Christmas Season 1969

It has been 40yrs this yr since the holiday season of 1969. The end of a decade....and a difficult one at that. We had our 9-11 , the 60's had a strangeness all it's own. I was a senior at High School. Home for my last Christmas Season while in High School. In thinking back to that time I especially remember the anger of that time. The 60's opened up real wounds within this country. The political side of my family was staunch Republicans. They did not know it at the time but they were beginning a 40yr domination of political life in this country beginning with the election of Richard Nixon the previous yr. At the New Year turn of the decade there was little sign of conservative joy....just exhaustion and a sense of the world having gone somewhat crazy. As for me.....I was more hopeful. I was thrilled with the prospect of getting the hell out of Maple Hill High School. 5 more months and counting. But my home town was I think typical of many spots , angry , upset at the culture , fearful of loosing what they had. I remember the bitching at my Aunt and Uncle's house during Christmas Dinner that yr. Bitching about drugs , hippies , music with no mention of Christ that I remember. Dick Nixon would save us from the counter culture. But you could feel a harder edge to that time of peace. Oh and did I mention Vietnam and the war going on.....talk about wedge politics. We had the water shed moment of Kent State ahead of us a few months down the road but Woodstock was also inbedded in the nation's culture. That event was only a few short months before. The 60's still effects our politics & culture but you know....that was one of my favorite Christmas times I remember. I was ready to move on....dispite having to thank my mother for the soap on a goddamn rope I got as a stocking stuffer. My life was ahead.....unix time , a new time was about to start . America was moving on to a new decade and damn so was I .....goodby hometown....High School. on to the shock of the new. But that feeling of going beyond myself that yr still stays with me. Warm potential.