Burn the Bra! Etc.

We went to the Oakland Museum over the weekend to see the "1968 Exhibit," a watershed year of assassinations, the Vietnam war, a presidential election, riots, and political demonstrations.  In my own life, it was the year I graduated from high school and started college.

There were lots of  people my age wandering around, remembering, pointing out things that struck a chord.  Young people, too, but they did not come to a halt in front of a Selectric typewriter the way I did, instantly taken back to my first job.  Or gaze at a  Peanuts wall calendar exactly like the one I took away with me my freshman year of college.

There was so much I didn't want to remember:  the loss of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.,  Nixon winning the presidential election,  the war in Vietnam, the dopey TV shows like "The Flying Nun".  The reviewers of the show, which was assembled by the Minneapolis Historical Society, have criticized its lack of coherence, and Jerry and I agreed.  Lots of random cultural stuff  is what it felt like, organized by topic here,  month there.  Overall, I found it both stale (been there) and disturbing (don't want to revisit the details of my youth).  I've come a long way, baby.   So long, 1968.

To the trash can:  bras, curlers, and permanents

The generic dorm room.  Note the "War Is Not Healthy" poster