Equally as fascinating as it is to look at the world on a particular day in history, it's also fascinating to see just what was going on locally, how the average American city fared in the events of any given day. How much has changed in the urban makeup and how much hasn't.
In Los Angeles, the joke was if you left for two weeks and came back, it would all change. Sometimes that was true, most of the time it wasn't.
Los Angeles, like most urban centers around the U.S. had its fare share of upheavals and civic agendas in the 60's. And on this particular June day it was no different, even down to the weather.
From the Breakfast Report on KMPC-AM for June 14, 1968 comes this little snippet of daily life. Starting with the rash of tornadoes and flooding throughout the Mid-west, the never-ending quagmire of Vietnam, the trashing of a local high school (since June 14th in 1968 came on a Friday, it seemed apropos since it was the last day of school for the summer anyway). The investigation of the Robert Kennedy Assassination, which was still pretty fresh in everyone's mind in L.A. - and the traffic. Freeways clogged, Sigalerts issued, alternate routes suggested. Fog and low clouds burning off to hazy sunshine in the afternoon - high of 80, low of 65.
Welcome to summer in L.A. Welcome to another day in the life . . . .
But, you gotta admit, the commercials are rather bitchin.
