The Cold War highlighted 1961, and for those not familiar
with the term, it didn't mean snow in Ohio.....go look it up in the
encyclopedias like we had to....Google wasn't invented yet.
A new President ordered a failed invasion of Cuba known as
the Bay of Pigs which would haunt him for the rest of his short term, and to
some, it could very well have been the reason for his assassination.
In the early hours of August 13, 1961 construction began
on the Berlin Wall, which would separate a city as well as thousands of
families.
And by late 1961, ...3,200 hundred men of a "specialized
force" , known as the Green Berets, would be sent to some unknown country on the
other side of the planet called Vietnam.
A revolutionary typewriter with a rotating ball capable of
reproducing 960 letters per minute......hmm....you'd need 10 hands......would be
invented....
On the home front, Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes
would attempt to enroll in the all-white University of Georgia, hundreds of
whites would hurtle rocks though the dorm windows, yet they would eventually graduate from there and have careers as a CNN
journalist and a physician, respectively.
The 1961 Jaguar XKE, $5,595.00, would appear in the U.S.
and soon start cruising the Parkmoor Drive In Restaurant.
Ham, a male chimp, lands safely after being carried 157
miles into space. His real name was Howie, but it was shortened to
Ham.
In Memphis, Elvis performs his first performance at a
luncheon in his honor, his first since his discharge the previous year from the
Army.
Mattel's Ken Doll, Barbie's "escort" becomes
available.......hmmmm...I thought Barbie was the "escort".
Anita Ekberg stars in La Dolce
Vita........mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Freedom Riders, again, if you don't know the term....you
should,.... would travel from college campuses in the North to descend on
establishments in the South in an attempt to test the recent Supreme Court
decision prohibiting segregation......thousands would be injured and several
would die..Mrs. Felicia Rowe, a black Social Studies
teacher at an affluent white Fairview High School, would open our eyes to the
injustices of the world.
Jeff Chandler, a popular film actor, dies following
botched surgery. He was only 42.
And, the M and M boys, of the New York Yankees, would
chase each other all season long, with Maris belting his 61st homer on October
1. Some felt the wrong "M" won the contest.
And Audrey Hepburn would melt hearts as Holly
Golightly.
And finally, a movie that would influence my life and cause me to quit playin' with trains and quit climbiing under the seats at the Ames Theater, and quit hanging out in the men's room and smokin' Lucky Strikes during the movie, (I'd continue to smoke for another 40 years) and finally start wanting to sing and dance and date girls.......West Side Story would debut to huge audiences......"When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way"
BOOKS
Black Like Me
The Carpetbaggers
Catch-22
Tropic of Cancer (mmmm)
MOVIES
Breakfast at Tiffany's
The Guns of Navarone
The Hustler (Eddie Stout would get his nickname from
this movie)
SONGS
Blue Moon
Crazy
Moon River (maybe this is why I got so interested in
mooning...all of the moon songs)
Run Around Sue
Will you love me tomorrow
TELEVISION
Ben Casey ( I had a job cleanin' urine bottles after high
school....the job was crap...no pun intended...but I got to wear a Ben
Casey-type shirt)
The Bullwinkle Show
Password
Next:
1962 The Cuban Missile Crisis
