This coming week my high school class reunion takes place. Fifty years ago I graduated, wide-eyed and idealistic, ready to change the world. Certainly a lot has changed; some for the good; some not so much. But there’s no denying that 1969 was a year for the history books. I decided to take a look back, and I’m dragging you with me, if you are so inclined.

The average cost of a new house was just over $15,000, and average annual income was $8,500; just under half the cost of a house. Is that still the case? I don’t know, but I’m guessing housing has gone up much more than income.

Gasoline was 35 cents a gallon! Just the right price to travel to Washington, D.C. to join 250,000 marchers, protesting the war in Vietnam. While we were protesting, the United States introduced the Draft Lottery, replacing the overall draft. Young men held their collective breaths, waiting to see if they were the ones being sent to fight an unpopular war. More than 211,000 young men never returned home, a war casualty number only outdone by the Civil War, and World Wars I and II.

Tricky Dick, uh, I mean Richard Nixon, took office in 1969. I’ll say no more, except to say I saw Spiro Agnew, his at-that-time Vice President, in Columbus, Ohio. What a ride that presidency was.

Speaking of world leaders, did you know Golda Meir, who became Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, was born in Russia and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin? Who knew?

Just the name Chappaquiddick conjures up the image of another 1969 tragic event involving a member of one of the most revered, and reviled, family names in American history — Edward (Ted) Kennedy. Mary Jo Kopechne died in the crash, but it wasn’t reported for another nine hours.

The Charles Manson family cult rose to infamy by murdering five people. It seems a little paltry in view of more recent cult activities, but in August 1969 it was big news. I guess it was who you murdered, not how many, back then.

Gay rights activism took a giant step forward with the June 1969 Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, New York City. The predominantly gay patrons at the Stonewall Inn fought back against police raids on the establishment, setting up the struggle for rights of the LGBTQ community.

But hey, the year I graduated wasn’t all gloom and doom. On July 20 the first men on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, made televised history by stepping off the lunar module, Eagle, planting an American flag and declaring “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Or did they? There are still a lot of skeptics who say it never happened. I guess time will tell.

And who can forget Woodstock? For three days in August, 1969, an audience estimated between 350,000 to 500,000 fans danced, drank, did drugs, as well as various and sundry other things, and listened to performers Joan Baez, Santana, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and over thirty other performers, ending with an 8:30a.m. set by Jimi Hendrix. It is claimed that two babies were born at the festival, although no one has stepped forward to claim that place in history. I’m sure countless babies were conceived, however.

Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert, and Ernie made their debut on PBS in November of 1969. Fifty years later the Muppets and friends on Sesame Street are still entertaining and teaching our grandkids.

While I was around for all these events, I don’t feel like I was a part of many of them. I was young and naÔve, not really attuned to the world stage at that time. But one thing I strongly remember is when they shut off the American side of Niagara Falls. In June of that year thousands of tons of rocks were dumped upstream, diverting the water to the Canadian side of the Falls.

For the first time in millennia, no water flowed over the American or Bridal Veil Falls. Two bodies were discovered; a surprisingly small number for all the attempts, willing or not, to go over the Falls. What to do with the pile of rocks at the base of the American Falls was discussed. Ultimately it was decided to do nothing. I’ve always been a bit disappointed by that decision, wishing for a cleaner descent for the water, but the cost was too much for just aesthetics.

The world has changed a lot in fifty years. I have lived through a lot of history, with more to come. I can’t wait for the day my grandchildren ask, “Gramma, what did you do in the olden days?”

Robyn Near is a Ripley resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com