Every time I go up there I get chills.

Our HS Social Studies department hired 2 Kent trained Social Studies teachers in 1973. One scraggly shoulder length haired unkept beard and one off the ears off the collar blonde all american looking guy. Their rooms were next to each other in the "open space" where there were no walls. Friday afternoons were spectacular for HS kids less than 5 years after the incedent listening to the 2 of them who stood on opposite sides of the lines/controversy at Kent tell us their views and ideas about that day.

Heady stuff that I look back at in wonder. Probably could not do it these days with all the stuff surrounding what is proper in school but I often think Mr Herron and Mr West did us a huge favor when they civilly discussed things in front of HS students from opposing views on gov't , war, peaceful demonstration and a wide variety of things social studies and the like should encompass. I should look those guys up sometime and thank them. Herron was a student/athlete when my pops was coaching at Wayne HS and his Pops was our Josten's rep. West ...hmmm....probably living on a commune somewhere. Pretty progressive of administration to let those sessions go on unencumbered without repercussions.

Have never been able to that CSN&Y tune without thinking of them.

Funny to think of those 2 today and also to recall a podcast with Saban talking about and discussing being at Kent as an athlete during "Kent State".

I was in 9th grade at Goodyear Junior High in Akron. My dad managed the Kroger store in Ravenna, the county seat in Portage County. He was too young for WWII but his older brother was in the first attack waves on Omaha Beach. Robinson Memorial Hospital was the closest hospital to Kent at that time and shortly after 1, my dad said he began to hear the sirens having no idea what was going on. And, in his words, the sirens kept on coming. After that the Ohio National Guard came to town and windows were boarded up and machine gun positions were placed on tops of key spots in town including his store. I can remember him saying late that night when he finally came home, "this must have been what your uncle Merlin saw in Europe 25 year ago." For a 14 year old boy who was in to the Doors, Deep Purple and the Moody Blues, those were impressionable times.