‘Summer of 1968’ section chronicles a turning point in the nation’s history

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July 13, 2008

‘Summer of 1968’ section chronicles a turning point in the nation’s history

By Cindy Allen, Managing Editor The Enid News and Eagle Sun Jul 13, 2008, 09:22 PM CDT

The year 1968 has been a topic of much attention this past year, as our nation has remembered the terrible tragedies of the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.

A number of critical events happened that year, including major battles in Vietnam, the preparation for a manned mission to the moon and even the Olympics in Mexico City. It was a time of civil unrest and social transformation that has very much shaped our nation as it is today.

The staff of the Enid News & Eagle decided a good project would be to have our readers help us remember that year — particularly that summer — through their own observations and experiences.

Our readers have not failed us. In today’s News & Eagle, we are including an eight-page special edition with remembrances from those with local ties about what was going on here and elsewhere in that famous and pivotal year.

Special Projects Editor David Kinnamon conducted interviews with local people who saw first-hand some of the activities of that year. Their interviews can be found in this section, and we also have provided video interviews with this people online at www.enidnews.com.

“After investing several hours interviewing local folks who were young people in Enid back in 1968, and also conducting about 30 hours of microfilm research, it’s as if I’ve been transported by a time machine back to Enid as it was in 1968,” Kinnamon said.

“The universal perception folks have given me during the interviews is 1968 was intense,” Kinnamon said. “Several people remarked they went to bed each night excited for what momentous news the next day would bring.”

The memories of those interviewed, and also the readers who submitted their own personal essays, is Enid in 1968 was mostly a conservative town — a military town. While college campuses and other areas of the nation were experiencing the hippie movement, Enid kids still mostly were clean cut, but they were intensely interested in what was going on in the rest of the nation.

“The folks I’ve spoken with and letters mailed and e-mailed to the paper the past several weeks have offered up several people who had hippie leanings, who yearned to identify with the hippie movement in America but never crossed that line,” Kinnamon said.

As Kinnamon learned, many of our young men were serving in the military and in Vietnam. They had tragic and heroic stories to tell — a tale of sacrifice and of fear.

Our stories give a little snapshot of what Enid was like for our local young people at the time. There are many stories that could be told. This section is a compilation of some of the stories of that year, about Enid and the nation and our people.

Take a step back in time and remember the “Summer of 1968” through the eyes of Enid and northwest Oklahoma people.

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Summer of '68

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August 1, 2008
Enid woman focused on her family in ’68 Barbara Finley was 15 years old and was looking forward to her sophomore year at Booker T. Washington High School — Enid’s segregated high school for black students — when she was abruptly called into the principal’s office one day in 1958.
July 14, 2008 1 Photo 1 Link
Enid man wore many different hats in 1968 Nay was an Oklahoma Army National guardsman. He was a full-time worker: a professional photographer. And he was a musician with a popular traveling rhythm and blues group called The Preachers, “Enid’s premier rhythm and blues show band,” Nay remembers.
July 14, 2008 1 Photo 1 Link
Native son, former Enid mayor volunteered to serve as Marine Doug Frantz experienced ‘68 in Vietnam War
July 14, 2008 1 Photo 1 Link
Enid man learned from conflict with his father To Frank Baker, a 17-year-old senior to be at Enid High School during the summer of 1968, the tension which developed between he and his father over the protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, were a microcosm of the tensions developing within the U.S. as a whole — mostly between the older and younger generations, but also between hawks and doves, peaceniks and patriots.
July 14, 2008 1 Photo 1 Link
‘Summer of 1968’ section chronicles a turning point in the nation’s history
July 13, 2008 1 Photo
Enid couple married in 1968 John and I were married in Enid in January of 1968. I was 18 years old and he was 20. We, like many others of our generation, were caught up in the
July 13, 2008 1 Photo
Enid area residents, former residents wax reminiscent about their 1968 experiences
July 13, 2008
Woman recalls wounded veterans, rioting in D.C. during her 1968 We lived in Maryland and the Washington, D.C., area in 1968. The city had horrible rioting and looting and blocks and blocks of D.C. engulfed in flames form the rioting in Washington, D.C., and some areas of Maryland in Prince George’s County.
July 13, 2008
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‘Summer of 1968’ section chronicles a turning point in the nation’s history

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