We Were So Much Older Then, I'm Younger Than That Now

This was shot in Gainesville, Florida back in 1969. I was still in my twenties and thought nothing of driving the three hundred plus miles up there from Miami for a concert, then turning around and driving back again after a night of partying until dawn. Sometimes I'd stay a day or two. Wouldn't want to end a party too soon!

My friends were in roughly the same age bracket, but it was a wide age bracket.. Some younger, some older. Our Great Country was fighting an unwinable war in Viet Nam, and a lot of formerly gung ho kids were coming back to the U.S. after going in the army straight out of high school and enrolling in college. Veterans' education benefits were generous and jobs scarce. Kids from working class families, people who normally would have worked construction or taken a factory job, were now getting degrees. The structure of social class in this country was undergoing a major change. They'd also brought back a taste for better quality pot than was available here before and many opted to major in agriculture.

Music had morphed into a new form of rock. People like Dylan had blended country and blues into the new rock music forms of British groups like the Rolling Stones. It was exciting times.

I don't remember the names of these people. They were friends of friends, but I crashed there for a night or two. I was shooting with a Leica M4 and a 35/1.8 Canon lens.This was scanned of one of the prints that I have in that collection of envelopes, file folders, and enlarging paper boxes packed in my office. It looks like it was printed on silver rich DuPont Varilour paper.