It's 1961.The American Civil War is nearly a century in the past.But it's still not really over.The Second World War is not quite twenty years in the past.The Great Depression is not forgotten.The world is divided into two armed camps,and The Cold War is in full swing.It's early in the year when outgoing President Eisenhower coins the phrase "Military Industrial Complex."It's not exactly a new concept,but once recognized and named it's a concept that is going to have a profound effect on the world to come.In all the years of The Twentieth Century,it would be hard to find a year more eventful that 1961.
It was a year of freedom rides space exploration and armed conflict.John F. Kennedy had just come to power in America.Nikita Khrushchev ruled the Soviet Union,Charles DeGaulle,France and Harold McMillian The United Kingdom.John Diefenbaker was Prime Minister of Canada.
In 1961,Eggs were around thirty cents a dozen and a pound of bacon cost under seventy cents .Gas was under thirty cents per gallon and a new house cost just over twelve thousand dollars.Average yearly income was about fifty three hundred dollars.
Popular television shows in 1961 included Andy Griffith,Twilight Zone,Candid Camera and Bonanza.The popular films of the day were 101 Dalmatians,West Side Story,Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Absent Minded Professor.
In 1961,the New York Yankees won The World Series,Chicago won The Stanley Cup and Boston won The NBA Championship.
John F. Kennedy was telling Americans to "Ask not what your country can do for you,but ask what you can do for your country." It's been noted a time or two since that time that the quote seemed to have a vaguely Fascist edge,with it's focus on state over individual.
Kennedy got busy pursuing the objectives of state early on in his administration.In mid April ,the Americans invaded Cuba at the Bay Of Pigs,an action that failed quickly.Fidel Castro claimed victory,and,by the end of the year had proclaimed Cuba to be a Socialist Country.In August,construction began on The Berlin Wall and a sharp line was drawn between East and West.Movement within Berlin,and Germany was restricted.By late October,there had been a confrontation between American and Soviet Tanks at Checkpoint Charlie along that wall.And by mid November Kennedy had sent 18,000 military advisers to South Vietnam.Of course,just prior to what seems like a lot of saber rattling,on March first,The President established The Peace Corps.
Apart from the ongoing and escalating Cold War,though likely not too far apart,both The Soviets and The Americans were busy in space.On the last day of January,the Americans sent a 37 pound male chimp into space. Evidently,he must have liked the trip and recommended it others,because early in May,Alan Shepard became the first American to follow in the chimps footsteps.Well,perhaps not footsteps,but whatever.However,America was not the first to put a man in space.Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin beat them out by almost a month.By the end of May,Kennedy was announcing intentions to put men on The Moon by the end of the decade.
The space programs spawned new words too.It was 1961 when the word "moon shot" first appeared in The Oxford English Dictionary along with five hundred other words making their debut.Those words included microwave,docudrama,valium and neurotransmitter.The word "born again" was first used in 1961 too,though it described a concept that had long been well known in Christian theology.Reel to reel and weight Watchers also appeared for the first time,as did keyboard in the sense of it being a noun used to refer to entering data into a computer.The term"mongolism" was replaced by the words "Downs Syndrome" after Doctor John Down who first described the genetic abnormality nearly a century before.The word "shitcan",a verb meaning to dispose of something or to fire someone made a first appearance as well.It had been proceeded by the noun of the same name some years before,that noun referring to a wastebasket.
Also making debut appearances in 1961 were Barack Obama,Michael J.Fox,Enya,Wayne Gretzky and George Clooney.
.Actor Gary Cooper,baseball player Ty Cobb and psychologist Carl Jung died in 1961.Writer Ernest Hemingway committed suicide using a gun.
In 1961,the most popular boys names in order were Michael.David,John,James and Robert.Likewise,for girls,those names were Mary,Lisa,Susan,Linda and Karen.The names Troy and Anna topped out the one hundred most common names on their respective lists.
In what I'm told were the early morning hours of March second,I also made my first appearance.I'm told I sent my mother to the hospital with a false alarm some days before,but actually came into the world on the second day of march at about one in the morning.My name is Michael Troy Davis,so I have the most common name in the year of my birth along with the hundredth most common,to go along with my surname which I'm told is of Welch origin and is again a very common name in the English language.The place of my birth was in Happy Valley Hospital,near Goose Bay,Labrador,in the province of Newfoundland,but really,more a part of the Canadian North.
Believe it or not,I don't recall the night of my birth.I know some people who say a person can recall such things,but I don't believe it.It no doubt would have been a blast to be able to write about it,but we'll never really know.
If I'd known then about the state of the place I was being born into,with it's wars,arms race,black people and white people hating each other,the dick pulling contest between America and Russia that was the space race(although I'm not certain the term "dick pulling contest" was actually a word by that time),and the building of political walls such as I would not see for many more years,I may well have shitcanned the place before I'd even got started.But luckily,newborns are rather ignorant,so I didn't, and have been mostly grateful for that fact ever since.
It was a year of freedom rides space exploration and armed conflict.John F. Kennedy had just come to power in America.Nikita Khrushchev ruled the Soviet Union,Charles DeGaulle,France and Harold McMillian The United Kingdom.John Diefenbaker was Prime Minister of Canada.
In 1961,Eggs were around thirty cents a dozen and a pound of bacon cost under seventy cents .Gas was under thirty cents per gallon and a new house cost just over twelve thousand dollars.Average yearly income was about fifty three hundred dollars.
Popular television shows in 1961 included Andy Griffith,Twilight Zone,Candid Camera and Bonanza.The popular films of the day were 101 Dalmatians,West Side Story,Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Absent Minded Professor.
In 1961,the New York Yankees won The World Series,Chicago won The Stanley Cup and Boston won The NBA Championship.
John F. Kennedy was telling Americans to "Ask not what your country can do for you,but ask what you can do for your country." It's been noted a time or two since that time that the quote seemed to have a vaguely Fascist edge,with it's focus on state over individual.
Kennedy got busy pursuing the objectives of state early on in his administration.In mid April ,the Americans invaded Cuba at the Bay Of Pigs,an action that failed quickly.Fidel Castro claimed victory,and,by the end of the year had proclaimed Cuba to be a Socialist Country.In August,construction began on The Berlin Wall and a sharp line was drawn between East and West.Movement within Berlin,and Germany was restricted.By late October,there had been a confrontation between American and Soviet Tanks at Checkpoint Charlie along that wall.And by mid November Kennedy had sent 18,000 military advisers to South Vietnam.Of course,just prior to what seems like a lot of saber rattling,on March first,The President established The Peace Corps.
Apart from the ongoing and escalating Cold War,though likely not too far apart,both The Soviets and The Americans were busy in space.On the last day of January,the Americans sent a 37 pound male chimp into space. Evidently,he must have liked the trip and recommended it others,because early in May,Alan Shepard became the first American to follow in the chimps footsteps.Well,perhaps not footsteps,but whatever.However,America was not the first to put a man in space.Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin beat them out by almost a month.By the end of May,Kennedy was announcing intentions to put men on The Moon by the end of the decade.
The space programs spawned new words too.It was 1961 when the word "moon shot" first appeared in The Oxford English Dictionary along with five hundred other words making their debut.Those words included microwave,docudrama,valium and neurotransmitter.The word "born again" was first used in 1961 too,though it described a concept that had long been well known in Christian theology.Reel to reel and weight Watchers also appeared for the first time,as did keyboard in the sense of it being a noun used to refer to entering data into a computer.The term"mongolism" was replaced by the words "Downs Syndrome" after Doctor John Down who first described the genetic abnormality nearly a century before.The word "shitcan",a verb meaning to dispose of something or to fire someone made a first appearance as well.It had been proceeded by the noun of the same name some years before,that noun referring to a wastebasket.
Also making debut appearances in 1961 were Barack Obama,Michael J.Fox,Enya,Wayne Gretzky and George Clooney.
.Actor Gary Cooper,baseball player Ty Cobb and psychologist Carl Jung died in 1961.Writer Ernest Hemingway committed suicide using a gun.
In 1961,the most popular boys names in order were Michael.David,John,James and Robert.Likewise,for girls,those names were Mary,Lisa,Susan,Linda and Karen.The names Troy and Anna topped out the one hundred most common names on their respective lists.
In what I'm told were the early morning hours of March second,I also made my first appearance.I'm told I sent my mother to the hospital with a false alarm some days before,but actually came into the world on the second day of march at about one in the morning.My name is Michael Troy Davis,so I have the most common name in the year of my birth along with the hundredth most common,to go along with my surname which I'm told is of Welch origin and is again a very common name in the English language.The place of my birth was in Happy Valley Hospital,near Goose Bay,Labrador,in the province of Newfoundland,but really,more a part of the Canadian North.
Believe it or not,I don't recall the night of my birth.I know some people who say a person can recall such things,but I don't believe it.It no doubt would have been a blast to be able to write about it,but we'll never really know.
If I'd known then about the state of the place I was being born into,with it's wars,arms race,black people and white people hating each other,the dick pulling contest between America and Russia that was the space race(although I'm not certain the term "dick pulling contest" was actually a word by that time),and the building of political walls such as I would not see for many more years,I may well have shitcanned the place before I'd even got started.But luckily,newborns are rather ignorant,so I didn't, and have been mostly grateful for that fact ever since.
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