Born in 1969

If you were born in 1969, Australia watched the moon landing on the television in the middle of a Sydney winter night, gathered in living rooms across the country with cups of tea, watching the grainy footage with a mixture of astonishment and national pride — Parkes Observatory in country New South Wales was relaying the signal to the world, which Australians noted with quiet satisfaction. The Vietnam moratorium marches were building to their coming peak, and the arguments about conscription and the war were dividing families and workplaces. The Seekers had taken Australia to the world — "I'll Never Find Another You" and "The Carnival Is Over" on every radio — and their particular harmonious sound felt somehow like the country itself, sunny and slightly melancholic.

Jack Thompson, Graeme Blundell, and a generation of Australian actors were beginning the cultural push that would produce *Alvin Purple* and *Picnic at Hanging Rock* a few years later. The Holden was still the family car of choice, the drive-in was still the Friday night ritual, and the milk bar milkshake was still sixpence (or thirty cents in the new money). Grand Final day at the MCG drew 100,000 people, all standing, all shouting.

The beach in summer was as free and familiar as it had always been. The country was young and tan and uncertain, watching the moon on television.