I Remember JFK: A Baby Boomer's Pleasant Reminiscing Spot

It was a blast growing up in the Jet Age. Sure, our parents saw rapid progress in their own lifetimes. They may have recalled a day when horse-drawn wagons were common on Main Street. They probably took rides on steam trains. And they could likely remember losing childhood friends to diseases that were quite curable or preventable by the time we came along.

But we had ELECTRONICS! Yes, electronics ran a tremendous percentage of the world that we grew up in.

And the electronics that our day-to-day life depended on so much were prone to frequent failure, thanks to components with very finite lifespans known as vacuum tubes.

Who knows, maybe embattled senator Ted Stevens, born in 1923, may have had the electronic versions somewhat in mind when he made his infamous "series of tubes" statement. Nah, probably not.

However, that didn't end the contest. Both series continue to live on in syndication, and feature films have also been inspired by the rival monster comedies.

The battle began back in the 1930's, with a single-panel cartoon debuting in The New Yorker magazine called The Addams Family. Created by Charles Addams, it was a satirical look at well-to-do Americans. The Addams Family was wealthy, and also quite creepy.

It was a hit for the magazine, and thirty years later, The Addams Family was seen as a potential TV sitcom.

The neighborhood movie theater was a welcome spot for rainy and/or swelteringly hot summer afternoons in the 50's. The drive-in theater was likewise a fond destination that many of us remember. One of the most amazing innovations that were enjoyed by the older members of the Boomer generation were 3D movies and comic books.

Man has always sought greater realism in the representations of the world which he has generated. It goes back to the day when a caveman would blow pigment over his hand placed on a rock wall in order to add a realistic, human touch to the mastodons and mammoths that he had drawn. By 1838, stereoscopic photography had been invented, bringing astonishing realism to tiny images viewed through a special device.

L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat, filmed in 1895 by the Lumière brothers, is credited as being the first 3D film. Audiences would scream in terror as a speeding train appeared to head straight for them.

Except that the film wasn't really 3D. it shocked the world with its realism, but it was just a simple two-dimensional film.

It wasn't often that a kid of the 60's had change in his pocket. At least it wasn't often that I did. Come to think of it, I'm short of cash right now.

Some things never change.

But go back to 1967, and if a fortunate youngster found himself with a chunk of change in his pocket, the odds were pretty favorable that among the coinage was a Buffalo Nickel or two.

I capitalize the name out of regard to the greatest coin ever minted in US history, IMHO, as well as the opinions of millions of other fans.

And once upon a time, long years ago, the Buffalo Nickel was common coinage in the US.

I'm just a punk kid Boomer, I'm the first to admit it. After all, JFK's assassination was my first coherent memory. My oldest brother was already seventeen years old when our President was gunned down.

Today's piece is aimed at Boomers of his generation. It's all about when traveling by jet airliner became a commonplace occurrence.

The de Havilland Comet began service in 1952. It was the first jet airliner. Prior to the Comet, and for quite a few years afterwards, piston-engine-driven airliners were the norm. These included venerable classics like the Convair CV-240, The Douglas DC-6 and DC-7, and the sexiest airplane ever built, IMHO, the Lockheed Constellation.