"The invasion of Athens by the incoming students from the North in 1968 was a harbinger of social change which would sweep through the South in the coming years."
That’s what an article said in the “Style” section of the Athens Courier many years later. Of course we had no clue at the time that we were storm troops destined to accelerate a clash of cultures and ideologies that was to “sweep through the South”, and the nation itself. That Pan American turbo-prop bringing kids from New Jersey into the Huntsville airport may as well have been a military transport dropping paratroopers behind enemy lines. My friend Art Mazzucca dove in by way of his 1964 mustang. It could have been a Sherman tank bringing armed forces from the Northeast. The incoming troops didn’t speak the language of the South any more than the Athens locals spoke ours. But it was much more than a culture clash of North vs. South. These particular Northern invaders had been listening to the music and messages of social change. Robert Zimmerman had been croaking his predictions to this crowd for a few years now and they dressed in bell bottom pants and wore longer hair as a visible sign of their support of his heresies. Many of them had a little something special wrapped in Zig Zag packaging and tucked deeply into the toe of an extra pair of shoes.
No, Athens wasn’t ready for this invasion at all and the invaders had little understanding of the impact their arrival was to have or the strong feelings it was to ignite.
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