1960.....A new decade...a new generation

The world was about to change....no longer would the status quo dictate the rules ......no longer would we "do it this way"  because  "our daddy and grandpappy did it this way"......

It was a time when I, even as young as 12 years old, would begin to question my faith in religion, begin to question authority and wonder how in the hell would hiding under my desk keep me from getting blown up by a nuclear bomb.

McDonald's had just opened it's 200th restaurant and upstart arch rival Burger King would begin to compete along with Red Barn and White Castle.

I watched Richard Nixon sweat on TV..as he debated  a 43 year old young man with "long hair", a funny accent and a hot wife.....for the top job in America.

Coca-Cola was now available in cans, we all hated the metal taste......and "The Daughters of Bilitis", a lesbian organization, held its first national conference in San Fransisco....hell, I wasn't even sure what a lesbian was.

The Andy Griffith Show premiered..... Bill Mazeroski belted a game winning home run in game 7 of the World Series, and Elvis Presley was singing "Are you lonesome tonight".......

A new author had just published her first book, "To Kill a Mockingbird"....a group of seven cowboys, led by Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen,  would rescue a small Mexican town from bandits....and Janet Leigh would be sliced to pieces while an ear shattering shriek would echo though the darkened Ames movie theater.....


Chubby Checker would cover Hank Ballard's song, "The Twist", and I would practice it every day upstairs in my bedroom on Sandhurst Drive, in anticipation of performing some day at Menker's Party Hut, a small quanset hut where music and dancing took place every weekend and where I first learned about rock and roll and how dancing could impress the ladies

 Thousands cheered as a young black woman named Wilma won three gold medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics and some young boxer named Cassius would take home a gold medal as well....yet back in the United States people jeered as some young black adults tried to order lunch at a counter in Woolworth's in North Carolina.

In the words of  Charles Dickens, "It was the best of times. it was the worst of times"


NEXT:

Ted Williams plays his last big league game and homers in his last at bat......and Fred and Barney appear on ABC.