It's been one year. An enormous time, a span of time hard to imagine when I was 20, but much too easy to overlook today. Overlooked in the same way I might forget my glasses somewhere.
This comes a few days after I found my Marshall McLuhan book on the media. I opened it to find a receipt from Pranges and two pictures of my ex-wife. Of course she was only a girlfriend at the time. This little discovery told a story.
That spring at UW Deckner I had my first set of friends. Not a friend here or there as in school, but a regular crowd that hung around together, seemingly day and night. It was the cusp of adulthood for me and maybe it was late in the big scheme of things, it was great. I was seeing B. but it wasn't a steady thing, just part of the crowd activities. Things were happenning in 1968 even in little old Green Bay WI. Ideas were floating around everywhere. Ideas about the war, politics, Phylosophy and all points in between. I was taking liberal arts classes and stoking an interest in psychology. "Pyschology Today" was a favorite. A youth spent reading Sartre, Reich and Krishnamurti left me vulnerable to any new idea about human nature. I'm sure that's why I bought the book. About that time the idea of media manipulation was all the rage on campuses. Everybody in the 60s and 70s saw the ice cube in the magazine ads. Ads that had the subliminal message of attractive women merged into the image of the ice. McLuhan's book was published in 1964 and as usual Green Bay was behind the curve by four years. In fairness it was a $0.95 paperback version.
What a great book, today it's an easy read for me because in the last forty years I've come to accept most of what he had to say as a given, but at that time it was a difficult read requiring multiple reads to grasp any of it.
The receipt was from Pranges for $4.95 for apparel. They didn't break things out by item just categories. I have no idea what is was, I do know that it was a couple days after I returned to Green Bay from the M/V Joseph H Franz. I probably neede a paitr of jeans for school, who knows?
The two pictures were of B. at the age of 18. Cute, desirable and oh so innocent. It interesting that the photos are cut down B & W pictures. Back then copies of pictures were a rare commodity. I got those pictures during the summer when I was aboard ship and carring on a busy mail exchange with a number of our group.
The strongest memory I have vis a vis this book is laying in my bunk plowing through McLuhan sentence by sentence. The ideas would captivate me. He made connections in a way I couldn't imagine. I never finished the book. That was a busy cruise, packed with adventure. I was with my uncle, George and also with an ever changing set of interesting young guys. It was the proverbial endless summer.
This comes a few days after I found my Marshall McLuhan book on the media. I opened it to find a receipt from Pranges and two pictures of my ex-wife. Of course she was only a girlfriend at the time. This little discovery told a story.
That spring at UW Deckner I had my first set of friends. Not a friend here or there as in school, but a regular crowd that hung around together, seemingly day and night. It was the cusp of adulthood for me and maybe it was late in the big scheme of things, it was great. I was seeing B. but it wasn't a steady thing, just part of the crowd activities. Things were happenning in 1968 even in little old Green Bay WI. Ideas were floating around everywhere. Ideas about the war, politics, Phylosophy and all points in between. I was taking liberal arts classes and stoking an interest in psychology. "Pyschology Today" was a favorite. A youth spent reading Sartre, Reich and Krishnamurti left me vulnerable to any new idea about human nature. I'm sure that's why I bought the book. About that time the idea of media manipulation was all the rage on campuses. Everybody in the 60s and 70s saw the ice cube in the magazine ads. Ads that had the subliminal message of attractive women merged into the image of the ice. McLuhan's book was published in 1964 and as usual Green Bay was behind the curve by four years. In fairness it was a $0.95 paperback version.
What a great book, today it's an easy read for me because in the last forty years I've come to accept most of what he had to say as a given, but at that time it was a difficult read requiring multiple reads to grasp any of it.
The receipt was from Pranges for $4.95 for apparel. They didn't break things out by item just categories. I have no idea what is was, I do know that it was a couple days after I returned to Green Bay from the M/V Joseph H Franz. I probably neede a paitr of jeans for school, who knows?
The two pictures were of B. at the age of 18. Cute, desirable and oh so innocent. It interesting that the photos are cut down B & W pictures. Back then copies of pictures were a rare commodity. I got those pictures during the summer when I was aboard ship and carring on a busy mail exchange with a number of our group.
The strongest memory I have vis a vis this book is laying in my bunk plowing through McLuhan sentence by sentence. The ideas would captivate me. He made connections in a way I couldn't imagine. I never finished the book. That was a busy cruise, packed with adventure. I was with my uncle, George and also with an ever changing set of interesting young guys. It was the proverbial endless summer.
Labels: 1968
posted by garrison at 10:15 AM
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