Real Stories from a lifetime of history.
Remembering what it was like to live through history–1945-2026.
Welcome to The Witness Chair
I’m Bob Congdon. For more than seventy years, I’ve watched America and the World change. Some of the history I’ve witnessed was momentous. Some of it was ordinary life that disappeared before we knew it was history.
The Witness Chair is where I tell those stories — from growing up in postwar America to military service, motorcycles and trains, travels across the world, and the people and places I have encountered along the way.
These aren’t history lessons. They’re memories of what it was like to live through those times.
Stories from The Witness Chair
A lifetime leaves you with stories. Some are about the great events everyone remembers. Others are about the smaller changes — the things that once seemed ordinary but have now vanished.
My stories range across more than eight decades of memories and experiences:
- Growing up in Postwar America — childhood in the 1940s and 50s, and an America very different from today.
- Coming of Age in the 1960s–college, civil rights, Vietnam, politics, music, and a country undergoing enormous change.
- The Military Years — experiences as a young Army officer during the Vietnam Era in both Southeast Asia and Europe.
- On the Road–motorcycles across Europe and America, trains across the continent, and journeys to places that have changed- or disappeared.
- People Along the Way–the unexpected characters and encounters that sometimes make the stories.
- Watching the World Change—technology, transportation, culture, politics, and everyday life from 1945 to today.
And sometimes the most revealing history isn’t found in history books at all. It’s found in the things we remember.
