FIVE GREAT AMERICAN SUMMERS

Unlike winters, summers are rarely seasons of discontent.  You know the songs, the celebrations.  But in case our current summer defies that tradition, The Attic looks back at Five Great American Summers — hazy, lazy, crazy, whatever.  

Summer of 1927 — Babe Ruth hits 60 big ones.  Charles Lindbergh, fresh from his solo Transatlantic flight, takes a victory lap, landing his Spirit of St. Louis to cheering crowds across America.  The Stomp and the Black Bottom join the 20s dance crazes and everyone is partying like there’s no 1929.  “We were the most powerful nation,” F. Scott Fitzgerald recalled. “Who could tell us any longer what was fashionable and what was fun?”

Summer of 1963 — The first Boomers turn 18 and they simply own the summer, with the first Beach Boys songs, the first beach movies, the last lingering loves of Elvis, and the first James Bond film.  JFK is in his prime, introducing his landmark Civil Rights bill and signing the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.  And to cap the summer, MLK tells 400,000 in DC about his dream.

Summer of 1967 — Summer of Love — Plenty of protest and urban unrest, but this famous summer also sees 100,000 flock to Haight-Ashbury, a million more watching to the tune of Sgt. Pepper, the Monterey Pop Festival, and Jimi Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced?”

Summer of 1997 — The first Harry Potter book, Pathfinder roaming the surface of Mars.  Everyone reading Cold Mountain and/or The Perfect Storm.  The Internet goes viral, the economy is soaring, and WIRED magazine predicts The Long Boom —“25 years of prosperity, freedom, and a better environment for the whole world.”  Hey, they were young.  Which brings us to the greatest summer of all. . . 

The Summer You Were 21 — Whenever.  Wherever.  Whatever..