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.
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. 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.
