Brighter Day - Ken White

“History may not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes.”

– Paraphrased from a Quote Attributed to Mark Twain, American writer, humorist, and lecturer

Brighter Day is a fictional memoir that takes place in 1969, the year everything changed. A year that defined a decade, it witnessed Woodstock and Altamont, Nixon and the Silent Majority, the moon landing and Native Americans occupying Alcatraz, Easy Rider and Oh! Calcutta!, People’s Park and the San Francisco State strike, Broadway Joe and the Amazin’ Mets, My Lai and the Moratorium, Charles Manson and the Zodiac Killer, Led Zeppelin and CSN'Y, Vietnam and the draft lottery.

In this sequel to Getaway Day, it’s seven years on and Mikey Wright is starting his third year of college, approaching his twenty-first birthday, and facing a life-changing decision. In his quest to challenge a government he no longer trusts and protest an unjust, unpopular war he no longer believes in, he descends into the underground labyrinth of radical politics and culture and becomes involved with some bad company. The deeper he goes into the rabbit hole, the more he risks everything that matters – his family, his friends, his future.

With a little help from family and friends, as well as the activists and extremists he encounters, he makes a transformative choice that will affect him and everything he cares about. As the tumultuous Sixties come to a close, Mikey learns that changing the world means changing himself.

When I wrote Getaway Day, I was asked if I had considered writing a prequel, or a sequel. I hadn’t. But, I had contemplated writing a “Baby Boomer” novel; a novel about my experiences and the experiences of my peers. Getaway Day was the first book in that journey. Brighter Day is the second. Getaway Day was about family and sports. Brighter Day is about friends and music. Combined, they are the first two volumes in the book series, Our Days. I hope you enjoy it.

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, 'It will be happier.'”

– Alfred, Lord Tennyson, British Poet