by Volecia Plafcan

Created on: April 11, 2009

The '60's in my life were just chock full of excitement and changes.

It seems those years came and went in such a hurry, I really didn't get to sit back and enjoy what was really going on. Now, when I hear a certain song, read something from yesterday, or just a tiny reminder can take me back and I can relish those moments.

There was no indication that I would ever leave my family or strike out on my own to another state to work, when I was twenty-one. I had no plans but, it just happened.

A friend introduced me to a young man one summer when we were swimming at the lake. He was from another state and in town for the summer to attend school. That summer we dated and something just clicked for us both. When he had to return to his state to continue college, I cried. He didn't want to leave me, either, but, he did have his schooling to finish as it was being financed by an aunt of his and he felt obligated.

That was accepted and I began dating other young men. One was serious enough though, that he expected me to marry him. I told him okay. He joined the Army and left to do his duty with the military.

While he was gone, I would go out with my friends and my sisters. We kept in touch. Then, one night he called and said that he was being sent to Germany and there was no housing for couples and anyway, someone had told him I was seeing other men and getting drunk all the time. This was a blatant lie but, I let it go at that and started seeing other guys. Nothing serious.

One night I told one of my friends about the young man I had fallen for who was in college. She encouraged me to call him. I found his number and he asked me to come and work there. I did. I lived there for three years and had roommates. My friend and I just evaporated into thin air.

We loved to go out of town on weekends and besides being roomies, we were friends. We vacationed in Florida and that is where I met the man I married. He was in the Navy.

Do you ever wonder where you will be tomorrow?

I had already moved back home to be closer to him so he could come on weekends. After six months of this, we were married and planned to live in Florida where we moved to. We had lived there a month when he received orders to report to Barbers Point in Hawaii - that I could come with him and, you bet, I did.

During this time, The Beatles made their debut in the U. S., John Kennedy was shot, and integration was well on it's way.

The war in Viet Nam caused my husband to be shipped out to the South China Seas. I went home to be with my family.

His experience of repairing helicopters on the aircraft carrier he was on in the military helped land him a job with an aerospace company after his discharge and I took a job in one of the offices there, also.

We had a baby, bought a house, two cars, Nancy Sinatra sang "These Boots are Made for Walking" (my sisters and I had boots and hot pants that we were forever trading) and he, being from St. Louis, fit right in with my family. It seems everything we did in the 60's was family oriented and we certainly had a big one. then. There were oyster shuckings right in the back lawn, crabbing on the gulf coast, we were on a bowling league, fishing and hunting....we were always doing something.

And, then, we had a baby girl...What more could one ask for? The 60's hold some wonderful memories that I will never forget.

The 60's, I believe, were just the calm before the storm - the '70's.

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