse. We slept on the floor and had two lawn chairs we purchased. Our trip from New Jersey to Kansas was a pain too, we traveled by train and our daughter, a small baby, became very ill. We had to get off the train in Chicago and get her emergency medical help. We were very lucky, a great Physician, who helped us immediately, God Bless Him Always. Our daughter got much better and her fever broke. I came to the US in 1963
President Kennedy was assassinated Nov.1963, I will never forget this time. The 60's were not glorious, they were heart breaking for most people.

Answer 4

I remember the big snow as being in '67, something like 23 inches in a day and a half, but that was in the Chicago area.

In March, I was in my room one night making my bed, and my Mom and Dad were in the living room watching the President on TV. I could hear it from my room, and then he got to the end of that speech, and I slipped off the bed onto the floor with a thud. My Mom said "are you alright" and I replied "Yeah, did he just say what I thought he said?" and she said "yeah". That was the night President Johnson announced he wasn't going to run for another term.

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On April 4, 1968, my Mom and Dad were out somewhere and I was at home by myself. The word came that Dr. King had been shot, and they had the WGN traffic copter out and they were filming the city from the west and it looked like the whole West Side was on fire.

We did watch the funeral on TV in my homeroom.

On June 4 (or 5th), 1968 my Mom woke me up at about 5 and said "they shot Kennedy". I got up and watched it on TV, then went to school. It was a half-day since it was the day before summer vacation started. We talked about it at school some, but mostly they kept us busy returning books and cleaning out desks. Probably the best response with a bunch of 13 and 14 year olds.

For the convention I was at home. We saw the whole thing on local TV, so it was like it was happening close by. We lived 35 miles from the Loop, but it was still about as local as TV got in those days.
I remember the convention particularly well, since all the commentators, particularly the local ones who had been so critical of Mayor Daley, were coming down on him pretty hard then, since the whole country was seeing just how the Mayor of Chicago operated.

I remember we supported Nixon, since he was for getting us out of Viet Nam. Well, that's what he said during the campaign anyway, the "Peace with honor" plank.

Answer 5

well, I didnt expirence it, but my mom did and she said that all there was, was lots and lots of snow. "thats the year we got all of january off of work and school" is what she said. hope that helped!