Every Saturday afternoon the Sixties on Six channel on Sirius XM features one specific year and plays the top forty songs from that year along with news clips, ads, movie ratings and other stuff about the year.  Today the feature year was 1969.  They played a couple of tunes I just didn't remember at all, but they sounded like '69...kinda bubble-gummy, a shade hippie-ish, and like that.  Then they played the one song that always takes me down the time tunnel a plops me square in the middle of that great year.  Jessie Colin Young's group, the Youngbloods, singing about getting together.  The dream-like guitar, the echoish vocals, and the pure hippie message, no matter how many times I hear it, the effect is the same.

The whole year of 1969 we were living in Mannheim, West Germany;  actually in the military housing area called Benjamin Franklin Village (BFV) just outside of the town of Kafertal, a suburb of Mannheim.   It was a monumental year for us, my career,  and just about every other aspect of our life. 

In February, I was promoted to Staff Sergeant (E-6);  I also passed the proficiency pay test that year with a score high enough to rate a year of "Pro-Pay" so with that and the promotion, our paychecks started looking pretty dang good.

In June I was sent to the 7th Army NCO Academy at Bad Toelz, West Germany.  The idea my Sergeant Major had was that he would send me to the academy and I would flunk out and he would bust me.  I didn't want to go and considered just dropping out and letting the bastard have my stripe but my stubborn streak kicked in and I decided I would ride it out.  I found I actually liked it.  I finished up in the top ten percent of the class, was named the recipient of the Douglas MacArthur Award for Distinguished Leadership, and was an Honor Graduate.  I took that award and and the accompanying commendations back to my battalion where I met my Sergeant Major just in time to say goodbye to him, he and the Battalion Commander had been relieved (Army talk for "they got fired").

In July the whole world watched as the Eagle landed on the moon;  that was a proud moment.

We also bought our first (and only) brand new car.  A blue Plymouth Valiant.

In September our first child was born at the 130th Station Hospital in Heidelberg, West Germany.  A seven-pound-some baby boy, peach-colored with a lot of dark hair.  I looked at him in the nursery for the first time and just like magic, my whole perspective on life changed.  I was a Dad.

On Christmas Day of that year,  as we sat down to Christmas dinner with some friends, I got a call and had to report for Courtesy Patrol duty...some one had forgotten to tell me ahead of time. 

It was a great year, all things considered. 

The music of the year still brings to mind memories of the time and the place.  Driving to work through the narrow cobblestone streets in Kafertal,  the cut stone sidewalks and curbs worn smooth from centuries of use.  There was a small florist shop on the corner where I sometimes stopped and bought MC small bouquets or plants. 

We often drove out to the town of Vienheim;  one of our favorite Schnitzel restaurants was there, as was an A&W Root Beer drive-in. 

On Saturdays we would load up in the car, me and MC and Matt (after he arrived), our huge Shepherd, Golf, and go "castle-hunting".  We would drive somewhere we had never been before;  if we spotted a castle on the hills above us we would search around until we found a way up to it.  We were not too far from Heidelberg and enjoyed walking around the downtown area and climbing up the hill to the huge Castle.

We drove up the Rhine to Worms for Lasagne made with green pasta, or to the quarry at Roxheim where a large lake doubled as a recreation area, or down to another popular resort area called "Blau Adria" for water fun...all activities that a young couple could do without a lot of money.

CCR, the Youngbloods, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Simon and Garfunkel, the Doors, the Fifth Dimension, Tommy James, Three Dog Night, the Temptations, Johnny Cash, and so many more...they all have the power to take us back to the day. 

It would be nice, just for once, to load up that old Taunus with the dog and the diaper bag and MC and me and Peeky-boy again and tool off in search of a tall hill topped with an old stone castle and maybe a garden restaurant, too.  Them was some good days.