by Ted Zefer

Created on: December 15, 2008   Last Updated: October 06, 2009

They say "If you remember the 60's you weren't there". I am from Kansas the land of OZ and all that. We always got the latest laugh. It may start in California but it all ends in Kansas or so it seems. I came from a family with two older brothers and older parents. To me growing up in the 50's was all it was meant to be.

The regular American family with dogs, TV and a bit of the older days. With older parents I knew of what it was like before TV cars and such. So when duty called I went on my way to Vietnam. A mid west boy grows up fast in a war but that was what my family had always done. From my father in WWI , uncles in WWII and brothers in WWII and Korea it was all I knew. Growing up with this in mind it was how it was to be.

Now, I left the US in the summer of 1965 and I left the Ozzie and Harriet world and it was never the same. All was pure and innocent when I left. Coming back to the new world of protests and flower children. The world I knew was gone. Love and the smell of pot was in the air. Sure it was tempting to fall into that world. And I did all the way.

Smoke this and forget the war. Make love not war. The music had changed, bras were burned with the draft cards. Topless bars replaced the honky-tonk of the 50's. Cars were faster and corruption were abound. In my town the police were to be avoided or you just might get your head bashed in for the Law ruled and were to fear. They were mostly young like me who could not get in the service so they took out their anger on any of us who served. Then there were the Movies that led another culture. The biker flicks were a steady viewing at the Drive Ins. This led to the Biker Gangs to spread.

Like the past, they were the place a lot of us who saw into Deaths eyes for the first time went. No one cared what you looked like or said if you were a biker. The 60's merged with the 70's in a graceful move. Black power and heavy drugs, and guns came. Gone was the switch blade knife and in was the pocket pistol. Drugs took over and it was in to be stoned more than ever. The innocence of my youth was gone forever. I saw what those heavy drugs did to people and grew tired of walking friends back down from ODs. Or was it just growing up.

So life goes on and the shadow of your past is behind you and your family takes over. Children have that effect.

For me family out paced getting high and running wild. I used what I knew to mold the future and life was good again. Still the past of the 60's is still a shadow in the back of my mind not to be forgotten but to remind me of the many paths our lives can take. It can lead you down the darkness and despair or lead you to the light of family and respect. I can say I took the right path by the adults my children have become. Our children are reflections of ourselves, how we live is how they will live. They are the future we are the past. Just as the 60's is the past.

Regets? I have some but hope I have a lot. The 60's are what they are a blend of loss of innocence and youth to a molding of age and maturity and hope for a better future for all.

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