frankdozier

I was born in ’75, right in the midst of the sexual revolution and, uh, disco. The sixties were over, the war was over, and AIDS was coming. I’d always known that I had just missed something special, but I was too young to understand what it was. Luckily, I was constantly reminded of it by the pop media of my youth. My first favorite movie was Platoon, and my first favorite album was Led Zeppelin II. I even had an English teacher put our class through an entire segment devoted to the counter-culture of the sixties (I did a report on The Doors; the movie had just come out on VHS so I brought it in – that was my report). There was something interesting about the sixties, so interesting, in fact, that it is still felt today.

1969 is remembered to many as the last great summer of man. This summer has been filled with 40th Anniversary celebrations to remind of us of that seemingly magical time. We have revisited the moon landing, we have revisited Woodstock, and we have revisited Manson and his craziness. The guys at Monty Python are getting together to crack jokes at their anniversary party; and I also read, for my fellow technophiles, that it is also the 40th birthdays of both UNIX and AMD.

A lot has happened since Bryan Adam’s favorite summer, some of it memorable, but very little as game-changing as then. It seems to many that our culture peaked a bit in ’69, and has been going somewhat downhill ever since. Heck, we geeks are crossing our fingers, toes, and eyes praying that we go back to the moon. How screwy is that. Maybe it’s time we start making our own headlines of hope, rather than be forced to relive the best of times decades later.