1973

The St. Paul LCW (Lutheran Church Women) held a baby shower for Pam on January 4.

From January 12-13 I accompanied a group of our St. Paul Church youth for a retreat at my former parish in Sandstone. On the way up I had a flat tire, and after repairing it I locked my keys in the trunk!

Our Matthew Thomas was born to us on January 16!!! Pam began to go into labor a little after midnight. As we had planned, we brought Adam over to the home of Gary and Deanna Sande, but we had a very difficult time waking them up.

One of my memories from that day is that Pam was in more pain than I had imagined possible. Usually she loved to have me give her a back rub, but during that morning, she didn’t want to be touched anywhere. I’ve always said that at one point that day she said to me, “Don’t you ever touch me again!” but I don’t think that actually happened. I remember that she also had a very unsympathetic nurse that either had never had a child or had forgotten how difficult an experience it was. A much less important memory is that the waiting room at Miller Hospital in downtown St. Paul had only women’s magazines like “Ladies’ Home Journal” available to peruse and I wondered if other fathers or men normally gathered there. Just before Pam was wheeled into the delivery room, I stood up to get into my required gown, and one of the staff said to me, “You can’t go in like that!” I asked, “Like what?” She said, “With your beard!” I had grown a beard when I went to Israel back in 1969 and no one had mentioned that I would have to shave it to be in the delivery room. After a few minutes of discussion, it was decided that I would be required only to wear a mask covering my facial hair.

Witnessing Matt’s birth was one of the most emotional experiences of my life! Again it was difficult to see Pam in such pain when all I could do was stand by her, holding her hand and coaching her to push. Finally Matt’s little body appeared (he was only 6 pounds, 13 ounces). Due to the difficult delivery, his head was misshapened (almost coming to a point), and Pam asked me to check his fingers, thinking that he might have other signs of abnormality. I came back and for some reason told her, “Yup, he’s got 10 fingers - 6 on one hand and 4 on the other!” She was understandably not pleased with my lame attempt at humor!

When my parents came to see him for the first time, they said, “Sweet baby! He looks just like the O’Briens!” Pam’s folks came and said, “Nice baby! He looks just like the Landeens!” Fortunately, the shape of his head normalized very quickly and it didn’t take long for all of us to begin calling him “cute.”

When we brought Matt home and Adam (age 13 months) saw him for the first time, he said, “Ya! Ya! Ya!” so Matt was nicknamed “Ya Ya” as Adam began calling himself “Ah-me.”

Across the US there was a year-long evangelism program called "Key 73" with the slogan, "Calling our Continent to Christ." The plan was marked by broad ecumenism, as it involved the participation of a significant majority of Protestant groups, including most mainline denominations, as well as a large number of Catholic dioceses. It entailed a massive door-to-door effort and both churched and unchurched. One leader described the intent: “For the first time, churches would cooperate with one another and not try not to steal one another’s sheep.”

On January 22 the US Supreme Court ruled that a state may not prevent a woman from having an abortion during the first 6 months of her pregnancy (it was called the “Roe v. Wade” decision).

5 days after former President Lyndon Johnson died, a cease-fire was signed by the US, North and South Vietnam and the Viet Cong in Paris on January 27, ending America's participation in the Vietnam War. Most people interpreted the peace as America’s 1^st major military defeat. 2,700,000 American soldiers served in the war: 58,000 were killed, and another 365,000 were wounded. Many of the returning vets came back disillusioned and angry, as they were not welcomed back as heroes as soldiers in earlier wars had been.

On January 28 Kenneth Schoen, Minnesota State Corrections Commissioner, spoke at a Social Ministry adult forum at our church in the evening.

On February 12 we met with Don Colbert, a member who was in charge of home loans for First National Bank downtown, to discuss the possibility of our purchasing the parsonage. His advice was that we couldn’t afford to do it and the church wasn’t in a position to assist us.

From February 20-23 I attended the Urban Training Center in downtown Chicago with several other pastors from St. Paul, including Merle Carlson and Roger Mackey. While there I saw my 1^st live “strip show”!

On February 27 a group of militant Native Americans began a 71-day occupation of the South Dakota site of “Wounded Knee” (the site of a December 1890 massacre of nearly 300 Lakota Sioux men, women and children by the US Cavalry) in protest of government restrictions on their reservation. During the occupation, 2 protestors were killed).

I joined the St. Paul Police Chaplain program on March 3, through which I began riding with a Community Service squad on a Friday night once a month.

On my Mom and Dad’s 35^th wedding anniversary on March 4, Pam and I together with Marcia and Allen enjoyed a delicious meal at the upscale “McQuire’s” restaurant.

On March 11 a group of inmates from the Women’s Prison in Shakopee spoke at our church during the morning service. It was very moving and enlightening.

Matthew was baptized during a 4 PM service on March 25! Again, Mike Edwins officiated, and Lee and Dorothy Dybvig from Sandstone were his sponsors.

On April 1 a week-long visitation program began, including members of Park Baptist, St. Clement’s Episcopal, Reformation and us, a group that we called the “Quad Parish.” We called on homes in the neighborhood, pairing members from the 4 churches at random. On the 8^th we all gathered for a dinner to celebrate our unity and success in reaching the community.

Several church youth and I participated in a 22-mile “Walk for Mankind” in Minneapolis on April 28, to raise money for Project Concern, an organization ministering to medical needs in areas such as Hong Kong, South Vietnam, and Appalachia. Each of us had enlisted "sponsors" who pledged a certain amount per mile completed. We were exhausted, but very proud that we had completed the entire distance!

During the morning service on April 29, we dedicated the church bus. It was not new by any means, but very serviceable.

On April 30 I was honored to preach at the chapel service at Northwestern Seminary. I was a little nervous beforehand, but it went very well.

Pastor Eli Chumaru from Nigeria preached at our church on May 6 (he was studying at the seminary). At a congregational meeting following the service, approval was given to a proposal that allowed offering First Communion instruction to 5^th Graders (the same resolution had been approved at Grace and Emmanuel when we were still in Sandstone last year).

On May 13, Pam wrote the following note: “My Darling Adam, this is the second Mother’s Day you have given me! I remember how very lonely I used to be on Mother’s Day before you came. You are everything I’ve ever wanted and more! You love to do your ‘tricks’ and now want to crawl in my lap to be read stories. You are growing so fast and very curious! Of course your Dad and I think you border on genius - but most of all you are such a loving child. We have yet to have a guest in our home that you haven’t ‘shared’ toys with! I don’t think you’ve been afraid of anyone. Honey, I love you and thank God for you and the joy you have given us! Love, Mama”.

In the evening of May 27 Pam and I hosted a reunion of some of my seminary classmates with Ray and Ruth Johnson, Roger and Barb Johnson, and Gary and Carol Langness at our home.

Our church organist and friend, Jon Whitaker, gave a recital at the Martin Luther King Center on June 3.

On June 10 I preached at the first joint (St. Paul and Reformation) church service and picnic, held at the Como Park Pavilion, right by the lake.

Pam and I attended a concert of the Minnesota Orchestra on June 14.

On June 24 we received 4 adults and 4 children as new members, and I also baptized 2 infants.

From June 25-30 a group of members from St. Paul and Reformation Churches attended “Family Camp” at Luther Dell Bible Camp near Remer, MN (150 miles north of the Twin Cities). Pam had the following remembrances: “Adam was 18 months and Matt 5 months old. We took a crib, playpen and heaps of stuff that babies need. We chose to stay in a large bedroom above the main living room in the lodge. We had a lovely stone fireplace at one end of the room, with a lot of bat guano inside and alongside it. Our first task was to sweep and clean the room, but the odor remained. Years later every time the boys went into Grandma Landeen’s attic (which also had bat guano), they would grin and sigh longingly, ‘Ohh, Bible camp!’ They loved Bible camp! Everyone helped watch the babies - Sam and Ernie King, Bill and Marilyn Heiple, Carl and Devada Linder, Pastor Roger and Fern Mackey, Gary and Deanna Sande, Jim and Wanda Erickson, Roger and Joyce Nielsen, Herb and Evelyn Stampley, and many teenage girls. Adam loved to splash in Leech Lake (appropriately named for the worm-like creatures with suckers on both ends that attached to various portions of the body. As our volunteer RN for the week, Pam was always ready with a salt shaker to help loosen their grip on Adam or any other camper. One day we left the boys with Ernie King and went on the half-day canoe trip down a nearby river. Susie was the camp cook, and meals were great! She had as big a heart as she had a body. Pam remembered that she would start roast beef the night before in a slow oven, ready to eat at noon, tender and delicious. Adults would gather in the lodge for a glass of wine and snacks after kids were asleep. Some people brought games to play, and one night Carl Linder read us the “Song of Solomon” from the Old Testament, which led to an interesting discussion afterward! One day Herb Stampley (a wonderful African-American) and I went into the nearby little town of Remer to get some supplies. While there Herb decided he wanted to buy a watermelon to treat the kids back at the camp. He asked all over town, but apparently it was too early in the season for such fruit. There were many raised eyebrows and smug smiles due to the small-town and small-minded stereotype of a Black man wanting a watermelon. Another memorable moment was when one store manager asked Herb the minute he entered the shop, “Will you look at this (a Black “mammy” doll) and tell me if it’s offensive to you?” Herb said, “No” but later told us “What could I say? If I had said ’yes’, would they have run me out of town? I’m a minority here for sure.” We had a beautiful service near the lakeshore on Sunday morning, and sharing Holy Communion in that setting was a very meaningful experience. We decided to make a week of Family Camp an annual church event because of the great and relaxing time everyone had there.

In national news, on July 1 the US Armed Forces became all-volunteer as the military draft began to be phased out.

From July 7-14 we vacationed at a cabin near Bovey, MN (200 miles NW of the Twin Cities). The cabin was near the lakeshore and included a boat that we could row out to fish once and awhile.

I helped with a Pre-Teen camp at Luther Dell from July 16-22.

On July 29 I had the baptism of the son of a good friend back in high school, Ralph Mayer and his wife, at their home.

When I came to the church on the morning of August 19, I found out that the church had been burglarized during the night. The strange thing was what was stolen: 8 stained-glass windows from the sanctuary! It must have been a professional job with a crew of 4 or 5 people, as the windows were large and heavy. The windows were quite quickly replaced with ones with frosted glass, but it was very depressing until we could install new windows with much less expensive and beautiful stained glass.

On August 23 I officiated at the second wedding that I had all year. The bride was Alpha Adkins who married a wonderful man named Ray, whose Episcopal priest gave the meditation at the ceremony. Alpha’s first husband, Lonnie, had died 3 years earlier, but Pam and I had known him as he was the architect who had designed the new sanctuary for her home church. Pam’s Dad, Tom, had been on the Building Committee and was very impressed with Lonnie. He always said this was one of his best experiences in working with an African-American. (I believe that it also helped in his attitude when we were considering adopting a mixed-race child).

One of the advantages of serving a congregation in the Twin Cities was the opportunity to work with first-year seminary students who were required to serve in a church setting for 5 hours a week. On September 12 we met the 5 students who would be with us during the school year. All of them were very enthusiastic and open to whatever assignments we gave them.

On September 21-22 Pam and I led a joint Confirmation retreat which met at Reformation Church (Adam and Matt stayed with my folks during the 2 days).

From October 6-26 Israel fought and then defeated a coalition of Arab nations, led by Syria and Egypt, in what came to be called the “Yom Kippur War”.

For our 9^th Anniversary on October 10, Pam and I attended a play, “I Do, I Do”, at the Old Log Theater in Excelsior, together with Lee and Dorothy Dybvig.

Also that day, Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned under indictment for income tax evasion. He was replaced by the Republican House leader, Gerald Ford.

From October 15-17 Pam and I attended the Synod Pastors’ Conference at Madden’s Inn near Brainerd, after which Pam and the boys spent 3 days in Rice Lake with her folks.

We celebrated St. Paul Church’s 65^th Anniversary on October 21.

On October 26-27 there was a joint Church Council retreat during which we planned for our congregations’ future together. It was a very productive meeting.

The “Watergate” scandal spread as Republican Party officials were implicated and tapes from the White House were released, over President Nixon’s objections!

On November 4 we observed “First Communion” for 7 of our youth.

We had a party to celebrate Adam’s 2^nd birthday on December 5!

In the afternoon of December 9, our family picked out a Christmas tree together the Gary and Deanna Sande family.

The RAP (Ramsey Action Program) Senior Citizens dining program began at our church on December 10. It was a good use of our facilities to serve an important segment of the community.

After the Christmas Day service, we left for Rice Lake to celebrate with Pam’s family and enjoy a vacation through the end of the year.

On December 30 Pastor Wilson Sabiya from Nigeria preached at a joint service while I was gone.

During the year I had 6 baptisms in addition to the ones I’ve already mentioned, 2 more weddings, and 5 funerals (all for members in their 90’s).

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

1972

On January 5 we began a whole new life, with the adoption of our Adam Bartholomew from Lutheran Social Service in Minneapolis!!! At Christmas we had bought a crib but also a high chair because LSS had told us that our child who would be “available soon” might be up to 2 years old. Adam came to us at the age of one MONTH! We had initially arranged with LSS to adopt a white, male infant but as time went by they asked us if we would be open to another child, especially of Black or mixed-race origin. After a lot of soul-searching and prayer, we decided that we would be prepared for such a youngster. We brought up this possibility with all 4 of our parents. My parents, especially my Mom, were quite receptive, although they had a number of questions that they asked if we had considered. Pam’s folks had more qualms, saying that they felt we would face many challenges and difficulties as the child grew up, but Pam’s Dad summed up the feelings of all of our parents when he said, “It’s your decision, but we love you and whatever you decide, we’ll love your baby too.”

On the 5^th we had picked up our friend Mike Edwins at the airport as he returned from a trip to Florida to visit his Mom. When he got in the car, we told him that we were on our way to pick up Adam at LSS. His first response was “I thought you were too happy just to see me again!” We were glad that Mike was with us since he had his camera and took many pictures at the LSS office. We talked to our social worker there for awhile, and then she said, “Well, I’ll go and get HER.” We blurted out, “HER?” And smiling she said, “Oh, I meant HIM!” I believe she was as nervous as we were. When she laid him in Pam’s arms, we were overwhelmed. He looked up at us with such trust and peace. Our emotions alternated between tears and smiles of joy, as we passed him back and forth. OUR ADAM! What a gift!

On the way home, we realized that we hadn’t bought him any baby food, so we stopped to buy him some. We dropped Mike at his home in Hinckley, after thanking him for being with us and taking pictures. When we got home we called our friends, Boyd and Muriel Langseth, who came right over to celebrate with us. When we fed Adam the cereal, he grimaced and wouldn’t eat it. We decided that he probably wasn’t hungry, so we didn’t try to feed it to him any more that night. The next morning Pam read on the label that it was meant to be cooked before serving! Luckily, Adam had been smarter than we were in spitting it out!

We didn’t sleep much that first night, as one or both of us checked frequently to make sure Adam was breathing (he slept well, probably exhausted from his first day with us). In the morning I asked Pam if she wanted to go with me downtown to the post office (our regular routine, as there was no home mail delivery). She said she would, and when we got into the car, we remembered that we had forgotten to bring Adam! We were off to a very shaky start on parenthood!

People in town were very happy and excited for us. We had told almost no one except a few close friends that we were adopting, as we didn’t want to be asked, “When is your baby coming?” over and over again, especially since we hadn’t had a good answer to give them. LSS had called us only 2 days before we were to pick Adam up. That doesn’t seem like a very long notice, but we realized later that a notice of a week or two would have been an eternity of anxious waiting. As it was, we spend those few days rushing around, bumping into each other, hugging, kissing and smiling!

On January 5 I wrote a note that we put in Adam‘s baby book: “It’s strange to look over in the corner of our bedroom and see a crib standing there. And it’s even stranger to look into the crib and see a tiny human being lying there - a little 7-pound baby making noises - wheezes, snorts, coughs, groans, sighs and an occasional soft scream. And the strangest thing of all is to realize that this miniature noise-maker belongs to us! We’ve waited so long to have a baby of our own and now he’s here in our home. He’s OUR SON and we feel many things - excitement, wonder, awe, apprehension, relief, and a great deal of satisfaction. We’ve been given a son by God, and we pray that we’ll be worthy of the honor.”

On January 6 I wrote: “Today we discovered that our Adam has a healthy set of lungs. For awhile this afternoon he cried and cried, seemingly for no reason. He wasn’t wet, he wasn’t cold, he wasn’t even particularly hungry, and yet he continued to cry. Maybe he’s having a hard time adjusting to us as his new parents, but Pam and I are certainly not having the problem of accepting him as our son. It seems strange, but it seems like he’s always been with us. We’ve loved him from the very first moment we saw him yesterday, and although he’s small he’s found a great big place in our hearts. To look into his dark, alert eyes is to see God’s love - deep and clear and beautiful. I’ve also fallen in love with his sideburns and his tiny fingernails - but his whole presence is an awesome wonder.”

And on January 7 I wrote: “Today was a day of visitors to see our little Adam. Mom and Dad Landeen got to see their grandson for the first time - they fell in love with him almost as deeply as we have. I must say in all honesty that he is irresistible! That has been the consensus of opinion about him from everyone so far. It’s fun to brag about him and hear the admiring comments of people who see him - particularly since all the nice things they say about him are true! The doctor told us that his blood-shot left eye is nothing to worry about, but we do anyway. His schedule continues to be mixed up, I think due to the attention and spoiling he has received. Maybe when things settle down a bit, Adam will too. Tomorrow Mom and Dad O’Brien meet him - I think he’ll win them over!"

The Grace Church annual meeting on January 9 and Emmanuel Church’s annual meeting on the 16^th authorized implementation of the national LCA’s program called “Confirmation and First Communion.” The most important part allowed offering First Communion instruction to 5^th Graders (instead of youth in 8^th or 9^th Grade). It was a very good decision.

On January 14 the temperature hit 45 degrees BELOW ZERO!

Adam was baptized at Grace Church on February 20. Our friend, pastor Mike Edwins officiated, and Pastor Ray and Ruth Johnson were his sponsors (they were about 1 ½ hours late coming from their home in New York Mills!).

From February 21-28 President Richard Nixon made an unprecedented trip to China.

On February 25 my Mom and Dad left on a 16-day tour of Israel organized by Mike Edwins. They had a wonderful time, except my Dad became very ill and had to be hospitalized for several days while they were Nazareth.

I drove down to Pine City (about 25 miles) on March 10 to be on a panel talking about “Marriage” over radio station WCMP. It was a half-hour show, and I was with a county social worker and a family counselor, as well as the radio show host. Afterward we all went out for lunch at a local café. It was an interesting experience!

On March 30 I officiated at a “Passover meal” which preceded the Maundy Thursday service at Grace.

I gave the Invocation and Benediction at the Sandstone High School graduation on May 26.

On June 11 Pam and I attended the installation of Bill Strom as pastor at Grace Church in Mora. Bill and I were seminary classmates who had both been considered for the call at Grace. When the Call Committee and Church Council had been unable to decide between us, they put both of our names on the ballot at a congregational meeting, and Bill had “won” by 2 votes! I was a bit upset at the time of the meeting, but it turned out that God had somewhere else in mind for me.

I announced my resignation from Grace and Emmanuel parish on June 13 to accept a call to St. Paul Lutheran Church in St. Paul! I was very excited about the move as it was exactly the type of setting that I had hoped to begin serving when I came out of seminary 4 years earlier. The congregation had been integrated in 1958, and the membership of 200 baptized and 160 confirmed was 50% African-American, largely from the immediate inner-city neighborhood. The congregation was known for an informal style of worship and planning, strong lay leadership, and a very deep commitment to social action in ministry. One of the other components of serving there was to be involved in developing a relationship with Reformation Church which was a somewhat larger congregation located 4 blocks away but with a membership that primarily lived in the suburbs. This church was served by Pastor Roger Mackey.

On June 17 the Washington, DC police arrested 5 men inside the Democratic Party National Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel complex. This was the beginning of the infamous “Watergate affair”, an investigation that ultimately led to impeachment proceedings and the resignation of President Nixon.

On July 1 our 8-year-old niece, Shannon Bents, came to stay with us for a week. We had a lot of fun, and one of my favorite experiences was going on a hike with her to show her the beauty of the nearby Banning State Park and Kettle River (so named from the hollows formed in rock due to glacial activity). We also remember several incidents from when she also had been with us for a week 3 years earlier. She was constantly with our cat and then one day we heard the sound of the cat shrieking as it apparently bounced down the stairs to the basement. Almost immediately we also heard Shannon go out outside where we then saw her pacing back and forth. When Pam asked her what had happened between her and the cat. She didn’t answer. So Pam more directly asked her, “Did you throw the cat down the stairs?” and Shannon answered, “What cat?” She later apologized for her misbehavior, but the cat remained very wary around her! While she was with us, there was a festival in town so Pam made a “horse” costume that Shannon and her new friend could wear for the kiddie parade. One was the front and one was the back, and they made a hilarious sight wobbled down the street. When her week with us ended, Pam told her she’d better pack up so we could take her home. She informed Pam that she couldn’t go home because she still had 3 outfits she hadn’t wore yet!

While still in Sandstone, I had a number of “pastoral acts”: 20 baptisms (including 3 young brothers), 6 weddings, 7 funerals, confirmation for 12 young people, and 36 new members received (15 adults and 21 children and youth).

We left for a week’s vacation at a lake cabin near Henning, MN on July 29. It was a very relaxing time just prior to our move to St. Paul, and it was also our 1^st big excursion with Adam who seemed to enjoy the water.

On August 7 a couple of our teenage members helped us pack up and move to our new home at 4 Benhill Road, the St. Paul Church parsonage. It was quite a bit larger than our home in Sandstone, with a big backyard which we had to fence in as Adam grew and began to walk.

Our first Sunday at St. Paul Church was the following Sunday (August 13). The service went well with one exception: before the sermon I was proud that I had remembered to attach the microphone cord around my neck, but when the sermon was over and I turned to hand out the offering plates, I forgot to unhook it and ended up almost choking myself as I went flat to the floor behind the pulpit! Everyone was laughing as I stood up red-faced, and I guess I “broke the ice” without breaking my neck!

On August 18 I had my 1^st funeral at St. Paul Church. The interment was at Hector, MN (95 miles west of the Twin Cities). A week later I had my 2^nd funeral.

Tragically, 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany on September 5.

On September 13 I was installed as pastor at St. Paul Church in a Wednesday evening service officiated by the LCA Minnesota Synod president, Dr. Melvin Hammarberg. My folks as well as my sister Marcia and brother-in-law Allen were there.

Our adoption of Adam was finalized on September 20!!! Our attorney was Gust Larson, an active member at St. Paul Church, and the judge was Archie Gingold.

From September 22-23 I participated in a simulated jail “lock-up” at Lino Lakes Correctional Center overnight. It was extremely realistic! The next day I participated in a Criminal Justice conference held at my home church - Trinity in Stillwater, where we talked about our experience of being incarcerated.

I attended my 1^st meeting as a member of the board of “The Loft” (a community youth center that I was pleased to be involved with) on September 25.

On September 27 an orientation was held for volunteers involved in a new program started by the church’s Social Ministry Committee - the Community Study Center - in which adult tutors worked with elementary children in the local neighborhood. I became one of the tutors.

Our good friends, Bob and Sue Okerstrom (Pam’s roommate during nurses training), had a baby during the late summer, and on the afternoon of October 1, I officiated at Brian’s baptism at their home in Brooklyn Center. We remember Adam and him playing together or at least laying next to each other on the carpet in their living room afterward the ceremony.

That evening Pam and I began attending an 8-week course at Roseville Lutheran Church on “Transactional Analysis”, a theory developed by Dr. Eric Berne in his best-selling book. “Games People Play”, utilizing an “ego-state” (Parent-Adult-Child) model to help understand how people function and express themselves in their behavior.

In October Vietnam peace talks continued in Paris, and there were now fewer than 24,000 American troops remaining there.

Pam and I celebrated our 8^th Anniversary belatedly at the MN Synod Pastors’ Conference at the beautiful Madden’s Inn and Resort near Brainerd (Pam’s folks took care of Adam for us while we were gone).

On October 22 Pam, Adam and I joined St. Paul Church, together with one other new member, a woman named Betty.

We attended the dedication of a beautiful new community center, named for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on October 29.

On November 5 I held my 1^st Confirmation service at St. Paul Church for 4 Black teenagers.

President Richard Nixon was re-elected in a near landslide victory over Senator George McGovern of South Dakota (the election outcome was decided early on in the Democratic primary. The Democrats were trying to oust a sitting president who although not very popular, was an effective president. What made their task even harder was that the Democrats lost their front runner candidate, Edmond Muskie, because the media portrayed him as an emotionally unstable person because he appeared to be “crying” while he was denouncing a newspaper editorial that attacked his wife. The incident left the Democrat party without a candidate capable of unseating the President).

On November 13 we celebrated our birthdays by going out for supper and then attending a play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 1,000 mark for the 1^st time!

On November 26 Pastor Roger Mackey and I held our 1^st pulpit exchange.

In late November Roger and I began playing handball one day a week at the St. Paul Catholic Seminary gym on Summit Avenue. It was good exercise, but my right hand got really sore and sometimes swollen!

On December 2 we began having a joint Saturday evening contemporary service with Reformation Church in which either Roger or I were involved.

We celebrated Adam’s 1^st birthday on December 5. It couldn’t believe how quickly he was changing and growing up!

On December 10 a congregational meeting in each church authorized requesting financial support from the ELCA Board of American Missions. This developed into a very good relationship beyond the money they provided.

My Mom’s sister, Nancy, died in Chisago City, and we attended the funeral.

On December 22 we hosted a supper with Roger and Fern Mackey as well as friends Gary and Gerri Tessman. We all enjoyed this get-together, so we began meeting monthly for gourmet meals and what we called “group therapy” sessions.

The churches hosted a Youth Retreat with teenagers from my old parish in Sandstone. It was a good opportunity for exchange between small-town and rural kids and our street-wise youth, and actually they all got along amazingly well.

I officiated at one baptism and 2 more funerals (one for a man who had just reached 100).

On December 31 we received 3 new members. In support of both congregations, Pastor Merle Carlson, who worked for the MN Synod as a “Shepherd of the Street”, joined St. Paul Church and his wife Priscilla and their 20-year-old son Tim joined Reformation.

What a full and exciting year, and another one was about to begin!

1971

In early January, an article I had written was published in “THE LUTHERAN” magazine! It was titled “Update on the Proverbs” and was introduced with the line “There’s nothing old and dusty about the Book of Proverbs in the Old Testament, as these tongue-in-cheek ‘translations’ indicate”. One example was Proverbs 30:4 Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Translation: Honey, I think it’s time to change the baby again!

At Grace Church’s annual meeting on January 10, the report of the Planning Council was accepted and the hiring of an architect for consultation and preliminary drawings was authorized.

On January 25, Charles Manson and 3 co-defendants were found guilty in the 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and 6 other people.

While they were on vacation, Sharon and Carl’s clothing store in Cumberland, WI burned to the ground on March 14! It was doubly a shame, because they hadn’t taken time off for many years.

On March 29 Lt. William Calley, Jr. was found guilty of pre-mediated murder of 500 unarmed Vietnamese civilians in the “My Lai” massacre in March 1968.

A new Rodgers 110 organ was installed at Grace on April 9. It was a wonderful improvement! A dedication concert was held on September 12.

On April 25, in my role as “Vice-Pastor”, Pam and I attended the quarterly meeting at Bethlehem Church in Askov. A decision to lower the voting age was passed, and the next morning my phone began ringing off the hook! The “losing side” was very upset, saying that the topic hadn’t been on the meeting agenda. When I asked for advice from the Minnesota Synod vice-president, Tom Wersell, he told me that the original decision was valid, but when I explained that now many members had angrily called me, he said, “In that case, it SHOULD have been on the agenda!” Thanks for your help, Tom! (Incidentally, the decision was later overturned).

Our big trip that year was a 2-week May vacation out east with Pam’s folks. We drove into Indiana the 1^st night. The motel owner asked me who Pam and I were with, and when I told him, he gave me a 10% discount for traveling with my mother-in-law! To save money we got one room with 2 double beds. When it was time to go to bed, it was like a “slumber party” as we all tried to settle down. Pam’s Mom wouldn’t sleep on the inside of their bed when I was on the inside of ours, even though there was a night stand between the beds, so we all had to switch where we were laying. A few minutes after we all finally quieted down again, I audibly whispered to Pam, “I sure wish your folks would go to sleep.” At once her Dad said, “Go ahead, Dick. We don’t care!” We all laughed and were awake again. Later when we were almost asleep, Pam’s Mom giggled, “Why, Tom!” We all knew we were in for a long but fun trip! Our 1^st visit was to Greensburg, PA where we stayed with Nick (Pam’s Mom’s cousin) and Marge Mangery. He was a chiropractor, and they were very nice folks. Our next stop was at Gettysburg, PA. We went to a large church there on a Sunday morning, after which we went to breakfast at a café. Pam always remembered this story: her Dad ordered eggs and the waiter asked him, “How do you want them cooked?” He asked her, “Pam, how do I like my eggs?” “Basted”. “Oh, yeah.” It was a good thing Pam was there! In the afternoon we toured the battlefield, made famous by Abraham Lincoln’s address there on November 19, 1863, during the Civil War. I read that it is the most quoted speech in US history and one that all of us learned in school: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…” The next day we drove on to Rockville, MD where we stayed with Ken and Jean Letterman (she had been the flower girl at Pam’s folks’ wedding). Ken worked in Washington, DC and was in charge of government grants to colleges throughout the country. Pam and I especially enjoyed talking with them as they too were politically liberal, and we were very impressed with their commitment to social action and involvement in community service projects. They belonged to a small but active congregation in inner-city Washington and we visited the church’s “coffee house” with them one evening. Another memory of our visit with them was that their next-door neighbor was the chef at the White House. Jean drove us into the city one day so that we could tour that impressive and historic residence, as well as visit the US Senate chambers and eat at the cafeteria in that building. Then it was on to New York City, the location we all had been dreading because of its size and traffic. Somehow I was able to drive to midtown Manhattan where we got a room at the Taft Hotel. I was very relieved when I left the car in a nearby parking garage, but Pam cried when she found out how much the room and parking was costing us (I was a bit shocked myself). After moving into our room, Pam and her Mom went shopping nearby at a “dime store” called Kresge’s. Ruth agreed that when we returned home, she wouldn’t tell about Pam’s crying if Pam didn’t talk about her wanting to go to Kresge’s! The next morning (Sunday) we took the subway south to Battery Park. We were pleasantly surprised that there was almost no one on our car, which we were told later was not a good thing since if we were assaulted there wouldn’t be anyone to come to our assistance (fortunately, we had no trouble). From the Park we took the Staten Island ferry which gave us wonderful views of the skyscrapers and went quite close to the magnificent Statue of Liberty. We were also pleased that the air was clear that day so that Pam’s Dad could breath quite easily despite his emphysema. Later in the day, Pam’s folks rested back in our room while we went to the Radio City Music Hall, where our ticket included the movie “Plaza Suite” (filmed in the local area), a concert on the huge Wurlitzer organ, and a performance by the Rockettes, the famous female precision-dance troupe. As Pam’s folks were still tired out and a bit afraid to walk about the city, Pam and I wandered around the midtown area, visiting Times Square and the United Nations building. Then through the hotel concierge, we purchased tickets and attended a fabulous performance of “Fiddler on the Roof”, featuring Zero Mostel as “Tevye”, on Broadway! While we were still in NY City, we all went for supper at the hotel and both Pam and I remember that her Dad argued with our waiter, who was being stereotypically arrogant and condescending to us “hicks”! Before we returned home, we had 2 more stops. First was to Reading, MA (just north of Boston) where we visited Linnea, who had been one of Pam’s Mom’s bridesmaids. Pam remembers that she served us what she called “desperation punch”, a concoction made of apricot juice, Hawaiian punch and vanilla ice cream, served in a soda glass with a straw. I don’t believe we ever had it again! Our last stop was at the famous Niagara Falls. We were almost broke by now, so we chose to walk beneath the falls wearing raincoats rather than paying for the boat ride. As we look back on this trip, we realize how amazing it was and how much fun we had together.!

On June 13 I preached at my home congregation - Trinity, Stillwater - as part of the celebration of their 100^th anniversary year! My message was well received, and it was fun to see a lot of members that I had known most of my life.

Two weeks later, Emmanuel Church celebrated their 75^th anniversary. The service and reception following were very well attended.

I mentioned last year that we (especially Pam) worked with delinquent boys at a camp east of town. Sometimes we arranged for some of them to spend the weekend with members. When they did, they would come to church with their host families. One Sunday I asked the youngsters to come up for a Children’s Sermon, and 2 teenage boys from the camp also came up with smiles on their faces. My lesson that day was that there is more strength in working together than going it alone. I had a single popsicle stick that I easily snapped in half, but when I put a bunch of sticks together, one of the camp boys grabbed the stack and broke them all as well! The lesson became “don’t let teenagers come up for the Children’s Sermon!”

I also talked last year about some of my experiences with my parishioner and friend, Lee Dybvig. One day he invited me to go “wild-ricing” with him. He brought the required state license and we launched his canoe on an approved lake (only Native Americans could wild-rice without a license). The wild rice is harvested traditionally by two people in a canoe. One person would pole the canoe through the reed beds while the other did the actual harvesting, by bending the reeds down over the canoe and hitting them with a sharp blow from a wooden rod. I was standing, pushing us along with the pole and Lee was kneeling, “beating” the rice grain into the bottom of the canoe. I gave us a big push, the pole stuck deep in the mud, and when I tried to pull it out, I flipped us both out of the canoe! My glasses flew off, we looked all around for them, and just before I was going to give up trying to find them, I spotted them sitting on a lily pad as though I had placed them there!

On July 1, 18-year-olds were given the right to vote after the passage of the 26^th amendment to the US Constitution.

From July 19-31, Pam and I attended the Great Lakes Rural Leadership School (Town and Country Institute) at Michigan State University in East Lansing. I learned a lot at the conference, but it was especially a healing time, getting away from the parish, shortly after Pam had experience a 2^nd miscarriage. One non-related event while we were there was driving to Detroit to attend a Tigers baseball game in which Vida Blue, one of the top pitchers of the day, was on the mound. We took along a pastor from a small town in Iowa who was terrified of the inner-city setting and apparently hadn’t been with very many Black people. We got very cheap tickets on the lower level of the outfield and had 2 contrasting experiences: a few people were yelling loudly, spitting and pouring beer on us from the upper deck, and 2 young men sitting next to us were very mellow as they smoked “pot”! It was less than “groovy”!

I had many “pastoral acts” that year: 22 baptisms, 15 weddings, 11 funerals, confirmation for 13 young people, and 38 new members received (17 adults and 21 children and youth). Several of these ceremonies were unique:

+the baptism of a father with his 4 children;

+the baptism of a baby immediately following the wedding of his parents (the groom/father and wife/mother had met while he was in the army in Vietnam, and the child had been born there);

+2 weddings at which I co-officiated with a Roman Catholic priest;

+the wedding of an elderly couple at a local hospital where the bride was a patient;

+the wedding of another elderly couple who were married in our parsonage living room! Afterward I took pictures and Pam served coffee and cake for them and their 2 witnesses! (they had wanted to “sneak away” from their nearby community to get married, and I was pleased that we could accommodate them);

+the funeral of an elderly man whom I had baptized 3 days earlier;

+the baptism of a “pancake”! (actually, the boy’s name was Jerry Pancake).

From September 9-13 an uprising at the Attica, NY prison ended with 10 guards and 32 inmates killed.

I was very instrumental in organizing a community emergency assistance program that was named “FISH”. It was entirely carried out by congregational members of several local churches after it began in mid-September.

On September 26 the Sandstone Lions’ Club, of which I was an active member, went on a fishing trip to Mille Lacs Lake. It was a very cold and windy day, but it was fun anyway.

On October 10 the Askov-Bruno parish voted to call a new pastor. When he arrived, I was no longer a “Vice-Pastor”!

Later that day Pam and I celebrated our 7^th Anniversary by having lunch at “The Bellows” restaurant in Duluth, and then joined the Couples’ Club in the evening to see the movie, “The Song of Norway”. It was a big-screen musical extravaganza based on the life of composer Edvard Grieg, and included his music in virtually every scene (unfortunately most of it sung). It had beautiful scenery of mountains and fjords, but it was a real bomb otherwise!

A week later we hit a large deer on our way to visit Cumberland. There was quite a bit of damage to the right front of the car, but fortunately we were able to continue driving it.

On October 19 the “Sandbox” nursery school began at Grace with parishioner and friend, Dorothy Dybvig, as director. I was on the Board of Directors which organized it.

On October 31, Halloween/Reformation Day, I went with our church youth group as they participated in an activity I had promoted, “Trick or Treat for UNICEF” (the United Nations Children’s Fund). We collected $77.79 to assist children in 3^rd world countries.

On November 22 Pam drove us to Duluth in a pick-up truck that we had borrowed, to pick up our new dining-room chairs (we’re still using them!). Pam drove since I didn’t know how to drive a “shift” vehicle.

On December 30 we bought cross-country skis. We could use them right out of our driveway!

1970

In Super Bowl IV on January 11^th, the Minnesota Vikings lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 23-7. It was their 1^st Super Bowl appearance!

I officiated at a baptism at Emmanuel on January 25 for an infant named Belinda. The baptismal font was right next to the electronic organ played by Kari, our teenage organist. I had put my hymnal on the organ and as I reached for the baby, I bumped the book. When it hit the floor with a thud, everyone (including me) thought I had dropped the baby!

A friend and parishioner, Lee Dybvig, gave us a gift of a Siberian husky that we named “Mitka.” He would always sleep on the ground outside, even when it was snowing. He was chained out there, but when children went by on their way to school, he would often break the chain and we would get a call from the school to come and get him. One day he was jogging beside me when I was bicycling. He saw an elderly woman crossing the street a block ahead of us and he took off, knocking her to the ground. Fortunately she wasn't hurt and didn't sue me! The dog also woke up our little niece, Amy, by jumping on her and licking her. Her response was, “He hugs too hard!” Mitka also liked to go with us when we went cross-country skiing. At the beginning we would fall frequently which was a sign to him that we wanted to play and he could jump on us!

We also 2 other pets – a black cat that we named “Jacob” and a red cat that we named “Esau”. One of them knew the sound of the electric opener working on a can of tuna, and he would come tearing out to the kitchen and slide across the linoleum.

On February 2-3, Pam and I attended a Lutheran Social Service (LSS) meeting in Duluth to explore adopting. This meeting was destined to change our lives!

On February 18^th the “Chicago 8” were found not guilty of violating the anti-riot clause of the Civil Rights Act during the 1968 Democratic Convention.

I had been asked by the Synod to serve as a “Vice Pastor” (a strange name for a pastor who was a contact for the congregational leaders of churches currently without a pastor) for our churches of Hinckley, Cloverdale and Markville while they were without a pastor. Including my own 2 congregations, I attended 5 annual meetings in January and February! On the afternoon of February 22^nd Pam and I attended the annual meeting at the church in Markville. It was snowing and we slid off the road on the way to the meeting!

The Cloverdale annual meeting was followed by a potluck supper. A old woman sitting at our table asked Pam how many children we had. When she told her “none”, the woman asked how long we had been married. When Pam told her “6 years”, she said, “Oh, you should have 3 children by now!” This coming shortly after Pam had had a miscarriage, I did all I could not to tell her to shut up and mind her own business!

On February 27^th my friend and seminary classmate, Mike Edwins, accepted a Call to the Hinckley-Cloverdale-Markville parish (he was installed on April 12^th).

During the morning worship on March 8^th, we celebrated the burning of the parsonage mortgage at Sandstone!

I wanted brass instruments to play for the Easter services, but all I could arrange was a saxophone played by a 9^th Grader (bless her heart!)

On the afternoon of Easter Sunday (March 29^th) we left on a 2-week vacation to Arizona. We stayed in Des Moines the first night. When we unpacked, we realized that we had left home without my thyroid pills. It didn’t seem like such a big deal at the time. The next day we arrived in Broken Bow, NE mid-afternoon to visit 2 of Pam’s maternal grandma’s sisters and their families. We had to ask for directions to Aunt Hilda and Uncle Ed’s farm on a gravel country road. A farmer told us to go to “all”, turn right and go straight for 5 miles. We couldn’t find anything that was “all” until we realized that he had said “oil” meaning a tarred road! When we arrived at the farm, we met Hilda and Ed at the gate where they drawled, “You want in?” For supper we went to Aunt Lena and Uncle Sievert’s home where they treated us royally with delicious steaks and all the trimmings. The next morning we had a huge breakfast at Hilda and Ed’s where we had spent the night. During the rest of the morning and into mid-afternoon, we drive to New Mexico. When we got into the mountains in the northern part of the state, snow began to fall, which soon turned into a full-blown blizzard. Pam was driving and at first I was having fun taking pictures of the beautiful scenery, even asking Pam but we soon become aware of how dangerous it was driving on these winding roads with limited visibility and nightfall coming. Fortunately we were able to eventually follow a snowplow and sand truck into the next town, Eagle Nest. We got a motel room, had supper at a nearby café, and soon fell asleep, exhausted by the day’s excitement! The next morning we woke up to find that our car was almost buried in snow. I brushed off the accumulation, but when I turned on the ignition there was no response. I walked over to a nearby garage, talked to the employees who then helped me push the car down the street and inside. When they checked the car, they discovered that the engine was frozen! and said that there was nothing they could do until it slowly thawed out. This took about 4-5 hours. When we were ready to leave again, they wanted us to buy tire chains because we were going to drive into the mountains again. We decided to try driving without them, and luckily they weren’t needed as the roads had been plowed fairly clean. We made a short stop in the beautiful town of Taos, where we enjoyed a late but delicious lunch of Mexican food at the “El Rancho“ restaurant, and then continued to Holbrook, AZ where we stopped for the night. I was now feeling pretty lousy after 3 days without taking my thyroid pills. The next day we drove to Apache Junction, located about 35 miles east of Phoenix. Here we stayed for 5 days with a cousin of Pam’s mother, Norman Knudson, and his wife Margaret. They were delightful people to be with! Their front yard was covered with green stones, in the middle of which was a push lawnmower and a sign which said, “Retired”. We woke up the first morning to the sound of a cow mooing, which turned out to be a gag toy that was installed under our bed. After breakfast, they drove us to their doctor who wrote a prescription for synthroid for me. With it I was relieved that I would feel better again soon. That afternoon they took us out into a nearby desert where we saw huge cacti, one that had an eagle’s nest in its top, and some with mistletoe growing on them (Norman teased me that I didn‘t recognize it and didn’t do anything after he pointed it out!). The next day their son-in-law Jim picked us up and drove us out to hike and climb a nearby mountain named “4 Peaks”. We didn’t get to the top, since past the tree line, it became very scary with loose rocks which were very slippery going up and even more so on our way down (we basically slid a few feet at a time on our butts). By the time we got back to the car, it was getting dark and we were glad to be off of the mountain. We all then had supper together at Jim and his wife Norma Jean’s home. The following day Norman and Margaret drove us north to view Hoover Dam. What we remember most from this day were the hair-pin curves through the mountains and Norman terrifying all of us by driving as close as possible to the right edge of the road (which had no guardrails), so sitting in the front passenger seat I could see nothing but drop-offs below us! The next day which was Sunday we spent at their home, recovering from yesterday’s trip. On Monday we said our goodbyes and thank-yous to our wonderful hosts and drove north toward the Grand Canyon. In what unfortunately became my stubborn pattern, I wanted to drive as long as possible that day, possibly even getting to the canyon area. It was getting dark and there was no towns along the road, only occasional lights in the distance on an Indian reservation. After I had to put my headlights on, we began seeing cattle and wild donkeys almost on the road. When we finally came to a motel in a very small town, it was much more expensive than I wanted to pay, but Pam wisely insisted that we weren’t going to drive any further in the dark! We enjoyed our 2+ days viewing the Canyon, as I attempted to become the 1^st person to fully capture all the nuances and colors of the canyon walls and the river below. Another memory is of what came to be called my “deer pictures”. In the forests along the rim road, I would from time to time spot a deer. When I did we would stop the car and I would get out and quietly trail the deer until I could get a fairly clear view to take a picture of it. Of course this was long before the days of digital photography so I had no idea what the photos would look like until the film was developed. When they were I realized that it was almost impossible to actually make out the image of the deer in any of the photos. Only my dear Mom said she could see them, and I would have to tell her that “no, that’s not the deer”! While at the canyon area we also took time to visit a Navajo village and enjoyed learning more about their culture from a very interesting and knowledgeable docent. The drive back to Sandstone was uneventful, but we had many good experiences from the trip to “put in our memory bank”.

On the first “Earth Day” (April 22^nd) millions of Americans participated in anti-pollution demonstrations.

On May 4^th student protests against the Vietnam War resulted in the tragic killing of 4 Kent State University students by the Ohio National Guard.

19 9^th-Graders (13 from Grace and 6 from Emmanuel) were confirmed on May 17^th.

On May 24^th I gave the address at the High School Baccalaureate. I entitled it “The Age of Aquarius”, based on a popular song at that time by the Fifth Dimension.

A week later our parish youth held a clean-up hike along the back roads and met the Hinckley church youth halfway. Our youth won a trophy for picking up more trash and the event was written up in the local Sandstone paper.

I must mention another experience I had with Lee Dybvig. He invited our nephew, Todd, and me to go fishing with him late one night in June. We caught several fish but then heard something coming out of the darkness. It turned out to be a raccoon who boldly walked up, grabbed the fish and ran off!

Among the other 8 Baptisms I had that year was a father of a child that I had baptized earlier. I officiated at 4 weddings and 10 funerals. We also received 24 new members, including 10 children.

On June 28^th Grace's 25^th Anniversary had 260 people attending worship and 400 sharing in the smorgasbord!

I had the privilege of assisting with Holy Communion at a 7 AM service on July 1^st during the LCA National Convention in Minneapolis, thanks to the invitation of Mike Edwins.

Several times during that summer I played golf on the local course. Appropriately for a community named “Sandstone”, there were sand greens, so you had to learn to roll the ball on. If you arched the shot, it would bounce and keep going, off the green again!

One Sunday morning in late July I was preaching at Emmanuel. The pulpit was right next to an open window, and when a breeze came up, my sermon notes started drifting out the window. I reached out with my right hand, retrieving them, and went right on with the sermon!

From August 15-22 Pam and I spent a vacation week near Alexandria. We rented a cabin on the shore of Lake Darling where my family had spent several vacation weeks while I was growing up. It was rainy much of the week, so we had a lot of time to relax, read and enjoy one another’s company. A small boat came with the cabin and I had borrowed my Dad’s J.C. Higgins ½-horsepower motor. On the last evening we decided to take a ride on the lake. We slowly putt-putted north so we could see a fancy new resort from the water. Things went fine until I went through a patch of weeds and the motor sputtered and died. I did everything I could to get it running again but to no avail. Finally I began rowing toward the resort. When we got closer we saw that some people were sitting on bleachers, and then more joined them. Suddenly as we were directly in front of the resort, 2 speed boats came zooming by us from shore and their wake almost swamped us. I tried to row away as quickly as I could, but the boats kept flying by us. We heard people in the bleachers laughing, and we realized that they must have thought that we were part of a water show! I continued to struggle to get out of there, but it seemed to take forever. Pam to this day says this incident is by far the most embarrassing one of her life!

On August 30^th we took our nephew, Todd Bents, to the Minnesota State Fair. Highlights included his excitement at seeing a 3-headed bull and a woman turn into a gorilla before his very eyes on the Midway, and his comment that Pam went “into the food building and out of the food building, into the food building and out of the food building!” (her favorite activity at the fair was sampling all of the delicious foods offered for sale).

In September pictures were taking for a new pictorial church directory. In our picture we looked very young and it showed me with the beard that I had started growing during my trip to Israel the previous year.

On October 6^th Pam and I celebrated our 6^th wedding anniversary by having supper at “Muriel and Paul's” restaurant in Pine City.

We celebrated “Youth Ministry Sunday” on November 8^th. Bob Vork, one of our youth (who was attending Bethel College in St. Paul) was part of a group there that called themselves the “Bo Conrad Spit Band”. They performed a variety of music including hymns using guitars, but also kazoos, wash board bass, etc. At Bob’s invitation, we attended one of their concerts in the Twin Cities and were impressed with their talent and sincerity. I then asked Bob if he and the group would be willing to sing and play hymns for the November 8^th services. They were very excited about this opportunity. At the 9:15 service that morning they were very warmly received at Grace. When they played later at the 10:45 service at Emmanuel (where Bob and his family were members), most of the members sat in stunned silence with very scattered applause afterward. Bob and the other members of the band were very disappointed and I felt guilty that I had put them through this experience. All I could do was recall Jesus’ words about his hometown of Nazareth, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and among his own kin…”!

November 15 I preached at the Askov/Bruno parish (I was serving there as “Vice Pastor”) while seminarian Rex Schwartz was at Sandstone. He was a blind ministry candidate who was serving a type of internship there (he hated women, didn't want any on the Church Council, was verbally abusive to his wife, and in March 1971 he was finally asked to leave after numerous thoughtless and unkind acts which he instigated. In his last days there, he tore an alternative service out of the back of each hymnal!)

December 5 We attended the Lions' Club Christmas party at “Tobie's” in Hinckley. The speaker (District president) representing the Lions was drunk and told a number of filthy stories!

December 24-25 Pam had been working as a volunteer at a delinquent boys' camp east of town. For Christmas Eve she and Dorothy Dybvig arranged for boys who had no families to join parish families for the evening. We had 2 young men with us. It was moving to see them open their few small gifts and be so appreciative. We brought them back to the camp at about 1:30 AM after Grace's service at 11 PM and then had only a few hours rest before Emmanuel's “Julotta” (Swedish-tradition) service at 6 AM!

On New Year's Eve, after the Communion service at Grace at 8 PM, Dorothy and Lee invited us to a party at their house. After several glasses of wine, Lee and I had a great idea: why don't we go over to the church at midnight and turn on the hymn tape which played over outside speakers? The only problem was we couldn't figure out how to shut it off again and it played for about an hour! Some of the neighbors were not impressed (but I don't think they ever found out that Lee and I were responsible!).

Another full and exciting year!

ON TO 1969!

The new year started auspiciously when on January 10th, on my way to the Twin Cities for a Synod Social Action meeting, my car's left front brake froze. When I pulled off in Hinckley, the garage man hoisted the front end and the tire fell off!

On a Saturday afternoon in late January, Pam and I attended a youth event – sledding on what was called “Lions' Hill” We were both age 26 but as we watched for awhile, one teenager came up and said to us, “Would you OLD FOLKS like to go down the hill too?” We were so insulted!

Internationally, on February 3rd Yassar Arafat was elected chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). They vowed to actively work against Israel's existence as a nation.

Pam and I were sponsors for the baptism of Pam's cousin Jan and Ted Bents' child in Osceola, WI on February 9th.

I mentioned earlier that I was confident that I could turn the members of the congregation onto support for social action. At a joint Church Council meeting in February, I brought up an issue that the Synod was recommending – to support gun control at the state-wide and Federal level. I talked about the reasons why this issue was important and worthy of the Councils' approval. After a very brief discussion, someone asked that the vote be taken by paper ballot rather than show of hands, and when the result was announced, the motion had been defeated 14-2 (one of the votes was mine!).

After the meeting, 2 things happened. I found out that Elsie, the Grace Council secretary, had voted with me and I thanked her for her support (years later I found out from her that she hadn't been in favor of gun control either, but had voted with me only because she felt so sorry for me standing alone!).

The other occurrence was an Emmanuel Council member named Wesley coming up to me and saying, “Pastor, don't ever try something like that again! We're going to be here long after you're gone!” I may have learned more about church administration and politics that evening than I had during all of my years of seminary and was properly put in my place!

On February 28th Pam and I drove to the Twin Cities to attend a concert of the Dave Brubeck quartet together with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra that featured his 1st choral mass or oratorio, “A Light in the Wilderness”, that he composed with jazz themes, blending instruments and voices to narrate Christ's words about loving God and our enemies (he was later awarded an honorary Doctorate of Sacred Theology for the work).

In mid-March I faced another of my 1st challenges. A family from Emmanuel asked to meet with me. They were not fringe members as the husband Ken was Council president, his wife Peggy was the women's group president, and their daughter Jane was the parish youth group's president! When I arrived at their home they informed me that they were very upset about many of the things I was doing as well as things I believed in, i.e., my chaperoning at the local Youth Center. It was one of the few places in town for kids to go, and while it was not a perfect place, I felt that helping to supervise them was a positive step on my part. After we spent several hours going around and around on their feelings and my justification for what I was doing, they asked that their membership be transferred to the local Evangelical Free Church. It was a difficult experience, but I was pleased that a few days later the Emmanuel Church Council met and backed my participation at the Youth Center, and several members admitted that they had pressured the family to join, when they may have been much happier in the more conservative church setting.

On the world scene, on March 17th Golda Meir became Israel's 1st and only woman Prime Minister. She was the world's 3rd woman prime minister, but the first to hold this office without any family connection. One Israeli politician later described her a the “strong-willed, straight-talking, gray-bunned grandmother of the Jewish people.”

As a welcome and positive sign, 11 new members – 6 adults and 5 children – joined the Emmanuel congregation on March 23rd.

On March 28th we got a new car – a 1969 Chevy Chevelle. We traded in our old car after we and my Mom were almost aphyxiated driving to Rice Lake with a holey exhaust pipe!

We attended a Passover Seder/Communion meal at Werner and Mona Luomas' home in McGregor, together with other seminary classmates on April 7th. It was the 1st time many of us had seen each other since we were ordained.

During the year I officiated at 5 weddings. The one I remember best was a couple where she was a Grace member and her husband was Catholic. His priest and I conducted the ceremony together in a very amicable manner, and we both felt it was a strong witness to our unity as Christians.

I also officiated at 10 funerals during 1969. While most were for elderly members who had long and productive lives, the most moving and difficult for me, the family and friends was for a 4-year-old girl named Tracy who died of leukemia after a year-long struggle. During her illness I visited her and her family at the hospital and her home numerous times. She was a sweetheart who would sit on my lap while I read to her stories from a children's Bible story-book. Her favorite was Jesus' parable of the little lost lamb who was sought and found by a loving shepherd. I shared tears at her service together with everyone else, but I was also happy that she knew that Jesus loved her and had taken her Home.

On May 25th I officiated at a service of Confirmation for 8 teenagers whom I had met with weekly since coming to the parish last year. They were a great group of young people, and the interesting part was that there were 7 boys and one girl in the group.

A week later Pam and I had the youth group over to the parsonage for a picnic and a game of volleyball. Pam was really into the game when she went up against a great kid named Bob Vork at the net, spiked the ball, and following through, broke his arm. As he was the starting quarterback on the high school football team, several people were not too happy!

During mid-June I enjoyed teaching and sharing with kids at a week of Vacation Bible School, but I also broke my left thumb playing softball one afternoon!

During the same week I received news that an article I had written entitled “I Want Kids to Know” had been accepted for publication by our national Church magazine, THE LUTHERAN! It was printed in the magazine's issue of November 5th. Reading it 39 years later, I believe most of the ideas that I expressed are still relevant to youth today. I wrote,

-I want kids to know that Christianity is not a matter of trying to lead a “good” life, but of accepting God's love and sharing that love with others...

-I want kids to know that all of life is sacred, that nothing you do or say is outside or beyond God's concern and love...

-I want kids to know that, as one Christian has put it, “What it means to be a Christian is, wonderfully, just synonymous with what it means to no more and no less than a human being, that the secret of the resurrection of Christ is in fact the acceptance of the gift of life in the midst of the world as it is and that the church of Christ, and the members of the church, are called to serve the world by showing the world how to enjoy the gift of life here and now...

-I want kids to take Christ's life, death and resurrection as a pattern for your own experience, struggling to show God's love in your daily lives, and knowing that God is with you now and after your death...

-I want kids to know that the church is not made up of “perfect” people but of real people who make mistakes and fall flat on their faces and need God's forgiveness...

-I want kids to know that you don't have to be 21 or 50 or 80 to be a member of the church. You became members through baptism, not following 2 or 3 years of confirmation study...

-I want kids to know that your means of worship expression are as valid as the tried-and-tested liturgy of older generations...

-I want kids to know that whatever talents or abilities you have are given you by God, to be used and offered to God for service in this world...

-I want kids to know that being a Christian is more than sitting in the pew on Sunday morning or attending Sunday school, that it also involves what you do and say the other 6 days of the week, in the classroom, in the locker room, on dates, wherever you are and whatever you're doing...

-I want kids to know that you have a place in the church right now, that coupling your enthusiasm and idealism with the stability and experience of older members will provide a broader ministry for the church...

-I want kids to know that honesty is the only policy, that unless we can be
open and sincere with one another, our Christian faith is a sham...

-I want kids to know that Communion is not a sad or dreary experience, but is a joyful celebration of God's acceptance and forgiveness of us as we are, giving us another chance at a new life...

-I want kids to know that Christ was serious when He said, “love your enemies”, “walk the second mile” and “turn the other cheek.”

On June 23rd Warren Burger was appointed by President Nixon as the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court (he was to serve in that position until 1986). Although Burger was a conservative and considered a strict constructionist, under his leadership the Supreme Court delivered a variety of transformative decisions on abortion, capital punishment, religious establishment, and school desegregation. He also worked hard for the adoption of modern management techniques in the nation's judicial system.

From July 1st-30th I had a wonderful trip to Israel with Dr. Richard Reusch and Gene Anderson, his Council president at St. John's Lutheran Church in Stacy. Dr. Reusch had been my advisor during my freshman year at Gustavus Adolphus College, as well as my teacher of Old and New Testament, and I had recently met him again when he was installed at Stacy (at near age 80 it was the 1st congregation he had ever served). When he invited me to go with him and Gene to the Holy Land, I jumped at the chance, and thanks to a financial gift from my Mom we came up with the money. Highlights included:

July 1-2 We flew from Minneapolis to Shannon, Ireland to Paris to Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel on Air France - they were my 1st airplane flights!

July 2 From the airport we took a cab to the Migdal David Hotel in Tel Aviv, 2 blocks from a Mediterranean Sea beach. Dr. Reusch knew the owner but he had already gone home for the night and the staff wouldn't call and bother him. Thus there were no rooms available to us, so we ended up sleeping on cots in a broom closet!

July 4 The next AM I had my 1st taste of a typical Israeli breakfast: strong coffee, orange juice, various cheeses, fresh bread, hummus (a Mediterranean dip made of pureed chick peas), olives, and salad with diced tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers topped with olive oil and lemon juice! After this feast, we toured the city of Jaffa (old Joppa), visiting the home of Simon the Tanner who was converted by Simon Peter (written in Acts 9:36-10:48) . Later I swam in the Mediterranean and relaxed on the beach.

July 5 We rode on a public bus north (the 84-mile trip took 3 hours) through the Galilean countryside and across into Syria (the Israelis had captured the area called the “Golan Heights” in the 6-Day War in 1967). There were many signs of the military campaign there including burned-out tanks, bunkers and mine fields behind barbed-wire fencing. While there we toured the beautiful Banias Falls (site of Caesarea Philippi where Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do YOU say that I am?” (Matthew 16:13-20). A local guide we hired taught me that the Hebrew word for orange groves is “peardez” (paradise). We then rode on a bus for 20 miles south to Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee where we stayed at a humble but very comfortable hostel run by the Anglicans (Church of Scotland). I remember sleeping like a baby that night!

July 6 The next AM I walked down to a local beach and swam in the Sea of Galilee. One of the local residents told me that it's 18 miles long, 8 ½ miles wide and 350 feet deep.

July 7 While in Tiberias I heard that 130 million trees have been planted in the Upper Galilee region since 1948, when Israel was established (they say that they have “made the desert bloom)”. During the day I became very ill with chills, a high temperature and nausea, so I stayed in bed through the next day.

July 9 Back in Tel Aviv, we flew on Inland Airlines to Abu Rodeis in the Sinai Desert (captured from the Egyptians 2 years earlier). We stayed at an army base the 1st night, then traveled by bus for 6 hours to the traditional site of Mount Sinai where Moses received the 10 Commandments (Exodus 19 and 20). It was a very hot and dusty trip, which was escorted by Israeli soldiers riding with us! The bus was advertised as a “luxury air-conditioned coach” but was actually a very old school bus and the only ventilation was a vent that opened on its top that sucked in hot air and sand! When we arrived at the foot of the mountain, we toured St. Catherine's Monastery, with some of the oldest Biblical manuscripts anywhere, and with one room full of the bones and skulls of former monks who have lived there. We got a room at the Monastery where the hospitality and accommodations were surprising good.

July 10 Because of the extreme heat later in the day, we began climbing Mount Sinai at 3 AM. It was a very rocky path with some steps carved out of the rocks. It took us 2 hours to go up and 1½ hours to come down. I remember that there was a young lady in our climbing group who had inexplicably worn sandals to climb. Very early on she was going to have to turn back, but Dr. Reusch picked her up and carried her the rest of the top to the summit! (he was in incredible physical condition for any age, much less in his late 70's! Often in the AM we would be awakened with his doing push- ups and sit-ups on the floor next to the beds!). The view from the top was spectacular as the sun had just risen. We visited a cave there where tradition says Moses stayed for the 40 days he was receiving the Law. Back on the bus, we stopped at an oasis. the only spot of green in all the tan of the desert. Later that day I swam in the Gulf of Suez, before we returned to Abu Rodeis and again slept in the army barracks.

July 11 We were awakened at 5 AM, and traveled east by bus to the city of Sharm el Sheikh where I swam in Solomon's Bay. From there we sailed by small ship up the Gulf of Aqaba through the night.

July 12 We arrived at the city of Eilat in mid-morning. I shopped for stones and polished rocks which are found there, and bought various pieces with the brilliant aqua color. In the late afternoon, we took a bus back to Jerusalem across the Negev Desert. It had been an incredible and busy few days!

July 13 We toured the Shrine of the Book, the building that contains some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as the outstanding Israel National Museum. Later in the day we visited the area of the nearby Greek Orthodox Church of the Cross, where tradition says the wood for Jesus' cross came from.

July 15 We took a bus back to Tel Aviv, where I again swam and sun-tanned at the beach. I lost my thyroid pills ( later found them below the bed headboard) and arranged to get a prescription ($2.60) from a Dr. Friedlander whose office was near the hotel.

July 16 We took another public bus and toured Nablus, Jericho and the Dead Sea. In Jericho, we saw the Mount of Temptation (commemorating Jesus' 40 days of testing in the Judean wilderness after He was baptized). There I also had my picture taken posing on a camel.

July 17 We headed south and visited the city of Hebron and the Tombs of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives). Enjoying an Arab custom of hospitality, we had a free bottle of pop at Bethlehem, the birth place of both King David and Jesus. There we toured the Church of the Nativity, the oldest church in the world, dating from AD 330. While there we also visited the Tomb of Rachel.

July 19-21 We next traveled in the Negev Desert. At Eilat, we sailed on a glass-bottomed boat in the Gulf of Aqaba and saw beautiful fish and coral reefs!). I also swam in the Red Sea, before we flew back to Tel Aviv on Arkia Airlines (a 55-minute flight).

July 22 I made arrangements for our flight home on the 29th. The cost was $930 ($395 higher than expected!)

July 23 We again went by public bus (Egged) to Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. The Church of Scotland hostel was full, so we ended up with a room at a Class “D” hotel! It was very hot and dry (105 degrees with a 30 mph wind). We took a local bus to the hot springs and Kibbutz Degania. People there were very kind and offered us a tour and free soda water from the tap.

July 24 In the AM we tried to get a bus to nearby Capernaum, but the driver mumbled something and left without us! We were able to get a room at the Church of Scotland hostel where I spent an hour resting and eating grapes in their beautiful garden. I also got a haircut (very cheap!). In the afternoon, we climbed to the top of the Mount of Beatitudes to visit the chapel. It was a steep climb but worth it for the great view of the Sea of Galilee! Back in Tiberias, I later again swam in the Sea.

July 25 We returned to Jerusalem by bus, and got a “room” at the Church of Scotland hostel on the edge of town (we ended up sleeping on the floor in the vestry of the sanctuary!). We hired a wonderful guide named Jimmy who took us on a tour of the Old City – the Via Dolorosa (the traditional way that Jesus was brought to the Cross), the field where Judas hung himself, the Pool of Siloam (where Jesus healed a blind man), Gordon's Tomb (a beautiful garden area where some people believe Jesus was crucified and buried prior to His resurrection), and the Garden of Gethsemane (where Jesus prayed prior to His arrest).

July 26 I had been reading a novel “Mila 18” about the World War II resistance of Jews during the persecutions in Warsaw, Poland. (It was so compelling that I could hardly put it down). I had a cheese sandwich at the “Y” for dinner, then shopped in the East Jerusalem market which was very crowded. I then walked from the bus station back to the hotel.

July 28 I ate delicious Hungarian goulash one more time (we've eaten it often when we've been in Tel Aviv).

July 29-30 We flew back to Minnesota from Tel Aviv via Paris and New York. I owed Gene Anderson $395 that he lent me so that I could return. It had been an exciting and eye-opening experience, but it was good to be back home!

We couldn't afford for both of us to go. I told Pam I'd bring her back a dishwasher, but unfortunately she wouldn't get on the plane! Incidentally, I lost 25 pounds during the trip from all the walking and exercise I did in the heat. I had grown a beard while there and Pam had cut her hair real short, but we were both happy to be together again!

While I was in Israel, the following events occurred:

July 8 The 1st US troops were withdrawn from Vietnam

July 18 Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy drove his car off a bridge in Chappaquiddick Island, MA, and passenger Mary Jo Kopechne drowned under mysterious circumstances!

July 20 Neil Armstrong became the 1st person to walk on the moon! He was soon joined by fellow astronaut, “Buzz” Aldrin. I brought back that day's JERUSALEM POST with an article and pictures of the historic event!

From August 15th-18th the “Woodstock” festival was held in upstate New York, drawing 300,000 people for 3 days of “peace and music” (also heavy drug and alcohol use).

On September 14th, two of the 13 baptisms at which I officiated during the year was a 35-year-old father and his new-born daughter.

I organized a “Youth Ministry Sunday” on September 28th. One of the adult members, Lee Dybvig, and one of our youth, Mike Gaede, joined me in a dialogue sermon. Lee was to interrupt me about a minute into my sermon with the line, “Wait a minute, pastor!” but he was nervous, jumped up and shouted the words, scaring the wits out of everyone including me! My folks were with us that Sunday, and my Mom thought that a madman had gone berserk!

For our 5th wedding anniversary on October 10th Pam and I had supper at the Normandy Hotel in downtown Minneapolis (where we also stayed) and then attended a play at the Guthrie Theatre - we believe we saw “The Homecoming” by Harold Pinter.

On October 26th 250 people attended a smorgasbord at Grace, followed by my showing slides of my trip to Israel. They were very well-received.

In early December we welcomed a wonderful group of new members – 13 adults and 21 children at Grace, and 2 adults and 2 children at Emmanuel. Both churches were very happy about this growth, as was I!

BEGINNING OF MY MINISTRY IN 1968

My senior year of seminary flew by as there were so many exciting things going on!

On January 21, I began preaching at Epiphany Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis after our friend Pastor Ralph Kempski resigned to begin serving a church in Fern Creek, Kentucky (that sounded like the end of the world but was actually a growing suburb of Louisville). A few weeks later the Synod President asked me not to consider a Call to the church, since he had a different plan for me (he didn’t say what at the time!)

On the 25th I picked out and bought the items I would need to wear to lead worship – a long black cassock, a shorter white surplice and a series of stoles (bands of green, red, purple and white cloth draped around the neck) at Lohman's, a Catholic church supply store in St. Paul. My folks kindly bought all these as a graduation gift. I thought I looked pretty spiffy!

In February Pam and I bought new living room furniture in anticipation of moving into our 1st parsonage after graduation. Almost all of that furniture is still in our living room today (we bought some pretty solid stuff!)

On the evening of February 17th Dr. Melvin Hammarberg, Minnesota Synod President, and his wife took Pam and me out to supper at the Normandy Restaurant in downtown Minneapolis. During dessert Dr. Hammarberg introduced us to the location of our first Call by asking me, “Do you like to hunt and fish?” I answered honestly, “Not really!” But he then told us that we were assigned to go to the Grace and Emmanuel parish in Sandstone (90 miles north of the Twin Cities on the way to Duluth). I had really been hoping to stay in the Twin Cities “where the action was.” Remember that this was 1968 – the Vietnam War was bitterly dividing the country, civil rights were being debated and fought over, and I was on the Social Action Committee of the Synod. A parish in a small town and conservative part of MN would not have been my 1st choice!
Pam and I drove up and spent an enjoyable evening getting to meet the Grace and Emmanuel members on March 10th. They seemed very nice and anxious for me to come to be their new pastor. With the brashness and foolish confidence that only a 25-year-old can exhibit, I soon began looking forward to the opportunity of shaping them all into fellow social activists!

I took time out of my studies, and on March 27th spent the day in River Falls, WI campaigned for Senator Eugene McCarthy (who was running for the Democratic Party nomination against Lyndon Johnson). While there I met actor Paul Newman who stopped during the day (I led him through the crowd when he was going to give a speech) and afterward told people that I was his body guard)!

On March 31st Grace and Emmanuel Churches voted to officially call me as their pastor.
Four days later, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN, the day after giving his “I've Been to the Mountaintop” speech. The country was thrown into grief, anger and confusion.

From April 25th-28th Pam was hospitalized after an early miscarriage. We were very grieved with the loss, but knew that it was not the end of the possibilities for us to have a healthy child.

May 9th was the last day of classes at Northwestern Seminary, and graduation was held at Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church in St. Paul on May 17th.

On May 21st we spent the day at Sandstone to meet with the Property Committee chairman, Sig Swanson, about painting the parsonage interior (he had one shade of blue and one of green for us to choose from!). He later relented and allowed us to select from a wider array.

May 28th was my Day of Ordination at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter during the Minnesota Synod Convention! I was honored that Pastor Ralph Kempski came up from Kentucky to be my sponsor.

The following Sunday, June 2nd, a “Recognition Sunday” was held at my home church (Trinity in Stillwater) with Dr. Hammarberg “re-enacting” the Ordination of Ray Larson, Gary Langness and myself, unique in that all 3of us were from that congregation and had graduated together.

June 5th was another devastating day when Democratic Presidential candidate, Senator Robert Kennedy, was shot in Los Angeles and died the next day! Again, chaos broke out all across the US.

My first baptism was my niece, Amy Dollerschell, at First Presbyterian Church in Rochester, MN on June 9th. The Stillwater Gazette described the event as “the Rev.’s 1st baptism”!

On June 25th Pam and I moved into the parsonage at Sandstone, where my installation service was held on Friday, June 28th at Grace Church. My folks, Pam's folks, Grandma Knudson, and Norm and Margaret Knudson from Arizona were with us.

My first Sunday preaching and leading worship at Grace and Emmanuel was on June 30th. The only glitch was that I forgot to bring the bulletins with me to Emmanuel when I came out to the country for the 10:45 service!

The next day I toured the community with retired pastor, P. G. Carlstedt. He was a wise and kind old man who wanted me to “get off on the right foot”.

On Sunday evening, July 14th, Emmanuel Church held its monthly “Family Night” and we were welcomed with a corsage for Pam and a cake with our names on it!

On July 20th I officiated at my first wedding – Danny Laun and Bonnie Jorivac at Grace Church! Before the wedding, I met with them 3 times for pre-marital counseling, probably more for my sake than theirs!

From July 22nd-28th Pam’s nieces, Lori and Kim Bents (ages 8 and 6), stayed with us. We had a lot of fun with them!

My first baptisms in the parish were Carol Ann Lundorff (from Grace) and Kari Gustafson (from Emmanuel).

We held an “Open House” at the parsonage from 2-5 PM on August 4th. Many of the members from both congregations attended, and again we were made to feel very welcome and appreciated.

My first funeral since the summer of 1965 was on August 6th for Marvin Anderson, a 21-year-old member of Grace who was killed in a car accident just before he was to leave for Vietnam! It was extremely traumatic for all of us.

On August 25th we received 14 adults and 7 children as new members at Grace, including Pam and me. I was pleased that the church was already growing!

The Democratic National Convention convened from August 26th-29th in Chicago, IL and was the scene of massive demonstrations protesting the Vietnam War which was at its height. 1000’s of people showed up with signs and banners, music, dancing and poetry. Initially, there was a “carnival” atmosphere, but the police were edgy. Some people responded to a night-time curfew announcement with rock-throwing. Police used tear gas and beat people with batons, and arrests were made. In the aftermath of what was later characterized as a “police riot”, a grand jury indicted 8 demonstrators and 8 police officers. 7 of the demonstrators became known as the “Chicago 7” and were charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot and other charges. They included Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden and Bobby Seale (a “Black Panther”).

At Emmanuel’s “Family Night” on September 1st Dr. Richard Reusch was the guest speaker. He was a former missionary in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), East Africa, was my college advisor for one year at Gustavus Adolphus, and was now serving at St. John's in Stacy. He was a fascinating old man in his late 70’s with whom I shared a wonderful adventure during the coming year!

On September 17th I had 2 funerals – one was for Wade Grundmeier, a 9-month-old member and the other an 80-year-old non-member! The service for Wade was very difficult for me as well as for everyone else who knew him and his family.

I officiated at the wedding of Karl Olesen and Patricia Anderson on October 5th (she was the sister of Marvin who was killed in August).

During the late summer Pam and I, together with several other church and community members, had begun volunteering our time at a delinquent boys' camp east of town. One of the volunteers was a wonderful 50-year-old Catholic priest named Father Lutar. He and I worked together very well and bonded quickly, and I was devastated when he died suddenly. Pam and I attended his funeral on October 21st.

On November 5th Richard Nixon was elected US President by a very narrow margin over Minnesota Senator, Hubert Humphrey, as he promised to end the war in Vietnam. That day Shirley Chisholm of New York became the first African-American woman elected to the US Congress.

Pam and I attended the funeral of Maurice Del Mas in Stillwater on November 9th (he and his wife Hazel had hired me to cut their grass, one of my 1st part-time jobs).

On December 2nd Pam took the train into Minneapolis with members, Zelda Sandwick (our Grace organist) and Shirley Peterson (our church secretary).

On slow nights, we would go down to the depot and watch one of the trains arrive. Remember, Sandstone was listed as having only 2,500 residents, and it didn’t really look that big. We found out that that number included 1,000 inmates at the local Federal Correctional Institution (a minimum-security facility where many of our members worked).

From December 21st-22nd Nathaniel Inyama from Biafra/Nigeria who was studying at the seminary in St. Paul was with us for a caroling party to raise money for his war-torn country and to preach. We had a very heavy snowfall overnight, and barely made it out to Emmanuel where very few members were in attendance. He was very upset when we couldn’t get him back to the Twin Cities after the services, so to try to vent his anger, we arranged for him to ride a snowmobile for the 1st time, and he also played my drum set with great vigor!

After the services on December 24-25 (Grace’s was at 11 PM on Christmas Eve and Emmanuel’s was at 6 AM Christmas Day, I was very moved when members presented us with many bags of groceries, canned goods and fresh meat! Unfortunately, Pam was sick and unable to attend.

We ended the year with a Holy Communion service on New Year’s Eve. Pam’s folks were with us as we also celebrated their wedding anniversary.

It had been a very eventful year for us as well as for the country and the world. Our journey in ministry had begun!

WHAT IN THE WORLD? 1942-1967

One day I sat down and started to think of all the many events and advancements in the US and around the world between my birth and the beginning of my ministry. In my compulsive way, I decided to make a listing of some of the most significant:

1942

The US declared war on Japan following that country's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941

Japanese forces invaded the Aleutian Islands (the 1st invasion of American soil in 128 years)

The US began interning Japanese-American citizens and seizing their property

Sugar, gasoline and coffee rationing began in the US

Germany, under Adolf Hitler, sank 400 American ships

The murder of millions of European Jews in Nazi gas chambers began

Physicist, Enrico Fermi, led a team at the University of Chicago in splitting the atom and produced the 1st nuclear chain reaction (part of the “Manhattan Project”)

Day-light savings time went into effect in the US

Mahatma Gandhi demanded independence for India and was arrested

The 1st “electronic brain” or automatic computer was developed in the US

Bell Aircraft tested the 1st US jet plane

Magnetic recording tape was invented

C. S. Lewis wrote “The Screwtape Letters”

The Disney movie “Bambi” and the film “Casablanca” came out, and Irving Berlin released “White Christmas” (sung by Bing Crosby)

DDT was 1st used as a pesticide

1943

Penicillin was successfully used in the treatment of chronic diseases for the 1st time

An infantile paralysis (polio) epidemic killed almost 1,200 and crippled thousands more in the US

A “pay-as-you-go” income tax system (where taxes are withheld from each paycheck and sent to the government) was instituted in the US

Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill held their “Casablanca Conference” (he became the 1st US President to travel by airplane while in office)

US General Dwight D. Eisenhower became the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe

Navy Lt. John F. Kennedy's PT-109 boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer (his actions to save his surviving crew after the sinking of the boat both solidified his "war hero" status in his political career and may have contributed to his long-term back problems)

Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran to discuss war strategy (during the meetings they established an agreement concerning a planned June 1944 invasion of Europe)

A massacre occurred in the Warsaw, Poland ghetto

The US Army and Allies invaded Italy

Edward R. Murrow delivered his classic "Orchestrated Hell" broadcast over CBS Radio, describing a Royal Air Force night-time bombing raid on Berlin

Chiang Kai-shek took the oath of office as President of China

Shoe rationing began in the US, followed by rationing of meat, cheese, and all canned foods

The “Great Depression” officially ended in the US. With unemployment figures falling fast due to World War II-related employment, President Roosevelt closed the “Works Progress Administration” (WPA)

Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical play, “Oklahoma!”, opened on Broadway and became an instanteous stage classic (it went on to become Broadway's longest-running musical up to that time – 2,248 consecutive performances)

1944

The US Army and Allies invaded France with “D-Day” landings in Normandy on June 6th (155,000 Allied troops, over 700 ships and 4,000 landing craft were involved)

The “Battle of the Bulge” began (it was the bloodiest of the battles that US forces experienced in World War II, with 19,000 Americans killed)

Brigadier General, Anthony C. McAuliffe, commander of the US forces defending Bastogne, Belgium during the “Battle of the Bulge”, refused to accept demands for surrender by sending a one-word reply, "Nuts!", to the German commander

Franklin Roosevelt was elected to a 4th term as the US President

IBM dedicated the 1st "Automatic Sequence Controlled" Calculator

The 1st non-stop flight went from London to Canada

The US Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council released posters featuring “Smokey the Bear” for the 1st time

The radio show, “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”, debuted

1945

The Yalta Conference was held between Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin in the USSR

The Battle of Iwo Jima, a Japanese island, was fought when about 30,000 US Marines landed there. During the battle, a group of Marines reached the top of Mount Suribachi and were photographed raising the American flag. The photo, taken by Joe Rosenthal, later won a Pulitzer Prize (the picture became the iconic image of the battle, and the most reproduced photograph of all time)

Adolf Hitler committed suicide in a Berlin bunker on April 30th

“VE Day” (May 8th) ended the war in Europe

After the war, Germany was divided into 4 zones, and 3-power occupation of Berlin took effect

Harry Truman became the US President after the death of Franklin Roosevelt

50 nations signed the United Nations Charter in a conference held in San Francisco

The last World War II battle in Europe was fought at Poljana, Slovenia

Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and 120 members of his team surrendered to US forces (they later helped start the US space program)

The US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6th and on Nagasaki on August 9th

Japan surrendered on August 14th (V-J Day), ending World War II (the number of war dead was estimated at 35 million plus 10 million in Nazi concentration camps)

Harry Truman, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin held the Potsdam Conference, the last summit of the war

African-American, John H. Johnson, published the 1st issue of his magazine, “Ebony”

At Gimbel's Department Store in New York City, the 1st ball point pens went on sale for $12.50

Assembly of the world's 1st general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), was completed (it covered 1,800 feet of floor space)

The “Nag Hammadi” scriptures (popularly known as “The Gnostic Gospels”), a collection of early Christian Gnostic texts, was discovered in Egypt

At the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN streptomycin was 1st used to treat TB

Percy Spencer accidentally discovered that microwaves can heat food (the invention of the microwave oven soon followed)

Grand Rapids, Michigan and Newburgh, New York became the 1st US cities to add fluoride to drinking water

1946

New York City was declared the permanent UN headquarters, as the General Assembly held its 1st session in London

Guilty verdicts in the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals were handed down

Winston Churchill gave a speech in Fulton, Missouri in which he introduced the phrase "Iron Curtain" to describe the division between Western powers and the area controlled by the Soviet Union (as such, the speech marked the onset of the “Cold War”)

The South Pole expedition of Admiral Robert Byrd began

George Kennan, a career Foreign Service Officer, formulated the policy of “containment,” the basic US strategy for fighting the “Cold War” (1947-1989) with the Soviet Union (he argued that the Soviet regime was inherently expansionist and that its influence had to be “contained” in areas of vital strategic importance to the US)

India's Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, appeals to the US and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster"

UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) was founded

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis did their 1st show as a comedy team

“Tupperware” was first sold in department and hardware stores

1947

India proclaimed independence and was partitioned into India and Pakistan

The US House Un-American Activities Committee investigated Communist connections among movie personnel in Hollywood

In an effort to fight the spread of Communism, President Truman signed an act implementing the “Truman Doctrine”. The act granted $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece to prevent their falling into the Soviet sphere

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was created

A US airplane 1st flew at supersonic speeds

Bell Lab scientists invented the transistor

Jackie Robinson became the 1st African-American professional baseball player of the modern era. His Major League debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers ended approximately 80 years of baseball segregation, known as the “baseball color line”

Edwin Land demonstrated the 1st "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera

Al Capone, US gangster, died (popularly known as “Scarface”, he led a crime syndicate dedicated to the illegal trafficking of alcoholic beverages during the time of Prohibition – the 1920s-1930s)

Princess Elizabeth, heir to the English throne, married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey in London

In California, designer Howard Hughes performed the maiden flight of the “Spruce Goose”, the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built (the flight lasted only 8 minutes)

American test pilot, Captain Chuck Yeager, flew a Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound for the 1st time

In a cave near Wadi Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, several tall pottery jars containing leather scrolls were discovered, which later became known as the “Dead Sea Scrolls” (Old Testament scriptures and other documents, dating from 22 BC to AD 100)

The “Diary of Anne Frank”, chronicling her life from June 12, 1942 (in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam) until August 1, 1944 (when she and her family were arrested), was published. It was eventually translated from its original Dutch into many languages and became one of the world's most widely-read books. Through her writing, Frank became one of the most well-known Holocaust victims after her death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

Thor Heyerdahl sailed on a balsa wood raft, the “Kon Tiki”, from Peru to Polynesia (a 4,300 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean) in 101 days, proving that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America

Walter Frederick Morrison invented the “Frisbee”

A downed UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) was allegedly found near Roswell, New Mexico

1948

The US Congress passed the “Marshall Plan” (named for US General George Marshall) providing $5 billion in economic aid to 16 European countries

The Jewish state of Israel came into existence on May 14th with David Ben-Gurion as its 1st Prime Minister. The next day an Arab-Israeli war began, with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia attacking Israel

The World Council of Churches was established

The World Health Organization was established by the UN with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland

President Truman issued the 2nd peacetime military draft in the US amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union (the 1st peacetime draft occurred in 1940 under President Roosevelt)

President Truman signed an Executive Order, ending racial segregation in the US Armed Forces

The long-playing (LP) record was invented

Babe Ruth died, and Joe Louis retired after fighting 25 heavyweight title bouts since 1937

Indian civil rights advocate, Mahatma Gandhi, was assassinated

Harry Truman was elected President of the US, defeating Thomas Dewey (newspapers were so sure of the outcome that they prematurely printed the headline, "Dewey Beats Truman")

Alfred Kinsey wrote his landmark study, “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male”

1949

In China, the Communist People's Republic was proclaimed under Mao Tse-Tung

Israel was admitted to the UN as its 59th member, and its capital was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem

Apartheid (official and systematic racial segregation) was established in South Africa

The 1st Volkswagen “Beetle” (a 1948 model) arrived in the US. It was brought over to New York by Dutch businessman, Ben Pon. Unable to interest dealers or importers in the Volkswagen, Pon sold the sample car to pay his travel expenses. Only two 1949 models were sold in America, convincing the Volkswagen chairman that the car had no future in the US (the “Beetle” went on to become the greatest automobile phenomenon in American history)

The B-50 “Lucky Lady II”, under Captain James Gallagher, landed in Fort Worth, Texas after completing the 1st non-stop around-the-world airplane flight (it was refueled in flight 4 times)

Eire left the British Commonwealth and became the Republic of Ireland

The North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington, DC, creating the NATO defense alliance

The Vatican announced that bones uncovered in its subterranean catacombs could be the apostle St. Peter (19 years later, Pope Paul VI announced confirmation that the bones did belong to this 1st saint)

1950

US Senator, Joseph McCarthy, advised President Truman that the State Department was riddled with Communists

North Korean forces invaded South Korea and captured Seoul, opening the “Korean War”

President Truman ordered the US Atomic Energy Commission to develop a hydrogen bomb in response to the detonation of the Soviet Union's 1st atomic bomb in 1949

Florence Chadwick swam across the English Channel in 13 hours, 22 minutes

The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China signed a mutual defense treaty

Robert Schuman presented his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations (this proposal, known as the "Schuman Declaration", is considered to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union)

L. Ron Hubbard published "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health", leading to the founding of the pseudo-religion, Scientology

The Korean War began with North Korea capturing the South Korean capital of Seoul (Americans at home began hoarding supplies in case of rationing and shortages)

In his encyclical, “Humani Generis”, Pope Pius XII declared that evolution was a serious hypothesis that did not contradict essential Catholic teachings

The game show, “Truth or Consequences”, debuted on television

The comic strip, “Peanuts” by Charles Schulz was 1st published in 7 US newspapers

There were 1.5 million TV sets in the US (the number rose to 15 million the next year)

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued the 1st license to broadcast TV in color to CBS, but RCA successfully disputed and blocked the license from taking effect

The 1st TV remote control, Zenith Radio's “Lazy Bones”, was marketed

Sister Mary Teresa began her charity work in Calcutta, India (became known as Mother Teresa)

Pope Pius XII defines a new dogma of Roman Catholicism: that God assumed Mary's body into Heaven after her death

The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA was founded

Paula Ackerman became the 1st woman in the US to serve a congregation as a Rabbi, a few weeks after the death of her husband

Antihistamines became popular remedies for colds and allergies

The US population went over 150 million

Total world population was over 2.5 billion (55% in Asia)

In the “Great Brinks Robbery”, 11 thieves stole more than $2 million from an armored car in Boston, MA

1951

The United Nations headquarters officially opened in New York City

Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site began with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flats, northwest of Las Vegas

The UN General Assembly declared that China is the aggressor in the Korean War

The 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution, limiting Presidents to 2 terms, was ratified

A heart-lung machine was devised for heart operations

The Broadway play “Gigi” opened, starring a little-known actress, Audrey Hepburn, playing the lead character

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, American Communists, received international attention when they were executed for passing nuclear weapons secrets to the Soviet Union

Chinese Communist forces moved into Lhasa, the capital of Tibet

Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service began in the US

Gian-Carlo Menotti's 45-minute opera, “Amahl and the Night Visitors”, premiered live on NBC, becoming the 1st opera written especially for television (it is a great success and is repeated annually every year for the next 14 years)

MGM's Technicolor film version of “Show Boat”, starring Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner and Howard Keel premiered at Radio City Music Hall. The film received mixed reviews, but became a box office smash. It introduced bass-baritone William Warfield (singing “Ol' Man River”) to movie audiences and made him nationally famous overnight

One of the greatest moments in Major League baseball history occurred when the New York Giants Bobby Thomson hit a game-winning home run in the bottom of the 9th inning off of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, to win the National League pennant after being down 14 games (it came to be known as “the Shot Heard 'Round the World")

The TV show, “I Love Lucy”, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, debuted on CBS

The “Dennis the Menace” comic strip appeared in newspapers across the US for the 1st time

Color TV was 1st introduced in the US

In Stockholm, an 18-year-old sailor was fined for kissing in public. The court called his actions “obnoxious behavior repulsive to the public morals”

1952

General Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected US President, defeating Adlai Stevenson

US President-elect, Dwight Eisenhower fulfilled a political campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the war there

Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the US

During August 16,000 people escaped from East to West Berlin

The 1st hydrogen bomb was exploded in the Pacific Ocean

The USSR Communist Party Congress met

Dr. C. Walton Lillehei and Dr. F. John Lewis performed the 1st open-heart surgery (at the University of Minnesota)

The “New York Daily News” carried a front page story announcing that Christine Jorgensen, a transsexual woman in Denmark became the recipient of the 1st successful “sexual reassignment” operation

3,300 died of polio in the US, and 57,000 children were paralyzed

A "killer fog" descended on London, causing 4,000 fatalities (in the process the word "smog" was coined from "smoke" and "fog")

“Cheez Whiz” was introduced by Kraft Foods

Rocket scientist, Wernher von Braun, talked about a manned flight to Mars

1953

The US, People's Republic of China, North Korea and South Korea signed an armistice agreement, ending the Korean War

Sir Edmund Hillary and his Nepalese Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay performed the 1st successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest

Lung cancer was reported attributable to cigarette smoking

The 1st 3-D movie, “Bwana Devil”, opened in the US

Drs. James Watson and Francis Crick announced that they had discovered the structure of the DNA molecule

Joseph Stalin died after 26 years of ruling the Soviet Union, and soon afterward, Nikita Khruschev was selected as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist party and then head of the Soviet Central Committee

Dag Hammarskjold was elected Secretary General of the UN

At Rogers Dry Lake, California Jackie Cochran became the 1st woman to break the sound barrier (she flew in a F-86 Sabrejet at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour)

The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom was held at Westminster Abbey in London

Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announced that the skull of the "Piltdown Man", one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, was a hoax

Dr. Albert Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

1954

The US Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in “Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas”, ruling that segregation by color in public schools was a violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution (this victory paved the way for integration and the Civil Rights movement)

Senator Joseph McCarthy's continued “witch-hunting activities” culminated in a nationally televised hearing seeking to prove Communist infiltration into the US Army. Soon afterward, the Senate voted 67 to 22 to censure and condemn him for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute"

There was concern in Europe and the US about fallout and disposal of radioactive waste

Dr. Jonas Salk developed anti-polio serum, and mass vaccination of schoolchildren helped to save innumerable lives

Roger Bannister of England ran the 1st “4-minute mile”

President Eisenhower warned against US intervention in Vietnam

RCA began selling the 1st first color television sets (the screens were 12” and sold for about $1,175 each)

President Eisenhower gave his “domino theory” speech during a news conference (it was a foreign policy that speculated if one land in a region came under the influence of Communism, then the surrounding countries would follow using the analogy to a falling row of dominoes standing on end)

On Flag Day in the US, the words "under God" were added to the Pledge of Allegiance

The world's 1st atomic power station opened at Obninsk, near Moscow

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 3.27 points, or 0.86%, closing at an all-time high of 382.74 (more significantly, it was the 1st time the Dow had surpassed its 1929 peak level reached just before that year's crash)

The 1st kidney transplants were done in Boston and also in Paris

Bill Haley and His Comets recorded “Rock Around the Clock”

Emilie, one of the Dionne Quintuplets, died following an epileptic seizure at Sainte Agathe, Quebec

Volume 1, Issue 1 of “Sports Illustrated” was published

The last new episode of “The Lone Ranger” was aired on radio after 2,956 episodes over a period of 21 years

Texas Instruments announced the 1st worldwide transistor radio

Stop signs were changed from black-on-yellow to white-on-red

The “TV Dinner” was introduced

1955

Rosa Parks, an African-American seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her bus seat to a white man and was arrested. Days later the Montgomery Improvement Association was formed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Black ministers to coordinate a Black boycott of segregated city buses

Marian Anderson is the 1st African-American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City

The Pentagon announced plans to develop ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) armed with nuclear weapons

President Eisenhower sent the 1st US advisors to South Vietnam

The Broadway musical version of “Peter Pan”, starring Mary Martin, was presented on television for the 1st time by NBC. It also marked the 1st time that a stage musical was presented in its entirety on TV exactly as performed onstage

“Blackboard Jungle” featuring the song “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and His Comets opened in movie theaters, thus propelling Rock and Roll as a musical genre (teenagers jumped from their seats to dance to the song)

The western TV show, “Gunsmoke”, debuted on CBS

Actor James Dean was killed at the age of 24 when his Porsche collided with another automobile in California (his status as a cultural icon was best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, “Rebel Without a Cause”, in which he starred as troubled high school rebel, Jim Stark)

Atomic-generated electric power was 1st sold commercially in the US

1956

Dwight Eisenhower was re-elected President, with Richard Nixon as Vice-President

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as the leader of the campaign for desegregation

Transatlantic cable telephone service was inaugurated

Dr. Albert Sabin developed an oral vaccine against polio

Fidel Castro landed in Cuba with a small armed force to overthrow the dictator, Fulgencio Batista

Elvis Presley entered the US music charts for the 1st time, with his song “Heartbreak Hotel"

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 500 for the 1st time

Pakistan became the 1st Islamic republic

Videotape was 1st demonstrated at a convention in Chicago by Ampex (it was a demonstration of the 1st practical and commercially successful videotape format)

Actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III of Monaco

General Electric/Telechron introduced the 1st snooze alarm clock

President Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act, creating the Interstate Highway System

A Joint Resolution of the US Congress was signed by President Eisenhower, authorizing “In God We Trust” as the US national motto

Don Larsen of the New York Yankees threw the first and only perfect game in World Series history in Game 5 against the Brooklyn Dodgers (Yogi Berra was the catcher)

13-year-old Bobby Fischer beat Grand Master Donald Byrne in the NY Rosenwald chess tournament (it came to be called “the game of the century”)

MGM's screen classic, “The Wizard of Oz”, was shown on television for the 1st time on NBC

Bob Barker made his TV debut as host of the game show, “Truth or Consequences”

1957

The Teamsters union was expelled from the AFL-CIO when Jimmy Hoffa refused to expel criminals from his union

The USSR launched the 1st earth satellites, “Sputnik I and II”

“Beat” and “beatnik” emerged as words to describe a new generation (much of Beat culture represented a negative view of society, and was driven by a vague feeling of cultural and emotional displacement, dissatisfaction and yearning). Its leading proponents were writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs

Dr. Seuss' “The Cat in the Hat” was published

Bringing together 2 United Kingdom colonies, Gold Coast and British Pogoland, Ghana became the 1st country in colonial Africa to gain independence

US Marine Major, John Glenn, flew a supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds, setting a new transcontinental speed record

Senator Strom Thurmond (D-South Carolina) set the record for the longest filibuster with his 24-hour, 18-minute speech railing against a civil rights bill

Orville Faubus, governor of Arkansas, called out the US National Guard to prevent African-American students from enrolling in Central High School in Little Rock. 3 weeks later, President Eisenhower sent Federal troops there to provide safe passage for the “Little Rock Nine”

The Ford Motor Company introduced the “Edsel” (it became best known as the most spectacular failure in the history of the US automobile industry)

1958

Tension grew in the US as desegregation of schools was attempted in the South. Governor Faubus defied the US Supreme Court by closing schools in Little Rock and reopening them as private, segregated schools

Stereophonic recordings came into use

The US Congress established NASA to administer scientific exploration of space

The 1st successful American satellite, “Explorer I”, is launched into orbit

Nikita Khrushchev became Premier of the Soviet Union

Van Cliburn won the International Tchaikovsky Competition for pianists, in the USSR, breaking cold-war tensions

1959

Alaska became the 49th US state, and several months later, Hawaii became the 50th US state

US Postmaster General Summerfield banned D. H. Lawrence's “Lady Chatterley's Lover” from the mails on grounds of obscenity

Pope John XXIII announced the calling of the First Ecumenical Council (Vatican II) since 1870. It resulted in many sweeping changes in the Roman Catholic Church

The “Barbie” doll debuted

In Cuba, rebel troops led by Che Guevara entered the city of Havana, followed by others led by Fidel Castro who became the Cuban Premier the next month

A chartered plane transporting pioneer rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly (“Peggy Sue”), Ritchie Valens (“La Bamba”) and “The Big Bopper” (J. P. Richardson/”Chantilly Lace”) went down in an Iowa snowstorm, killing all 4 occupants on board. The tragedy is later termed “The Day the Music Died", popularized in Don McLean's song, “American Pie”

Busch Gardens was dedicated and opened its gates in Tampa, Florida

The Dalai Lama left Tibet

NASA announced its selection of 7 military pilots to become the 1st US astronauts – Malcolm Carpenter, Leroy Cooper, John Glenn, Jr., Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Walter Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald “Deke” Slayton. They were called the “Mercury 7” and it was the only astronaut group with members that flew on all NASA manned spacecraft of the 20th century

Charles Ovnand and Dale Buis became the 1st Americans killed in action in Vietnam

At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, US Vice President Richard Nixon and USSR Premier Nikita Khrushchev had an impromptu “kitchen debate” (for the event, an entire house was built that the American exhibitors claimed anyone in America could afford. It was filled with labor-saving and recreational devices meant to represent the fruits of the capitalist American consumer market. The debate took place in the house's kitchen as the 2 leaders discussed the merits of each of their economic systems, capitalism vs. communism)

The US launched “Explorer 6” from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida (it sent back the 1st picture of Earth from space)

Rod Serling's anthology series, “The Twlight Zone”, premiered on TV

In New York City, the Guggenheim Museum opened to the public. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, who had died 5 months earlier

"Pantyhose" was invented

The 1st known human with HIV died in the Congo

1960

An optical laser was introduced by Dr. Theodore Maiman at Hughes Rewsearch Laboratories (a laser is a device that emits light through a specific mechanism for which the term “laser” is an acronym: light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation)

The 1st US weather satellite was launched

In Washington, DC, the National Association of Broadcasters reacted to the “Payola” scandal by threatening fines for any disc jockeys who accepted money for playing particular records

In Greensboro, North Carolina, 4 African-American students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University began a sit-in at a segregated “Woolworth” lunch counter. Although they were refused service, they were allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggered many similar non-violent protests throughout the Southern US, and 6 months later the original 4 protesters are served lunch at the same counter

Joanne Woodward received the 1st star on the “Hollywood Walk of Fame”

The US announced that 3,500 American soldiers would be sent to Vietnam

Total world population was over 3 million (56% in Asia)

A Soviet missile shot down an American Lockheed U2 spy plane, and its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured

The US Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of the birth control pill (oral contraceptive)

President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960 into law (it established Federal inspection of local voter registration polls and introduced penalties for anyone who obstructed someone's attempt to register to vote or actually vote; despite the law, only an extra 3% African-American voters were added to the electoral roll for the 1960 elections)

US presidential candidate, John F. Kennedy, 1st suggests the idea for the “Peace Corps”

The 1st televised debates were held between the Presidential candidates, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon (Kennedy did a much better job of expressing himself)

In a close race, John F. Kennedy was elected US President over Richard Nixon, becoming at age 43 the youngest man ever elected to that office

Nikita Khrushchev pounded his shoe on a table at a UN General Assembly meeting, to protest discussion of Soviet Union policy toward Eastern Europe

When entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr. married Swedish actress May Britt, interracial marriage was still illegal in 31 US states out of 50

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Geoffrey Francis Fisher, talked with Pope John XXIII for about an hour in the Vatican. It is the 1st time in more than 500 years that a head of the Anglican Church had visited the Pope

1961

Cuban exiled rebels, trained and supplied by the US, attempted an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs (a week later, President Kennedy acknowledges his full responsibility for the fiasco)

The Berlin Wall, separating east from west, was constructed (movement remains restricted for the next 28 years, until November 9, 1989)

Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, orbited the earth in a 6-ton satellite and became the 1st human in space

Alan Shepard made the 1st US space flight

“Freedom Riders”, 13 African-American and white students with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) left Washington, DC on 2 buses, to test integration laws in bus stations throughout the deep South. One bus was fire-bombed by white citizens in Alabama and the civil rights workers were attacked and beaten by an angry mob

“Mad Magazine” pointed out on its cover for the March 1961 issue, this was the 1st “upside-up" year - i.e., one in which the numerals that form the year look the same as when the numerals are rotated upside down – since 1881 and the last until 6009

President Eisenhower gave his final “State of the Union” address to Congress. In a Farewell Address the same day, he warned of the increasing power of a “military-industrial complex”

In Washington, DC John F. Kennedy delivered the 1st live presidential news conference

In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared he is a Marxist-Leninist, and that Cuba will adopt Communism

President Kennedy announced before a special joint session of Congress his goal to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade, beginning the “Apollo” program of US manned spaceflight

Baseball player, Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit his 61st home run in the last game of the season, breaking the 34-year-old record held by Babe Ruth

President Kennedy sent 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam

Tanganyika gains independence and declares itself a republic, with Julius Nyerere as its 1st President (it re-named itself Tanzania)

The Vietnam War officially began, as the 1st American helicopters arrived in Saigon along with 400 US personnel

"Barbie" gets a boyfriend when the "Ken" doll is introduced

1962

First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, took television viewers on a tour of the White House

While aboard “Friendship 7”, John Glenn became the 1st American to orbit the Earth (three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes)

Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single NBA basketball game

In Engel v. Vitale, the US Supreme Court ruled that mandatory prayers in public schools are unconstitutional

Film actress and sex icon Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her Los Angeles home, after apparently overdosing on sleeping pills (it remains one of the most mysterious deaths of all time)

The South African government arrested Nelson Mandela and charged him with incitement to rebellion

Rachel Carson's book, “Silent Spring”, was released, giving rise to the modern environmentalist and ecological movement

James Meredith, the 1st African-American student to register at the University of Mississippi, was denied admission by Governor Barnett. Meredith was escorted by Federal Marshals, and 3,000 soldiers suppressed riots when he arrived on campus to begin classes

Pope John XXIII convened the 1st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years

The Cuban Missile Crisis began as a U-2 flight over Cuba took photos of Soviet nuclear weapons being installed. A stand-off then ensued the next day between the US and the Soviet Union, threatening the world with nuclear war. A week later, in a televised address, President Kennedy announced to the nation the existence of the Soviet missiles. Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev then announced that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases from Cuba

The term “personal computer” was 1st mentioned by the media

After a trip to Vietnam at the request of President Kennedy, US Senate Majority Leader, Mike Mansfield, became the 1st American official to make an pessimistic public comment on the war's progress

1963

The Coca-Cola Company debuts “TaB”, its 1st diet cola

The Organization of African Unity was established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

George Wallace became governor of Alabama. In his inaugural speech, he defiantly proclaims "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!" 5 months later, he stood in the door of the University of Alabama to protest integration, before stepping aside and allowing African-Americans, James Hood and Vivian Malone, to enroll

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy and others were arrested in Birmingham, Alabama after a peaceful protest against segregation for "parading without a permit". Several days later, Dr. King issued his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. The letter was a response to a statement made by 8 white Alabama clergymen titled “A Call For Unity” which agreed that social injustices were taking place but expressed the belief that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts and not taken onto the streets. King responded that, without forceful, direct actions such as his, true civil rights could never be achieved. As he put it, "This 'wait' has almost always meant 'never.' " He asserted not only that civil disobedience was justified in the face of unjust laws, but also that "one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws”

Thousands of African-Americans, many of them children, were arrested while protesting segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Sheriff Eugene “Bull” Connor later unleashed fire hoses and police dogs on the demonstrators

An African-American civil rights activist, Medgar Evers, was murdered in Jackson, Mississippi (his killer was finally convicted in 1994). Mourned nationally, Evers was buried in Arlington National Cemetery and received full military honors in front of a crowd of more than 3,000 people. Byron De La Beckwith, a fertilizer salesman and member of the Ku Klux Klan, was arrested for Evers' murder. In 1964, all-white juries twice deadlocked on his guilt, thus allowing him to escape justice. The murder and subsequent miscarriage of justice caused a social uproar

Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini) succeeds Pope John XXIII as the 262nd pope

ZIP Codes for addresses were introduced in the US

The US, Great Britain and Soviet Union signed a nuclear test ban treaty (it prohibited all test detonations of nuclear weapons except underground. It was developed both to slow the arms race (nuclear testing was necessary for continued nuclear weapon advancements), and to stop the excessive release of nuclear fallout into the planet's atmosphere

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have A Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to an audience of at least 250,000 during the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” (in it, he spoke eloquently of his desire for a future where African-Americans and whites would coexist harmoniously as equals)

In the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, 4 girls - Addie Mae Collins (aged 14), Denise McNair (11), Carole Robertson (14), and Cynthia Wesley (14) - were killed in the blast and 22 others were injured. The attack was intended to instill fear in those supporting equal civil rights without regard to race. Instead, it caused public outrage and spurred the civil-rights movement to further success

On November 22nd, PresidentJohn F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, Governor John Connally was seriously wounded, and Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President. Kennedy was fatally wounded by gunshots while riding with his wife Jacqueline in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza (I was working in my room in a
house near Augsburg College when I heard the tragic news)

Alleged assassin of John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, was shot dead by Jack Ruby in Dallas on live national television

New President, Lyndon B. Johnson, confirmed that the US intended to continue supporting South Vietnam militarily and economically

President Johnson established the “Warren Commission” to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy

Kenya became independent from Great Britain, with Jomo Kenyatta as prime minister

The 1st patented artificial heart was invented by Paul Winchell who subsequently assigned the patent to the University of Utah, where Robert Jarvik ultimately used it as the model for his Jarvik-7. Jarvik's designs improved the device, but his patients died after brief trials

“I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “I Saw Her Standing There” were released in the US, which was the beginning of “Beatlemania” and forever changed the way rock-and-roll music sounds

Harvey Ball invented the ubiquitous “smiley face” symbol

1964

In the 1st meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the 15th century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I met in Jerusalem

In his 1st “State of the Union” address, President Johnson declared a “War on Poverty” (the Office of Economic Opportunity became the agency responsible for administering the programs created, including VISTA, Job Corps and Head Start)

US Surgeon General Luther Terry reported that smoking may be hazardous to one's heath (the 1st such statement from the US government)

John Glenn, the 1st American to orbit the earth, resigned from the space program and announced the next day that he would seek the Democratic nomination for US Senator from Ohio

The Beatles arrived from England at New York City's JFK Airport, receiving a tumultuous reception from a throng of screaming fans. Two days later, they appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show”, marking their 1st live performance on American television. Seen by an estimated 73 million viewers, the appearance became the catalyst for the mid-1960s “British Invasion” of American popular music

In a notorious incident, 38 of her neighbors in Queens, New York City failed to respond to the cries of Kitty Genovese, age 28, as she is being stabbed to death

US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara delivered an address that reiterates American determination to give South Vietnam increased military and economic aid, in its war against the Communist insurgency

Merv Griffin's game show “Jeopardy!” debuted on NBC, with Art Fleming as its first host

In April, The Beatles held the top 5 positions in the Billboard Top 40 singles in America, an unprecedented achievement (due mostly to the explosive growth, fragmentation, and marketing of popular music since, this was certain to never happen again)

The Rolling Stones released their debut album

President Johnson in New York, and Soviet Premier Khrushchev in Moscow, announced simultaneously plans to cut back production of materials for making nuclear weapons

Nelson Mandela made his "I Am Prepared to Die" speech (it became a classic of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa). A few weeks later, he and 7 others were sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to the Robben Island prison

The US State Department said that more than 40 hidden microphones had been found embedded in the walls of the US Embassy in Moscow

Somewhere around 1,000 students marched through Times Square in New York City and another 700 in San Francisco, in the 1st major student demonstration against the Vietnam War (smaller marches also occur in Boston, Seattle, and Madison, Wisconsin)

At the Republican National Convention in San Francisco, US presidential nominee Barry Goldwater declared that "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice", and "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue"

The US sent 5,000 more military advisers to South Vietnam, bringing the total number of US forces in Vietnam to 21,000

The US Congress passed the “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution”, giving President Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on US forces

“Ranger 7”, launched from Cape Kennedy, sent back the 1st close-up photographs of the moon's surface (images are 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from Earth-bound telescopes)

The “Good Friday earthquake”, the most powerful earthquake in US history at a magnitude of 9.2, struck Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage of $500 million to the city of Anchorage

Race riots erupted in Harlem, New York City and in many other US cities as reaction against enforcement of civil rights laws

Police arrested over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and massive sit-in at the administration building, protesting the University of California Regents' decision to forbid Vietnam War protests on the campus property

The “Warren Commission”, appointed by President Johnson under Chief Justice Earl Warren, published their report, the 1st official investigation of the assassination of President Kennedy. They found that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, was responsible for the President's death. This conclusion initially met with widespread support among the American public, but polls since, show a majority of the public held beliefs contrary to the Commission's findings, most around the theory that Oswald was part of a conspiracy

At age 35, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to him for leading non-violent resistance to end racial prejudice in the US

Nikita Khrushchev was deposed as leader of the Soviet Union, as Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin assumed power

Campaigning at Madison Square Garden in New York City, President Johnson pledged the creation of “the Great Society”, a set of domestic programs with 2 main goals of social reform: the elimination of poverty and racial injustice. New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, urban problems, and transportation were also proposed

4 days later, incumbent President Johnson defeated Republican challenger, Barry Goldwater with over 60% of the popular vote

A TV special, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, premiered on NBC. It became a beloved Christmas tradition, shown on television every year

Comedian Lenny Bruce was sentenced to 4 months in prison, concluding a six-month obscenity trial

The Watusi, Frug, Monkey, Funky Chicken, and other varieties of the Twist drove many people to discotheques, where “go-go girls” performed

1965

Malcolm X, a Black Muslim minister and spokesman for the Nation of Islam, was assassinated in New York City. During his life, Malcolm went from being a drug dealer and burglar to one of the most prominent Black nationalist leaders in the US. As a militant leader, he advocated “Black pride”, “Black power”, and economic self-reliance

Following outbreaks of violence in Selma, Alabama, during which some 200 Alabama State Troopers attacked 525 men, women and children, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. headed a procession of 4,000 civil rights demonstrators from Selma to Montgomery

Severe race riots in the Watts district of Los Angeles resulted in 35 dead, 4,000 arrested, and $40 million in property damage

3,500 US Marines arrived in South Vietnam, becoming the 1st American combat troops in Vietnam

Momentum grew for anti-pollution laws on a national scale in the US

When a relay switch in Ontario malfunctioned, the entire northeastern US and parts of Canada lost electrical power (the blackout affected 30 million people and resulted in a noticeable increase in the birth rate 9 months later!)

“Students for a Democratic Society” (SDS) organized the 1st teach-in against the Vietnam War, with 2,500 participants, at the University of Michigan. Three weeks later, the SDS led 25,000 students in a demonstration in Washington, DC against US bombing of North Vietnam

The 1st draft card burnings took place at U of C, Berkeley

On Palm Sunday, an estimated 51 tornadoes (47 confirmed) strike in 6 Midwestern states, killing over 260 people and injuring some 1,500 more

On “Gemini 4”, astronaut Edward White made the 1st US space walk

US spacecraft “Mariner 4” flew by Mars, becoming the 1st spacecraft to return images from the “Red Planet”

Singer and composer, Bob Dylan, elicited controversy among folk purists by "going electric" at the Newport Folk Festival

President Johnson announced his order to increase the number of US troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000, and to double the number of men drafted per month from 17,000 to 35,000

President Johnson signed the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare (a health insurance program administered by the US government, covering people who are either age 65 and over, or who meet other special criteria) and Medicaid (a US health insurance program for individuals and families with low incomes and resources, jointly funded by the states and Federal government, and managed by the states

In November the Pentagon told President Johnson that if planned major sweep operations to neutralize Viet Cong forces during the next year are to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam will have to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000

“A Charlie Brown Christmas”, the 1st “Peanuts” TV special, debuted on CBS, becoming one of the great Christmas television specials and an annual tradition

Tokyo became the largest city of the world, taking the lead from New York City

1966

President Johnson stated that the US should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended

About 8,000 US soldiers land in South Vietnam (US troops now total 190,000)

Robert C. Weaver became the 1st African-American member of the Cabinet, by being appointed US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Indira Gandhi was elected Prime Minister of India

US spacecraft “Surveyor I” made a soft landing on the moon and transmitted more than 11,000 TV images of the terrain

Soviet space probe “Venera 3” crashed on Venus, becoming the 1st spacecraft to land on another planet's surface

In an interview published in The London “Evening Standard”, John Lennon of the Beatles commented, "We're more popular than Jesus now," which sparked a controversy in the US. 5 months later, the Beatles held a press conference in Chicago, during which John Lennon apologizes for his remark, saying, "I didn't mean it as a lousy anti-religious thing"

The Texas Western “Miners” defeated the Kentucky “Wildcats” with 5 African-American starters, ushering in desegregation in athletic recruiting

In New York City, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made his 1st public speech against the Vietnam War

In “Miranda v. Arizona”, the US Supreme Court ruled that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them

The National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded in Washington, DC

President Johnson signed the “Freedom of Information Act” (this act allowed for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the US Government)

Richard Speck systematically murdered 8 student nurses in their dormitory at South Chicago Community Hospital (Pam and I were living at nearly Elgin, Illinois at the time)

Mao Tse-tung launches a “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” to purge and reorganize China's Communist Party (the struggle for power within the Party manifested into wide-scale social, political, and economic chaos, which grew to include large sections of Chinese society and eventually brought the entire country to the brink of civil war)

“Miniskirts” came into fashion

“Star Trek”, the classic science fiction television series, debuted with its 1st episode

Bobby Seale and Huey Newton founded the “Black Panther Party” (the organization initially espoused a doctrine calling for armed resistance to societal oppression in the interest of African-American justice, though its objectives and philosophy changed radically throughout the party's existence)

Former Massachusetts Attorney General, Edward Brooke, became the 1st African-American elected to the US Senate since “Reconstruction” (following the Civil War)

Actor Ronald Reagan, a Republican, was elected Governor of California

A 48-hour truce was observed in Vietnam at Christmas

A spectacular meteor shower passed over Arizona, at the rate of 2,300 a minute for 20 minutes

“How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, a TV special narrated by Boris Karloff, was shown for the 1st time on CBS (it became an annual Christmas tradition, and the best-loved film ever based on a Dr. Seuss book)

1967

700,000 people marched down 5th Avenue in New York City in support of US soldiers fighting in Vietnam

In the “6-Day War”, Israel defeated its Arab neighbors, resulting in their occupying the West Bank of Jordan, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Desert, the Golan Heights of Syria and capturing the old city of Jerusalem, which was then proclaimed a united city under Israeli rule

50,000 people demonstrated against the Vietnam War at the Lincoln Memorial in
Washington, DC

President Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall as the 1st African-American on the US Supreme Court

US manned space flights were suspended after the death of 3 US astronauts – Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee – when fire erupted in their Apollo spacecraft during a launch pad test at Cape Kennedy

Dr. Christiaan Barnard of South Africa performed the world's 1st human heart transplant operation

Segregationist Lester Maddox was sworn in as Governor of Georgia

The “New York Times” reported that the US Army was conducting secret germ warfare experiments

Louis Leakey announced that he has found prehuman fossils in Kenya

Alberto DeSalvo, known as the “Boston Strangler”, was convicted of unrelated crimes of robbery and sexual offenses and sentenced to life in prison (between June 1962 and January 1964, 11 single women between the ages of 19 and 75 were murdered in the Boston area. All 11 women were sexually assaulted in their apartments and murdered. Without any sign of forced entry into their dwellings, the women were assumed to either know their assailant or have voluntarily allowed him into their homes. While the police were not convinced that all of these murders were the work of a single individual, much of the public believed they were)

The R & B single, “Respect” was released by Aretha Franklin

Joseph Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, defected to the US

In Houston, Texas, boxer Muhammad Ali (formerly Cassius Clay) refused military service

Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu were married in Las Vegas

The Soviet Union ratified a treaty with the US and the United Kingdom, banning nuclear weapons from outer space

Biafra (in eastern Nigeria) announced its independence

The US Supreme Court declared all US state laws prohibiting interracial marriage to be unconstitutional

Pope Paul VI ordained 276 new cardinals (one of them was Karol Wojtyla who became Pope John Paul II in 1978)

President Johnson met with Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin in New Jersey for the 3-day “Glassboro Summit Conference” (the atmosphere of the summit was generally amicable, although the leaders failed to reach agreement on limiting anti-ballistic missile systems)

The town of Winneconne, Wisconsin announced secession from the US because it was not included in the official maps and declares war. Secession is repealed the next day

In Detroit, Michigan, one of the worst riots in US history began on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city (43 killed, 342 injured and 1,400 buildings burned)

Jim Morrison and “The Doors” defied CBS censors on “The Ed Sullivan Show”, when Morrison sings the word "higher" from their #1 hit “Light My Fire”, despite having been asked not to

“Love Is a Many Splendored Thing” debuted on US daytime television and is the 1st soap opera to deal with an interracial relationship. CBS censors find it too controversial and ask for it to be stopped, causing show creator, Irna Phillips, to quit

US Secretary of State Dean Rusk stated during a news conference that proposals by the US Congress for peace initiatives were futile, because of North Vietnam's opposition

The musical, “Hair”, premiered off-Broadway

Montreal's “Expo 67” closed in October with over 50 million attendees (it was considered the most successful World's Fair of the 20th century and Pam and I enjoyed our time there)

Carl Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the 1st African- American mayor of a major US city

“LSD” was declared an illegal drug by the US government

US Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-MN) announced his candidacy for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, challenging incumbent President Johnson over the Vietnam War
Acting on optimistic reports on Vietnam he had been given, President Johnson told the nation that, while much remained to be done, "we are inflicting greater losses than we're taking... we are making progress" (2 months later the “Tet Offensive” would make him regret his words)

“ The Summer of Love” occurred in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, where thousands of young people loosely and freely united for a new social experience. As a result, the “hippie counterculture” movement came into public awareness (during the early '60s, tensions developed along generational lines regarding experimentation with drugs, race relations, sexual morals and women's rights. New cultural norms emerged. The “hippies” became the largest countercultural movement in the US fighting for more openness within main stream culture in civil rights especially drugs and the escalating involvement and conflict in Vietnam. They often expressed their views through the new “psychedelic rock” genre of music)

Other significant national and international events
and advancements in the years from 1968 on
will be included in the continuing narrative!