Looking at the ‘Dreams’ excerpt again, the summer of 1960 for Ann’s visit to Chicago could be inferred, if it assumed that either 1) the age of SIXTEEN for Ann Dunham is just another of the many ‘Dreams’ bloopers, or 2) Ann Dunham was accepted to UC before the start of her senior year.
But an even closer look at the ‘Dreams” excerpt, reveals it is actually a nonsensical statement:
“I was only sixteen then,” she told us as we entered the elevator. “I’d just been accepted to the University of Chicago- Gramps hadn’t told me yet that he wouldn’t let me go-and I was there for the summer, working as an au pair.
I agree dreams has a lot of ‘bloopers’, and Obama does not appear to be very good with dates, and ages. But I do think that it can be determined that it was the summer of 1960, that SAD was in Chicago, by looking at some more reliable ancillary evidence.
Obama mentions that a favorite movie of his mothers was ‘Black Orpheus’, and that she saw it for the first time during the summer when she was an Au Pair in Chicago. ‘Black Orpheus’ was released in the US in November of 1959. I think it’s safe to say that SAD could tell the difference between Winter, and Summer. So if the statement that she first saw the movie during the summer in Chicago, it would have had to have been the summer of 1960.