Those songs always remind me of my childhood (born in May, 1957). The song that evokes Vietnam for me is "White Rabbit" (I think that's the name) by Jefferson Airplane. I'm hearing-impaired, so not at all reliable about titles, lyrics, etc.. This is going to sound weird, but for some reason I remember Malcolm X far more clearly than MLK, although I'm more or less "white bread" (primarily, though not completely, white, Anglo-Saxon, middle class, and a "Yankee"). Wasn't it Peter, Paul and Mary who performed "I'm leaving, on a jet plane..."? This brings back memories. Our neighbor (stepped on a mine and came home in a body bag) and my uncle (survived several tours of duty; career Marine; now retired, but still reckless and cynical) were in Vietnam in the early stages of the war. I was a little kid, and despite the fact that I spoke Spanish fairly fluently, the reports of "guerilla" fighters on TV left me with the impression that our troops were fighting gorillas (I had no idea at the time that there were no gorillas in SE Asia). After all this time, on rainy, misty spring mornings I still think of Ronnie (our neighbor), because it was on just such a morning that we learned he'd been killed. That was about forty years ago. He would probably have been a grandfather, looking forward to retirement, if he had survived. The invasion of Iraq has forced me to remember too many bad things about the Vietnam War; every day there are reports of deaths, and I question whether they were "absolutely necessary". Involvement in WWII was essential, but I can't apply those criteria to the war in Iraq. Afghanistan, yes, Iraq, no. Sorry, I'm not out to get this thread moved to the IMO forum. I just feel that many of our politicians really aren't aware of the price tag atached to their decisions.Originally posted by Mr. Cat
Tulip2454, I can appreciate your dislike of a song which (at your location) was overplayed. Believe me, I've a list of such songs as well! And, ironically in this case, my list topper is "Dock Of The Bay"--closely followed by "Stairway To Heaven" and "Free Bird." When I was in the Republic of Viet Nam, Armed Forces Viet Nam radio played "Dock Of The Bay" at least once every hour for a year. Mind, I wasn't able to listen to the radio all that often; but when I did, there was Otis for the millionth time. Alas! [/b]