2018 will long be remembered locally as a turning point year in all things Horry County. While 1968 was different in many ways, these two years hold one key change ingredient in common.
On November 5, 1968, Richard M. Nixon was elected President of the United States. Presidential front runner Bobby Kennedy was assassinated earlier in June. The summer of 1968 was a tempestuous time in American history. Both the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement were peaking. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in the spring, igniting riots across the country.
On July 20, 1968, the pieces for Apollo 11 were starting to come together, but the mission itself was still six months from a formal announcement. Four missions needed to launch and be successful before Apollo 11 could even attempt to fulfill President John F. Kennedy’s challenge from seven years before.
Television was becoming the medium of choice, replacing the newspaper industry’s grip on all things information.
LOCALLY
WHAT CHANGED IN 2018
Media and politicians sloganeered words like “Fake News” in 2018. The president himself lead the way into the migration from broadcast news to “personal” news and internet outlets that included Twitter, Google, Facebook, Instragram, Snap Chat, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and all things viewed on a cell phone. In 2018, the cell phone replaced the television as the king of all things media and communications.
Like 1968, America continues to be mired in a middle eastern war which has no clearly defined winnable solution nor any known end dated in site.
While our famous Baby Boomer President held court in 2018, these key baby boomers and baby boomer childhood icons each left us.
Country star Roy Clark, the guitar virtuoso and singer who headlined the cornpone TV show “Hee Haw”
Keith Jackson, 89 – Sportscaster and voice of ABC Sports’ College football from 1966 till 2006
Stan Lee, 95 – The man behind our favorite superheroes, Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk and so many other Marvel Comics has died at the age of 95
Ray Thomas, 76 – Founding member of The Moody Blues – prostate cancer
Dennis Edwards, 74 Lead singer for The Temptations died at Chicago Hospital, apparently due to complications from meningitis
Billy Graham, 99 – Minister and ubiquitous Christian TV evangelist – His tv ministry was called the Billy Graham Crusades and aired from 1947 until 2005. HE was also the spiritual adviser to every U.S. President from Harry Truman to Barack Obama!
Stephen Hawking, 76 – World reknowned physicist, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom . Cause of death: ALS
Frank Avruch, 89 better known as Bozo the Clown, a from kiddie TV show which aired from 1959 till’1970. Cause of death: heart disease.
Actress and director Penny Marshall, of “Laverne & Shirley” and “A League of Their Own” fame, died on Dec. 17, 2018, her rep confirmed to Variety. She was 75.
THE TWO DIFFERENT YEARS EACH HELD ONE COMMON THEME – GENERATIONAL CHANGE
In 1968 American Baby Boomers pushed their WWII parents off center stage. While the founding generation still held the president’s office for the next two decades, baby boomers were the center of all things media, politics and culture.
Iliza: Elder Millennial (2018)
The same is also true about 2018, while baby boomers have been reluctant to move from center stage, 2019 will usher in a year where America’s larger focus and emphasis will be on all things Gen Z and millennials.
2019 – Ready or not, next is next.