poolebarry

60 Trips Around The Sun

By 4 cats, and a dude on March 16, 2022

March 16, 1962. Elmendorf Air Force Base, Anchorage, Alaska. Yes Alaska had statehood back then and I could see Russia with my tiny baby blue eyes. The number one song on the Hot 100 was Hey Baby by Bruce Channel. If you were fortunate enough to afford a television which would run you about $1,000 ($9,000) in today’s dollars, you were watching Lucy, Red Skelton, Gunsmoke or that new hit show Beverly Hillbillies. There was no Super Bowl but the top team in football was either Green Bay (NFL) or Dallas Texans (AFL). Texans became the Kansas City Chiefs. Arguments were had over the top college football team between Southern Cal and Ole Miss. NBA wasn’t really a big thing but your top team there was the Celtics, the Bearcats of Cincinnati were your champs in the NCAA. NHL still had the original 6 and Toronto beat the Blackhawks to capture Lord Stanley’s Cup. MLB had the NL and the AL – two teams won pennants and played for the World Series with the Yankees capturing the title.

State Fair was in theaters, and John F Kennedy was in his second year as President. He was assassinated in November of 1963.

21, 915 days. In my lifetime, there has been the Great Alaskan Earthquake of March 1964. Our nation has been involved with one never ending war to stop the dominos falling (Korea) to Vietnam. Vietnam, Grenada, El Salvador, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” Kuwait, Iraq, Somalia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine. Amazing isn’t it that in 60 years, this country has never been at “peace.”

Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden.

We went to the moon, watched with rapt attention as Neil Armstrong made that one giant step, prayed for the astronauts of Apollo 13. Disbelief as the Challenger exploded then wept as a President gave one of the most inspirational speeches in history to pay tribute to the first teacher in space.

We had heroes who weren’t just athletes or pop culture figures. We had villains too.

The soundtrack of our lives, that special song, the Stylistics, Terry Jack, Three Dog Night.

We were allowed to be kids, saw our first nudity from National Geographic, learned of sex from Encyclopedia Britannica. We played until dark, rode our bikes everywhere we could.

Olympics? We would have our own, run around the block for marathon, sprint up the street, do our own form of “gymnastics” (we would never be confused with Nadia).

Played pick up, well, pretty much everything, “touch” football, basketball, kickball, baseball, tetherball – if it involved a ball, we played, that took on new meaning as we became teens. Rain or shine, it was the good life.

Ride to the 7/11, pick up a pack of smokes for my mother, buy a bottle of Coke for a dime, drink it, get our deposit and buy a pack of Topps baseball cards. Naturally if the players weren’t our favorites they were clothespinned to the spokes of our bikes.

Shoes? what were they, one hasn’t lived until they have had their foot slip off the bike pedal, peel back the top five layers of skin from the big toe. Or, for that matter, had the cuff of your pants get sucked up in the bike chain, rubber bands around the pant legs were mandatory.

We were Evil Knievel, build a ramp, space it a ridiculous amount of distance apart, celebrate when we cleared it. It’s probably a good idea that we chickened out of riding down the hill from Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School, across Metropolitan Street and attempted the drainage ditch.

Skinned knees, elbows, the occasional broken bone, rub some dirt on it and get right back out there.

Burgers wrapped in paper, greasy french fries and a Coke, the only pizza was the Hut, hot dogs, PBJ were staples of the diet.

Our first loves, first kiss, first really embarrassing dance at the gym. “Do you like me?” “check yes or no.” Heartbroken when they say no. Going “steady” because that is what you did, breaking up, intense sorrow, finding a new “love,” going steady again – all in one day!

We had innocence, we experienced things, we lived life, we used our imaginations, we didn’t have all the technology, hell, we didn’t even have Pong! We had Lincoln Logs, Sizzlers, Hot Wheels, Erector Sets, and my favorite, the “build it yourself” shortwave radio from Radio Shack. Back then a computer was punch cards and very large room of hardware.

We were kids, happy to be so, longing to grow up but wanting to hold on to those good times. Got in a fight with a friend, best friends again in an hour. We didn’t have the constant drone of how bad the world is those days. Our greatest challenge was not getting caught.