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Greetings and Welcome to The 405 Coffee Break with O.K. Solberg
New episodes tend to air over the local KMMR radio station @ 5 minutes past 4PM each M-F. And have been doing so, nearly every week since Sept 2018.
I'm D.J. Rasmussen, O.K.s friend since junior high, possibly your neighbor & this websites maintainer, whom strives to get each episode's show notes written, the transcript proofed and the audio posted to the internet within a few hours of that days KMMR air time. NOTE: recently been publishing most new releases by 4:30PM.
Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the time we can spend together.
I wanna again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Guys, beautiful day. It's June. Enjoy. Get your cup of coffee, glass iced tea or bottled water, beverage of your choice. Let's see what's happening out there.
OK Solberg:Spring wheat nothing to brag about, $5.48 a bushel. Now a steer calf, they did sell some last week. A last year model weighing 445lbs, $5 right on the nose. $5 a pound, last year's model. And a 100lb fat lamb in Billings at $3.08 a pound. But, guys, there's more, much more.
OK Solberg:This episode episode is dedicated to my friend, Mike Lowney. Hey. This guy knows what I'm talking about. Bible verse, then our story.
OK Solberg:The verses come from Ecclesiastes 4:9-10. Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Again, Ecclesiastes 4 verses 9-10
OK Solberg:Hey, I've fallen and I can't get up. Flashback to 1969, the year that the future arrived. If you stood on a street corner on New Year's Day 1969 and asked the passerby what the future would look like, you might have gotten a 100 different answers.
OK Solberg:Some would have pointed towards science, others towards music, some would have even pointed towards politics, but no one, not even the dreamers, could have imagined the remarkable year that was about to unfold.
OK Solberg:For 1969 was not simply another year. It was a year that seemed determined to change everything at once. America was restless. The war in Vietnam filled the evening news. College campuses became stages for protest.
OK Solberg:Old assumptions were being challenged. Young people were demanding a different world than the one their parents had known. Yet amid all the turmoil, something extraordinary was happening. The future was arriving quietly, in laboratories and government offices. Engineers linked computers together in a way never before attempted.
OK Solberg:A project called advanced research projects agency network connected distant machines through electronic networks. Almost nobody noticed. There were no parades, no headlines stretching across front pages yet. From those 1st digital connections would grow something that would one day touch nearly every human being on earth including you and me today, the Internet had taken its 1st breath, 1969.
OK Solberg:At the same time, another revolution was rolling onto America's highways. Honda unveiled a motorcycle unlike anything most riders had seen before, the CB-750. We heard all about it yesterday. 4 cylinders, electric start, disc brakes, Oh, powerful, smooth, and reliable.
OK Solberg:It wasn't just a motorcycle. It was a glimpse of a new age proving that the future could arrive not only in laboratories and rockets, but also in your own garage.
OK Solberg:Then, oh, then came July, a summer month that would forever belong to history. Across America & around the world families gathered around television sets. Children sat on the living room floor. Parents leaned forward in their chairs. Neighbors crowded together.
OK Solberg:The world watched, and then it happened. Human beings landed on the moon. More than 200,000 miles from home, men walked where no one had ever walked before. For a moment, politics faded, arguments faded, the worries of everyday life also faded away, and humanity looked upward together. The moon landing was more than a technological triumph.
OK Solberg:It was proof that impossible things were possible. It proved that imagination, courage, and determination could carry people further than anyone had dared to believe before. Yet 1969 was not finished yet. No, sir. Not even close.
OK Solberg:In August, hundreds of thousands of young people gathered on a farm in New York for 3 days of music, mud, celebration, and hope. Woodstock became more than a concert. Well, it became a symbol. A generation introducing itself to the world. The music rolled across the hills and echoed through history.
OK Solberg:But but the same summer that produced dreams also revealed nightmares, the shocking Manson murders stunned the nation and brought a sudden darkness to the era of love.
OK Solberg:Americans who had spent years talking about peace and love were forced to confront a frightening reminder, yikes, evil still exists. The year carried both light and shadow, triumph and tragedy, worry and wonder. Yet America kept kept building. In Columbus, Ohio, a new restaurant called Wendy's opened its doors.
OK Solberg:In the West, a growing Taco chain that would become Taco John's was beginning its journey. They seemed small events at the time, just another hamburger stand, just another taco shop. But 1969 was a year when small beginnings had a habit of becoming big stories. And change wasn't measured only in moonshots and musical festivals. Sometimes it arrived at the corner drugstore.
OK Solberg:For generations, a nickel had bought a candy bar. 5¢. It was one of those dependable facts of American life. But in 1969, many candy bars crossed the threshold that every kid noticed immediately. They cost a dime.
OK Solberg:A candy bar had doubled in price. Shocking? Yes. Especially for the children. America was being something new, beginning something new, bigger, faster, more connected, more complicated.
OK Solberg:And through it all, radios played the soundtrack of the year, not a political speech, not a grand symphony, not even a protest anthem. Instead, no. Instead, the nation found itself humming along to a simple cheerful song by a cartoon band. Sugar Sugar by the Archies.
OK Solberg:As the year drew to a close, that sweet tune sat at the top of the charts while the world reflected on 12 months unlike anything it had ever seen.
OK Solberg:Think about it. A government computer that became the Internet, A revolutionary motorcycle redefined the whole industry. A restaurant named Wendy's opened its 1st doors, something we can still enjoy today. A young Taco chain began its rise. Woodstock gave a generation its voice.
OK Solberg:The Manson murders revealed a darker reality. Candy bars climbed to a dime. Human beings walked on the moon all in one year, Not a decade in one single year. And when the final hours in 1969 slipped into history, America stepped into the 1970's carrying something new, the future.
OK Solberg:Because 1969 was more than a year on a calendar, it was the moment when tomorrow stopped being a promise and started becoming a reality.
OK Solberg:And somewhere, somewhere at midnight, a radio played one last chorus of Sugar Sugar. Sugar, uh-uh uh-uh uh-uh, ah honey honey, you are my candy girl, and you got me wanting you.
OK Solberg:The world turned the page and began a new chapter. The end. Now many of us lived through those days in 1969, and we didn't even know it was special, did we?
OK Solberg:Until we look back. So that makes a question arise in my mind. Do we ever recognize greatness when it is upon us at this moment? Oh, yes. We do.
OK Solberg:Check out the cattle prices. They are the highest in the history of mankind right now. Enjoy it and remember it and remember that we noted it.
OK Solberg:So until next time, as you go out there sorry. I went so long. Remember now. Don't be bitter.