The Past Is A Blast:
Keeping the flame of the past alive, start reliving yesterday today.
Got a little side tracked on my review of the decades,
been through the 40's and 50's now on to the sixties.
This is a lot of fun going back over the decades since I was born. Reliving the happy moments, remembering things that I had forgot about, etc. but the change in the statistics is very interesting.
Population:
40's 132,122,000 50's 151,684,000 60's 177,830,000
Life expectancy:
40's Women 68.2 Men 60.8
50's Women 71.1 Men 65.6
60's Women 73.1 Men 66.6
Average salaries:
40's $1,299
50's $2,992
60's $4,743
Yes that is the average yearly salary. From the time I graduated from high school in 1958 until I went in business for myself in 1965 the most money I ever made in a years was $5,500.
Minimum Wage
60's
$ 1.00 an hour
News and events from the 60's:
1961 Peace Corps created by JFK
1963 Martin Luther King delivered his, I have a dream speech
1963 President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas,
ask any body in my age bracket where they where and what they were doing and I bet they will remember.
1963 Lyndon Johnson becomes President
1967 The birth control pill became widely available.
As the 60's progressed the hippie movement endorsed drugs, this is just my opinion, the start of the down fall of the country. They endorsed rock music, mystic religions, and sexual freedom. They opposed violence, 400,000 young people gathered in a spirit of love and sharing at The Woodstock Festival which represents the pinnacle of the hippie movement. Many hippies moved to Haight Asbury in San Francisco, East Village in New York City, or lived in communes.
The Vietnam War started. The draft was accelerated and the anti-war sentiment grew in the USA. College students organized anti-war protests, many dodged the draft by fleeing to Canada. President Johnson was blamed for the war and the racial unrest in the country and decided not to run for reelection. John Kennedy's brother Robert decided to run for President and he was assassinated.
Both Malcom X and Martin Luther Kind were also assassinated, Malcom in 1965, and Martin in 1968.
I opened my first gas station in Odenton, Maryland right across the street from the Fort Meade Army Base in 1965.
I was 25 years old. Over the years I employed many military men part time at my station, seen a lot of them leave for Vietnam and sadly not come back.
In 1960 Elvis returned from the U.S. Army and back into music, joining top charters from the 50's like Bobby Darin, Neil Sedaka, Jerry Lee Lewis, Paul Anka, and Frankie Avalon.
However change was in the air. The Motown Record Company came on the scene. Their specialty was rhythm and blues. They were aide by the emergence of female groups such as Glady's Knight and there Pips, the Supreme's, and Aretha Franklin as well as their male counterparts, including Smokey Robinson, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and the Temptations.
Folk music made a revival by such stars as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul, and Mary. For those in high school a big group was The Beach Boys.
Chubby Checker introduced the Twist on American Bandstand with Dick Clark in 1961 and a new craze was born. It was a dance you didn't need a partner for.
I don't know if any younger people read my BLOG or not, if they do this is where they will say WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? LOL because it was also the decade of the Mashed Potato, the Swim, the Watusi, the Monkey, and the Jerk.
Fellows had crew cuts, and bouffant's were the style for the ladies. Knee length dresses were replaced by miniskirts, or hot pants often worn with go-go-boots, revealing a lot of leg and curves. LOL
Even the guys had longer hair, along with beards and moustaches. Men's clothes were bright colors, double-breasted sports jackets, polyester pant suits with Nehru jackets, and turtlenecks were in.
Unisex dressing was popular. Think of bell-bottomed jeans, love beads, and embellished t-shirts and you had the look. I just know that all of you in my age bracket are running all this through your mind right now. LOL
As an avid sports fan in those days the 60's provided me with my highest thrill as a sports fan as along with some of my best friends we were there to see the Baltimore Orioles sweep the Los Angelo's Dodgers in 4 games beating two of the best pitches ever Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.
It was also the decade of my biggest disappointment when in 1969 I was lucky enough to go to Super Bowl 3 in Miami, " my first trip to Florida by the way " only to see at that time the biggest upset in pro football when the New York Jets beat my beloved Baltimore Colts, haven't got over that one yet. LOL
Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were the super stars of the golf world.
And of course you can't remember the 60's with out remembering the Beatles, they took America by storm, I wasn't a big fan of them then but now I love to listen to their music.
In the space race Alan Shepard was the first American in space in 1961, John Glenn was the first to orbit the earth in 1963, and of course who could ever forget that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men to walk on the moon in 1969.
I don't know how many people read these reviews of the decades but I do know I am having a ball doing them. Each decade some things very significant. Some life changing things have happened to me in each decade, leaving West Virginia, getting married and becoming a father in the 50's, going in business for myself in the 60's are just a very few of the many things and I am having a ball reliving a lot of them.
Next the 70's
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