45 Years Ago This Month...July 4th, 1969
July 4th, 1969, started out like many other Fourth of July holidays on our stretch of the North Coast. Parents, children, and volunteer groups prepared to march in parades, made their last minute picnic preparations, and coordinated with their friends as to where to meet that evening down at Lakewood Park for the lakeside fireworks display.
At the same time, protesters across the country were preparing to express their displeasure at America's involvement in Vietnam. What had begun as a fairly non-violent exercise in peaceful protest in the mid-sixties, had degenerated into an ugly, no-holds-barred confrontational situation all over the nation. Lakewood had avoided much of the ugliness that had marred these protests in other cities, but officials were understandably wary of potential civil disobedience or violence, particularly on public patriotic holidays.
Unfortunately, the entire city was certainly not expecting the type of violence that would arrive at around 7 p.m. that evening.