Let’s start with the best stuff. It was the summer when Proud Mary and Sweet Caroline were among the songs dominating the airwaves. Have two songs ever been more played? I mean besides national anthems, hymns and such. And even then, it’s iffy. Every bar band since could either cover Proud Mary or be unemployed. The song gained fame when Creedence Clearwater Revival released it in January 1969. I interviewed local singing star Lisa Moen not long ago and asked her if she covered Proud Mary. “Of course,” was my take on her reply. Sweet Caroline has become an anthem in a nonQueen way at sporting events. It always makes me smile and mouth the words. There are so many of us that say they mouthed the words in elementary school choirs that I am surprised anyone was actually singing. We became the cool kids, despite the kick in the self-esteem at the time. Sadly, I haven’t heard Neil Diamond perform Sweet Caroline live.

For some reason, Sandy and I missed his concert in Saskatoon a number of years ago. During the summer of 1969, a little festival called Woodstock was held. This isn’t to be confused with Woodtick, a festival in Saskatoon in the early 1970s. Charity Brown and Edward Bear were among those whom performed. Too bad Trooper wasn’t able to appear.

I was 14 in 1969, but somehow heard about Woodstock, despite there being no MuchMusic or MTV or Ryan Seacrest. Had there been Fox News and the alt-right talk radio of today, Nixon and the war effort in Vietnam would have been saluted, and the give-peace-a-chance people at Woodstock demonized. I was too young to hop into a Volkswagen van and head off to Bethel, New York, where an estimated 400,000 gathered on a dairy farm. On the cool scale, I would have been number 400,001.

In 1970, I was among those at Midtown Cinema to watch the movie based on Woodstock. I remember the stars’ performances quite vividly, but also relative unknowns such as Country Joe & the Fish and Canned Heat. I also remember there being bare breasts in the movie, but that’s an aside. They — the bands — stood out for their uniqueness, and Country Joe, in part, for dropping a bouquet of f-bombs before and during his Vietnam song. Every now and then, I watch videos of Canned Heat. They were so stoned when playing Going Up the Country on one video that it was joyous and awesome. Not that I am encouraging drug use. Canned Heat was the first big-deal band I saw using recorders prominently. Country Joe McDonald is still on this earth and is 77 years old. Alan Wilson, the lead singer on many Canned Heat songs, died of a drug overdose a year after Woodstock. Jimi Hendrix and Janice Joplin died soon after. Clearly, 1970 was a bad year. What else happened in the summer of ‘69, and a little before and after?

• Mary Jo Kopechne drowned in a July 18 accident in Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts. She was the passenger in Sen. Ted Kennedy’s car. He received a two-month suspended prison sentence for leaving the scene of an accident. Justice wasn’t served.

• On Aug. 9-10, pregnant actress Sharon Tate and seven others were killed by Charles Manson and his followers.

• Sugar, Sugar by the Archies was the No. 1 in 1969. Without a large mirror, a 12-year-old Sandy used to dance to it in front of her TV, so she could see her reflection. It’s on her current playlist.

• Three songs by Canadian artists made it to No. 1 for a spell: Baby, I Love You by Andy Kim, When I Die by Motherlode and Laughing by the Guess Who. (Note: Kim co-wrote Sugar, Sugar. I wore out a K-Tel record playing Kim’s music.)

• I smoked my first cigarette. It was at the Arena. More would follow for about 15 years.

• A large batch of celebrities were born in 1969: Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez, Peter Dinklage, Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Perry, Peter Rudd, Jay-Z, Gwen Stefani, Sean Combs, Jack Black, Catherine Zeto-Jones, Marilyn Manson and Cate Blanchett were among them. I apologize to those I missed.

• The Montreal Expos became the first Canadianbased team in Major League Baseball. Their opening game was one of the best moments in Canadian sports history. Their last game was one of the worst.

• Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler, Farley Mowat and Marshall McLuhan were among those who released books. Talk about an all-star group.

• The Saskatoon Merchants won the Canadian softball championship. I was the batboy and, because of that, I am in both the Saskatoon and Saskatchewan halls of fame. Take that, Ned Powers.

• There was something going on with the moon in the summer of ’69, but I couldn’t find any information about it.

-Cam Hutchinson