Forty Year Old Journals from 1968 Lead to Questions

Hmmm, now just why haven't I been blogging lately? I spent more time on the Obama campaign then I planned but was verrry happy. Then went searching in old hand written journals from prior olympic games and spent long hours reading. The old journals made me more interested in some of the history of the olympics. I would open a journal and find myself reliving history. Nothing quite like a book, especially an old book, you open the cover...and it lives, present tense, once again! Therefore, I spent time researching or reviewing and refreshing my mind about many journal topics as well as the olympics. What fun.

Also, I am "in between computers". Since my six year old laptop, that was constantly used in my classroom with a big screen, finally is acting strange I decided to clean out old pre-internet computers. Sheez. Before leaping ahead to the future must clean out some oldies but goodies.(Hey, these old computers have some great "reliving" as well.)

I will continue to come to the library to go online briefly until I replace my faithful old laptop in 2009.

One of the topics that interests me now was a topic that never really got understood during the Mexico Olympics, the student protests. I spoke to a few people about them. Some wanted to change the topic. Some of these students felt they had a leader, unlike Fox, and felt they needed to have more freedom of speech and, quite simply, more power as human beings. Those who were there said the students were peaceful, very peaceful. Some believe that the riot was not started by the students. Over forty years have passed and there is still a difference of opinion about how many students were killed and and how some of their bodies went missing. Perhaps some of the families could never properly give their children dignity in death because of their fear or perhaps because some of their childrens remains went missing they lived for years, not knowing. Perhaps we can learn the truth of this some day.

Mexico Olympics 1968

Financially, Mexico '68 was profitable because of my work at CBS News. (How can I NOT discuss the economics of Olympic Games during t h i s October of 2008! Sheez all the graphs and charts this October look like the cliffs of Dana Point! Oh how I am reminded of the root word of "investment" and the root word of the word "credit". Investment comes from the Latin word of garment, thus something coming INto the pocket of the garment, and as most of you know, credit comes from credere to believe...credo...or I believe you will pay me back!)

Although I did not see or witness the student uprising prior to the games, it was incredibly serious and I believe over 200 hundred were killed just weeks before Opening Ceremony. These games came soon after Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were shot. Such sad times but again, I was living in Asia surrounded by joyous sixth graders at Hong Kong International School.   As the thousands of doves were released at Opening Ceremony the world was yearning for PEACE.

Getting hired by Bert Quint was awesome, working whether in the office or out of the office was totally enjoyable. In the office we had a teletype machine, busy phones, good vibes, and people coming and going often. I greeted them and assisted them with their needs. Heywood Hale Broun, American Sportswriter and "poetic" commentator and his wife were a joy to take around Mexico City. Marjorie Margolies, from Philadelphia, was another visiting broadcaster (who I should look up one day). When I worked the phones in the office I was most excited hearing Walter Cronkite's voice on the other end.  Our office was on one of main streets, Avenida Reforma, and quite often I would go off to the games. In those days we did not have credentials as we do today. We had a goldish medal and when wearing that around our necks we were free to go everywhere, opening ceremony, all the venues and of course inside the Olympic Village. The Village had great food, great fun and great everything.  The signage was artistically created and it was easy to spot from a distance. We just had to look for the big P for PRENSA, therefore learning logistics was easy.  Learning about Olympic Protocol was new for me but just being proper covered most of it and having parents like mine made that easier because they gave us the basics plus a bit of etiquette as well when we were young.  My "broken" Spanish came in handy and my craving for Mexican food was satisfied.

And ohhhh that MARIACHI MUSIC...it was everywhere...OLEY!!!