Come for the history, enjoy the camaraderie

Covering news for The Register-Guard during the latter half of the 20^th century wasn’t always a steady diet of crime news, seemingly endless city council and school board meetings, and occasional “people features” (reporter Marvin Tims once wrote a story about a Springfield family who had a talking dog but there was no video in those days to authenticate the dog’s skill).

As the world grew closer, the impacts of national and even international events increasingly began to be felt in central Lane County. Among those events in the 1960s and early 1970s were the emergence of The Beatles and a crush of student protests against U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War.

Beatles Paul McCartney (left), John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr at a press conference in Portland’s Memorial Coliseum between performances on August 22, 1965. (Wayne Eastburn)

The Fab Four made their only Oregon appearance in August 1965, giving two concerts in the Portland Memorial Coliseum for 20,000 people (hard to believe now but tickets then cost only $4, $5 and $6). RG photographer Wayne Eastburn was there to shoot the press conference (The Beatles’ final paid concert came just a year later at Candlestick Park in San Francisco).

Protests against U.S. military involvement in Vietnam started in the spring of 1969 at the University of Oregon and on dozens of other college campuses around the country. The demonstrations in Eugene peaked in the spring of 1970 but continued off and on into the 1971-72 school year. Register-Guard police reporter Jim Frake was among those sent to cover the disturbances, most of which began in late afternoon and extended well into the night. This demonstration took place midday behind the Johnson Hall administration building when a group of protesters blocked a driveway and sat, waiting, while a Lane County sheriff’s deputy prepared to disperse them with pepper spray. (Wayne Eastburn)

Meanwhile, college student unrest was sweeping the country in the late ’60s and early ’70s and Eugene’s University of Oregon was no exception. Antiwar protest marches began to rock the community almost daily, with some of them ending in violence, including an attempt to burn the Army ROTC building and the bombing of a basement research office in a corner of the Johnson Hall administration building and of Prince Lucien Campbell Hall on the west edge of the campus, all in 1970.

Eugene police and Lane County sheriff’s officers were called to the campus, and also to downtown Eugene, a number of times to monitor the marches and to quell riots and near-riots.

The nationwide protests melded with the closing years of The Beatles as a band when John Lennon wrote the antiwar anthem “Give Peace a Chance,” which became one of the protesters’ rallying chants.

Those and other parts of The RG’s history under Baker family ownership will be on display in words and pictures during the June 29 “Golden Era” celebration at the newspaper’s former headquarters at 3500 Chad Drive in northeast Eugene. The event will be from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., with a light buffet served between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. A no-host cash bar will also be available.

More than a hundred people have already signed up to attend the historic, one-time-only event. Those wanting to attend who haven’t yet registered can do so at this page through May 31.

Those who have registered but not yet paid the $50 per person catering fee — which is being waived for Guard Publishing Company people, current RG staff and Emerald Empire Federal Credit Union staff — are referred to this page for instructions on how to pay.

More quick facts about the reunion