EXHIBIT TAKES VISITORS BACK TO THE '60S : MUSIC, MEMORABILIA REKINDLE ERA'S PASSION AT REAGAN LIBRARY.Byline: Steven J. Gorman and Virginia Gonzalez Daily News Staff Writers The frap-frap-frap of a Huey helicopter and the electric guitar twang of The Beatles. Those two sounds, diametrically di·a·met·ri·cal also di·a·met·ric adj. 1. Of, relating to, or along a diameter. 2. Exactly opposite; contrary. di opposed and intertwined in a turbulent era that saw the Vietnam War Vietnam War, conflict in Southeast Asia, primarily fought in South Vietnam between government forces aided by the United States and guerrilla forces aided by North Vietnam. , the Summer of Love, political assassinations and the first moon landing, helped open an exhibit of 1960s history and pop culture Saturday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Center for Public Affairs and Museum. The exhibit, which runs for six months, weaves together a rich collection of memorabilia, nostalgia and artifacts artifacts see specimen artifacts. that take visitors back to the days when miniskirts were in fashion and the Civil Rights Movement reached its zenith. An estimated 2,500 to 3,000 visitors turned out for the first day of the exhibit, said Mark Hunt, museum curator and director. ``I love this,'' said Eileen Gordon Eileen Gordon (born 22 October, 1946) is a politician in the United Kingdom. She was Labour Member of Parliament for Romford from 1997 to 2001, when she lost her seat to Conservative Andrew Rosindell. , 35, of Simi Valley, who came with her husband, Jeff, and their 6-year-old daughter Valerie. ``It's my childhood memories relived, and now they also belong to our daughter.'' For Maureen Mueller, 34, of Oxnard the exhibit was as much about nostalgia for her as it was a history lesson for four children - ages 3, 6, 8 and 9 - whom she schools at home. ``This exhibit helps to explain to them what happened in the '60s, and how our wonderful Vietnam vets were misunderstood for their participation in the war,'' Mueller said. Special opening-day events included performances by The Beatles look-alike band Back Beat (introduced by an Ed Sullivan impersonator), T-shirt tie-dyeing storytelling and a hippie dress-up contest for kids. Visitors also were treated to a fly-over and landing of a Vietnam-era Huey attack helicopter, the Army's workhorse during the early years of the war in Southeast Asia. Other uniquely '60s modes of transportation on display included a blue 1965 Mustang convertible, a psychedelic Volkswagen Beetle, several muscle cars and a full-size model of the Mercury capsule that astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. rode in as the first American in space. Inside the three museum galleries, visitors drifted through various settings that defined the period - a mock atomic bomb atomic bomb or A-bomb, weapon deriving its explosive force from the release of atomic energy through the fission (splitting) of heavy nuclei (see nuclear energy). The first atomic bomb was produced at the Los Alamos, N.Mex. shelter, an American GI base camp called a ``hootch hootch 1 n. Variant of hooch1. Noun 1. hootch - an illicitly distilled (and usually inferior) alcoholic liquor hooch ,'' and a '60s-furnished living room where they could watch vintage TV sitcoms. Another display featured a signed original copy of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the 24th Amendment outlawing the poll tax and a copy of President Johnson's 1964 speech to Congress calling for passage of the Voting Rights Act Voting Rights Act Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1965 to ensure the voting rights of African Americans. Though the Constitution's 15th Amendment (passed 1870) had guaranteed the right to vote regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” , with words underlined in pen for emphasis. The exhibit also included handwritten hand·write tr.v. hand·wrote , hand·writ·ten , hand·writ·ing, hand·writes To write by hand. [Back-formation from handwritten.] Adj. 1. notes scribbled by President Kennedy in a National Security Council meeting during the Cuban Missile Crisis Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962, major cold war confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the USSR increased its support of Fidel Castro's Cuban regime, and in the summer of 1962, Nikita Khrushchev secretly decided to , as well as outfits worn by two first ladies - Lady Bird Johnson and Pat Nixon - that typify women's fashions of the time. Other artifacts range from such sobering exhibits as a sign from a Texas restaurant that says: ``No Dogs, Negroes or Mexicans,'' to more light-hearted objects as the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award from the TV show ``Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.'' As to why a presidential library honoring a politician who so dominated the 1980s would devote an exhibit highlighting the '60s, Hunt explained that the decade was important to Reagan as it marked the start of his political career. Indeed, the exhibit includes footage of Reagan's nationally televised speech supporting Barry Goldwater for president at the 1964 GOP convention, as well as Reagan's own TV commercials from his 1966 campaign for governor of California The Governor of California is the highest executive authority in the state government, whose responsibilities include making yearly "State of the State" addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced. . CAPTION(S): 4 Photos Photo: (1) Back Beat, a Beatles look-alike group, takesthe stage during the opening of an exhibit on pop culture at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum near Simi Valley on Saturday. The exhibit, which drew around 3,000 the first day, will run for the next six months. (2) Lauren Winslow, 12, offers peace to the audience as she shows off her 1960s-style duds during the hippie dress-up contest for kids. (3) Steve Hall, who served in Vietnam in 1968 and '69, sits with his son Matt inside a Huey attack helicopter used during the war. (4) Stu Teichner of Simi Valley grooves to a Beatles tune, courtesy of Back Beat. Tina Gerson/Daily News |
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