We were just kids back then--somebody's sons and daughters--searching for our place, our voice, our future, our identity during a time that would never come again.
It was a time of freedom, of few limitations, when belief in yourself—your talents and abilities—fueled your future, your dreams. You never gave a thought to not being able to do something. That was a past generation’s philosophy.
It was a time when there was no one to answer to other than yourself or your friends. If you had a job, you worked the prescribed hours and came back to your apartment, your music and your friends. If you were in school, you did enough to keep yourself from being drafted or kicked out and came back to your apartment, your music and your friends. You were free to simply be—to write your songs, play your music—share your thoughts, yours dreams, your beliefs and your disillusions about the times. You were free to experience that first deeply intense, passionate love affair that sometimes leaves an indelible imprint on your heart and soul...that lingers through decades of space and time. The kind of love affair that sometimes arrives, still in tact, on the other side of life’s continuum.
We traded in our panty hose, dresses, shirts and ties for bell-bottom jeans, tie-dyed T-shirts, sandals and headbands. We listened and danced to lyrics and musical compositions of the most inspired songwriters, musicians and bands of all-time. We read poetry and novels, attended movies and theatrical productions by authors, directors and producers whose brilliance continues to shine on through the years.
We drove muscle cars and Volkswagens, burned our bras, our draft cards and replaced cocktails at the country club with marijuana and LSD while rocking out at Woodstock, Monterey and Wadena. We protested for civil rights, protested against the inhumanity of war and corrupt government as we buried our high school sweethearts when they came home in flag draped coffins from Vietnam. We watched as a President, a Senator, a civil rights leader and countless student protesters lost their lives in pursuit of a better life for us. We watched a corrupt President fall. We watched and took those small steps and a giant leap as a man walked on the moon.
We believed peace and love would change the world.
The actions we chose gave a unique identity to our own generation and continue to influence history 40+ years later. We lived the stories that we now tell--life stories that keep the bond alive in the hearts and souls of the baby boomer generation. Each one of us a story. Each one of us a history influenced by a moment in time called the 1960s.
I write to share the emotions, hopes and dreams of my generation, the post-World War II baby boomers who broke away from everything our parents grew up with and revered.
We wanted to make a difference. We wanted to be heard.
We did. We were.
Award winning novelist and poet, C. L. Gillmore is a retired special education teacher. She holds a Bachelor of Education degree in both Elementary and Special Education with graduate endorsements in Early Childhood Education and Learning Disabilities. After more than 25 years in education she decided to pursue her passion for writing as a full time career.
“Writing has always been an important part of my life. My second grade teacher was a big influence,” Gillmore says. “She was instructive and encouraging and made me love putting my thoughts on paper.”
In the past two and half years, Gillmore wrote and published the social media based romance novel, Uncommon Bond, the first of a two-part series about Rose and Jake, who marvel at the kind of love that only comes along twice in a modern lifetime: the first time in person, the second via technology.
Uncommon Bond has been nominated for TWO 2012 Global eBook Awards: Best Romance Fiction Contemporary and Best eBook Trailer and was a finalist in the romance category for the 2012 National Indie Excellence Awards.
In addition, Gillmore wrote and published Of Roots, Shoes and Rhymes, a poetry book and audio CD. The collection of 28 poems covers her life experiences from pain in childhood through the true friendships of young adulthood to a career in service to the most special kinds of children. Some of the poetry in this collection also appears in the novel Uncommon Bond.
Of Roots Shoes and Rhymes won BOTH the Arizona Author’s Association 2011 Literary Award for published non-fiction and the poetry category in the National Indie Excellence Awards for 2012.
A transplant from Muscatine, Iowa, C. L. Gillmore resides in Surprise, Arizona with her husband, Mike. They have two married sons and five grandchildren who live nearby. They share their home with a French bulldog named Pitty Pat and an English bulldog named Gracie Belle.