1962....Cuba, Violence, Hatred and Peace

Robert Zimmerman, Folk Singer

While 100,000 people turned their television sets to watch President Kennedy tell us we were on the brink of nuclear war, a little known folk singer from Duluth Minnesota, Robert Zimmerman, was starting his career and his songs would help bring some sense to the insane world that was building around us.

 Aerial reconnaissance over Cuba had discovered that the Russians were building missile sites that would be the launching pad for total destruction of the United States some 90 miles away. While General Curtis "Bombs are your friends" Lemay, pushed for annihilating the whole island, cooler heads prevailed and averted a nuclear war.

The country was suspicious of everything...Even fluoridation of our water to prevent tooth decay was suspected of being a communist plot......my suggestion of just not brushing my teeth at night only got a stern look from my mom.

Two retail giants opened their doors in 1962....K MART and Walmart. K MART would go on to sell more than $483 million dollars worth of goods that year and Walmart would begin to capture pictures of the most idiotic people in the world that would eventually end up in emails 50 years later.

Sherry Finkbine, host of a children's show in Arizona, tried unsuccessfully to have an abortion in the United States after taking thalidomide, a sedative for pregnant women that was found to cause birth defects, and she goes to Sweden for the procedure.

The Ford Fairlane  is introduced. The "bossa nova" dance is introduced and Catholic officials in Buffalo, N.Y. forbid students from dancing to "The Twist"  because it is lewd and un-christain......That didn't stop places like Wampler's Barn and Forest Park, both in Dayton, Ohio, from having "open houses" on the weekends and teenagers would dance the night away.

Charles Van Doren cheats on the TV quiz show, "Twenty-one".............Ernie Kovacs, an early pioneering comedian, dies in an automobile accident....and EROS, a quarterly, erotic magazine hits the newsstands.

Ohio native,  John Glenn makes the first manned orbital flight for the U.S. .....President Kennedy , when asked at a press conference if any Americans were fighting in Vietnam, he answers "No" and moves on to the next question. ......and Judith Campbell, a go-between for Kennedy and "the mob" claims she aborted Kennedy's unborn child.

Gary Powers, a pilot on a U-2 spy plane gets shot down over Russia....and Rock Hudson and Doris Day star in 3 movies together.

Wilt the Stilt knocks down 100 points against the "Knicks".....Bobby Hull scores 50 goals in a season....and Barbra Streisland at age 19, stars as Miss Marmelstein on Broadway.....

Robert Zimmerman, that folk singer I mentioned earlier, writes "Blowin in the Wind " in just a matter of minutes in a cafe in Greenwich Village....and Frankie Avalon records his million-selling record "Venus"

Andy Warhol finishes his "Campbell Soup Can".....Marlyn Monroe dies of an overdose.......and Pete Best is fired by some band in England.

Casey Stengal loses 120 ......Tony Bennett loses his heart in San Fransisco....and the ZIP code is introduced in the U.S.

James Meridith enrolls at Ole Miss....I enroll at Fairview High School only to receive detention my first week see  First Week, First Detention  ...........and Jethro Clampett enrolls at Beverly Hills High School at age 22.

Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson......Frankie Valli sings "Big Girls Don't Cry"....and Bette Davis scares the crap outta me in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane"

BOOKS

Fail-Safe
Sex and the Single Girl (by Helen Gurley Brown who recently passed away)
Ship of Fools

MOVIES

Days of Wine and Roses
Dr. No
The Longest Day
The Miracle Worker
The Music Man
To Kill a Mockingbird

SONGS
Don't make me over
Duke of Earl
He's a Rebel (which would become my theme song)
Sherry
Wipe Out
Love me do

TELEVISION

The Beverly Hillbillies
Combats!
The Jetsons
McHale's Navy
and Johnny Carson begins an incredible career on "The Tonight Show"

Next: 1963....Freedom