It was UConn’s spring break in 1968 and I found myself at Kerr’s Men’s Shop on West Main Street, while Tom and Claire Kerr were on vacation in Florida. I’m told that other college students go to Myrtle Beach or Fort Lauderdale during spring break. I went to Kerr’s and sold shirts, ties, and socks and maybe even a suit if I was lucky!

Older readers will remember that 1968 was a tumultuous year. By March we had learned of the My Lai massacre and heard LBJ announce that he was not going to run for re-election. One of the most shocking events of that year occurred on April 4, when a sniper in Memphis, Tennessee, assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, arguably the most highly respected civil rights leader in the nation.

In the days that followed, riots broke out in many cities, especially Chicago.

Dr. King’s funeral was scheduled for the afternoon of Tuesday, April 9. On Monday a representative of the Mystic Chamber of Commerce came into the store and told me that many of the merchants were planning to close on Tuesday afternoon out of respect for Dr. King. He asked if Kerr’s would be among them.

I told him I’d have to check with Mr. Kerr. I called Tom in Florida and explained the situation to him. He told me to do whatever the Chamber recommended, and to close Claire’s as well.

Thus, on Tuesday afternoon, many if not most of the downtown merchants were closed.

When I went to work on Wednesday morning at about 8:45 I found that the store windows had been defaced with several white stickers about 4 by 5 inches in size which were printed WHITE POWER – KKK in red letters.

The police had been called and I learned that Kerr’s wasn’t the only store targeted. Three other stores that I knew, all with Jewish proprietors, also had stickers placed on their windows: Nat Nowak’s clothing store, the Western Auto, owned by Milt Baline, and Bendett’s clothing store, owned by the Topkins.

We all scraped the stickers off our windows. Nat was able to save one intact, which he later used when teaching social studies at Fitch Junior. As far as I know, the vandals were never identified.

Robert F. Welt of Mystic is a retired Groton public schools teacher. To submit your Remembrance of Things Past, email l.howard@theday.com.