by Diego Cruz, Newport, Delaware

Marvin Gaye was on stage that night at JFK Stadium in South Philadelphia. His partner, Tammy Terrell, was unavailable that evening night as she was recovering from an illness and could not sing. Marvin told the jammed pack audience, “Tammy won’t be here tonight. She is convalescing.” And he proceeded to electrify the air with a string of Motown hits. When he hit the stage, he put you in a trance into the promised land. The ooooooooohhhhhhhhssss and the aaaaaahhhhhhhhssssss engulfed the mixed crowd. His vitality took over and left you mesmerized. Tickets cost $8 and you see both Gaye and blues singer Mr. B. B. King. It was a standing room only crowd in 1968.The parking lot was full of Chevy Impalas, Ford Biscaynes, Cadillacs and a couple of volkswagons sedans. Gas was inexpensive and a ride on PTC, Philadelphia Transportation Company, only cost a quarter which included a free transfer pass. The conductor had a partner in the rear of the boss or trolley. He would make change if you had a 5 or 10 dollar bill. A Mister Softee vanilla ice cream cone or a hot dog could be purchased for a quarter and a pretzel for 6 cents. To get to the stadium you had to jump on the Broad Street subway and catch a PTC bus at Broad & Snyder which would take you down the Airport. Television stations were few in number. At the VHF level you had 3 choices, WFIL, KYW, and WCAU. Mr.Gunner Back, John Roberts, Joe Phipps, Sally Star, Chief Halft Town, Dick Clark, the Three Stoogies, Zorro, and Popeye theater ruled programming in the afternoon. WCAU at City Line Avenue with John Facenda, John Clark, and Pete Restlaff, weekend sportcaster was the show to end the night. Channel 12, WHYY, was a disaster, it had terrible reception. Spanish radio over WTEL-AM was the main station at my household along with El Diario, La Prensa , New York’s daily newspaper. Arthur Godfrey, Bill Campbell, and Bob Manafee were the golden voices on radio. I was working at 1st Pennsyvania Bank at the time as a clerk.

Little did anyone realize that the war in Vietnam, the Civil Rights struggles, would be the backdrop that would lead to the inspiration of the super album hit, “What’s going on?” or in Spanish — 3 years.