The Summer of '69

by Fran McNabb

Where were you in the summer of l969? Can you remember that year or were you even born? That was fifty years ago and I was getting ready to enter my last year of college, working in a shrimp factory and baby sitting at a nice hotel along the Gulf Coast at night to make money to buy the things I needed for school.

The Dog Days of August that year were extremely hot and humid.To say the least it was miserable, but I was young and energetic and couldn’t wait to finish packing to leave for college. Working in the shrimp factory taught me a thing or two about what I wanted to do with my life. After a summer of arriving at the factory at four in the morning and standing in the heat behind a conveyor belt all day, I couldn’t wait to hit the books and sit in class. 

On our small black and white TV we watched the coverage of a festival called Woodstock taking place from August 15-17, in Bethel, New York, where four hundred thousand young adults gathered in a dairy field for three days of peace, love and rock and roll. They lay in muddy fields, sat on top of cars and vans, huddled in tents and listened to performers sing the songs that marked their generation--my generation.

Today I look back on that summer and realize it was a turning point for the nation and for my little coastal town. Woodstock presented a generation of young adults who wanted to break away from the norm, do “their own thing,” and dress in a way and listen to music their parents didn’t understand. Many of them protested the Vietnam War which had been going on for four years. They wanted peace and unity. I admired the soldiers who went to Vietnam and knew several who didn’t come home. I didn’t agree with what some of the Woodstock attendees advocated, but I had to respect the fact that they were standing up for what they believed.

During that same three-day span in August another news story came across our TV. It was a small storm forming in the Atlantic, moving and growing as it approached land. By August 16, when teens were gathered at Woodstock, my family was preparing for a storm named Camille, heading straight for the Mississippi Gulf Coast. My parents prepared our house for the hurricane winds by storing away anything outside the house, and Mom and I took down anything from shelves and walls and placed them on the floor. If the pecan trees fell on the house, our possessions had a better chance of surviving. I piled my new college supplies and clothes on my bedroom floor. I’d worked hard for that money and wanted to save everything.

We evacuated eighty miles from the coast. When we returned we were surprised to see the wind had not done any major damage to the house but the water from the bay north of our street and the Mississippi Sound south of us had converged and flooded our house. What a mess! We spent weeks cleaning mud from what was left. Our plan to save our possessions by placing them on the floor backfired. We lost everything. The house itself had been built in the 1800’s and its sturdy construction saved it, but the muddy flood waters destroyed everything below the waterline.

I managed to return to college that year even though I wanted to stay to help my parents. They insisted I go. With the help of some family members who donated clothes, I left the devastated area.

I met my future husband a few weeks into that year on a blind date. He was leaving for Germany with the Air Force and had to sell his car. We had lost two vehicles in the storm and my parents wanted to buy his. Funny how things turn out. A horrible storm gave me a wonderful husband whom I’ve been with for almost fifty years.

The Summer of ’69 was a time of change for the nation as a whole and for my little coastal town. Attitudes seemed to change with Woodstock. An entire nation of young adults headed out into the world with more independent ideas of how they wanted to live. In my town I watched as new structures went up to replace the ones destroyed by the storm. It was a new beginning for everyone with two totally different events. 

Fifty years ago a hurricane and a music festival happening on the same day over a thousand miles away from each other helped to produce changes in our lives that are still felt today.

FRAN MCNABB grew up along the Gulf Coast where several of her novels are set, including her latest PARADISE LANE https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Lane-Gulf-Coast-Romance-ebook/dp/B07VF1LSKD/ref=sr_1_1?crid=31L5TR1W3VH24&keywords=fran+mcnabb+paradise+lane&qid=1565803853&s=gateway&sprefix=fran+mcnabb+%2Caps%2C190&sr=8-1. Visit her at www.FranMcNabb.com