Thursday, January 11, 2007

A Time Machine II

I have in my hands a printed time machine.

This time it’s not a song that takes me back to my youth, but an actual magazine that was printed in my youth. My wife found this in a stack of stuff as she cleaned out our guest room. Her Dad was a dentist and this very magazine once sat on the table in his waiting room.

What I find on the pages reveals some interesting glimpses from 1968:

• The price for the May 31, 1968 issue of Life Magazine was 35 cents.
• The full-page inside cover ad is for window-unit air conditioners in new fashion colors.
• On the next page is a full-page ad describing in great detail the filtering process used on Lark cigarettes.
• There are several more ads for cigarettes, two for pipes and one for cigars.
• A full-page ad for Ford explains their new woven vinyl upholstery. “Because it’s woven, it circulates air. Which helps keep you cool and unrumpled when it’s torrid; cozy and comfortable when it’s frigid.”
• There are campaign pictures of candidates the Republican nomination for President: Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Nelson Rockefeller.
• There is a long article about male and female students “living together out of wedlock,” which was a violation of school rules.
• One line in a full-page ad for Frigidaire appliances reads, “Your wife can clean a Frigidaire Electri-clean oven just by setting the controls.”
• The cover story was about ancient Egypt, a subject that interests my wife; that’s why she kept this particular issue of Life.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated just a few weeks before this issue was published, and Life devoted plenty of space to his death and life. Two issues later the cover story was about the death and life of Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy.

That was a hell of a year and it is so cool that an original magazine from that time is right here in my hands.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

wow! that is a very cool find...there are websites where you can order any time or life or..other mags from the month and year of your birth. they make great gifts.