I’m a little behind on technology. When I was at UA in 1967 starting my engineering degree, one of my first classes was using IBM punchcard machines to run simple programs.To run a simple program you would have a stack of punchcards. If any one of them was done incorrectly, your program would not run.

Texas Instruments (TI) invented the first handheld calculator in 1967. I had one of those. It would only do math. It had no trig functions or anything like that. I wish I had kept mine.

One of my first classes was learning how to use a “slide rule”. (AI) “In 1967, a slide rule could be used to perform basic mathematical operations like multiplication, division, square roots, cube roots, logarithms, and trigonometric functions (sine, cosine, tangent) with a good degree of accuracy, making it a valuable tool for engineers, scientists, and anyone needing to perform quick calculations without relying on an electronic calculator which was still relatively new and not widely available at the time.”

Actually I never got very far past all that in technology! I do remember a lot of things about the 60’s. The JFK, MLK, Robert Kennedy,and Malcom X assassinations. The Freedom Writers and the Civil Rights Movement. The Cuban Missile Crisis and Bay of Pigs Invasion. Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong taking our first steps on the moon (I have a few of my students who really don’t think that happened). The 1967 summer riots in many major cities, Detroit being the worst (40 dead, thousands injured). The Soviet Gagarin was the first to orbit the earth in space. Woodstock, marijuana and LSD. Miniskirts introducted. The Vietnam “Conflict”, the draft, and war protests (and war protest songs like Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ In the Wind”: my favorite was “Eve of Destruction” by Barry McGuire).

Speaking of songs from the 60’s, I finally (several years after most people learned how to do this) learned how to do a simple Amazon Music playlist. I had already picked my favorite 200 songs of the 60’s, and now I have them all on 2 playlists. Some of my favorite groups were The Righteous Brothers, The Lettermen, The Association, Herman’s Hermits, and The Mamas and the Papas. My wife to be and I would listen to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass in my 64 1/2 white Mustang (the first mustangs sold) on my 8 track tape player that we installed in the car (that was before cassettes and CD’s). It wasn’t my favorite song back then , but perhaps is now is When A Man Loves A Woman” by Percy Sledge. Maybe my choice is influenced, not so much by memories of the 60’s, but by watching the Muscles Shoals documentary. The song was cut in the small studios in little Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Percy was an orderly in a local hospital. Percy Sledge said that when he originally sang this, he had in mind Lizz King, his girlfriend of three years who left him for a modeling job in Los Angeles. Said Sledge: “I didn’t have any money to go after her, so there was nothing I could do to try and get her back.”

BTW we are actually listening to “You Can’t Hurry Love” ( an original Supremes song) at our customary Sunday morning Egg McMuffin at McDonald’s. They usually don’t play songs from the 60’s, so that has to be a sign of something (not sure what except that it was a good time for this 60’s blog).

Most importantly in the 60’s I began liking and dating my future wife, Deborah. Her parents went to the same church as me. People say that I “married up” (way up according to some). I resent that even if is true. My version is that “she chased me in high school and I finally decided to let her catch me”. We have been married 54 years. God has blessed us with 3 great kids who have gone on to marry Christians and we now have a total of 10 grandchildren (5 of whom are adopted). God allowed us to do mission work in Trinidad, West Indies and Colombia, South America. I have been working in Christian Education for 35 years (as a principal or teacher). God has blessed us so much.

So stop right now and write out your memories of your teens and your life. Give God thanks and praise him.

I’ll try to get back to the deeper studies in the divided kingdom or the prophets! My wife just previewed this article and said that I will probably have more readers for this than the Bible articles, especially the history of Baal and Asherah worship!