Nixon said your world depended on your vote, 50 years ago

“This time, vote like your whole world depended on it.”

That was a slogan from Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign, just before the 1968 election.  A newspaper ad for Nixon argued that voting for the Republican could prevent a wave of crime, put an end to big-city riots, bring inflation under control, and avoid future wars similar to Vietnam. When Nixon won the election, pundits predicted that his family would bring a “non-swinging Middle Class” American style to the White House…following the swinging Lyndon Johnson era.

About 2000 people had a swinging time at the Night in Heidelberg festival, held at Onalaska Luther High School. It was sort of Oktoberfest, without any beer. German music for the event was led by the Luther High band director, Frank Italiano.

The Army Corps of Engineers was scheduling a public meeting in La Farge, to talk about acquiring land for a $19 million reservoir on the Kickapoo River. The idea was to build a dam to prevent the river from flooding nearby towns such as Soldiers Grove and Gays Mills. That dam was halfway built by the mid-70’s, until environmentalists and other critics succeeded in stopping the project.

And in ’68, Freddie’s Market on Liberty Street in La Crosse was selling Bakalars large frankfurters for 49 cents a pound. Hot dog! Yesterday in La Crosse.