Today – Sunday, July 21, 2024 – with the big announcement from President Joe Biden that he won’t seek being re-elected – brings me to the last time something like this happened in the USA – 56 years ago – in 1968.
On Sunday night, March 31, in the midst of the Vietnam War, the Boller family was watching television (Ed Sullivan?) when there was sudden news break.
Direct from the White House, President Johnson announced that evening that he would not be seeking the 1968 Democratic nomination for President, shocking the whole nation.
Within moments of the announcement, the phone rang. It was Art, our DI printing manager, calling for all hands on deck. My dad – who worked as a printer for the DI, and I – who had a part-time student job as a proofreader – got our coats and spent the next few hours helping prepare the “Extra” April 1st edition of the D.I. Such was the news business in those days.
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