Time It Was: American Stories from the Sixties [Paperback]

What was it like to live through the Sixties?  The writers of these 27 memoirs offer the essence of life and youth in the period. In first-person narratives that range from poignant reminiscences to dramatic adventures, the writers convey what it felt like to land a helicopter in the middle of a firefight in Vietnam, to be beaten and jailed for trying to integrate restaurants in the American South, to run for cover when soldiers opened fire on a campus peace rally in Ohio.  Other stories describe the writers' experiences organizing farm workers with Cesar Chavez, campaigning to elect Barry Goldwater, striking for Free Speech at Berkeley, living in a commune, joining the women's liberation movement, becoming caught up in a religious cult, or camping in the rain at Woodstock.

I. Vietnam
Introduction
Wayne Coe:  Blackhawk Five Four
Episodes in the life of a U.S. helicopter pilot
Paul Coe:  Letters Home
A draftee writes to his family from Vietnam
Leah OLeary: The GIs Called Us Donut Dollies
A Red Cross volunteer in Vietnam
Tim Koster:  United States Blues
The Draft Lottery and an unlucky birthday
Ngoc Quang Huynh: A Life in Flight
Escaping post-war Vietnam

II. Struggles for Social Justice
Introduction
Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons:  Mama Told Me Not to Go
Working with SNCC in Mississippi, Freedom Summer 1964
Raymond Hubbard: Deep in the Heart
Growing up black in the Jim Crow South
Sara Evans: Not My Mothers Path
A historian traces her journey to Womens Liberation
Toby Marotta:  Students of Stonewall
Encountering the militant Gay Liberation movement
Yolanda Retter Vargas: Sisterhood is Possible
The life of a feminist Latina lesbian.
Johnny Flynn: Something in the Wind
Spiritual renewal in the American Indian Movement. <lc2