WGOW-FM

7-24

It only seems like everything's going to hell in a handbasket. It really isn't. Sometimes picking up a newspaper from 40 years ago makes you feel a lot better about where we are now.

Our good friend BoSox Bob dropped over the front sections of a couple of Chattanooga Times editions from 1969 -- July 21st and 22nd. The first thing I immediately notice is that the paper itself is much bigger -- wider. OK. Maybe the newspaper industry itself is in more dire straights now than it was then.

Obviously, most of the news from those two days in 1969 was of the moon landing. The papers were saved in the first place. But if we dig a little deeper, we find there was a war going in a little place called Vietnam. In fact, Hanoi was insisting on a U.S. surrender and columnists were debating the partial troop withdrawal from southeast Asia.

Today, we're debating with much less rancour, troop withdrawal from the Middle East, there's not even the suggestion of U.S. surrender and the loss of life in the wars there have been significantly less.

Forty years ago we were filling seats on the metropolitan government charter commission to talk about metro government in Chattanooga and Hamilton County. Today, Mayor Littlefield is talking about consolidating some city and county government services and annexing several areas into the city.

In 1969, a young Ronald Moss, who had just graduated Howard High School a couple of months earlier, complained in a letter to the editor about a "lack of jobs." He noted that "many things are going sky-high, such as food, living quarters, tax (and) cigarettes."

Sound familiar?

What doesn't sound familiar is the duo that was doing the morning show on WGOW back then -- Bob Rich and Seymour Duck. George J. Montgomery was doing their morning news. Skinny Gary Kines was doing the afternoon show and I have a feeling he was no Robert T. Nash.

But if you rolled that dial over to WDEF, Luther was still doing the Sundial Show.

Even the weather hasn't changed. While we wring our hands over "global warming," I see the forecast for July 21, 1969, reads: "A high of 91 and a low of 71 with a chance of scattered showers late this afternoon or early this evening." Today's forecast -- July 24th, 2009: "A high of 88 and a low of 66, rain on Sunday."

We've had the same summertime forecast in Chattanooga, Tennessee for 40 years -- probably a lot longer. Highs around 90, lows around 70 with a slight chance of scattered late afternoon or early evening showers or thunderstorms. There's no easier job than forecasting the weather in Chattanooga, Tennessee, four months out of the year.

We seem to be more scared about what's happening today -- in every way -- because it's happening to us. It's always bigger, badder, stronger and uglier when we're in the middle of it. But it's nothing our parents didn't go through and their parents didn't go through before them.

Of course, they worried, too. In the July 22, 1969, Chattanooga Times I see Scottie Discount Health and Beatie Adi Stores in downtown Chattanooga was selling a bottle of "Quiet World" for just $1.43 -- a $1.79 value. "Quiet World" is described as "30 tablets for nervous tension."

I wonder if they still sell "Quiet World" anywhere?

Kevin West