Life as I saw it. 1969

The moon landing. Nixon and the "secret war." Woodstock yes, Altamont no. Baseball in the exam room. A princess in the cafeteria.Just a year like any other.

1969 was the first full year that Ken Toppell was a doctor. He was learning how to practice medicine while awaiting the birth of his first born and military orders. It was a year of change, delight, controversy, and disaster. There was a new president, with bravado and skullduggery, bombast and schemes. The streets were filled with demonstrators, protestors, and people just trying to make it through the day. Baseball was thrilling, football was consolidating, and concerts were growing. It was a year like any other, different in a thousand ways.

Kenneth Toppell graduated from the University of North Carolina with a major in History and Political Science. Of course, he went straight to medical school at Emory University. His post graduate training took him to Texas where he has stayed for the best part of sixty years. His wife ran off with him and then raised three Toppells––Scott, Brenna, and Ken. In Atlanta, they are still waiting for the wandering Jews to return, but the fork in the road that they took just gets better and better.