1968 . . .

. . . was a pivotal year in many lives, including mine. The memories are so fresh that it's hard to believe so many years have come and gone. When Dr. King was assassinated,forty years ago today, I was a college freshman. We thought the world was coming to an end, just as we'd felt when John Kennedy was shot down five years earlier. Horror and pain mixed with total disbelief --why? who? how could they? what happens now?! I was living in a women's dorm, attending a small, liberal arts college in Iowa. The environment had been relaxed, open and inclusive. The Black students seemed fully integrated with the rest of us which included many foreign students. Sadly yet understandably, soon after Dr. King's murder, some of my Black classmates turned away from non-Blacks. There was one wall phone in the hall for incoming calls which were announced on the P.A. system from the front desk switchboard. There was also one pay phone for us to make out-going calls. Neither offered any privacy. When I overheard a Black classmate talking about killing her family if they didn't "get with the program" I was shaken and felt so sad. The Black Panthers were recruiting on college campuses and she had fully embraced the movement. It would get much worse before it got better. It was a relief to get back home to my family and friends that summer. But, only weeks later, on June 5th, Bobby Kennedy was shot down in Los Angeles. Oh, God!! What was happening?! Life was scary and hatred was widespread. In August, my then boyfriend came to visit and we took the commuter train into Chicago. We wanted to visit our hero, Eugene McCarthy's campaign office. Mayor Daley chose that day to make his disgraceful decision ordering police to attack anti-war demonstrators outside the Democratic National Convention. We took the train back north before the situation got really bad. BF regretted not sticking around -- I was relieved. Little did I know then that, in December of that year, my family would leave our comfortable, Midwestern lives and move to the D.C. area. I also had no clue that I would be pepper-gassed and tear-gassed a year later during anti-war rallies at the University of Maryland.

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The singular bright spot in 1968 was the first birth in the next generation of my family. Her arrival on October 26th was such a blessing. Her innocence and deep brown eyes inspired and charmed all of us and gave us hope for the future.