Overview
9/20/17
Blog by Candy Dawson
Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, A time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories; They're all that's left you
~Simon and Garfunkel
This true story comes from the collective memories of 120 people whose lives intersected in Bloomington, Indiana, between 1962 and 1968. It chronicles a unique experience that shaped the psyche of those on the cusp of a cultural revolution in the shadows of Indiana University. The backdrop, however, is all too familiar to the baby boom generation. After the heady days of an emerging consciousness of peace and love, our collective innocence was lost with the cataclysmic events of 1968--no matter where you were. The book’s yearbook photographs, inscriptions and excerpts from the high school newspaper show a waning age of innocence. “Preserve your memories; They’re all that’s left you...”
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Summer of Love
1967
Still rooted in the 1950s and sharing their homes with a postwar surge of children, parents in Bloomington, Indiana, were starting to worry. Glimpsing a transformation in their teenage children--those in the vanguard of what would be called the baby boom generation, they were often baffled. It wasn’t the typical divide when each generation straddles adolescence and adulthood. This time there was something really different going on.
They watched from afar as a psychedelic Summer of Love was blossoming in California--but their kids were safe here in the heartland, right? Twenty sets of parents of Bloomington High School teens trusted the exuberant young teacher to take good care of their children when he approached them about the “experience of a lifetime” -- four weeks of study at Oxford sandwiched between time in London and a jaunt to Paris. If they could afford the cost, $750, how could they refuse? And London, well at least it wasn’t San Francisco. What could be going on there even if it was home to, what was that group, oh yeah (yeah yeah)...The Beatles.
The new English teacher, just 22, had taken the older teachers at Bloomington High School by surprise. The ways in which he affected his students has lasted a lifetime. Our book is a collective memoir brought to life by interviews with 120 people all over the country with first hand knowledge of the characters and events. “Mr. Walls” is truly one of their most memorable characters and they recall him and his innovative teaching techniques vividly.