http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/ Welcome, Baby Boomers! We've all gotten a bit older, but we're still kids at heart. With that, may I present a host of memories from my childhood at I Remember JFK. If you are old enough to even barely remember that sad day In Dallas, my site will click with you. You'll find yourself saying over and over again 'I'd forgotten all about that!' So relive memories from the 60's and 70's (and a few from the 50's, thanks to our older commenters) at the best Baby Boomer nostalgia site on the web! en Copyright 2012 Mon, 26 Sep 2011 08:20:17 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss We Boomers were eyewitnesses to a bewildering amount of history in the making during the 50's and 60's in which we grew up. The death of an idealistic young President was the first memory that many of us can recall clearly. Man's first steps on the moon are recorded indelibly in our minds. And we also recall the Civil Rights Movement, whether we were actual eyewitnesses to its painful birth, or we viewed its struggles in black and white on the TV set. Many narratives exist. For example, there is the controversial movie Mississippi Burning, which paints the FBI in a heroic light for its supposed courageous stand in safeguarding equal rights for all races in the most segregated state that existed in 1963. Alas, the movie, while entertaining, takes extreme liberties with the sad truth: the FBI really didn't want to be involved, and had to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing its job of busting individuals and groups who violently sought to keep the blacks "in their place." Hollywood, for better or worse, will forever be Hollywood. Written books are more and more available in the age of the internet, and can be produced with a much smaller investment. Therefore, with the demands of a return on a large investment removed, greater honesty in storytelling is very much a possibility. In the case of the book being reviewed here, the honesty is brutal indeed. The summer of 1964 saw a large number of white college students descend upon the most backwards state in the Union. Honesty is revealed in the humanity of many of the students, in many cases, their motives were less than 100% noble.]]> http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/09/boomer_reviews_freedom_summer.php http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/09/boomer_reviews_freedom_summer.php Boomer Reviews Mon, 26 Sep 2011 08:20:17 -0600 Gotta-Have Albums, if you haven't signed up for email notifications or subscribed to the rss feed, I encourage you to do so. I've discovered some truly great music lately in my search for albums you just gotta have. Thanks for the kind words of concern from all who've wondered just where the heck I've been!]]> http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/08/by_way_of_explanation.php http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/08/by_way_of_explanation.php About Us Wed, 17 Aug 2011 06:13:10 -0600 Got a cell phone in your pocket or purse? How about a GPS in your car? I'm sure you have a computer, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this right now. Then you know, within a teeny fraction of a second, exactly what time it is. We take such a situation very much for granted. Some of us even wear watches that communicate with an atomic time server several times a day, making microscopically small adjustments to ensure that the time displayed is exactly right. But it wasn't always that way, was it, Boomers? When we were younger, the exact time was largely unknown. The local bank might have had a big clock outside for all to see, and presumably, it was accurate. It had better be, the whole town might have been setting their watches to it. In my hometown of Miami, Oklahoma, at precisely noon each day, the B.F. Goodrich plant would let loose with a blast on a steam whistle which would alert plant workers (and everyone within a couple miles) that it was lunchtime. Many a wearer of a wristwatch would stop what they were doing and adjust their timepiece to 12:00 noon. We had other ways to set our timepieces back then, of course. Today's article will remind you of what they were.]]> http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/07/when_you_werent_sure_exactly_w.php http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/07/when_you_werent_sure_exactly_w.php Gadgets Sun, 03 Jul 2011 06:59:19 -0600 I Remember JFK did an article on Dragnet back in 2007, but it really didn't pay enough homage to the man behind the show, Jack Webb. With that, today's offering will attempt to give credit where credit is due, to the creative genius that accompanied one of the most familiar faces that we Boomers grew up with. Jack Webb had an oft-imitated style of his own on the screen, one that made for great fodder for comedians, school playground thespians, and B-movie method actors. But perhaps his greatest talent lie in giving us some unforgettable television moments from shows that he created and/or produced. Webb's first shot at creating a show without appearing onscreen was a home run to deep center. Adam-12 debuted in 1968, and enjoyed a seven-year run. The pilot revealed that officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner, who had previously toured the country in a Vette in Route 66) was about to quit the force three weeks after losing his partner to a crook with a gun. Young, naive rookie Jim Reed was assigned to the depressed Malloy for a one-night deal, and by morning, the veteran decides to stick around and show the plebe how to survive. Thus began a show which would be a part of Boomer kids' lives. It started out on a Saturday night, finished up on a Wednesday. But for the life of me, I can't remember what night I watched it on growing up. Saturday, I believe. Any help from you readers? Malloy was no-nonsense, by the book (except when he needed to not be by the book), and constantly reminded the greenhorn that it was life or death out there. In other words, he was Jack Webb. Jack Webb would thus "appear" in practically all of the shows that he would produce afterwards, you just had to look for him in a more sublime game of "Spot Hitch" (played every time a Hitchcock movie was on the screen).]]> http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/06/jack_webbs_tv_creations.php http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/06/jack_webbs_tv_creations.php People TV Sun, 26 Jun 2011 07:10:34 -0600 I am so pleased when I write about a toy from our Boomer childhoods, and don't have to include it under the "Things that Disappeared When You Weren't Looking" category! Such is the happy case with the subject of today's piece, the Etch-a-Sketch, still proudly produced by Ohio Art! I was deeply hoping that they were being made in Ohio, but sadly, that's not been the case since 2003. However, let us celebrate the fact that they are still around, exactly like they were during the Decade of Change, when many of us were enjoying wonderful childhoods as Baby Boomers. It all started in France in the late 1950's. A gentleman named André Cassagnes (another source credits Arthur Granjean) crafted a drawing device in his basement. He filled a plastic container with aluminum dust. The container had a clear screen, also a stylus mounted to two bars which was moved by small cables attached to knobs. Thus, an adroit artist could make subtle movements to create a single line which could create infinite shapes. In reality, he created a very cool toy which 98% of us could use to make basic shapes, and cause us to envy true artistes with the talent to create masterpieces. He took his invention to the International Toy Fair in Nuremburg, Germany, where a US-based company called Ohio Art showed little interest. However, upon seeing "The Magic Screen" a second time, they decided to roll the dice and take a chance on it.]]> http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/06/the_etch-a-sketch.php http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/06/the_etch-a-sketch.php Toys Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:39:52 -0600 Man has been eating lunch since time immemorial. And you might think that the portable lunchbox like you carried to school in the 50's, 60's, or 70's would have been just as ancient. But you would be wrong. In 1950, Nashville, TN-based Alladin came up with a concept that they felt just might have potential, especially in light of the fact that the largest generation of six-year-olds in history were about to enter school for the first time: a metal box/vacuum bottle combination just the right size for a kid to carry his/her lunch to school in. And seeing how metal lasted forever, and a steady supply of new customers was needed in order to do future business, what if they put a TV character's image on the box and bottle? That way, new TV shows would create demand for new lunch boxes! I couldn't find any names connected with that idea, but rest assured, even Don Draper has never possessed that kind of genius. Those original Hopalong Cassidy lunchboxes were an immediate smash success, and a tradition was born for not just Boomers, but all kids of the 20th century: a perfect-sized case that a kid would proudly lug to school and back, festooned with colorful pictures. The metal lunch box for kids was actually born in 1935, a company called Geuder, Paeschke and Frey creating a lithographed box with Mickey mouse's image on it. But it took postwar prosperity, TV, and the addition of a Thermos bottle for the concept to become a craze. ]]> http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/06/lunchboxes.php http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/06/lunchboxes.php Gadgets Things that Disappeared When You Weren't Looking Sun, 12 Jun 2011 09:55:02 -0600 These mailmen today have it made. Why, back in my day, they used to haul a hundred pounds of catalogs five or six times a year! One of the most pervasive memories we Boomers have locked away is a big catalog or two sitting on the coffee table right next to the ashtray. They would come in the mail annually from companies like Montgomery-Ward, Sears, J.C. Penney, and Spiegel. All it would take to receive them was to buy something at the store. If they got your name and address, the monstrous consumers of wood pulp would begin showing up automatically, generally laid on your welcome mat by those poor abused postmen of the 1960's. And there was something for everyone in those massive tomes. It seemed that women's clothing took up the most real estate, for good reason. I'm sure it was female shoppers who comprised the bulk of the mail-order catalog business of the era. The customer is always right, load those books up with pretty pictures of dresses. But kids got their share of cool stuff to look at too, particularly with the Christmas wish books. More on that in just a bit. Back in the days before the internet, when discount stores carried stuff that was, well, discount (aka junk), consumers knew that they needed to deal with department stores for the good, high-quality stuff that would last years. Thus, the previously mentioned retail establishments would invest money in the big catalogs that would end up in our living rooms. It was good business. ]]> http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/05/when_big_catalogs_came_in_the.php http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/05/when_big_catalogs_came_in_the.php Books/Magazines/Etc. Things that Disappeared When You Weren't Looking Sun, 08 May 2011 08:57:12 -0600 For Baby Boomers, one of the most pervasive memories we all have is the Vietnam war. During the 60's, not a night went by without the nightly news telling us the latest figures on deaths on both sides of the conflict, as well as showing us images of Huey helicopters flying across jungles firing away (and getting fired upon in return). For a time after it all came to a halt in 1975, we just wanted to forget about it. Soon, however, books started appearing on the shelves, closely followed by movies that presented the war to us in the form of incidents recalled by its participants. The quality of these offerings has been overall very high, if not extremely graphic. Let's face it: the war was one of the most harrowing things ever experienced by participants on either side, and it was common for a soldier's daily life to involve bodies blown apart, the deaths of civilians, horrifying flashbacks, and escape through drugs. Thus, these are the things which are commonly highlighted in works like The Deer Hunter, Platoon, and Apocalypse Now. But what if you could receive a clear picture of the war's horrors, as well as necessary covert missions afterwards, that skips most of the graphical descriptions? In fact, to use a simile that should hit home with most of us, what if there was a book out there that our own dear mothers would enjoy? Well, if your mom was like mine, no prude, but no fan of gratuitous profanity, sex, or gore either, then the subject of today's Boomer review would be one that both of you could enjoy. The book is called George's Candy. It's a first-person account of a marine who found employment with the CIA after his hitch was up. And it's a great read, I recommend you have a look.]]> http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/05/boomer_reviews_-_georges_candy.php http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/05/boomer_reviews_-_georges_candy.php Boomer Reviews Sun, 01 May 2011 08:57:17 -0600 Some things blissfully took place before I had a chance to be terrified by them. As a kid, I was plagued by worry. I've gotten over it since then, perhaps to an excessive degree, but back then, it didn't take much to fill me with fear. And if I'd been a bit more aware when I was two years old, I'd have been up all night, just like much of the rest of the world was in 1962. It all started on January 1, 1959. President Manuel Batista fled Cuba, leaving it in the hands of Fidel Castro and his revolutionary forces. Despite the fact that Batista was about as crooked a character as was around at the time, the US took it as a personal insult that communism had taken hold just 90 miles from its borders. The fact that lands and corporations held by US entities were nationalized by the Cuban government certainly didn't help the mood, either. Premier Nikita Kruschev was delighted, though. The outspoken, emotional head of the Soviet Union was another burr under the US's saddle. The USSR had been flexing their muscles throughout the post WWII years, and Ike was sick and tired of it. By the time JFK was elected in 1960, the US had made it clear that Soviet expansion would not continue without resistance from them. The Russians were nervous. The US had enough ICBM's to bomb their entire nation, but the Red Bear couldn't strike back. They could pepper Europe, but most of the US mainland was out of their reach. Solution: put missiles within the borders of new ally Cuba. That went over with Kennedy like the proverbial fart in the elevator. Thus began one of the scariest chapters in world history.]]> http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/04/the_cuban_missile_crisis.php http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/04/the_cuban_missile_crisis.php News Sat, 23 Apr 2011 09:24:46 -0600 This will be a fun write, almost 100% from memory, no research needed! My favorite type of I Remember JFK article. Okay, transport yourself back to, say, 1967. You are entering an imposing building: your own local public library. One of the earliest concepts that you learned as a child was that books were freely available to you to borrow for a couple of weeks, at the end of which you either returned them, rechecked them, or (horrors) paid a fine, which may have burdened you with some of your first feelings of guilt. Walking through those tall doors (everything was tall when your height was less than four feet), you were greeted with a wonderful smell: the aroma of hundreds, maybe thousands of books, many of which were dozens of years old. You also saw row after row of neatly organized bookshelves, with each book in its proper place. All in all, it was a wonder of order. Behind the desk sat the librarian, with a stern expression on her face, just the thing to remind a rambunctious kid that he was in a temple of silence, and it had better stay that way, or the wrath of that hair bun-wearing matron would be quickly and painfully expressed.]]> http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/04/the_libraries_of_our_childhood.php http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/04/the_libraries_of_our_childhood.php Places Things that Disappeared When You Weren't Looking Sun, 03 Apr 2011 08:34:42 -0600 It's a bit sad that death is so much a part of our Boomer memories. We learned at a very early age that famous people die. We also learned, through the Vietnam war, that loved ones die. And as we kids grew up listening to and loving rock and roll music, we likewise learned that the makers of that music die. Airplane crashes have taken many musical stars from us. The first one to shake up the world of the newly-invented genre of rock and roll was the one that took Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper in 1959. Nine years later, Otis Redding took off in his own plane (his manager was the pilot) and ended up losing his life in an icy lake near Madison, Wisconsin. Thus was the world robbed of a rising star who had redefined soul music, and had in fact taken on the title of the King of Soul. Otis was a clean-living family man who was raised in Georgia, and who never left his roots. However, the deaths that would soon follow would show the world that rock and roll music had transformed from innocence to worldliness as its participants found themselves at risk from deaths from decidedly hedonistic causes. The victims were young people who found themselves thrust into the bright spotlight and simply had problems handling all of the success. While they struggled, they produced some of the most beautiful and prized art that the world has ever seen, art in the form of music.]]> http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/03/rock_star_deaths.php http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/03/rock_star_deaths.php Music News People Sun, 27 Mar 2011 08:13:05 -0600 About 1998 or so, we took a trip to Orlando. I figure every kid ought to see Disney World at least once in their lives, even if it nearly bankrupts the parents. Anyhoo, we went to the Epcot Center one sunny day, and I had a distinct deja vu feeling about the place. Eventually, as we strolled from "country" to "country," it dawned on me: the feelings I was experiencing were very much like those I had lived through many years earlier as I went through Expo 67 in Montreal. World's Fairs used to be a big deal, they certainly still were while we Boomer kids were growing up. In 1967, Montreal hosted a spectacular that was the talk of the planet, officially known as the 1967 International and Universal Exposition. I'm not sure which parent was the most gung-ho to go, I would suspect it was my schoolteacher mom, but dad was all for it, too, perhaps because the conservative ex-Minnesotan would have the opportunity to visit friends and family on the way up to Canada. So one June day, we piled into the car, my two parents, my reluctant seventeen-year-old brother, and my own eager seven-year-old self. When we eventually made it to Montreal, I was captivated by the foreignness of the place. Let's face it, going to the capital of the French province is almost like taking a trip to Europe. The signs everywhere were in French, and the city was the most crowded, busiest, craziest place I'd ever seen.]]> http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/03/expo_67.php http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/03/expo_67.php Places Sun, 20 Mar 2011 08:21:33 -0600 We Boomers have a wealth of pleasant memories from growing up in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Those are memories that we wouldn't trade for a million dollars. But, like all generations, we have our share of bad memories as well. One of the most pervasive unpleasant memories that touched each and every one of us was the war in Vietnam. In this blog's early days, I wrote a column about that subject. War seemed normal to Boomer kids, sadly, there is a whole new generation to whom it feels that way as well. What made the Vietnam war so hard to deal with was that all of the deaths, the maimings, the psychological scarrings that happened to our nation's youth were, it appears, all for nothing. By 1972, the country was sick of Vietnam. The protesters had found many allies in the "establishment," it seemed that there wasn't a soul who wanted to spend any more lives to try to make a nation located on the far side of the world a place safe for democracy. The 1972 Presidential election featured a lot of talk by all candidates concerned about ending the mess once and for all. Nixon really didn't face much competition, though, and after his re-election, he set about getting America out of SE Asia.]]> http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/03/saigon_falls.php http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/03/saigon_falls.php News Sun, 06 Mar 2011 07:45:55 -0600 Everybody loves to laugh. And growing up a Boomer, one of my most consistent sources of laughter was Mel Brooks. Melvin Kaminsky was born in 1928 Brooklyn to a father descended from German Jews and a mother whose lineage was Russian Jews. He was a sickly child who soon discovered that he loved to entertain and make people laugh. His first public performances came as a tummler at various Catskill resorts. As master of ceremonies, he took advantage of opportunities to poke fun at acts, audience members and just cut up in general. Soon, he moved on to full-time standup. However, he eventually specialized in writing gags behind the scenes. After serving as a corporal in the army in WWII, he landed a gig writing for Your Show of Shows in 1950. He worked alongside Carl Reiner, who would eventually base Morey Amsterdam's role of Buddy Sorell in The Dick Van Dyke Show on his pal Mel. In 1960, Mel and Carl landed a writing/performing role on Steve Allen's variety show. They created the routine of The 2000 Year Old Man, which went on to live a life of its own, spawning five albums and a 1975 TV special. Brooks expanded his career into films. In 1963, he produced and voiced an animated short called The Critic. It won an Oscar, boding well for Mel Brooks, filmmaker. He continued to stay busy on TV projects. He soon got a job working with Buck Henry writing for Get Smart.]]> http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/02/mel_brooks.php http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/02/mel_brooks.php Movies People TV Sun, 27 Feb 2011 08:13:32 -0600 Thanks to Awkward Family Photos for reminding me of this one. Remember walking into the houses of friends and seeing these stretched pop bottles? They definitely had a youthful appeal, so it may have been in the bedroom of a teenager where they might be most readily spotted. I couldn't find any history on who first heated up a 7Up bottle and stretched the neck (it was usually 7Up, as I recall). But I know that you couldn't attend a county fair or carnival in the early 70's without seeing them offered as prizes at game booths. They might be twisted into spirals, or they might simply be elongated. The straight ones were perfect as vases for long-stemmed flowers made of paper or plastic. Many had lids, and what was apparently the original contents inside. No doubt they were uncapped, emptied, altered, and refilled and carefully recapped.]]> http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/02/stretched_pop_bottles.php http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2011/02/stretched_pop_bottles.php Things that Disappeared When You Weren't Looking Wed, 23 Feb 2011 10:02:44 -0600