CALOKIE
Christmas of ’68
The first time I traveled by plane was the
Christmas of ’68
when Cheryl and I took Luke, 9 months old, to
visit my mother
and stepdad, Jimmy, who he would later call Mo
and Po.
Luke was born two weeks before Martin Luther
King was assassinated one year from the day he spoke in opposition to the
Vietnam War from the pulpit of the Riverside Church in New York City.
In June that year, just when it seemed Robert
Kennedy was on
the verge of ending the war in Vietnam after
winning the California Democratic Presidential primary, he was murdered
like his brother.
Thus by removing the greatest obstacle in
“Lord, love me, I’m
a liberal” Hubert Humphrey’s way, the “Masters
of War”
were free to continue their carnage.
Jesus Christ, I wondered!
What kind of a world has my beautiful boy been
born.
I did not feel like eating but the next day, I
broke my fast
by pigging out on peanut butter spread on
crackers.
In August we watched on our black and white TV
at the 1968
Democratic Convention in Chicago, Daley’s blue
bullies charge
with clubs swinging a crowd of anti-war
demonstrators shouting,
THE
WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!
THE
WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!
THE
WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!
Of course Tricky Dick who I voted for in 1960
was elected
that November. Mom and Jimmy probably voted for
Nixon
but this was Christmas and as the head of our
family, Grandma
would say for family gatherings, “Never argue
politics or religion.”
Besides Mom caught the Hong Kong Flu from
Cheryl
who got it from Luke who unlike Mama and
Mo recovered quickly.
Christmas Eve on Mom and Jim’s color TV, I
watched world premiere of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” That night it
snowed and I woke up to a rare white Christmas in Oklahoma.
When we returned to our Pasadena home, a month
before Luke’s year old birthday, Richard Nixon was inaugurated President
of the United States
