• Home
  • rainbow flagA Welcoming Congregation
  • Safe Congregation SealKeeping Safe
  • Capital Campaign
    • Contact: Capital Campaign
  • DONATE/REALM
  • TUCWomen
    • About TUCWomen
    • Join Us
    • Events
    • Contact
  • Contact
  • Instagram

The Unitarian Church in Westport

10 Lyons Plains Rd., Westport, CT 06880 - Ph: (203)227-7205 Sunday Services: 10:00 AM - ZOOM (check SOUNDINGS)

uua-logo-2
  • Calendar
    • Calendar
    • SOUNDINGS
    • Communications Guidelines
    • ZOOM Instructions
    • Tips For Making Videos
    • Event & Space Reservations
    • In person meetings at TUCW – Summer 2020
    • TUCWSocial Email List Ground Rules
  • Welcome Visitors
    • UU Orientation
    • Directions & Services
    • Special Ceremonies & Dedications
    • Our Congregational History
    • Our Faith
    • What is a Unitarian Universalist?
    • We are Unitarian Universalists
    • How did you become a Unitarian Universalist?
    • History of the Flaming Chalice
    • UU History in 8 Minutes
  • About Us
    • Our Mission Statement
    • Our Vision Statement
    • About Our Ministers
    • Our Staff
    • Getting Involved
    • Board of Trustees
    • Governance
    • Congregant Celebration
    • Pastoral Care Chaplains
    • Our Welcoming Congregation
    • Photo & Video Galleries
    • Links – Beyond Our Walls
    • SOUNDINGS
    • Events & Space Reservations
    • Pledging
  • FAMILY FAITH FORMATION
    • Faith Formation 2020-21
    • Welcome to Family Faith Formation
    • This Week in Family Faith Formation
    • What to Expect on Sundays
    • Faith Formation for Children Pre-K through 8th Grade
    • OWL Information at a Glance
    • Considering 7th-9th Grade OWL for Your Family?
    • Youth Ministry
    • Adult Faith Formation
    • Keeping Safe
    • Faith Formation Registration
  • Social Justice
    • Welcome to Social Justice
    • Social Justice e-mail
    • Advocates for Prevention of Gun Violence
    • Beardsley School Committee
    • Environmental Action Group
    • Immigration and Refugee Committee
    • KIVA Microfinance Committee
    • Mercy Learning Center Committee
    • Racial Justice Committee
    • Rainbow Task Force
    • Westbridge Coalition
    • UU United Nations Office
    • Additional Programs
    • Racial Justice Resources
  • Music Program
    • Music Choir Schedules
    • Evensong
    • Our Minister of Music
    • The Music Committee
    • The Bell Choir
    • The Choir (Women and Men)
    • Special Projects Choir
    • Once & Again Singers
    • Children’s Choir
    • Teen Choir
    • The Chamber Choir
    • Sight-singing Classes
    • Cabaret
    • Voice Classes
    • Love Is the Spirit
    • Tune My Heart To Sing
    • Support Our Music Program
  • Sermons & Poetry
    • Minister’s Messages
    • Sermons – Audio
    • Sermons – Video
    • Rev. John T. Morehouse’s sermons
    • From Your Senior Minister: Facing Grace
    • Facing Grace – Rev. John’s blog
    • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – sermons
    • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – Dear Friends
    • Intern Minister’s sermons
    • Guest Minister’s sermons
    • Poetry & Readings
    • CURRENTS – our quarterly newsletter

Dear Friends – February 25, 2008

Rev. Frank Hall - Minister EmeritusApril 24, 2011 by Rev. Frank Hall - Minister Emeritus

Dear Friends,

Tom Brokaw’s latest book, Boom! Voices of the Sixties, is more than a trip down memory lane for me.  It’s a penetrating, powerful exploration of the connections between what happened then and what’s happening now; the parallels between Vietnam and Iraq, for example.

Brokaw and I share the same birth year, 1940, which makes it all the more interesting for me.  He tells his own story, and weaves the stories of dozens of others who influenced the course of events, and whose lives were so influenced by those tumultuous times.

He dates the era of the sixties to that infamous day in November of 1963 with the assassination of Kennedy.  I date it from 1960, the year I was married.  I was still an undergraduate student.  In 1958, the year I graduated from Wilmington High School, I planned to join the Marines with three of my buddies – military service was required.

In the Spring of 1958 I changed my mind and went to college, postponing the service requirement with a 2S deferment.  When I graduated from college in 1962 I had another deferment—being married.  I got my first teaching job which provided an additional draft deferment.

I didn’t realize that things were quietly heating up in Vietnam.  I got a draft notice and reported for a physical exam at an Army base in Boston.  By then we had bought our first house – we paid $2,500 and got to work fixing it up, converting it from a little summer cottage to a small year-round house.  Military service would have interrupted our big plans, so I asked the friendly woman at the local draft board if there were any other deferments.  She smiled and said, “Only if you had a child.”

“What if my wife was pregnant?” I asked.  She said, “Well, that would do it.”

The Army clock was ticking — less than two months later I brought the positive pregnancy test results to the draft office.  My daughter Susan was born in August of 1963, just a few months before what Brokaw called the big Boom! that ushered in the era we refer to as ‘the sixties.’

Brokaw brought the sixties back.  The three friends with whom I had planned to join the Marines were all in military service while I was in college.  None went to Vietnam.  I eased myself into the sixties with a fifties mentality — I liked Ike, and loved and was proud of my country.

Little by little we heard the news from Vietnam, watching young men coming home in flag-draped caskets, and we started to ask what it was all about.  Meanwhile, we sold the fixed-up cottage for $10,000 and built a new house for $11,000 – including the land.  We lived there for only a year—the commute was too far, so we bought a house in Wellesley where I was teaching, paying the huge sum of $21,000.

That’s when I got involved in the Unitarian Church in Wellesley, volunteered to teach a high school class on ‘Love and Death,’ became youth advisor and got actively involved in the anti-war movement, working with kids who were mostly counter-culture.  Boom!  The sixties hit hard in ’68.  By ’69 I left teaching, went to seminary, and the rest is my personal history.  I’m grateful for Brokaw’s provocative reminders.  Maybe you’ll share some of your stories from the sixties.  That would be good.  Meanwhile, take care, and hold on to hope.

Yours,

Frank

Filed Under: Dear Friends

  • Minister’s Messages
  • Sermons – Audio
  • Sermons – Video
  • Rev. John T. Morehouse’s sermons
  • From Your Senior Minister: Facing Grace
  • Facing Grace – Rev. John’s blog
  • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – sermons
  • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – Dear Friends
  • Intern Minister’s sermons
  • Guest Minister’s sermons
  • Readings & Poetry
  • CURRENTS – our quarterly newsletter

     The Unitarian Church in Westport
     is a member congregation of the
     Unitarian Universalist Association

      CLICK HERE if you have any questions      about The Unitarian Church in Westport

Church Hours: Tuesday - Friday
9:30 AM to 4:00 PM

Summer Hours:
July & August until after Labor Day:
Tuesday - Friday 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM

CLICK HERE to contact the web master

CLICK HERE to opt in to receive
the Weekly Congregational Email Blast

Copyright © 2021 · Visit us at The Unitarian Church in Westport - 10 Lyons Plains Rd., Westport, CT 06880 - All rights reserved.