1967 - inspired by ETMN

[FlickerOfLight]

Elements in EndTheMaddnessNow’s post today inspired me. Not sure whether it was the list of top 40 music or the Volkswagens but something fired up the old noggin to dig deep into the memory banks and retrieve a few files I thought I would share.

1967

Having a birthday during the first week of January is kind of cool because except for a couple of days, each calendar year is equivalent to a year of my life so it is easy to keep track of things or at least as best as my months away from 70 year old brain can. I turned 12 in 1967.

Because of my “problems” and after enduring a tumultuous 5th and 6th grade at four different schools in Reno, NV, my parents (mom & step-dad) decided a fresh start was needed as they were tired of moving and stuff to try and keep me in a school that wasn’t horrible so after the 6th grade we decided to move to Phoenix, where my mom and I lived before moving to Reno, with the hopes of putting down more substantial roots.

I don’t remember much about that summer but things come clearly into focus when it was time to start junior high (7th grade) because the same old shit started happening again – the school wouldn’t enroll me unless I cut my hair and that just wasn’t happening. By this point in my life asserting myself more outwardly like other girls (or at least not as a boy) had become very important to me and my hair was a big part of that. Besides, a pact between my mom and I made after the 3rd grade promised I could grow out my hair if I stopped begging to wear girl’s clothes all the time and I held her to it.

In a significant show of love and support, my folks got with an attorney and threatened to sue the school board who eventually caved in and made an exception so right off the bat I was a troublemaker but I was allowed to start school although a week later than everyone else.

Let’s just say I was not treated too kindly and I didn’t make it a week before something else happened. A PE coach tried to drag me into the boy’s locker room/showers and I wasn’t having it and fought back. I was promptly suspended and forced to see a school district appointed psychologist before I could return.

Having been seeing psychologists and psychiatrists from the time I was 10 before starting the 5th grade, I was none too happy about this but in addition to the school’s minion, my folks also found a “private mental health professional” to send me to so I was seeing two shrinks at once and hated every second of it but lied, bullshitted and stonewalled my way through.

I was never really privy to the details but both recognized my extreme distress and I was permanently excused from PE class and the whole locker room/shower debacle. Two weeks later I was allowed back in school and spent 7th and 8th grade PE class folding towels in the coach’s office which was fine with me and something I considered a big win.

No doubt encouraged by the shrinks, it was about this time my folks started talking to me about being gay. I didn’t really know what gay (or trans) was, I was mature for my age from all the crap I’d been through and different places I’d lived but naïve and innocent is so many other ways and since most everyone had treated me like a freak, I wasn’t really interested in boys or girls. My folks let me know that if I was gay, it wouldn’t make any difference in their love for me so I just ran with that for the next few years as it was easier than reviving all my early childhood assertions about really being a girl and avoiding the whole shitstorm that caused but moving on…

The whole hippie thing and the summer of love was something I saw on the evening news with great fascination. Like other sociopolitical events in the ‘60s, the civil rights movements, women’s liberation and the burgeoning sexual revolution, I found it all very interesting and was excited things were moving beyond the stultifying 1950s ethos and saw many of these changes embraced by my parents who were in their mid 30s in 1967 and fancied themselves as modern, progressive and cool which was definitely to my benefit.

It might have been ’67 or ’68 but I got this poster for my bedroom. LBJ on a Harley chopper. LOL!



Not that they were hippies or radicals or anything, my step-dad was a retired Lutheran pastor working as a psychologist for the state helping the visually impaired and my mom, a simple farm girl artist turned office person working her way up in construction administration for a custom home builder but they embraced these cultural revolutions and newfound freedoms. In 1967, my step-dad bought a new VW Microbus and my mom a Pontiac GTO.



I started driving the VW bus when I got my learner’s permit and took my 1st time driving test in it in 1971 when I turned 16 and got my license. I loved that thing and no, it didn’t have peace signs or flowers on it. Later on I inherited the GTO when my hot rod mom bought a Trans-Am.

I went on to own 3 air-cooled Beetles, a Karman Ghia and this rare beast.



Looking through ETMN’s music list really brought back some memories. There were two competing AM radio top-40 stations in Phoenix. KRIZ and KRUX and I was super into music as were my folks although they exposed me to other things beyond pop. Music was actually good back then.

Here is a list of Billboard magazine's Top Hot 100 songs of 1967. How many boomers remember some of these classics? How many not boomers know these songs or artists?

1 To Sir With Love Lulu
2 The Letter The Box Tops
3 Ode to Billie Joe Bobbie Gentry
4 Windy The Association
5 I'm a Believer The Monkees
6 Light My Fire The Doors
7 Somethin' Stupid Frank & Nancy Sinatra
8 Happy Together The Turtles
9 Groovin' The Young Rascals
10 Can't Take My Eyes Off You Frankie Valli
11 Little Bit O' Soul The Music Explosion
12 I Think We're Alone Now Tommy James and the Shondells
13 Respect Aretha Franklin
14 I Was Made to Love Her Stevie Wonder
15 Come Back When You Grow Up Bobby Vee
16 Kind of a Drag The Buckinghams
17 Sweet Soul Music Arthur Conley
18 Expressway to Your Heart Soul Survivors
19 Soul Man Sam & Dave
20 Never My Love The Association
21 Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie Jay & the Techniques
22 Come On Down to My Boat Every Mother's Son
23 Incense and Peppermints Strawberry Alarm Clock
24 Ruby Tuesday The Rolling Stones
25 It Must Be Him Vikki Carr
26 Love Is Here and Now You're Gone The Supremes
27 For What It's Worth Buffalo Springfield
28 Gimme Little Sign Brenton Wood
29 The Happening The Supremes
30 All You Need Is Love The Beatles
31 Release Me Engelbert Humperdinck
32 Your Precious Love Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
33 Somebody to Love Jefferson Airplane
34 Get on Up The Esquires
35 Brown Eyed Girl Van Morrison
36 Jimmy Mack Martha and the Vandellas
37 I Got Rhythm The Happenings
38 A Whiter Shade of Pale Procol Harum
39 Don't You Care The Buckinghams
40 Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye The Casinos
41 Reflections The Supremes
42 On a Carousel The Hollies
43 Please Love Me Forever Bobby Vinton
44 Alfie Dionne Warwick
45 Silence Is Golden The Tremeloes
46 My Cup Runneth Over Ed Ames
47 Up, Up and Away The 5th Dimension
48 San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) Scott McKenzie
49 The Rain, the Park & Other Things The Cowsills
50 There's a Kind of Hush Herman's Hermits
51 Mercy, Mercy, Mercy The Buckinghams
52 This Is My Song Petula Clark
53 (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher Jackie Wilson
54 I've Been Lonely Too Long The Young Rascals
55 Penny Lane The Beatles
56 You're My Everything The Temptations
57 Georgy Girl The Seekers
58 Western Union Five Americans
59 Baby I Love You Aretha Franklin
60 A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You The Monkees
61 California Nights Lesley Gore
62 Dedicated to the One I Love The Mamas & the Papas
63 How Can I Be Sure The Young Rascals
64 Carrie Anne The Hollies
65 (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet Blues Magoos
66 Friday on My Mind The Easybeats
67 Soul Finger Bar-Kays
68 Gimme Some Lovin' The Spencer Davis Group
69 Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out) The Hombres
70 Let's Live for Today The Grass Roots
71 Close Your Eyes Peaches & Herb
72 Groovin' Booker T. & the M.G.'s
73 Funky Broadway Wilson Pickett
74 Pleasant Valley Sunday The Monkees
75 I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You) Aretha Franklin
76 Tell It Like It Is Aaron Neville
77 Cold Sweat James Brown
78 She'd Rather Be with Me The Turtles
79 98.6 Keith
80 Here We Go Again Ray Charles
81 White Rabbit Jefferson Airplane
82 Bernadette Four Tops
83 The Beat Goes On Sonny & Cher
84 Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron The Royal Guardsmen
85 Society's Child Janis Ian
86 Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon Neil Diamond
87 Ain't No Mountain High Enough Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
88 I Take It Back Sandy Posey
89 Here Comes My Baby The Tremeloes
90 Everlasting Love Robert Knight
91 I Dig Rock and Roll Music Peter, Paul and Mary
92 Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything's Alright) Bill Cosby
93 I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) The Electric Prunes
94 Daydream Believer The Monkees
95 Baby I Need Your Lovin' Johnny Rivers
96 I Can See for Miles The Who
97 Mirage Tommy James and the Shondells
98 Green, Green Grass of Home Tom Jones
99 Don't Sleep in the Subway Petula Clark
100 Thank the Lord for the Night Time Neil Diamond

What were you doing in 1967?

First off, kudos for the bravery it takes to tell your personal journey like that. Thank you for sharing this.

Secondly that is the dopest VW micro bus/truck conversion I have ever seen. I think I've seen one other picture of one of those. I'd drive that thing every day. 


I wasn't born until the 70s, but as akid growing up in the 80s 90s we had an admiration for that Era. We listened to all that music, and we were very much into the psychedelic hippy vibes and culture. I always felt like I had been born in the wrong time, and should have been a hippy back in the 60s. Such an interesting time in history. And that counterculture was so groovy.