Tag: John Glenn

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A Volkswagen “Where’s Waldo?”

Hocking County Courthouse 09-30-1970Reader Brad Brune has been bugging me on Facebook to do a story about VWs and VW dealerships in Cape. He didn’t get my message that the best way to handle a special request is to write in on a piece of green paper bearing the photo of a dead president, so I’m going to only honor part of his request.

It just so happened that I had been editing a batch of Ohio pictures and had noticed how many VWs were in the backgrounds.

They were everywhere

Jophn Glenn campaigns for senate in Athens OH 03-26-1970It was hard to find a street scene where there wasn’t a bug, bus or squareback like mine showing up. They were in the background of John Glenn running for the Senate. They were part of and in the middle of protest marches.

Cape had a few VWs, in fact, I saw a roll of a wreck on Perryville Road involving one, but it wasn’t interesting enough to scan. Athens, being a college town and being right at the beginning of the Volkswagen wave was prime territory for bug spotting.

VW photo gallery

Pretend that you’re playing a Volkswagen version of Where’s Waldo? Most of them are obvious, but you might have to squint to find some. You’ll see a couple shots of Wife Lila’s yellow bug (Brother David is washing it), and my red Squareback (the worst lemon I ever owned). Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to navigate through the gallery. Enjoy, Mr. Brune. (P.S. See if you can spot the Atlas Plastics truck from Cape Girardeau in one of the photos.)

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John Glenn Runs for Senate

It’s been 50 years since John Glenn made his trip around earth in the Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft. Eight years later, he was brought to earth in a different way when he failed to win the Ohio Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. He lost to Howard Metzenbaum, who lost to Robert Taft, Jr., in the general election.

These photos were taken when he was campaigning in Athens, Ohio, in 1970.

The Gold Star Mothers speech

Glenn and Metzenbaum faced off again in 1974. Metzenbaum contrasted his strong business background with Glenn’s military and astronaut credentials, saying his opponent had “never worked for a living.”

Glenn’s reply came to be known as the “Gold Star Mothers” speech. He told Metzenbaum to go to a veterans’ hospital and “look those men with mangled bodies in the eyes and tell them they didn’t hold a job. You go with me to any Gold Star mother and you look her in the eye and tell her that her son did not hold a job.”

Began Senate career that lasted until 1999

After besting Metzenbaum in the primary, he beat his Republican opponent and held the Senate seat until 1999.

John Glenn photo gallery

Missourian photographer Fred Lynch’s blog had a photo of John Glenn campaigning for Robert Kennedy in Cape in 1968. I didn’t shoot Glenn there, but I did snag these photos of the astronaut two years later. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery.

 

 

 

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