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It definitely lined up the humorLaugh In was a show where if you laughed too hard at a joke, you missed the next three jokes.
On the other hand, 99 percent of the jokes were pretty awful, but they came by so fast! The show was basically a relief from the turbulent 1960's.It definitely lined up the humor
You were there? Was the Vietnam war wild or does pop culture build it up bigger than it was? I've talked to people who were teenagers in the 60s and they said that people weren't as worked up about it left or right as TV makes it seem. Like, it was THAT big a deal in the public consciousness.On the other hand, 99 percent of the jokes were pretty awful, but they came by so fast! The show was basically a relief from the turbulent 1960's.
You were there? Was the Vietnam war wild or does pop culture build it up bigger than it was? I've talked to people who were teenagers in the 60s and they said that people weren't as worked up about it left or right as TV makes it seem. Like, it was THAT big a deal in the public consciousness.
Very interesting. Thanks for the responses. I watch all the documentaries on the era I can find, and they seem to jive with your experiences. Maybe the reason the people I've talked to about it downplay the emotions is because they were ensconced in the midwest.
I missed it by three years (64 in a few months). Years later (after I'd already been in the Volunteer Navy for two enlistments) I asked my parents if they were ever worried about the draft and their oldest son (me) back in the day. My mom said she cried at night thinking about it every year as the war went on. My Dad, on the other hand, a strict and bristled Korean War vet, said while he worried about it, he "knew" I'd be fine. He had dreams me becoming some kind of highfalutin' Army officer... yeah, Army and Marines would be the last two branches I would've considered... Navy won me only because they were the only ones who'd guarantee me being a photographer. Look at me now -- a retired Navy Photographer with 34 years service behind me working as a video producer for the City of Waco!
Could be a lot of it. Young teenagers just don't care about that stuff ever. Both my mom's parents fought in the big war. When she was a teenager and her older brother was in Nam, his wife and baby lived with my mom's family of younger kids. No one even mentioned the war; it was like some kind of unspoken jinx to mention him being in harm's way or the war not being admirable.Could be. Another factor is how old they were at the time. 1968 was 56 years ago. The 40-year-olds whose kids were coming home in body bags are 96 now, if they're still alive.
Like GDBY2LV, I was right on the edge of being drafted. The final draft lottery was March 12, 1975---and they were calling my year, they just didn't get to my number. For perspective, I just turned 68 last week.
Reminds me of a situation. I have a work mentor who was a pacifist, draft refusing peace-nic (excellent person). He also speaks loudly and proudly against nuclear weapons and the bombs we dropped on Japan. His dad was a Marine in the pacific, stationed on Okinawa when we dropped the bomb and ended the war. I casually told my mentor once, "you might not be here if we didn't drop the bomb." He didn't like that. Interestingly, the Marine dad didn't care at all that his son didn't want to go to Nam. Never held it against him. But the mom was really embarrassed.I wonder how things would have turned out if my dad had survived.
Not to get too heavy, but Dad died nine days before my ninth birthday. Jack Hagerty was a great guy and he enlisted in the Army the day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He would have done it the same day, but it was Sunday, and the recruiting office was closed.
He was 24.
They shipped him off to the South Pacific. Somewhere in his first tour, he contracted malaria and damn near died between there and the hospital in San Francisco where they nursed him back to health and then sent him back where he came from.
When his tour was up, he re-enlisted. Why? "Because there's still a war."
And he got malaria and damn near died a second time.
And if the war had still been going on when his second round was expiring, he absolutely would have re-upped for a third.
I suspect that, had Dad lived, waiting around for the draft lottery wouldn't have been an issue---I probably would have been expected to enlist in advance and report to boot camp a day or two after graduating high school.
The thing that I wonder about is, with more years of Dad's influence, would I have been as eager to do so as he was?
Reminds me of a situation. I have a work mentor who was a pacifist, draft refusing peace-nic (excellent person). He also speaks loudly and proudly against nuclear weapons and the bombs we dropped on Japan. His dad was a Marine in the pacific, stationed on Okinawa when we dropped the bomb and ended the war. I casually told my mentor once, "you might not be here if we didn't drop the bomb." He didn't like that.
Interestingly, the Marine dad didn't care at all that his son didn't want to go to Nam. Never held it against him. But the mom was really embarrassed.