September 25, 2015
I have always loved Unchained Melody by the
Righteous Brothers. I had absolutely no
plans to illustrate this song, I just would not have known how to start. But, again, one day my Sirius 60s channel
played Unchained Melody and an image popped into my head. It was a Vietnam soldier sitting on his
duffel writing a letter home. This was
so appropriate because the words fit so well, and Vietnam was a huge part of
young people’s lives in the 60s. The
draft, the protests, the demonstrations; every night there were more war images
on the nightly news. It was the first
war televised daily at suppertime. It
caused high feelings for nearly everyone—whether you were pro or con. Unfortunately, the result was that the
returning soldiers were rejected and made to feel that their service was
wrong. We lost so many young men, many
more were badly injured, physically and mentally. It tore the country apart. So including an image from Vietnam is
appropriate for a 60s show. Letters were
the only communication that we had with the soldiers. Letters were the soldiers’ link with
home. I think that my generation may be
the last to have used the hand-written word and to know what it is to wait days
or weeks to hear from a loved one. “Oh, my love, my darling, I've
hungered for your touch a long, lonely time.
Time goes by so slowly, and time can do so much. Are you still
mine?”
