Thanks to each of you for helping us celebrate our anniversary yesterday. We both appreciated it.
I am editng "The Sorry-ness Out Of It" as katy says. If you read my Journal you might remember me talking about my Dad. He was a watchmaker that took that skill into precision instruments. He was one of the bosses at KDI - a company that made typewriter parts when he started there. My Dad went from making watches - not a great call for that, to typewriters - sure don't see those around any more, to making parts for bombs. This little psychedelic baby is encased in plastic. It reads-
1 Millionth
M429 S&A Device
Mfg. By
KDI Precision Products, Inc.
October 1969
So about one month after I entered college my Dad was working on a part of the firing mechanism for our Hellfire Missiles - still used today. Towards the end of his working years he found a profession that hasn't become obsolete.
We seem to always need to blow something or somebody up even long after he is gone.
We wrangled a lot back then over politics - as do most generations. He was a Navy man and I was active at sit ins. He was putting food on our table and giving me an education and I was busy changing the world. And in a way, we both succeeded.
I think our world is indeed a different and better place because of the mind set of my generation. I think we still have a long way to go - but now I am content to try to change my piece of the world working locally. Don't get me wrong - I still seek justice and equality in all things for all people. I can effect change for folks around me and hope to see the ripple effect take that around this world. And once again make what my Dad did for a living obsolete.
@jenniferruge Thanks Jennifer. It has been interesting. @cromwell Elephant Mountain.
O you bet you. The year that I was a Freshman at the University of Cincinnati was the year of Kent State. After the shootings there somebody here set the ROTC building on fire (and no, I had no involvement there!) but UC was closed due to unrest spreading across all the college campuses in the country. Vietnam was the huge hot topic and Janice Joplin was in Cincinnati walking around our Summerfaire. Mark Farner played at Eden park in the tightest leather pants I ever saw and I married a guy who drew #1 in the draft when they started the lottery (didn't have to go due to blood pressure issues - and in no way the love of my life....) The music of those years lives on with me. I have no idea your age so don't know if you saw any of that or not.
Very cool abstract of this mechanism, Cathy! Very colorful and fascinating work! It is a sad fact that two opposing cultures cannot occupy the same space at the same time, especially when one culture is forced down the throat of the other culture. You either lay down and take it, giving up your individuality, way of life, and freedom, or fight to keep your culture intact. There are those who will never accept freedom and liberty for the people, in their minds - it's only for the elite leaders and their families. They only want indentured servants, slaves and oppression. There is still so much evil in this world.
@cdonohoue -- I regret that I was too young to be anything but a spectator of the 1960s. I was a great decade to be a kid, but I did not have my finger on the pulse of the nation during that time. Being under 10 I viewed the '60s with childlike innocence. I recall watching JFK's funeral on TV with my mom. I was fascinated by the white horses pulling the wagon with his coffin. I was only about 4 1/2 then and had no concept of what death was. I remember seeing The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, but not because I knew who they were. My two older brothers were the one's all excited about it and insisted the family watch. I was on the tail end of the "duck and cover" drills. I only recall doing it in kindergarden, not grade school. I didn't know what an atom bomb was, but I knew what a bomb was. Even at that young age I questioned how being marched out in the hall and getting on our knees was going to save us from a bomb? I also remember my town occasionally testing the air raid sirens. I only knew of the hippies from the charactures of them portrayed on TV and the movies. I don't think I ever actually saw on in the suberbia I grew up in. My view of the '60s was mostly gained from TV: watching old b&w horror movies on Chiller Theatre and Creature Features, wanting to be Batman, or wishing I lived on Gilligan's Island. All that turbulent stuff flew over my radar.
@marlboromaam There is still so much evil in this world. I totally agree. The way that I have changed with age is not that I accept man's inhumanity to man, but that I think my only chance of effecting change is if I can buy enough diapers to give to the mother's that come to me for help. Or by inviting the two new guys that bought the house next door over for dinner. Or by sitting on the committee that brought the first black woman Lay Pastor to our small church.
I admit that I don't watch the news all that much any more. Like everybody, this latest recession affected our finances and I was spending too much time watching our new 24/7 news cycles and staying upset. So I toned it down some. Think locally - act locally. Hope for the ripple effect.
Fascinating reading about your formative years in the sixties in the USA. You have a great history of wider involvement in the ever changing shifts of the world...sometimes it's better to stay close to home first perhaps !! Why are we in Afghanistan for one? All we can do is try & live peacefully together in our patch !
@carolmw Thanks Carol. @grammyn Thanks katy. I had fun processing. @redrucksack Thanks Eva. @happypat I don't think we have the ability to effect change except from the bottom up. That is why I believe wholeheartedly in working locally. But when I was younger I thought you could really change the world.....
Great commentary and shot and I love all of the replies in this thread, too! Cathy, you are so right about changing with age - and I agree that getting away from the news is one of the best things that 365 offers us! I was in the deep South in college while Kent State was happening - it was a very scary time there, as well, with Vietnam and all the protests, but they took a slightly different twist for us in the South for sure!
Beautiful shot of this treasure. I would take great care of it, if I were you. I think that watchmakers were great craftsmen. Unfortunately craft has been replaced by mechanised industry - but the product is not the same. My father-in-law was a silversmith. I have a few things he made which today's silver items do not even compare.
@lyno Lyn - I bet it was a different twist. And you know that they always say that Cincinnati is 25 years behind the time but in the Spring of 1970 the campus was a powder keg. And what is more political than a college campus?
@sangwann My Dad was a craftsman. But, amazingly, technology passed him by so many times in his working years. I would love to see you post some of your treasures from your father-in-law. I love items like that.
Woo hoo!! Cheers to you!! I was right there next to you and you didn't even know it!! I grew up in MI and set out from there to change what I could, ended in CA in the late 60"s , but what a time it was!! I enjoyed your story here!!
"C'mon people, now smile on your brother, ev'ry-body get together, try to love one another right now."
@cromwell Elephant Mountain.
O you bet you. The year that I was a Freshman at the University of Cincinnati was the year of Kent State. After the shootings there somebody here set the ROTC building on fire (and no, I had no involvement there!) but UC was closed due to unrest spreading across all the college campuses in the country. Vietnam was the huge hot topic and Janice Joplin was in Cincinnati walking around our Summerfaire. Mark Farner played at Eden park in the tightest leather pants I ever saw and I married a guy who drew #1 in the draft when they started the lottery (didn't have to go due to blood pressure issues - and in no way the love of my life....) The music of those years lives on with me. I have no idea your age so don't know if you saw any of that or not.
I admit that I don't watch the news all that much any more. Like everybody, this latest recession affected our finances and I was spending too much time watching our new 24/7 news cycles and staying upset. So I toned it down some. Think locally - act locally. Hope for the ripple effect.
@grammyn Thanks katy. I had fun processing.
@redrucksack Thanks Eva.
@happypat I don't think we have the ability to effect change except from the bottom up. That is why I believe wholeheartedly in working locally. But when I was younger I thought you could really change the world.....
@grannysue Thanks Linda.