Southeast Alaska Empire, Tuesday, June 17, 1969

I've been on one of those manic cleaning sprees lately, and the office closet has been my first target. Last week, as I was going through books, class notebooks, photo albums and other things, I ran across three copies of the newspaper that was published, in Juneau, two days after our wedding. In it was an article titled, "Clark-Judd Wedding," including a picture of the bride (me).

Despite my need to finish organizing that closet, I couldn't help but sit down and read through that newspaper. I figured it wouldn't take too long since it was only 8 pages. I thought I might read some "Ahhh, those were the days" stories, but not so! Here are the opening paragraphs of the most prominent articles:

MOSCOW (AP) - The international Communist conference held in the Kremlin since June 5 ended today with official acceptance of a call for Communist unity against imperialism.

SAIGON (AP) - North Vietnamese troops attacked a Marine base camp near Da Nang today for the third time in a week, despite a big allied sweep in the area.

BALTIMORE (AP) - Dr. Hugh Davis Graham, a history professor, who codirected a federal study of violence in America, has said that given the kind of people Americans are, "continued violence is something we can look for - like it or not."

TEL AVIV (AP) - An Iraqi artillery shell hit a taxi near the Dead Sea today killing an American woman tourist and wounding six other Americans.

PORTLAND, Ore (AP) - Pat Nixon received a generally warm welcome at the start of her West Coast tour and appeared not to notice three anti-war demonstrations.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - A group of American missionaries called today for the "de-Zionization" of Israel and the creation of a Palestine state in which Jews and Arabs would have equal rights. The alternative, the Christian missionaries said, is "implacable hatred, vindictive contempt and endless rounds of indecisive little slaughters."

On our wedding day, America was in the midst of the Vietnam war; the Cold War was heating up; and the protest movement in the United States was in full swing. The Hippies espoused their countercultural values; the Beat Generation was writing poetry and songs, inspired by anger and hallucinatory drugs; and America was being introduced to Eastern religions and philosophies.

Someone once said that love is blind. That must have been true in my case, for, despite the tensions and fears that weighed on us, as Americans, in the late '60s and early '70s, I have always remembered the early days of our marriage as "the good old days."

There's a part of me that wishes I hadn't picked up that newspaper and looked back.