I survived my 65 birthday. It was good. Part of the experience was to take a minute to reflect on the relativity of my age. As an old man I have the unique privilege of having three teenage children. One of my friends says there is a reason God doesn’t give old people young children. Ha.
Nonetheless, as I help my kids with their homework, or try to explain to them what it was like without the internet (or cell phones, TV, and 4 bathrooms in one house), I sometimes see the imagination in their eyes as they try to fathom life without Snapchat.
So I spent some time remembering what events have taken place in my lifetime.
According to the website www.peoplehistory.com the following things happened during my 65 years.
When I was born in California in 1952 the average worker earned $3,400 per year. Three out of 5 families owned a car, 2 out of 3 families had a telephone, 1 in 3 homes had a television. The first commercial jetliner was built, the Polio Epidemic was raging, and the Korean War was underway.
Our family was relatively poor. We had a car, and a phone on a party line (shared with neighbors), but no TV. I was the third of four children in our family.
In 1953 the Korean War Ended, the FBI rounded up communist leaders, the First Polio Vaccine was Developed, First color television sets go on sale, First Corvette car goes on sale, First James Bond novel Published.
1954: the mass vaccination of children against polio begins, Elvis Presley begins his music career, Communist Control Act outlawing Communist Party in the US, Brown v. Board of Education Decision, US “Operation Wetback” is started, Ellis Island in New York closes as a point of Immigration, and Senator Joseph McCarthy is censured, bringing an end to his witch hunt of Communists.
I remember getting the polio vaccine so it must not have been available where I lived until 55 or 56. I got it in two or three visits by swallowing a sugar cube. Better than a shot! But polio had affected so many families I knew we were all thankful there was finally a way to avoid one of the things everyone was so scared of. The other fears continued on including the cold war with the Soviet Union, and the constant fear of nuclear war.
In 1955 there was US military intervention in Iran, Rock and Roll music popularity increases featuring Elvis Presley , Bill Haley and the Comets, Chuck Berry and The Platters. AM radio was the thing. They had figured out how to make transistor radios to replace vacuum tube radios which made the radio a portable device if you could afford one. Before I became a teenager they had come up with pocket sized am radios. Just in time to give full life to rock n roll.
My mom, dad, and older sister were amateur radio operators. So when I was very young I spent lots of time with my dad while he made radios and transmitters from parts he got for free or surplus. I learned Morse code early, and I got my first amateur radio license when I was in the 3rd grade. My career in radio was born!
In 1956 the Federal-Aid Highway Act was signed for the construction of 41,000 miles of interstate highways, Fidel Castro landed in Cuba at the start of the Cuban Revolution. That year there was an increase in living standards and the focus on education helped to fuel the increase in college education with 1 in 3 high school graduates now going off to college.
I’ve got to interject here that 2 out of 3 high school graduates did NOT go to college. They had tech schools and apprenticeships back then that worked out much better than college did for a lot of people.
1957 saw the Peak of the Baby Boomer years, Toyota starts selling cars in the US, Suez Canal Crisis Ends, Asian Flu Pandemic, USSR launches Sputnik 1, South Vietnam attacked by Viet Cong Guerrillas, Elvis Presley purchases Graceland, First Nuclear Reactor plant opens Pennsylvania.
As I mentioned earlier fear was a central theme during that era. Anything to do with nuclear physics was scary… Certainly including nuclear reactors. Even more frightening though was the cold war and the space race. And the USSR won the space race becoming the first to put a satellite in orbit. That was before the general public understood satellite technology and purpose so imaginations ran wild. Nevertheless one of the more poignant memories I have as a child was staying up late to go out into the back yard of our house to look up in the sky to see the sputnik orbiting. It was a family moment, but it was truly frightening as a small child. It was a moment in U.S. History when we weren’t the first, best, and smartest. And it was a critical time for America’s psyche.
In 1958 the Microchip was invented and the First Trans Atlantic passenger jetliner service began. In 1959 the Barbie Doll Launched, Alaska becomes the 49th State and Hawaii becomes the 50th state.
It was 1960 when the US entered the Vietnam War, John F Kennedy wins presidential Election , Chubby Chequer and The twist start a new dance craze, Aluminum Cans were used for the first time, and the US announces 3,500 American soldiers are going to be sent to Vietnam. Xerox introduced the first photocopier.
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In 1962 Alan Shepard makes first US Space Flight, Peace Corps is established by John F. Kennedy, Construction of the Berlin Wall begins, Pampers the first disposable diaper introduced, US Cuban Exiles and CIA mount unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Castro known as the Bay of Pigs… Another very scary chapter in the military game the U.S. was part of. That may have been as close as humanity ever came to eliminating planet earth.
Money and Inflation 1960’s
To provide an estimate of inflation we have given a guide to the value of $100 US Dollars for the first year in the decade to the equivalent in today’s money:
If you have $100 Converted from 1960 to 2005 it would be equivalent to $679.09 today
In 1960 a new house cost $12,700.00 and by 1969 was $15,500.00
In 1960 the average income per year was $5,315.00 and by 1969 was $8,540.00
In 1960 a gallon of gas was 25 cents and by 1969 was 35 cents
In 1960 the average cost of new car was $2,600.00 and by 1969 was $3,270.00
Oh, one thing important to a young geek at the time: in 1966 History
The first episode of the popular television show “Star Trek” airs.
It was a very important time… and at times sad time… for civil rights. In 1968
Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in April by James Earl Ray.
In 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first men to arrive on the Moon during NASA’s Apollo 11 mission; The Woodstock music festival takes place in New York and features such acts as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, and The Who. And, ARPANET, the predecessor to the Internet, relays its first communications between UCLA and Stanford. Yes girls and boys, I grew up without the internet. We had what were called “bulletin boards” that relied on dial-up phone modems to relay electronic mail – but that didn’t come about until the late eighties and early 90’s, believe it or not. No – we didn’t have cell phones. Those came along to the average person in the early 90’s. But they were huge brick size phones with 8 inch antennas protruding from them. And they were phones, not texting devices and certainly not internet devices.
In 1973 the United States Supreme Court declares that abortion is a constitutional right in the landmark decision on the Roe v. Wade case.
In 1974 U.S. President Richard Nixon resigns from office after being implicated in the Watergate Scandal. Gerald Ford becomes the United States president after Nixon resigns.
By 1975 things were really beginning to come alive: The Vietnam War ends. The movie “Jaws” opens in theaters and is considered to be one of the first block-buster films. Bill Gates and Paul Allen create Microsoft. And the popular late-night sketch show, Saturday Night Live, airs for the first time. In 1976 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak create the Apple Computer Company.
During the 80’s we finally saw the collapse of traditional communism and the end of the cold war. The fragmentation of communism included the collapse of the Berlin wall and the breakup up of what was the USSR towards the end of the 80’s. and leading to German reunification.
And finally, at least for this exercise, Commercial Internet service providers (ISPs) emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Most of you reading this have been alive since then, and have experienced these same historical events. But for my 65th birthday taking a minute to remember some of what has transpired has made me feel a bit older – and it has given me a bit more peace. So far I’ve lived a full life in an exciting time in U.S. and World history. It is easy for me to forget when I’m sitting with one of my teenagers, trying to understand their point of view, and their entitlement attitude, that they haven’t yet been through the extreme change that will bend them forward into maturity. At the same time, from their starting point in life they have a lot less baggage: fears, victories, accomplishments, and hardships. Their future, the world, and history itself is wide open to them.
Life is good. And so it goes.