A Little Perspective . . . Maybe A Lot of Perspective

by Bob Sparrow

I watched a YouTube documentary on the Smothers Brothers last week entitled Smothers Brothers – Smothered and found it most interesting, particularly juxtaposed to what is going on in our world today.  For those too young to remember Tom & Dick Smothers and their one-hour TV comedy-variety show on Sunday nights, they were funny, entertaining and controversial.  Their show ran in the late 60s until CBS yanked them off the air for their, and their guest’s, espousing opposition to the Viet Nam war, support for Civil & Women’s Rights and their general pissing off of those in authority.

It was an era of significant unrest, the ugliness of the Viet Nam war was being brought into our living rooms in living color with the nightly news.  Men were heading to Canada to avoid the draft or burning their draft cards, while women were burning their bras in protest for women’s rights.  More and more gays and lesbians were ‘coming out’.  Drugs were a major part of the counterculture – marijuana and LSD became ‘recreational drugs’.  In a span of five years, five major civil rights leaders were assassinated; John F. Kennedy, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Malcomb X and Bobby Kennedy.  In 1968 there were riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that killed 11 people and injured hundreds.  Even so, the country wasn’t as politically divided then as it is today – the ‘counter culture’ and mainstream media then, hated both Richard Nixon, a republican president, as much as they hated Lyndon Johnson, a democrat president.

Civil disobedience has always been a way of American life, in fact an inalienable right.  This county was born out of civil disobedience of our British colonizers. Henry David Thoreau wrote his now-famous essay, Civil Disobedience in 1849, which in part was motivated by his disgust with slavery and the just-concluded Mexican-American War.  We sometimes don’t agree with those who are protesting, but usually the protestors are right, it’s mostly just a matter of degree, as in order to get their message across, they tend to go to the extremes.  There was a national distain for long-hair ‘hippies’ and peace-loving ‘flower children’, but most everyone can agree today that the Viet Nam War was a total waste – with over 1.3 million total deaths.  Most everyone my age lost a friend in that war – either physically or mentally.  For what?   Minorities and women have more rights today, due in part to the civil unrest of the 60s, but as a country, most would agree that we still have a ways to go.

I’m not happy with what’s going on in our country today – the political divide, corrupt politicians, the inept handling of the Covid virus, just to name a few items at the top of my list, but after watching the Smothers Brothers documentary, I found that the stuff that the CBS censors wouldn’t allow them to say or do on TV, is laughable today.  I don’t think we’ll ever be able to laugh at the tearing down of statues, the burning and looting of buildings or the attempts to ‘defund’ the police, but whether we want it or not, change is coming and I have enough faith in our country to believe that we’ll survive this as a nation and in fact, be better for it.  Organizations like QAnon and Antifa will rest in our archives with the Weather Underground Organization and the Students for a Democratic Society. 

Yes, I realize this sounds a bit Pollyannaish, but I’d encourage you to watch the documentary and see if it doesn’t help put today’s events in perspective.  Here’s the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnnmcP6FkWk&t=253s

BTW, I’m still going to read Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas to my grandkids every Christmas.

 

 

Could This Be Your Most Memorable Christmas?

by Bob Sparrow

Like everything else in 2020, I’m guessing Christmas this year will be a little different for you.  Probably fewer people gathered together, maybe a change from the regular venue, Santa could be wearing a mask instead of a beard and perhaps the gifts given and received might be a little different, as suggested by Suzanne last week.  But I have no doubt that the ‘Christmas Spirit’ will prevail – assuming you don’t run out of Christmas ‘spirits’.  If Covid has taught us anything, it’s that sometimes we need a change of routine in order to appreciate the routine.

So, as we prepare for whatever this holiday will bring, I can’t help but recall my most unusual Christmas – it took place in 1968.  As a backdrop for those who weren’t around then or as a stark reminder to those who were, 1968 was a crazy year!  The U.S. was ass-deep in a very unpopular Viet Nam war, causing unrest on college campuses in the form of protests and draft card burning.  Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated; the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia, Richard Nixon beat Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace to be elected to his first term as president, streets were filled with civil and gender-rights protests – some not so peaceful, 82 crewmen of the USS Pueblo were held captive most of the year by North Korea; Mao Tse-Tung celebrated 20 years as communist leader of China and the Zodiac killer (who has yet to be found to this day) is on the prowl in California. In December of that year, three Apollo 8 astronauts, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders, became the first to circle the moon, in preparation for the first moon landing seven months hence.

Don and me in front of house in Atsugi, Japan.  Dec. 1968

In 1968 I was an Ensign in the Navy (ours!) and in July of that year I received orders for Atsugi Naval Air Station, Japan.  By December, my wife and I and our dog, Xoon, were living in a small, two-bedroom house, surrounded by Japanese neighbors, about four miles from the base on Dog School Road – apparently, there was a dog school nearby; I’m not sure if it was a pre-school or a pee-school.  Thousands of miles from home in a foreign country, we were planning for a fairly lonely Christmas, our first and only one without family or friends.  Then, about two weeks before Christmas, I got a letter (no cell phones or even email in those days) from my best friend, Don Klapperich, who was a Navy F-4 jet pilot, assigned to the aircraft carrier, USS Coral Sea.  He wrote that their ship, that had been on combat duty in the South China Sea, was coming into Yokohama for Christmas, and that their squadron (VF-151) allowed them to send for their wives to spend the holidays in Japan.

What great news!!!  What was going to be a very dismal Christmas, just got significantly better.  Don was not only my best friend, but my singing partner from high school, and since he had his guitar with him (not in his aircraft, but on the ‘boat’) and I had mine, Christmas Eve found the four of us gathered around our ‘space heater’ chatting and singing songs, which I recorded on a reel-to-reel tape.  I still have the recording, which I converted to a CD, and when I listen to it today, it takes me back to that most-unusual Christmas far from home.

That cold Christmas morning we woke up to no presents under no tree and no stockings hung by the chimney with care – we had no chimney.  But we did exchange gifts, then drove to the Officer’s Club on base, which had a TV, in order to watch our astronauts circle the moon and provide us with that iconic ‘Earth Rise’ photo.

Iconic ‘Earth Rise’ photo – December 1968

As we headed back home for the evening, we looked to the sky and saw a bright, crescent moon and marveled that three astronauts were up there circling it.  So, when I was expecting a lonely Christmas far from home, it turned out to be one of my most memorable Christmases ever.

My point, and I apologize for the rather circuitous route in getting to it, is that this Christmas will undoubtedly be different, presumably like no other you’ve ever or will ever experience, but with a little luck and a positive attitude, it may turn into a Christmas you’ll never forget – in a good way.

We’d love to hear how you’re planning to make this Christmas a pleasantly, different one.