The years spanning the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954 to the waning days of the Vietnam War, here taken as the "long decade," were a fraught and consequential time. They dwell in memory and, when recalled, they remain at once startling, frightening, dismaying, hopeful, joyful, and inspiring. The personal reflections collected here are rooted in those times and are from authors, then far less gray and still unknown to one another, now drawn close and familiar as retired academics, and members of the Clemson University Emeritus College. Long removed from those times, they share old memories, age-honed insights, and historical perspectives.