I’m amazed to think about the historical eras that I’ve lived in. The historical events that stick in my mind are several–if I had been paying attention, there might have been more. I’ve often been asked what was the first national historical event that I remember? Upon reflection, I realize that I do not remember the Korean War except that I knew both Uncle Thad and Uncle Lowell were there. Macartheism and racial issues were nonexistent in my mind and presidential politics was just an echo in my life. I knew the names of Presidents and politicians but their actions were peripheral to daily life.
1953: I remember in Mt. View, going around the block to see my first television screen. –I don’t remember the exact home but I do remember it was small and black and white. I remember the excitement (which I now know was June of 1953) of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. My memory is that the film of the event was rushed by jet to the USA so that it could be shown within hours of the actual happening. What excitement. I’m 10 years old and we gathered around a neighbor’s small TV to watch–obviously, not the entire ceremony but enough that I can say I remember it.
In 1956 we lived in Buffalo, Oklahoma–during a time of mini dust storms. There was no air conditioning at this time–maybe one water cooler which filled one room with slightly less hot air. We played outside a great deal because it was cooler than sitting in the house. From miles away, the wall of dust could be seen. Our best line of defense was to put rags and twisted sheets of newspaper along all of the window sills and doors. Sand would still sift into the rooms.
Health care was minimal compared to today. In Apache, I cut my right instep on a broken piece of a Coke bottle ( I still have a faint scar). I bled quite a bit. Mother cleaned it. We didn’t have bandaids. I walked on the side of my foot for several weeks before it healed enough to put my barefoot down again. Obviously, the big news was the availability of the polio vaccine which was supplied to all children at that time. What had once been an epidemic of major proportions, was now almost gone. Amazing times in health discoveries and inventions were on the horizons to the point that the those identified as Generation X and later have no real understanding of how tentative chlldhood was before vaccinations. Kaye fell off of the monkey bars which were in the. back of the old church. She had a concussion, the doctor who came to the house said, “just don’t let her go to sleep for awhile.” That was the treatment. Sam had a ‘blood pocket” (how he got it, I don’t remember.) when he was barely a year old. I was at the doctor’s office with mother as the doctor used a needle and syringe to extract the fluid from the nodule. I don’t know how many times that was done. Daddy wrapped a towel soaked in kerosene around my lower leg when I was hit with a softball and had a big knot. (check out the history of that healing exliar.)
Sputnik 1 was launch in 1957, the year we moved to Wakita. I remember all the tension that launch caused as it was believed Russia had the capability to attack the USA. Space/stars/planets were already in my thinking, but I didn’t perceive how impactful that event would be on my career. Educational reform became the watchword beginning with the passage of National Defense Education Act (NDEA) and the ‘reforms’ kept rolling on from there. John and I both had higher education loans which The NDEA provided. For every year that we taught, our loan was reduced until it was gone. John continued to get funding for summer science institutes–one at Colorado State in Fort Collins and one at SWOSU in Weatehrford, OK.
It’s a fact that life goes on while history happens–we are all a part of the island even when we’re not directly involved. Sometimes just miniscule degrees separate me from big events but most of the time, I’m being a wife, mother, daughter, sister, student, teacher, et al. No excuses–just fact
